“For me it would have been more beautiful if it had been Hanyu who jumped the quad axel first.” Ilia Averbukh on Ilia Malinin’s quad

Ilia Averbukh on Ilia Malinin performing a clean quad axel at training.

source: sport24.ru

Ilia Averbukh: I have not seen Ilia Malinin’s jump, but he has a fantastic rotation in the air. This was evident in the number of his jumps. Ilia is a very talented athlete.

Malinin was close. We have seen Yuzuru Hanyu’s attempts. Artur Dmitriev also was jumping quadruple axel at one time.

I don’t care if Ilia performs this jump in competitions. I think that Hanyu is a legend of the highest level. For me it would have been more beautiful if it was him.

The Japanese is an associate of figure skating. It was he who promoted and brought the men’s single skating to another orbit.

Ilia is an American figure skater. Why should I care? He is young and will go further. Sports do not like subjunctive moods. Ilia was born in the USA, and all his life he has been representing this country.

Ilia has Russian roots, but he is not an athlete of the Russian school of figure skating. I have no regrets that he does not skate for Russia.

Related topics: Ilia Averbukh, Ilia Malinin, Yuzuru Hanyu