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Ilia Malinin, Alysa Liu, ice dancers Madison Chock and Evan Bates, plus Mikaela Shiffrin spoke live on TODAY on Monday following a title-filled week for U.S. Olympic team hopefuls for the Milan Cortina Games.
Malinin reflected on his convincing repeat title at the World Figure Skating Championships in Boston, where he became the first skater to land all six different types of quadruple jumps in one program without any under-rotations.
Malinin, nicknamed the "quad god," nearly became the first skater to land seven quads in one program — but doubled a planned quad Lutz — which gives him motivation going into the 2025-26 Olympic season.
"I definitely feel like I still have a lot more room to improve," he said on TODAY. "I’m going to take the next few months leading up to the Olympics just to make sure everything is as solid as can be."
Liu became the first U.S. women's singles skater to win a world title since 2006, doing so in her first season back after a two-year retirement.
"It was actually harder to come back than it was to leave," said Liu, the youngest U.S. champion at age 13 in 2019, who retired in 2022 at age 16, saying that skating felt like a job at that time. "I had my retirement planned out a year in advance, but I had to think a lot about whether I really wanted to come back or not just because I wanted to do what was right for me and for my future. But I think I definitely made the right choice."
Chock and Bates became the first ice dancers to win three consecutive world titles in 28 years. The married couple bids for a fourth Olympics together in 2026, hoping for their first ice dance medal after winning team event gold in 2022.
Next season could be their final season in competition. Chock called it a “final chapter,” though the couple hasn't made an official announcement yet.
"We’re just going to cherish this competitive season as husband and wife," Bates said. "We’ll see what happens after Milan. Our focus is on the skating, but of course we always prioritize our relationship, prioritize our mental health, taking care of one another. We’re just so grateful we get to do what we love with the person we love most."
Last Thursday, Shiffrin earned a record-extending 101st Alpine skiing World Cup win, taking the final race of the season — a slalom in Sun Valley, Idaho.
Shiffrin called her milestone 100th win last month "a reset," and her 101st “a restart.”
"It brings me back to even the first win," said Shiffrin, who won for the first time in 2012 at age 17.
Shiffrin missed two months this past season after tearing oblique muscles in a Nov. 30 giant slalom crash. She shared that she was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder as she dealt with mental obstacles returning to competition late in the season.
"I’ve always been pretty open and honest about what I'm feeling," she said. "It kind of flowed out naturally. Athletes are talking a lot more and more about mental health. I think there’s a side of that that’s due to injury, due to past trauma. There’s fear. There’s performance anxiety. There’s pressure. There’s all these different layers of mental health. But my experience this year was fairly unique. It was not something I entirely knew how to navigate of this kind of mental, mind-body disconnect after injury."
Ilia Malinin won a second straight world title, but he wanted more
Ilia Malinin won a second straight world title Saturday night, but felt upset that he had left something undone.
Continue reading...
Malinin reflected on his convincing repeat title at the World Figure Skating Championships in Boston, where he became the first skater to land all six different types of quadruple jumps in one program without any under-rotations.
Malinin, nicknamed the "quad god," nearly became the first skater to land seven quads in one program — but doubled a planned quad Lutz — which gives him motivation going into the 2025-26 Olympic season.
"I definitely feel like I still have a lot more room to improve," he said on TODAY. "I’m going to take the next few months leading up to the Olympics just to make sure everything is as solid as can be."
Liu became the first U.S. women's singles skater to win a world title since 2006, doing so in her first season back after a two-year retirement.
"It was actually harder to come back than it was to leave," said Liu, the youngest U.S. champion at age 13 in 2019, who retired in 2022 at age 16, saying that skating felt like a job at that time. "I had my retirement planned out a year in advance, but I had to think a lot about whether I really wanted to come back or not just because I wanted to do what was right for me and for my future. But I think I definitely made the right choice."
Chock and Bates became the first ice dancers to win three consecutive world titles in 28 years. The married couple bids for a fourth Olympics together in 2026, hoping for their first ice dance medal after winning team event gold in 2022.
Next season could be their final season in competition. Chock called it a “final chapter,” though the couple hasn't made an official announcement yet.
"We’re just going to cherish this competitive season as husband and wife," Bates said. "We’ll see what happens after Milan. Our focus is on the skating, but of course we always prioritize our relationship, prioritize our mental health, taking care of one another. We’re just so grateful we get to do what we love with the person we love most."
Last Thursday, Shiffrin earned a record-extending 101st Alpine skiing World Cup win, taking the final race of the season — a slalom in Sun Valley, Idaho.
Shiffrin called her milestone 100th win last month "a reset," and her 101st “a restart.”
"It brings me back to even the first win," said Shiffrin, who won for the first time in 2012 at age 17.
Shiffrin missed two months this past season after tearing oblique muscles in a Nov. 30 giant slalom crash. She shared that she was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder as she dealt with mental obstacles returning to competition late in the season.
"I’ve always been pretty open and honest about what I'm feeling," she said. "It kind of flowed out naturally. Athletes are talking a lot more and more about mental health. I think there’s a side of that that’s due to injury, due to past trauma. There’s fear. There’s performance anxiety. There’s pressure. There’s all these different layers of mental health. But my experience this year was fairly unique. It was not something I entirely knew how to navigate of this kind of mental, mind-body disconnect after injury."
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Ilia Malinin won a second straight world title, but he wanted more
Ilia Malinin won a second straight world title Saturday night, but felt upset that he had left something undone.
Continue reading...
