Ilia Malinin, the U.S. figure skater nicknamed the “Quad God,” became the first person to legally land a backflip on one skate in the Olympics — although one trailblazing woman pulled it off when the move was still forbidden.

American figure skater Ilia Malinin, dubbed the "Quad God," continues to push the boundaries of the sport at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics. The

American figure skater Ilia Malinin was the first to do a legal backflip in almost half a century at the Olympics. But he wasn't the first to do it on Olympic ice.