The mother of Ilia Malinin has revealed a deeply personal chapter behind her son’s rise to the top of the skating world. According to her, the family endured months of fear in 2021 after becoming targets of anonymous calls and vague threats tied to a harassment campaign aimed at voices of dissent abroad. The pressure was so intense that the young skater nearly walked away from figure skating altogether.
Today, Malinin is celebrated as one of the brightest stars in figure skating, admired for his technical brilliance and fearless performances on the ice. Yet the journey to becoming America’s so-called “ice prince” was...