MILAN - With his blackflips, one-handed cartwheels and quadruple-jumps galore, US figure skater Ilia Malinin's rip-roaring routines have proved a star attraction at the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics.
A third backflip in three days saw Malinin seize the lead going into the free skating final as he bids for a second gold in his debut Games having already sealed the team title with the United States.
On Friday, Malinin will bid to succeed Nathan Chen and win a ninth men's singles title for the United States -- and their third in the last five Games.
"I trained with (Chen) when he was preparing for the Beijing Games and... it was just such an inspiration for me," said Malinin.
The 21-year-old from Virginia, the son of figure skaters from Uzbekistan who competed at the Olympics before settling in the United States, leads Japanese skater Yuma Kagiyama by a comfortable 5.09-point margin from the .
France's Adam Siao Him Fa is a further 0.52 behind Kagiyama, the Olympic silver singles medallist from Beijing.
But all eyes will be on Malinin, a skater with such unbridled athleticism and talent that the experts say he is still a diamond in the rough.
Four years on from his snub for the US Olympic team, Malinin has revolutionised his sport and is poised for gold -- and stardom.
Unbeaten over the past two years, Malinin came to Milan as the two-time reigning world champion and winner of the past three Grand Prix Finals.
But skating over the Olympic rings imprinted on the Milan ice rink has "felt different than any other competition," he said.
"Sometimes it still overwhelms you," the skater said.
He wants to "really just try to calm things down and not get too excited, enjoy my time on the ice, and try as hard as I can".
Malinin's technical prowess has set him apart -- he is capable of landing multiple gravity-defying quadruple jumps, including quad-quad combinations.