At a Glance
- Ilia Malinin landed the first-ever quad axel at a September 2022 event in Lake Placid, New York
- The jump had been deemed impossible due to its extra half-revolution
- Why it matters: The sport may have hit its technical ceiling, forcing skaters and officials to rethink how to keep audiences engaged
Ilia Malinin stunned the skating world when he landed the first quad axel in competition. Now, two world titles and three U.S. National Championships later, the 20-year-old phenomenon faces a bigger challenge: what happens when you’ve already done the impossible?
The Impossible Jump
Inside the Lake Placid arena where the 1980 U.S. hockey team shocked the Soviets, Malinin achieved his own miracle. The quad axel requires an extra 180 degrees of rotation-the only jump starting with a forward-facing entry. Others had tried. All had fallen.
“My mind was just blown,” said two-time Olympic skater Jason Brown.
The six main jumps in figure skating haven’t changed since the early 1900s. Only the revolutions have increased:
- 1948: Dick Button lands first double axel
- 1952: First triple jump
- 1988: Kurt Browning lands first quad (toe loop)
- 1998: Timothy Goebel lands first quad salchow
- 2022: Malinin lands first quad axel
Most sports scientists agree five-revolution jumps are physically impossible, leaving figure skating at a crossroads.
Creativity vs. Scoring
Malinin’s signature “raspberry twist”-a somersaulting spin he created-brings crowds to their feet. The problem? It doesn’t score points.
The International Skating Union’s rigid requirements rarely reward deviation. A failed innovative element costs dearly, while success might not increase scores.
“Absolutely, there are a lot of things I’ve wanted to try,” Malinin told Ryan J. Thompson. “But it’s a bigger risk for the program itself, and the system and scoring means it doesn’t make sense.”
The Innovation Struggle
Alysa Liu, reigning world champion, sees the restrictions firsthand.
“There are so many rules in your programs that you don’t have too much wiggle room,” Liu said. “A lot of these rules really restrict us. Like, all of our spins look the same now, but they could look so different.”
Amber Glenn, three-time U.S. champion, points to training mate Sonja Himler’s unique approach:
- Spins the opposite direction
- Jumps the opposite direction
- Performs moves rarely seen in competition
“Someone who’s watched a little bit of skating will be like, ‘Oh, I’ve never seen that before,'” Glenn said. “Whereas if I go and do, you know, the norm, and do it well, versus what she does, my scores will be better.”
Governing Body Response
Justin Dillon, manager of high performance at U.S. Figure Skating, confirms having “hard conversations” with skaters about program choices.
“I encourage individuality, and bringing it to the ice,” Dillon said. “But if they do something so avant-garde that it doesn’t check those boxes, then it really doesn’t serve them.”
Recent rule changes show small steps toward flexibility. The backflip-long banned for safety-now earns minimal points despite its crowd-pleasing danger.
The Next Frontier
With technical limits potentially reached, some skaters look to artistry for innovation.
Brown, who relies on triple jumps and artistry rather than quads, suggests the future lies elsewhere.
“I think the more that people fixate on executing an element, the less risk people take artistically,” he said. “Maybe the next step for figure skating is to reward the story we’re trying to tell.”
Malinin, overwhelming favorite for Milan Cortina Olympics gold, agrees technical limits haven’t stopped his creative growth.
“I haven’t reached my top, whether it’s in the technical and how much I can jump and spin, but also in the creativity,” he said.
Key Takeaways
- The quad axel represents figure skating’s current technical peak
- Scoring systems discourage creative risks that don’t fit standard elements
- Skaters face choosing between crowd-pleasing innovation and point-maximizing conformity
- Future innovations may shift from athletic feats to artistic storytelling
