Prague (AFP) - US figure skating star Ilia Malinin won a third straight men’s gold at the world championships on Saturday, one month after his spectacular meltdown at the Winter Olympics.

Malinin led all the way to take the title with a winning margin of 22.73 points over Japanese rival Yuma Kagiyama after the free skate. Japan’s Shun Sato took bronze.

“It’s done. That’s it,” said an emotional Malinin after his performance in Prague.

“My expectation was to finish my free programme in one piece and that has definitely happened.”

The 21-year-old told reporters that he felt a lot of “relief” now the season had ended, especially on a positive note.

“I had a different mindset coming here,” he added. “All I wanted to do was escape from myself and enjoy every moment on the ice and have fun, and that is exactly what I did.”

The world championships in the Czech capital are taking place just a month after the Olympics where Malinin was the overwhelming favourite.

Undefeated for more than two years, the star of skating led after the short programme before crumbling in the free skate to finish eighth.

Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Shaidorov won the Olympic gold ahead of Kagiyama and Sato, who took silver and bronze respectively. Shaidorov skipped the world championships.

In his first competition since, Malinin took a 9.44-point lead from Thursday’s short programme into the free skate.

On Saturday, Malinin was more cautious than at the Olympic Games and simplified the technical aspects of his routine, notably swapping his trademark quadruple Axel for a triple Axel.

He also reduced the number of quadruple jumps from seven to five, nevertheless making an impressive comeback after the Olympic debacle, scoring 218.11 points for his free skate and 329.40 overall.

- ‘No pressure at all’ -

Malinin became the first men’s skater to win three world titles since fellow American Nathan Chen from 2018 to 2021.

“I think this was probably one of the more easier world championships I’ve been to just because of the amount of pressure I had at the Olympics,” Malinin told reporters.

“And going here I felt like it was almost no pressure at all. I’ve completely blocked out all the expectations, all the pressure that people put on me. And I was really here just to skate for myself and enjoy every moment of the world championships.”

Kagiyama, 22, moved up from sixth after the short programme to win his fifth world medal and fourth silver with 306.67 points.

Sato, 22, took a medal at the worlds for the first time, rising from fourth as France’s Adam Siao Him Fa dropped from second to fifth after falling during his routine.

The four-day world championships concluded later Saturday with Olympic champions Guillaume Cizeron and Laurence Fournier Beaudry claiming gold in the ice dance.

Cizeron clinched his sixth world title after five victories with his former partner Gabriella Papadakis between 2015 and 2022.

For Canadian-born Fournier Beaudry it was a first world medal.

The French pair had held a comfortable lead of more than six points over Canadians Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier, the bronze medallists at the Milan-Cortina Olympics last month, heading into the free dance.

They topped the scores on the night with 138.07 points and finshed with a total of 230.81.

Canada’s Poirier and Gilles placed second with a total of 211.52 points.

Americans Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik produced a fine free dance performance to pip Britain’s Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson to the podium.