By Jessica Schieber, Co Editor-in-Chief
Something many people don’t know about me is that I love watching figure skating. I find it to be like poetry on ice.
It’s a relaxing sport for me to watch when I find myself totally stressed. I found it randomly one day years ago.
On the ice the performer preforms a series of jumps and footwork to a piece of music. They are judged based on how difficult the execution of these jumps are.
I enjoy the sport of figure skating. I have been facinated with sports on ice ever since I discovered the sport of figure skating.
This week the figure skating had the Grand Prix de France 2025.
In this event I got to watch one of my favorite figure skaters, Ilia Malinin.
He is a 20-year-old skater who was chosen to represent the United States of America.
In the free skate, Malinin scored 321.00. Adam Siao Him Fa followed him with a score of 280.95. The third place in free skate went to Nick Egadze 259.41.
Malinin has talent that to me seems unrivaled in the competition.
He has been nicknamed the Quad God, this is because he does quad axels.
An axel is a very complex jump within figure skating. Which consists of a jump that launches from a forward edge and a forward takeoff. It requires control, speed, and power.
The skater does a rotation in the air landing backwards on the opposite skate. The complete 1.5 rotations for a single axel.
It is considered one of the oldest and most complicated jumps. Quad axels is the completion of four full rotations of the axel jump.
Malinin also does backflips which was once a forbidden jump in the competitions.
These jumps are so impressive, and it took him a lot of time to master them.
The backflip jumps are something that made Malinin such a popular skater to fans.
During the Grand Prix de France he had a 10-point lead over all the other competitors. Malinin was followed by Egadze who represented Georgia and Kao Miura who represented Japan.
This is all for the Olympic Winter Games in Milano Cortina 2026. It will take place Feb. 6 through the 22.
These games will also host other sports like snowboarding, hockey, bobsledding, and skiing.
I am excited to watch the hockey because you get to see players who are normally playing against each other work and play together.