A family of Olympic legends.
American Olympic figure skater Ilya Marinin’s parents, Tatiana Marinina and Roman Skolniakov, are former athletes who both competed in the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics and the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics.
Now, the couple is cheering on their son on Friday as he aims for gold in the men’s single free skate at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics.
The 21-year-old, known as the quad god, qualified for the event thanks to a near-perfect performance in his short program, landing a quad flip and a quad lutz for a score of 108.16.
Marinin has already won a gold medal for Team USA in the team figure skating competition on February 8th.
“It went exactly as I had hoped, exactly as planned, and you know, I’m very grateful for that,” Marinin said after the skating event.
Marinin’s mother and father were great inspirations for his Olympic career.
In fact, they even coached him on the trip to Milan-Cortina in 2026.
Keep scrolling to meet Malinnin’s parents.
Where are Ilia Marin’s parents from?
Marinina, 53, and Skorniakov, 49, are both from Russia.
Malinin’s mother was born in 1973 in Novosibirsk, Russia. Her mother was a gymnast and her father a figure skater. Marinina moved to Uzbekistan with her family when she was a teenager.
Marinin’s father was born in 1976 in Sverdlovsk. He grew up there and initially skated for Russia before switching to Uzbekistan.
Who are Ilia Marin’s parents?
Ilya Marinin’s mother, Tatiana Marinina
Marinina represented Uzbekistan at the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics in Japan, where she placed 8th.
She qualified for the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City, but withdrew after the short program due to influenza.
Marinina also represented Uzbekistan at the World Championships for 10 consecutive years. She was the first Four Continents Champion in 1999 and Grand Prix Final Champion in 1991.
In addition, Marinina won two bronze medals in two Grand Prix competitions: the 2000 Sparkassen Cup on Ice and the 2000 NHK Trophy.
Roman Skolniakov, father of Ilya Marinin
In 1997, Skolniakov won the national championship men’s singles title.
He placed 19th at both the 1998 and 2002 Winter Olympics.
The figure skater also competed in the 2000 ISU Championships and the 2002 Four Continents Championships, finishing 7th in both events.
Late in his skating career, Skorniakov and Marinina mentored each other after the death of their longtime coach, Igor Ksenofontov.
When did Ilya Malinin’s parents get married?
The couple married in January 2000 in Virginia and moved to the state two years ago.
According to Marinina’s ISU bio, the two relocated to Dale City, Virginia, due to Marinina’s “practice conditions in Tashkent deteriorating.”
When did Ilya Marinin’s parents retire from figure skating?
After retiring from skating in 2002, Marinina and Skorniakov turned to coaching. They worked at the SkateQuest Skating Club in Reston, Virginia.
In March 2025, the couple won the Coach of the Year award at the ISU Figure Skating Awards in March.
“We did not expect this. There were so many candidates on the long list, but we managed to reach the final,” Marinina said at the time. “The win was a big surprise for us. All the coaches work hard and they’re all great leaders. To win among all these great coaches is an even bigger win for us.”
How many children do Ilia Marin’s parents have?
Marinina and Skolniakov have two children: son Ilia, born on December 2, 2004, and daughter Eli, born in 2014.
Malinin adopted the Russian masculine form of his mother’s surname because his parents worried that Skorniakov was too difficult to pronounce.
Despite becoming their son’s coach, Marinina and Skorniakov initially did not want Marinin to follow in their career footsteps.
“They didn’t want me to skate at all. They wanted me to do something else, because they know,” Marinin said in a recent interview with CBS News. “Through years of hard work, dedication and dedication, they got to where they are as two-time Olympians, and now they’re coaching skating. So they were like, ‘Oh, we don’t need another skater in the family.'”
“But I’m here,” Marinin added. “Me and my sister are skating now, so we’re like, okay!”
Marinin revealed in the same interview that his mother will not be attending the Olympics and is too worried to watch him compete.
During an appearance on NBC Sports in 2022, one of Marinin’s coaches, Rafael Arutyunyan, explained how the athlete’s parents take a different approach to coaching.
“The father is calmer and the mother is more motivated,” Arutyunian said. “Ilia is very motivated.”
Marinin said having both parents as coaches “helps me a lot mentally.”
“They understand me more and know that if I have a bad practice, it might just be me having a bad day,” he explained.
