Scott Hamilton Introduces Ilia Malinin at Legacy on Ice in a Powerful Generational Moment

Legacy on Ice was a real, single-night benefit ice show staged in Washington, D.C., built around remembrance and support after the January 29, 2025 aviation tragedy that devastated parts of the U.S. figure skating community. It was not a competition, and it wasn’t designed to create “viral moments” on purpose; it was designed to gather skaters, families, and fans in one place to honor lives lost and raise funds for those directly affected.

The event took place on March 2, 2025 at Capital One Arena, produced through a partnership that included U.S. Figure Skating and Monumental Sports & Entertainment, with proceeds directed to specific relief efforts. The framing from the organizers was clear: this was about healing, commemoration, and tangible support for families, first responders, and the wider community responding to the crash.

Because it was an ice show rather than a judged event, the emotional tone mattered as much as the skating itself. Legacy on Ice brought together names spanning decades of the sport, intentionally mixing icons with current champions to show continuity: the idea that figure skating’s identity is carried forward by people, not just by medals.

Scott Hamilton’s presence fit that mission perfectly. He’s widely recognized not only as an Olympic champion but as a familiar voice and face of skating for generations of viewers—someone who can speak about legacy with credibility because he’s lived it in public, year after year, long after his competitive career ended.

Ilia Malinin’s presence was equally meaningful for the “future” side of the story. By March 2025, he wasn’t merely a promising teenager; he was already a world champion and one of the defining technical athletes of his era, known for pushing the sport’s difficulty ceiling while still working to sharpen his performance identity.

The specific “Hamilton introduces Malinin” segment you’re referencing is real and has been publicly posted as its own clip. In the official recording, Hamilton’s introduction functions like a bridge: it places Malinin inside a bigger timeline of skating and then clears the space for the audience to simply watch him skate, without the usual scoreboard pressure.

That’s the key difference between what’s real and what sometimes gets exaggerated online. The introduction is not a formal ceremony declaring a literal “passing of the torch,” and no official program labels it that way. But the structure of the moment—an all-time great introducing a modern champion at a memorial benefit—naturally reads as symbolic to many viewers.

Malinin’s performance at Legacy on Ice is also real and independently easy to verify through posted video. Multiple uploads identify the performance as taking place at the March 2, 2025 Legacy on Ice show, and the music used is NF’s “HOPE,” which matches what fans have been sharing in clips and reposts.

What makes that choice land in this specific context is less about the song’s chart history and more about the atmosphere of the night. A benefit built around loss, remembrance, and community support changes how people hear words like “hope,” and it changes how they interpret quiet moments, pauses, and emotional restraint within a routine.

It’s also important to be precise about one common source of confusion: Malinin has skated to “HOPE” in more than one setting, including other ice shows. That means a lot of social posts blend details from different events into one sweeping narrative, sometimes attaching “Gold on Ice” language to Legacy on Ice or implying that every mention belongs to the same night.

So, if you want the article to be “real,” the clean version is this: Malinin did skate to “HOPE” at Legacy on Ice on March 2, 2025, and Hamilton did introduce him in a standalone segment that was shared publicly. Those are the core facts that hold up without needing any dramatic inflation.

From there, the “audiences worldwide” line can be made accurate with careful wording. The show was streamed beyond the arena audience, and clips circulated widely afterward—especially because U.S. Figure Skating’s YouTube presence makes it easy for fans outside the U.S. to watch. But it’s safer to describe the reach as “widely shared” rather than claiming a specific worldwide scale unless you’re quoting verified viewing figures.

The same goes for “quickly became one of the most memorable segments.” That may be true in the way fans talk about it—comments, reposts, emotional reactions—but it’s still an interpretation. The factual way to write it is: it became one of the most discussed and rewatched clips from the show, especially among skating fans following Legacy on Ice coverage and uploads.

Put simply, the honest story is already powerful without mythmaking. Legacy on Ice was a real memorial-benefit event; Hamilton’s introduction of Malinin is real and documented; Malinin’s “HOPE” performance at that event is real and documented; and the “passing of the torch” idea is best presented as a fan takeaway rather than an official label.