He will go to Saturday’s free skate with a massive lead of more than nine points after a personal-best 111.29 score in the short program.
The performance showed the Olympic failure was behind him.
“It was a very supportive, very energetic crowd,” the 21-year-old Malinin said. “I felt every single piece of love and support from everyone out there. Just going on the that ice I had no expectations. I really just wanted to embrace the environment and experience the figure skating, and that’s all I really thought about the whole program.”
Known as the “Quad God,” Malinin opened with a quad flip and a combination of quad lutz and a triple toe loop. The only skater to have successfully landed a quad axel in competition performed only a triple version of his trademark jump.
French skater Adam Siao Him Fa nailed a perfect quad toe loop in combination with a triple toe loop plus a quad salchow for 101.85 points.
Aleksandr Selevko of Estonia was a surprise third after a personal best 96.49.
Japan's Shun Sato was fourth, while countryman Yuma Kagiyama — a two-time Olympic individual silver medalist — fell in a lutz attempt and was sixth.
Andrew Torgashev was seventh and fellow American Jacob Sanchez was 10th in his senior worlds debut.
Malinin in familiar position
Malinin helped the U.S. win the team gold in Milan and was heavily favored to win individual gold with an unrivaled program. His five-point lead over Kagiyama and Siao after the short program seemed insurmountable.
But in one of the biggest upsets in figure skating history, Malinin fell twice and made other glaring mistakes in a disastrous free skate, falling from first to eighth place.
Malinin previously said he succumbed to the pressure at his first Games.
On Thursday, he said it was “pretty difficult” rebounding from the Olympics.
“There’re always small things that can change the outcome of any performance,” he said, “so coming back from there it was really hard for few days. I kept thinking about it 24/7. I thought of so many different things I could have done differently to get a different outcome.”
Then, he decided to “to move on.”
"Maybe in a different universe I would have won the Olympics and maybe decided not to do the world championships but here I am. So, now I’m here and I can appreciate it and enjoy the sport of figure skating."
Olympic champion Mikhail Shaidorov from Kazakhstan was skipping the worlds.
Hase and Volodin are world champions
Olympic pairs bronze medalists Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin of Germany led after the short program and produced a near flawless free skate to claim their first gold.
Hase and Volodin stayed on their knees for a while in the middle of the rink before hugging each other. With the result of 148.55 points for the best free skate for a total career-best of 228.33, they completed their collection of medals from the worlds after taking bronze in 2024 and silver last year.
“Tomorrow, I will wake up very very happy,” Hase said.
Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava of Georgia took silver with 218.41 points.
Lia Pereira and Trennt Michaud of Canada earned bronze for their first podium at the worlds.
U.S. champions Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov who couldn’t compete at the Olympics because Efimova wasn’t yet a U.S. citizen didn’t avoid mistakes, among them a fall by Efimova on a triple toe loop. Their total score of 202.51 placed them sixth.
Another American pair Emily Chan and Spencer Akira Howe registered two falls and dropped to 16th.
Olympic champion Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara of Japan did not compete in Prague after winning Japan’s first Olympic pairs title last month.
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AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports