By Rory Carroll
Milan, Feb 3 (Reuters) – Ilia Malinin brought his gravity-defying jumps and signature backflip to the ice skating arena in Milan on Tuesday as the “Quad God” delivered a thrilling run-through in front of an unlikely one-man judging panel: rapper Snoop Dogg.
Watching from rinkside, Snoop raised both hands in a perfect-score salute after Malinin’s practice.
“Perfect 10,” Snoop told Olympics.com, holding up all 10 fingers.
“And if I had five more hands I’d be holding them up, too.”
The pair later took their seats in figure skating’s famed “Kiss and Cry” area for an off-ice chat, with a TV camera crew following along, as Olympic attention builds with the Milano Cortina Games getting underway this week.
Two-time world champion Malinin is the runaway gold-medal favorite for the men’s event, with his quad-heavy programmes and explosive style making him one of the Games’ top draws.
Snoop, meanwhile, widened his rinkside cameo beyond the star skater’s showcase, climbing aboard one of the arena’s Zambonis for a ride as the ice resurfacer made its rounds.
The hip-hop maestro behind “Drop It Like It’s Hot” was a ubiquitous presence at the Paris Olympics as a special correspondent, and NBC re-signed him to bring his “fun and funky” takes to the Winter Games.
He will be pulling double duty in Italy after the Long Beach native joined Team USA as its first Honorary Coach in December. He looked the part on Tuesday, donning a bright red shirt and pants under a plush blue and white coat with stars on the back.
The figure skating competition kicks off on Friday with the team event.
(Reporting by Rory Carroll in Milan, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
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