That's what he calls himself on Instagram: "QuadgOd." Over 650,000 followers show that American Ilia Malinin is one of the Olympics' biggest stars.
At 21 years old, he looks set to secure one of the Olympics' clearest gold medals tonight when the men's free program is decided.
Is undefeated
He has been undefeated for the past two years and has at the same time redefined figure skating.
"When he put his quadruple Axel in, it really takes it all to a new level," says Kristoffer Berntsson.
He himself participated in the 2006 Olympics and several World Championships. He has seen legends like Evgeni Plushenko up close, but believes that Ilia Malinin is even better.
"When you first read that someone had landed a quadruple Axel on the score sheets, you thought, 'Oh my God.' It felt so incredibly far away."
Because with all due respect to the Axel that Malinin performs, it is precisely the jump where he spins forward four and a half turns that makes the American unique. Four years after the first occasion, Malinin is still alone in this.
"Most often, the 'shoulder' is the jump where you get the most height, but these greats - Plushenko, Yagudin and even further back, Brian Orser - simply didn't have the air in the jump to make it," Berntsson explains.
Hard to know
Just as the question is how high Armand Duplantis can actually jump in the pole vault, the question is now whether Ilia Malinin - or anyone else - can take it one step further. Where does human physics stop?
"I was hesitant about the quadruple Axel 20 years ago and it felt far away. If someone were to do a quintuple... you should never say never," says Berntsson.
The rules of figure skating have been relaxed. The backflip, which was previously prohibited, is now allowed, but it does not earn any points. Skaters are allowed to slide on the ice and hang on the edge. Kristoffer Berntsson applauds the changes but makes a note to TV viewers:
"You hear the crowd reactions, especially when he does his flips, and when you get to work people say, 'See, he did a backflip.'"
"Then I think, 'But did you see his quadruple Lutz? For example, it takes ten years to learn and very few people on earth can do it.'"
