'Quad God' Malinin flips into top spot for U.S. after men's short program

Ilia Malinin of the United States currently sits in the gold medal position after the men’s figure skating short program qualification round on Tuesday.

The 21-year-old from Vienna, Virginia, known as the “Quad God,” scored 108.16 in the short program, skating to Dies Irae from the video game The Lost Crown, executing a quadruple flip, quadruple lutz and a backflip.

Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama, the silver medallist from Beijing 2022, is currentlysecond in the short program,scoring 103.07.

France's Adam Siao Him Fa set a personal best score of 102.55 points to put him into third place heading into the final free programs on Friday.

American 'Quad God' Ilia Malinin wins the Olympic men's short program by leaps and bounds

This is Malinin’s first Olympic Games – already winning gold in the team event on Sunday at the Milano Skating Arena.

Malinin told CBC Sport's Devin Heroux he got "too excited" going into his short program for the team event, which he said "bit me in the back." Kagiyama outscored Malinin in the team event short program.

"I was like, wow, this is such an atmosphere ... such an environment," Malinin said.

"I honestly took a different approach this time, wanted to just be little more relaxed, really, just trust everything that I went through and [it] really worked out on the end."

Malinin earned his moniker because of his signature quadruple jumps on the ice. Last year he became the first – and so far the only – skater to successfully perform a quadruple axel in competition, and do seven quads in one program.

Skaters are only allowed two quads out of four jumps in the short program. Malinin’s free program includes five quads and a backflip, which he already performed in the team event finals on Sunday.

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