NAGOYA, Japan (AP) — Ilia Malinin of the United States lived up to his reputation as the “The Quad God” on Saturday, winning his third straight figure skating Grand Prix Final and solidifying his place as the gold medal favorite at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics .

A disappointing third after the short program, Malinin became the first skater to land seven quadruple jumps in competition for a record free skate score of 238.24 points and an overall total of 332.29.

“This is one of the best skates I’ve ever had,” Malinin said “I went out on the ice and I had to fight for every single element and I was so glad I was able to do that in front of the Japanese crowd.”

Among the quad jumps he landed was a quadruple axel and a quad loop.

Before the free skate, Malinin said he was thinking a

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