by Maggie Ryan
HISTORY HAS BEEN MADE❗️
Ilia Malinin lands the first quad Axel in history 🤯 at the #USIntlClasic pic.twitter.com/rppq73tQ5v
— U.S. Figure Skating (@USFigureSkating) September 15, 2022
Ilia Malinin was the first figure skater to make history. The 17-year-old American landed the first quad axel in competition, a landmark moment and fitting culmination of the sport’s years of high-flying dominance quad.
The history-making jump, which requires four and a half revolutions in the air, was nailed by Malinin in the lower level competition. “It felt great,” he said after the event. It’s easy for me to figure out how to get the right timing when I practice it. Nerves and pressure can make it difficult to do it in a competition. I have to treat it like I am at home.
The quad axel requires four revolutions in the air in order to be successful. The quad axel has a unique forward-facing takeoff that makes it unique to all the axel jumps. Yuzuru Hanyu, the Japanese figure skater who retired in July, inspired him to attempt the jump. Hanyu, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, fell attempting the quad axel at Beijing 2022, and has previously said that attempting the never-before-done jump is like walking in the dark. At the US Nationals, Artur Dmitriev Jr. tried a quad axel, but he stepped out of the landing and the jump was judged to be underrotated.
In the free skate portion of the US International Classic, the quad axel has a base value of 12.50 and a bonus grade of execution point, which helped Malinin rack up 185.44 points. The quad axel was the first jump he attempted in his free skate, a typical strategy for figure skaters who prefer to try their harder jumps on relatively fresh legs.
Who will be the next to try the quad axel? Nathan Chen, the reigning Olympic champion, is said to have tried the jump in practice. Chen won’t be racing on the Grand Prix circuit this season because he’s taking a break from the sport. Would he use the bigger stage to attempt the jump again when he makes his senior debut at Skate America in October? The 17-year-old is known as the “quad god” on social media.
We’re sure to see more attempts in the future now that the quad axel has moved out of myth and into real life. What are you going to do next? Is Quintuple going to jump? Don’t ever say never.
The image was created by Joosep Martinson.