The 21-year-old American star, known as the “Quad God” for his historic quadruple jumps, grew up in a family where skating is a way of life.
His parents, Tatiana Malinina and Roman Skorniakov, are both former Olympic skaters who now coach him and other students at SkateQuest Skating Club in Reston, Virginia.
Tatiana Malinina, Ilia’s mother, was born on January 28, 1973, in Novosibirsk, Russia. Skating runs deep in her family, her mother was a gymnast, and her father was a figure skater.
She moved to Tashkent as a teenager and went on to represent Uzbekistan internationally.
Tatiana became a standout in women’s singles, winning the 1999 Grand Prix Final and the 1999 Four Continents Championships.
She was a ten-time Uzbek national champion and competed at ten straight World Championships starting in 1993.
At the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, she finished an impressive eighth. She also placed fifth at the 1998 Skate America early in her strong 1998-1999 season.
Roman Skorniakov, Ilia’s father, was born on February 17, 1976, in Sverdlovsk, Russia. He initially competed for Russia but switched to Uzbekistan in 1996.
Roman was a seven-time Uzbek national champion from 1997 to 2003. He represented Uzbekistan at the 1998 Nagano Olympics and the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, finishing 19th both times.
Tatiana and Roman met through skating and married in January 2000. In late 1998, they settled in Dale City, Virginia, seeking better training conditions.
They later moved their coaching work to SkateQuest in Reston. In their later competitive years, they even coached each other after the passing of their coach, Igor Ksenofontov.
The couple had two children: Ilia, born on December 2, 2004, in Fairfax, Virginia, and their younger daughter, Liza, born around 2014.
Liza also competes in figure skating, and Ilia has praised her, saying she’s already a better skater at her age than he was.
Tatiana and Roman never pushed Ilia into competitive skating.
Tatiana and Roman never pushed Ilia into competitive skating
They worked long hours at the rink and wanted him to learn to skate just for fun and maybe experience a different life.
Roman once said they “never thought that Ilia would become a figure skater and compete.” They waited until he was about six before letting him on the ice casually.
But Ilia was often at the rink with them, running around and eventually teaching himself jumps and creating his own programs early on.
His talent emerged naturally, and his parents shifted to supporting his drive fully.
Roman has shared how nervous he gets watching Ilia compete, even almost fainting from fear during one of Ilia’s early events as a 10-year-old doing a double lutz.
Today, Tatiana and Roman coach Ilia alongside Rafael Arutyunyan.
Their guidance has helped him achieve historic feats, like landing the first quad Axel in competition and becoming the dominant force in men’s skating with back-to-back world titles and helping lead Team USA to team gold at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina.
In March 2025, Tatiana and Roman received the Best Coaching Award at the ISU Skating Awards, recognizing their work with Ilia and other students like rising star Sarah Everhardt. It’s a testament to their dedication as a family and coaching team.
Ilia’s last name comes from his mother’s maiden name, chosen because his parents thought “Skorniakov” might be too hard to pronounce.
Skating truly runs in the blood, his maternal grandfather, Valery Malinin, was a Soviet-era competitor and still coaches in Novosibirsk, Russia.
The Malinin-Skorniakov family shows how passion, talent, and support can create something extraordinary on the ice.
