Where are Ilia Malinin’s parents from? All we know as Virginia figure skater wins World Figure skating championship

On March 29, 2025, Ilia Malinin won the World Figure Skating Championship title for the second consecutive time. The self-proclaimed "Quad God", who performed a "horror-themed" routine to the song "I'm not a Vampire", landed a quadruple Axel and five other quadruple jumps and scored 318.56 points, which is 31.09 points more than the runner-up Mikhail Shaidorov of Kazakhstan, People Magazine reported.

The twenty-year-old Skater was born in Fairfax to Tatiana Malinina and Roman Skorniakov, both of whom are also retired yet accomplished figure skaters born in Russia. His mother represented Uzbekistan, while his father initially represented Russia but later switched to Uzbekistan.

His mother, Tatiana Malinina, who competed for Uzbekistan, won the 1999 Grand Prix final. The same year, she also placed fourth in the World Championship and won the Four Continents Figure Skating Championships. She is also a two-time NHK champion and has many more accolades to her name.

Meanwhile, his father, Roman Skorniakov, won a silver medal at both the Asian Championships and the Asian Games. He also represented Uzbekistan in the Winter Olympics and finished in 19th place twice, in 1998 and 2002. Though he began his career representing Russia, he later began representing Uzbekistan in 1996.

More details about Ilia Malinin and his family.

Tatiana Valeryevna Malinina was born in Russia but moved to Uzbekistan as a teenager. Later, she moved to Dublin in 1999, where she met Roman Skorniakov. Roman Skorniakov was born in Russia. Malinina and Skorniakov married in 2000 and had their son, Ilia Malinin, in 2004, and their daughter, Elli, in 2014. According to Wikipedia, Skorniakov, who currently works as a skating coach, is coaching both his children, as well as Sarah Everhardt, a Four Continents medalist.

Though his parents mainly represented Russia, Ilia, born in Fairfax, Virginia, represents the United States. In case you didn't know, Ilia reportedly has the masculine form of his mother's last name over his father's so that it would be easier to pronounce. Ilia began skating at the age of six but began his professional career only in 2015. He became the youngest male Skate America Champion at 17.

Ilia Malinin also got a Guinness record for landing a quad Axel in a competition. He has two Grand Prix Gold medals (2023–24 & 2024–25) to his name. He is a three-time U.S. National Champion (2023, 2024, and 2025), and with the victory on 29 March, he is also a two-time World Champion and has multiple other accolades to his name.

According to People, after defending his championship title at the 2025 World Championship held in Boston, Ilia Malinin shared that,

Trending

I was just really trained. I just wanted to give it my all and really fight for every element...I really feel like I did that here.

Malinin's sister, Elli Beatrice Malinina, nicknamed Liza, is also a competitive skater. According to NBC, she participated in the 2025 U.S. Eastern Sectionals in the juvenile girls free skate division and placed 17th.

×

Was this article helpful?

Thank You for feedback