Courtesy of Robbie Lynch ’24
On September 14th, 17-year-old figure skater Ilia Malinin made sports history by landing the first quadruple axel in an international competition. This was the first new jump to be landed since Brandon Mroz landed the quad lutz in 2011, and the first new axel to be landed since Vern Taylor landed the triple axel in 1978. Malinin landed the jump during his free program at the U.S International Classic in Lake Placid. It was an unexpected achievement, as this was the very first competition of the international season, and had relatively low attendance. Still, the Virginia native executed the jump perfectly, cementing his place in the history of figure skating and giving the U.S high hopes for the future.
A quadruple axel is a jump that takes off forward, does four-and-a-half revolutions in the air, and comes down backwards on one foot. It was thought to be nearly impossible until quite recently. Since a quad axel does four-and-a-half revolutions (as opposed to just four as all other quad jumps do) it is thought of as the first step towards quintuple jumps. In competition, it is worth 12.50 points, over 4 points higher than a triple axel. The quad axel has been attempted in competition without success twice, the first by Russia’s Artur Dmitriev Jr. at the 2018 Rostelecom Cup and the second by Japan’s Yuzuru Hanyu at the 2022 Beijing Olympics. The quad axel is an incredibly hard jump to do, as the force exerted on the knee and ankle coming down is extensive.
Ilia Malinin made his senior figure skating debut in 2021. He performed well at U.S. Nationals in 2022, placing third, but narrowly missed out on an Olympic spot. After an impressive win at the 2022 International Challenge Cup, he earned a spot at the 2022 World Championship. After the withdrawal of recent Olympic gold medalist Nathan Chen, Malilin was seen as the U.S.’s best hope to medal at Worlds. Despite his training as an elite athlete, it seems that Malinin’s current weakness is consistency. At Worlds, he placed fourth in the short program after a stellar performance and was projected to medal ahead of his quad-packed free program. However, after a scary fall on a quad Salchow at the beginning of the free, he made multiple mistakes throughout the program and ended up finishing in ninth place. He spoke after the event about feeling pressured to skate well, which ultimately messed with his head during his programs. The U.S did not leave the men’s event empty-handed, however, as teammate Vincent Zhou earned the bronze medal. Malinin did go on to win the 2022 Junior World Championship shortly after, setting the junior world record for the highest score ever recorded in both the short and free programs. Malinin began training the quad axel shortly after worlds, and posted videos of his first few attempts on his Instagram, aptly named “quadg0d”. This definitely caused a stir in the skating world, and many speculated whether it was safe for a 17-year-old to be training such a high-impact jump. Others wondered if he would be able to land it cleanly in a competition after his previous problems with consistency. Many expected he would wait until a big international competition, like Skate America or an event on the Grand Prix circuit. However, in true “chaos child” fashion, he landed the historic jump at the first international competition of the season, in front of a relatively empty audience.
For the past few years, the quad axel has been seen as an almost unattainable goal for skaters. As the final quad jump left unlanded, many were training and striving to be the first. It will be interesting to see who will land it next, as well as who will become the first woman to land the jump. This great success for Ilia Malinin leaves the U.S optimistic about its future in this new 4-year cycle post-2022 Olympics. Because Malinin is so young, many assume he can only get better and will be near unstoppable by the time the 2026 Olympics comes around. After the semi-retirement of Olympic Gold Medalist Nathan Chen, the U.S. may have finally found its new golden child of the men’s division.
