Ilia Malinin made Team USA with his act at the 2026 Winter Olympics. The reigning world figure skating champion won the team event Olympic gold medal with his performance in the singles.
However, this wasn’t the only achievement for the 21-year-old skater. Malinin also executed the first legal backflip in five decades, after it was banned post the 1976 Winter Olympics.
How Ilia Malinin Made the Backflip Legal Again at Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics
Malinin executed a near-perfect backflip in the men’s singles category of the team skating event at the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics.
This was the first legal backflip by any figure skater since the International Skating Union legalized it again ahead of the quadrennial event.
Before the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics, backflips were illegal and drew penalties from the judges. But why? In the early 70s, figure skaters discovered the backflip.
However, Terry Kubicka was the first to perform the backflip at the Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria, in 1976. Despite the unconventional move, Kubicka ended up in the seventh position overall.
However, by 1977, the ISU banned it, not only because the move was unconventional, but also because it was deemed ‘dangerous’. For nearly 21 years, no skater even dared to attempt this move.
However, in 1998, French figure skater and three-time World Champion silver medalist Surya Varuna Claudine Bonaly dared to do the unthinkable. She performed the backflip at the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics, though she was penalized for it.
However, Bonaly didn’t care at all, since she was performing for the audience, and not just for the judges. Bonaly ended up in the tenth position, despite having performed well enough to clinch the sixth position due to the backflip.
But by 2025, things changed for the better. The ISU decided to make the backflips legal, and Ilia Malinin decided to make the best use of it.
The backflip left many people stunned, including tennis sensation and Olympic champion Novak Djokovic of Serbia, who had come to witness the figure skating team event alongside his family. Malinin was himself left speechless when he learnt of Djokovic’s admiration for his brilliant move.
Malinin will now be seen in action in the finals of the men’s individual figure skating program on February 13. He has maintained his momentum in the singles category as the leading skater and has qualified for the finals alongside his teammates Maxim Naumov and Andrew Torgashev.
