Ilia Malinin has spent the last three years dominating the sport of figure skating. Three-time world champion, three-time Grand Prix Final champion, undefeated since late 2023, he is the first athlete to land all seven quadruple jumps in a single program, and the clear favorite for the 2026 Winter Olympic gold medal.

But the Milan Cortina Games just may be the beginning of Malinin’s reign.

"After the Olympics there's going to be a lot more to come," he said recently. "There are three Olympic cycles that I want to skate."

This would have him competing at least to 2034, which will take place on home ice in Salt Lake City. 

Malinin, 21, was not yet born the last time the Winter Olympics were held in Utah in 2002, but his rise already has reshaped men’s figure skating in a way few athletes ever do. Since missing out on the U.S. Olympic team in 2022, the ‘Quad God’ has become the sport’s defining technical force, establishing a level of difficulty that has separated him decisively from the rest of the field.

Malinin acknowledged the tough requirements of his sport, with the many impacts from falls and thousands of repeated jumps, may affect his longevity.

"I don't know how much my body will handle it after all the jumps I've been doing so far, but that's the goal for me,” he said. 

Part of this goal is a greater push to restore popularity to figure skating in the United States.

"I really want to grow the sport to the heights that it has been at and maybe even higher," he said. “We're really underlooked as a sport, and I think that more people should enjoy it and appreciate what we do.”

His next test will be the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in St. Louis, Missouri, Jan. 7-10.

The event marks not just the crowning of national titles, but the announcement of the U.S. Olympic team. For Malinin, it’s a chance to get a sense of any final changes or tweaks he’s made to his programs since last competing at the beginning of December.

“The main plan is to go to nationals and really just have it as an opportunity to see how I feel,” he said. “This year is really just kind of almost like a checkpoint to kind of just see where I am and to give myself an understanding of what I need to bring myself to the right kind of condition for the Olympics.”

The U.S. Figure Skating Championships will be aired on NBC and streaming live on Peacock.