COLUMBUS, Ohio – By now, Ilia Malinin has established himself as the most daring and spectacular jumper in figure skating; a 19-year-old who attempts and completes leaps most would be terrified to even try. He has gone, in two years, from an unknown to a gold medal favorite for the 2026 Winter Olympics on his ability to hit almost any quadruple jump with jaw-dropping ease.

But pushing the limits of what is humanly possible on skates was taking Malinin to an awkward place where the pursuit of new twirling heights threatened to make him skating’s version of a trick-shot artist. So these past few months, Malinin has traded the heart-stopping for something that has eluded him in the past: artistry.

His transformation had a full reveal Friday afternoon, during his short program at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships at Nationwide Arena, when a crowd expecting a series of spinning launches instead got dancing. Lots of dancing.

Yes, there were some of Malinin’s customary jumps, like a quad Lutz and triple axel that were landed so casually, fans barely murmured. But halfway through a dominating opening session that left him with a score of 108.57, 19 points clear of his closest competitor, he slipped into procession of graceful spins and shakes that brought the crowd to its feet. For the first time at a Malinin skate, there was a real robust roar in the stands.

He would say later that he forgot how much he loves the energy of the crowds at U.S. championships, how it inspires him. The more the fans cheered his dance, the happier he felt, the better he skated.

“I just got so excited at the end of the program,” he said. “I was able to power through the last few minutes.”

It was at this event in 2022 that he first emerged as a star, an unknown from Vienna, Va. with his parents, both Russian-born skating stars as his coaches and an Instagram page of startling jumps with the odd handle of “quadg0d.” But then he was all legs and arms and not seen as ready for the U.S. team headed to the Beijing Games. The skater on Friday was someone capable of succeeding Nathan Chen as America’s next male skating world champion.

He has been working to add the artistry previously missing from his performances, he said. The effort has finally started to show. Skating to Cuban composer Ernesto Lecuona’s Malaguena, he flowed to the Latin guitar with flings of his arms and legs, moving from foot to foot. The crowd clapped along. He smiled. At one point, he clapped to the song and the crowd clapped more.

It was the kind of reaction skating crowds give to Jason Brown, the beloved two-time Olympian whose grace dazzles but who can’t hit jumps anywhere near as gravity-defying as Malinin’s. Brown, who skated two spots before Malinin, was met with adoring applause as he finished third in the short program. The quadg0d actually got a higher artistic score than the technically magnificent Brown. The difference was less than a point and yet it said everything about where Malinin just two years before the next Winter Games.

“For me to go into this whole season, I’ve been able to sort of … entertain, or just perform throughout the whole program recently, instead of really focusing on these huge elements,” he said.

“Even just the eye contact [with fans], just ups the energy for me,” he said.

A crowd had finally come to love Malinin, rather than marvel at him. And suddenly, he looked more formidable than ever. He came into the nationals unsure of how he felt after a season where he had won three of his five competitions and finished second in the two others. He had been having troubles with his skates in recent weeks. Something was wrong. He couldn’t figure out what. The boots fit the same as those before and yet on the ice he was sluggish and wasn’t able to move as smooth and free.

Just before this week he switched to an old pair of skates from the fall and everything was right again: the jumps, the twists – and the dance.

In a year when he has worried less about flying, he has been more conservative with his jumps, including the quadruple axel – a leap he was the first to land in competition last year. He’s not sure he will try the quad axel in Sunday’s free skate. Given his lead and the complexity of the elements he will already do, he probably doesn’t need it.

“I’ll have to see how I feel,” he said when asked if he will attempt the jump.

A stunning statement from a man known as the quadg0d.