MILAN — Ilia Malinin keeps teasing fans at the Milan Cortina Olympics by submitting program plans that have the American figure skating star attempting the quad axel, a 4 1/2-revolution jump so difficult nobody but him has ever landed it in competition.Yet through two programs in the gold medal-winning team event and his individual short program Tuesday night, the “Quad God” has yet to attempt the hardest quadruple jump of all, opting instead for the safer triple axel everyone else is doing.“My lazy part of me,” Malinin said with a smirk, “just forgetting to change the planned elements.”Or maybe Malinin is saving it for his grand finale.He has a five-point lead over Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama and France’s Adam Siao Him Fa going into the free skate, a margin so big that it seems almost insurmountable, and one that gives him some wiggle room should he attempt the quad axel and fail.The plan Malinin has submitted for Friday night includes it — naturally — part of what would be a record-tying seven quads in all.“I’m hoping that I’ll feel good enough to do it,” Malinin said, more seriously. “But of course I always prioritize health and safety. So I really want to put myself in the right mindset where I’ll feel really confident to go into it”Planned program content is just that: a plan. Skaters often deviate from it depending upon how they feel. It may be they had a hard time with an element in practice and change it. Or, they might make a mistake in the midst of their routine — say, messing up the fi …
