[imagesource: Valery Sharifulin / TASS]

The average human being isn’t recovering from that sort of body position to land with any grace.

15-year-old Russian figure skating prodigy Kamila Valieva is anything but ordinary, and on Monday she attempted a jump that had never before been landed by a woman at the Olympics.

Perhaps most impressive is how easy she made the quad jump look, pirouetting four times while in the air as she became a total blur.

Valieva landed what’s known as the quadruple Salchow, reports The Washington Post, and in doing so helped the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) to gold medals in the short program and the free skate.

Russia is banned from major sporting competitions due to its state-sponsored doping scheme at the 2014 Sochi Olympics, so athletes compete as neutral athletes or ‘Olympic Athletes from Russia’ (OAR) representing the ROC.

First up, Valieva’s quad:

Kamila Valieva is the first female figure skater to land a quadruple jump in Olympic history! ¡WOW!😱pic.twitter.com/1nP4e9YYFY

— Dr. Yorch, MD, MSc (MTQE/MEST), ~PhD (@georgejebc) February 7, 2022

It’s all the more impressive when viewed in slow-motion:

I’m still speechless #KamilaValieva
pic.twitter.com/zdfda4XFoe

— LI니Boo 🌨❄️ (@Boo111009) February 7, 2022

I still think Simone Biles takes the battle of the slow-mos, but props to Valieva.

Her performance wasn’t flawless:

After Valieva landed that opening quad, she performed a triple axel and another quad, this time a toe loop done in combination with a triple toe loop. When she attempted her third and final quadruple jump, which was supposed to be connected to two additional jumps, Valieva fell to the ice.

Image: Matthew Stockman / Getty

Her recent run of form makes her seem unbeatable, but she’s not invincible. She’s still a 15-year-old at her first Olympics, facing enormous pressure and performing wildly difficult jumps.

She giggles at times during interviews and entered the media area after her short program clutching a stuffed animal.

All perfectly normal for a very abnormal 15-year-old.

As of this morning at 9:35AM our time, the ROC sits third in the medal table.

The table is ranked by gold medals won rather than total medals won.

[source:washpost]