After a disastrous free skate derailed his shot at an individual gold medal in his Olympic debut earlier this year, Vienna resident and figure skating phenom Ilia Malinin is ready to restart the four-year journey to the next Winter Games.
The easy choice would have been to step away from the spotlight, like most figure skaters do after the grueling mental and physical demands of an Olympic cycle. Malinin could have loaded up on classes at George Mason, where he’s been working toward a degree, and forgotten all about lutzes and axels and loops for a while.