On January 8th, Ilia Malinin wowed everyone with a flawless short program at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships. The two-time reigning world champion racked up 115.10 points, set to the adventurous music of Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. But just as the performance ended, dozens of black stuffed animals were tossed around him onto the ice, leaving fans divided.

It wasn’t random fan behavior. The plush toys were of Toothless, the dragon from the movie series How To Train Your Dragon. So, basically, NBC and U.S. Figure Skating had arranged it as part of a cross-promotion tied to the upcoming Winter Olympics and the new movie.

Fans in the first few rows were handed the plushies with instructions to throw them onto the ice once Malinin finished his routine.

Even USA Today sports columnist Christine Brennan was surprised, posting on X: “Well, that was weird….” Interestingly, Ilia Malinin himself had no idea the stunt was coming. “I was definitely surprised with that..I did not expect that. That was definitely not my plan at all. So I was just as surprised as you are for that.”

Ilia Malinin smiled as he stepped off the ice and looked up at the NBC promotion playing on the big screen. “That just made me feel so warm. The Toothless Dragon is like my spiritual animal, so that was just so incredible.”

For those unaware, this wasn’t an entirely random cross-promotion as Malinin has previously spoken about How to Train Your Dragon being one of his favorite movies.

And as soon as the unexpected plushie went viral, it sparked a mix of reactions online.

Fans are divided over the plushie toss after Ilia Malinin’s performance

One fan commented on Brennan’s post, saying, “Christine, don’t listen to the haters, it was weird because of the commercial tie-in and you’re right to say it!”

In figure skating, tossing stuffed animals onto the ice is actually a long-standing, and entirely organic, tradition. Fans have shown appreciation this way for years, especially since flowers became less common due to safety and clean-up concerns.

Throughout his career, star skater Yuzuru Hanyu has been showered with thousands of Winnie the Pooh stuffed toys after his routines, while reigning world silver medalist Yuma Kagiyama received Snoopy plushies at the end of his performances.

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Another fan added, “What a strange way to frame a pretty cute gesture. Did it also have a promotional tie in? yes. but it also was something that Ilia genuinely would want and has asked fans to do. Such an ugly way to spin something that actually was very sweet.” One more added, “I was ok with the stuffies raining down but the promo piece was weird. Let a skater have their moment.”

Another added, “He actually told his fans at the beginning of last year that he wanted this. Go look at Worlds last year. A bunch of us had them and did this and I can assure you that NBC did not arrange it or pay for it. So this is not new.”

As for the performance itself, Ilia Malinin was flawless. Fresh off his third straight Grand Prix Final title, he scored 115.10 points, putting him 25 points ahead of Tomoki Hiwatashi in second-place and comfortably ahead of Jason Brown. He opened with a quad flip, followed by a triple Axel and a quad Lutz – triple toe loop combination, all executed cleanly.

Ilia Malinin also included a backflip and his signature raspberry twist; moves that never fail to wow the crowd.

Even he was impressed with his level of performance afterward, “I felt really good,” Malinin said, “and everything seemed to flow really well.” That was a performance that reminded us once more why he’s at the top of his sport.