Los Angeles: Ilia Malinin returned to competition with an ethereal new short program that put him in the lead at the Skate America figure skating Grand Prix in Everett, Washington, on Friday. The American, back in action for the first time since he won a third straight world title last March, showed a bit of rust, landing a soaring quadruple flip and a triple Axel but putting a hand down on a quadruple Lutz. But with a score of 96.74 points he nevertheless easily out-distanced Japan’s Sota Yamamoto, who was in second place on 91.29. Mexico’s Donovan Carrillo was in third on 86.49 heading into Saturday’s free skate. “Coming into the first competition my goal was to just feel out the program — how it feels on the ice, in front of the crowd, in front of the audience,” said Malinin, who has dominated men’s figure skating with his breathtaking array of quadruple jumps but suffered a shock eighth-place finish at the Olympics last year. With that crushing disappointment behind him — he went on to win a third straight world title in Prague — Malinin says he is using the post-Olympic season to push technical and artistic boundaries. “Honestly, the way I see it this year, there’s not much on the line. So I just wanted to go full out, try my best, just to see how much I can push my level of skating for the next four years.”