World champion Ilia Malinin won Skate America for the third year in a row on Sunday, changing his free program on the fly after an early error and punctuating the program with a backflip banned in competition until this season.

The two-time reigning American champion scored 290.12 points to finish ahead of Frenchman Kevin Aymoz, whose career-best free skate earned him 282.88 points and received a standing ovation at the Credit Union of Texas Event Center in Allen, Texas.

Kao Miura of Japan, who finished second after his short program, finished third with 278.67 points.

“It was quite a difficult moment for me, just walking on the ice. I felt a lot more nervous than usual,” said Malinin, early favorite for gold at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy. “That may have played a role in the whole program.”

Wesley Chiu of Vancouver placed ninth in the free skate with a score of 140.08 points. He finished ninth overall with a total of 206.94 points.

The ice dancing competition was to be decided later Sunday in the final event of the season-opening Grand Prix. Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson of England had the advantage over American world champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates after the rhythm dance.

WATCH: Malinin wins 3rd consecutive title:

Malinin wins 3rd consecutive Skate America title

Ilia Malinin of Vienna, Virginia scored 290.12, which was more than enough to win another Skate America title on Sunday in Allen, Texas.

Malinin and Miura were separated by just 0.15 points after their short programs, but it was Aymoz who challenged Malinin for the top spot on the podium. The 27-year-old Frenchman, who struggled mightily at the end of last season, landed a pair of quads in an error-free program to score 190.84 points – the best of any free program – and move up to first place.

Georgia’s Nika Egadze was next on the ice, but he fell on his opening quad lutz and went out on his quad salchow, and those two errors kept him from medal contention. He finished fourth with 261.71 points.

Miura, the 19-year-old former world junior champion, landed three quads during a broadcast of “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg,” the 1964 musical romantic drama film. But Miura lost points for a triple axel under -burped and onto a step sequence that led to a quad toe loop-triple toe loop combination halfway through his free skate.

TO WATCH: Lauriault of Canada and Le Gac 7th in ice dancing:

Canada’s Lauriault and Le Gac finish 7th in ice dancing competition at Skate America

Marie-Jade Lauriault and Romain Le Gac of Canada place seventh in the ice dancing competition at Skate America with a total score of 174.91.

Malinin was the last to take the ice, performing a routine set to rock band Falling In Reverse’s “I’m Not a Vampire.”

He opened with a perfect quad flip then hit a triple axel, although Malinin remains the only skater to land the quad version of the jump in competition. Then came the mistake, when he doubled a planned quadruple loop, leaving Malinin to make changes on the fly during the second half of the program to try to make up for lost points.

After getting his hands on his triple lutz, Malinin landed a quadruple toe loop-triple toe loop combination before a quad salchow-triple axel in sequence – a pair of huge jump passes that sent his technical score skyrocketing.

Malinin capped his routine’s recovery with a backflip during his choreographed sequence, a move that had been banned until this season due to its inherent danger. It was expected from the beginning, but it nevertheless caused a roar from the crowd, just as Malinin’s program was coming to an end and a steady stream of stuffed animals was being thrown onto the ice.

“It was really hard for me, in the middle of the program, to think about what I should do, what I should do,” Malinin said when asked about the early mistake. “I just went into autopilot mode and I’m glad I did.”