American Malinin ready for Olympic favourite tag

Double world figure skating champion Ilia Malinin knows he will have a target on his back at next year’s Winter Olympics, but said yesterday he can handle the pressure.

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The American, known as the “Quad God” for his dazzling arsenal of quadruple jumps, won his second straight men’s world title last month in Boston at the age of 20.

Malinin said he was “still trying to process” the achievement but he knows he will be the man to beat at the Milan-Cortina Games in less than a year’s time.

“Definitely I was made aware of that even last year, being the favourite going into the Olympic year,” he said in Tokyo, where he is preparing to compete for the US in the season-ending World Team Trophy this week.