00:00It's a family of Olympic legends, and at the center of it all is Team USA figure skating star Ilya
00:05Malanin.
00:06As the 21-year-old prepares to chase gold in the men's free skate at the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter
00:12Olympics,
00:12he's doing so with more than just a country behind him.
00:15He has two former Olympians in his corner, his parents, Tatiana Malanina and Roman Skornikov.
00:23Nicknamed the Quad God, Malanin punched his ticket to the free skate with a near-flawless short program,
00:29scoring a 108.16 after landing both a quad flip and a quad lutz.
00:35He's also the only figure skater in history to successfully land a quadruple axle in competition,
00:41a jump long considered the sport's ultimate technical challenge.
00:45He already helped secure gold for Team USA in the team event earlier this month.
00:50After that performance, Malanin kept it simple, quote,
00:53It went exactly the way I wanted, the way I planned, and you know, I'm so thankful for that.
00:59But behind that calm confidence is a lifetime of Olympic influence.
01:03Malanin's parents know the Olympic stage firsthand.
01:06Both competed for Uzbekistan at the 1998 Nagano Games and again at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics.
01:14The couple married in Virginia in January 2000 after relocating from Tashkent,
01:19where training conditions had deteriorated.
01:22Following their retirement from competition in 2002,
01:25they transitioned full-time into coaching at the SkateQuest Skating Club in Reston, Virginia.
01:30And yes, they've coached their own son all the way to the Olympic stage.
01:34Malanin says having his parents as coaches helps him mentally.
01:37They understand me a lot more, he said.
01:40If I have a bad practice, it might just be me having a bad day.
01:43Interestingly, his parents didn't originally want him to follow in their skating footsteps.
01:48They did not want me to skate at all, Malanin told CBS News.
01:51They know the hard work, the dedication it takes.
01:54But eventually, skating became a family affair.
01:58Malanin, who took the Russian masculine form of his mother's last name,
02:01and his younger sister Ellie both lace up their skates.
02:04Though there's a twist. Malanin has revealed his mother often can't bear to watch his competitions,
02:10in person, because she gets too nervous.
02:12Even so, their influence is unmistakable.
02:15One of his coaches has described Skournikov as calm,
02:19Malanina as intensely motivated, and Ilya as super motivated.
02:23Now, as Malanin steps onto Olympic ice once again,
02:26he carries more than his own ambitions.
02:28He carries a legacy.
02:29Two Olympians who became award-winning coaches,
02:32who became parents, who helped shape one of figure skating's most electrifying talents.
02:36From one generation of Olympians to the next,
02:39the Malanin story is still being written.
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