ANGERS, France (AP) — World champion figure skater Ilia Malinin of the United States made a statement by taking a near 10-point lead in the short program in his first Grand Prix event of the season ahead of the Winter Olympics.

The skater nicknamed the “quad god” landed a quadruple flip and a quadruple lutz-triple toeloop combination, plus a backflip as an exclamation point toward the end of his skate in the Grand Prix de France on Saturday.

Malinin scored 105.22 points for a commanding lead over Nika Egadze of Georgia on 95.67 ahead of Sunday’s free skate, with Kao Miura of Japan third on 87.25.

France’s top skater Adam Siao Him Fa has won his home Grand Prix three years in a row but that streak seems set to end after he was fifth in the short program.

U.S. skater Maxim Naumov was c

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