Originally published at: Ilia Malinin earns "Quad God" title | Boing Boing
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I skate at the same rink as Ilia. I watched him grow up. His first program was to the Baby Elephant Walk. He must have been three or four. He’s a wonderful young man, and I’m happy to see him do so well. Congratulations, Ilia!
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He really is amazing 
Astounding technique!
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It’s amazing to watch someone use their body to such graceful extremes and maybe better yet to see and hear him talk about it. He’s a boy still testing the bounds of his body and mind moving through time and space. And that smile, happy to be in the world and happy he pleased the crowd. Thank you, Ilia, the world needs your grace and smile.
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Just imagine what we’d see if the sport wasn’t judged by racists and Black people weren’t rejected as “athletic but not graceful”*. There would be backflips, quints, and all sorts of other things that are not done in competition currently because of stuffy white judges and stupid outdated rules.
There’s always been this tension between the art and the sport in figure skating. The old guard really wants to keep it “artistic” rather than letting it become about who can do the most quads or get the most hang time. They say they don’t want it to turn into skateboarding. However I think that’s basically gatekeeping for an old way of viewing the sport that favours a certain kind of person over others that they are keeping out.
*also sometimes manifests as “technical but not artistic”
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