US Figure Skating Championships 2023: Final Results, Highlights and Reaction

Men's figure skating in the United States has a new star, and his name is Ilia Malinin.

The 18-year-old won the men's championship Sunday, finishing second in the free skate with an unofficial score of 177.38 to earn the championship.

Paired with his 110.36 score in the free skate, tops among the men, he finished with a total unofficial score of 287.74, easily topping Jason Brown (277.31) in second place. Andrew Torgashev finished a distant third (256.56), with Maxim Naumov (249.14) and Jimmy Ma (243.09) rounding out the top five.

Malinin put together an incredible program to become a national champion:

No surprises there—he was attempting a legendarily difficult program:

While he fell on his quadruple axel attempt and didn't complete two other quad attempts, the young man nicknamed the Quad God still brought the goods on Sunday.

The future of figure skating has arrived.

"It's a very big leap from last year," Malinin told USA Today's Christine Brennan earlier this week. "I feel like nobody really knew me until after nationals [in 2022]. It was almost like this random guy showed up, and then he came out here and he surprised everyone. And I think that now that I'm a big name out there, I really hope that I can keep it like that."

They know his name now. And Malinin may not stop at quads, saying last week that a five-revolution quintuple "is definitely in the back of my mind right now. After the season, I think maybe we'll see one."

Brown, the silver-medal winner Sunday, doesn't doubt it.

"I have no doubt," he said. "To watch him and to watch him train, there is room in these jumps. I have no doubt, talking to him, so confident, he knows it, he has that kind of arrogance in a great way, he knows himself and knows, 'I'm capable.'"

Quad God for now. But five may arrive soon enough.