Ilia Malinin comes from a family of Olympic legends

Ilia Malinin could have made Olympic history on Friday, but his free skate was filled with uncharacteristic mistakes.

Ilia Malinin is expected to cement his place in the pantheon of Winter Olympics stars Friday night if he wins the men's individual gold medal.

Malinin is the son of two Russian-born Olympic figure skaters, Tatiana Malinina and Roman Skorniakov, who competed for Uzbekistan at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, and the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City. They later moved to Virginia, where Ilia was born in 2004. He started skating at age 6.

Who are U.S. figure skater Ilia Malinin's parents? Here's what to know as he continues to compete at the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics.

Do you know the name Ilia Malinin? If not, you will after the Winter Olympic Games — or you can learn all about the phenom now.

One would think that given all the success Marina Klimova enjoyed in high-stakes, international figure skating with her husband and pairs partner, Sergei Ponomarenko, she would have no trouble watching her son when he takes the ice.

Ilia Malinin comes from a family of Olympic skaters, including his parents Tatiana Malinina and Roman Skorniakov. Though they were both born in Russia, Malinin's parents competed for Uzbekistan at the 1998 Nagano and 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics,