Quad God's Insane Flex: Backflip Worth Zero Points

"Quad God" Ilia Malinin doesn't need the most jaw-dropping move in his program to win—he does it anyway. The Wall Street Journal reports that the 21-year-old American, already rewriting figure skating with his record-shattering quadruple jumps and the sport's first quad axel in competition, has added a stunt that's pure risk and zero reward: a backflip on ice, landed on one foot, "with a pair of knives strapped to his feet," write Louise Radnofsky and Ben Cohen. (Watch it here.) It doesn't count for technical points, and for decades it wasn't even allowed.

Backflips were effectively outlawed after a skater pulled one off at the 1976 Olympics; only in 2024 did the sport's governing body decide they wouldn't punish the move, though they still don't reward it. Malinin trained his version on ropes, decided he couldn't resist, and now uses it as a late-program flourish, drawing some of the loudest reactions of the Games.

He executed a backflip during Tuesday's men's short program, landing on two feet and ending with a score of 108.16, giving him a five-point lead, per the CBC. Such "a brazen and ostentatious flex" certainly lends credence to the argument that Malinin may very well be "the greatest figure skater of all time," Radnofsky and Cohen note. To dive into how Malinin is stretching the boundaries of his sport, read the full piece at the Journal.