Ilia Malinin recently returned to the Art on Ice for the fourth time, which took place in Zurich, Switzerland. He delivered a special performance in the world-renowned gala, skating to the live vocals of international singers Jess Glynne and James Bay on the opening day.

After a rocky Winter Olympics, Malinin returned to the ice for the first time at the Art on Ice gala, which is being held in Zurich and will take place from February 26 to March 1. On the opening day, he skated to the live performance of ‘Pink Lemonade’ by James Bay and then went on to skate to ‘Rather Be’ with Jess Glynne singing live on the stage.

During this performance, the American landed perfect backflips, a quadruple axel, and a nearly flawless routine. Clips of his performances are making the rounds all over the internet. Here is the video of his performance:

Malinin won only one gold medal at his Milan-Cortina campaign after his historic performance in the team event. He perfectly landed the previously banned backflip, becoming the first skater to execute it legally on the Olympic stage. With this, he scored 200.03 points, contributing to his team’s win with an impressive 19 points.

Following this strong start, Malinin entered the free skate finals as an overwhelming favorite; however, the Olympic pressure got the better of him, and he fell two times. This pushed him directly to the 15th position in the event. Overall, he earned an eighth-place finish. Currently, the American will perform in all the shows scheduled in Zurich.

Ilia Malinin reflected on his heartbreaking performance at the 2026 Winter Olympics

Shortly after finishing in the overall eighth position in the free skate finals at the 2026 Winter Olympics, Ilia Malinin sat for a conversation with CBS Mornings. When asked about being visibly emotional during his performance, he said that it’s a natural feeling and athletes aren’t robots.

Highlighting the perception of the outside world about them and reflecting on his performance, Ilia Malinin said: (0:56 onwards)

“It’s funny you say I was very emotional because I think it’s more of a natural feeling. We’re all human beings. It’s, you know, we’re not trained out there to be robots and, you know, people from, you know, the outside world might think that we’re so perfect. So, for something like this to happen, I think it really gives people some hope that, you know, oh, I can relate to him.”

Opening up about his lessons from the upset in Milan, Malinin added:

“Just be prepared for the worst because you learn a lot more from failure than you do winning. Everything happens for a reason. It’s one of my models that I like to remind myself.”

Ilia Malinin is expected to compete next at the World Figure Skating Championships, which is scheduled from March 23 to 29, 2026, in Prague.