Americans Ilia Malinin and ice dancers Madison Chock and Evan Bates are halfway to repeat titles at the Grand Prix Final, the most exclusive event in figure skating.
Malinin, who turned 20 last Monday, landed a quadruple flip, a triple Axel and a quad Lutz-triple toe loop combination in the men’s short program in Grenoble, France.
He tallied 105.43 points, taking a significant 11.94-point lead over Olympic and world silver medalist Yuma Kagiyama of Japan going into Saturday’s free skate, which airs live on Peacock. Kagiyama fell on his opening quad Salchow.
Malinin has won his last six competitions, a streak that began at last December’s Grand Prix Final. He had a month break from competing going into the Final after winning the first two events of the six-event Grand Prix regular season.
GRAND PRIX FINAL: Broadcast Schedule | Full Results
“It’s been a little easier to prepare for the Final this year as I had more time building up the program, refining the choreography,” he said, according to the International Skating Union. “I feel more confident compared to last year. Also I think my artistry improved and how I put a program together.”
Earlier Friday, Chock and Bates topped the rhythm dance, eyeing a record-tying sixth Grand Prix Final ice dance medal.
Chock and Bates, the two-time reigning world champions, tallied 87.73 points. That’s the world’s top rhythm dance score since last March’s world championships.
Chock and Bates went a unique route with their rhythm dance for this season — a “journey through the decades.” They performed to a mix of seven different songs on Friday.
“I feel like our experimentation has paid off,” Bates said, according to the ISU.
They take a 4.61-point lead over Italians Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri into Saturday’s free dance.
Canadians Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier, last season’s world silver medalists, are in last place in the six-couple field. Late in their rhythm dance, Poirier fell after one of his skates clipped the boards.
Chock and Bates, who went undefeated last season, went into this event ranked No. 1 in the world by best total score this season. They won the first of their five Grand Prix Final medals in 2014.
The record of six Grand Prix Final ice dance medals is shared by 2014 Olympic gold medalists Meryl Davis and Charlie White (five titles), 2010 and 2018 Olympic gold medalists Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir and 2002 Olympic gold medalists Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat.
The first Grand Prix Final was held in the 1995-96 season. It features the top world’s top six couples over the six-event fall Grand Prix Series. It is often a preview of the following March’s world championships.
Germans Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin became the first pairs’ team to repeat as Grand Prix Final champions in 13 years.
Hase and Volodin topped both Thursday’s short program and Friday’s free skate, tallying 218.10 points. That’s just off their world-leading score this season of 218.44.
The last pair to repeat was also German — Aljona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy in 2011.
“The competition here was, I had the feeling, 10 times harder than last year,” Hase said, according to the ISU.
Japan’s Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara, the 2023 World champions, were second, 11.39 behind. Georgia’s Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava were third for Georgia’s first Grand Prix Final medal in any discipline.
U.S. champions Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea were fifth out of six pairs in their first Final. They were the fourth U.S. pair to compete in the Grand Prix Final over the last 15 editions.
The field was without reigning world champions Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps of Canada. Their withdrawal was announced Monday due to Deschamps’ illness.
