[imagesource: Getty Images]
Ilia Malinin calls himself the “quadg0d” on Instagram, and for good reason.
The 17-year-old figure skater made history last week by becoming the first person to ever land a four-and-a-half revolution ‘quadruple axel’ in a competition.
The Wall Street Journal has dubbed this highly-technical move “figure skating’s holy grail”.
Malinin pushed the sport’s boundaries at the start of his long programme en route to a victory at the US Classic in Lake Placid, New York.
Look at him go:
“Oh my quad” is right:
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
As USA Today notes, figure skating has become increasingly technical over the years, with the quad axel considered the next frontier.
No bother, because Malinin nailed it with perfection and grace:
Male figure skaters have been landing quadruple jumps since 1988, when Canada’s Kurt Browning first pulled off a quad toe loop at the world championships in Budapest.
American Nathan Chen landed five quads en route to an Olympic gold medal in Beijing in February.
But the axel is a different beast. It is the most difficult of the sport’s jumps because, based on the trajectory of the takeoff, it requires an extra half-rotation to complete.
Training in the Virginia suburbs outside Washington D.C., Malinin only seriously started practicing the quad axel earlier this year.
He has been posting a few successful landings on his Instagram account ever since:
View this post on Instagram
Malinin said that Japan’s two-time Olympic gold medalist, Yuzuru Hanyu, “definitely inspired me to try it”.
Hanyu attempted a quad axel during his long programme at the 2022 Beijing Olympics but was unable to land it.
Somehow, Malinin was not among the three American men selected to compete at the 2022 Beijing Olympics. Still, established skating stars like Hanyu and Chen will have to watch their backs with Malinin on the rise as one of the sport’s up-and-coming stars.
[sources:usatoday&wallstreetjournal]
