Ilia Malinin the quad king
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Winter Olympics are coming, and this young man has been on the radar for a few years. He's also a local kid (Northern Virginia) and I used to run by the ice rink where he trains in Reston, Virginia. Anyway... ice skating is confusing to me, but short version is... the "quad axel" jump is the hardest jump in the sport and this kid makes it look easy.
Why is the Quad Axel so hard? Any quad is (4 rotations), but the Quad Axel is so hard because it requires 4.5 rotations in the air, you have to take off forwards (way harder than backwards) and landing the skater lands with the force of 5-10x their body weight (according to google).
He's the first to land 7 quads in a program (see video below), and a backflip too.
Some say he's preparing to unveil a QUINT jump at the olympics. Which would be bananas.
Link to video -
Great slow-mo of the hardest jump in skating. He's the only one who can do it, or has ever done it, and will (hopefully) do it in the Olympics. I know it's obvious but the ice is not bouncy. In gymnastics the floor has a spring. How he jumps that high from an ice skate is insane.
https://www.reddit.com/r/nextfuckinglevel/comments/1qwhhoj/ilia_malinins_quadruple_axel_in_slowmo/
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Wow!!
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It’s an amazing jump but since he is the only skater thus far capable of completing the move, he may not be allowed to use it in competition. He may have to wait until others in his skating class can also master the jump. I seem to recall Elvis Stojko was not allowed a move in competitions that only he could perform. Forget what it was - a spin? He had to hold off employing until others could perform it. It only took a year or so.
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Yeah I was checking on that. I believe he is allowed as it's a move that has been "legal" in the skating rules, just... not done, although he's done it in many competitions in the last year or two, include 7 quads in the video earlier. I said it before, his name isn't very "marketable" but damn if I feel like the public is going to learn about him soon... same with Artemis II dammit!
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Welp. Finally got to watch his performances in the Olympics. My wife and I watch most of the events (we record them on DVR) so finally getting through the first week or so of events.
Of course it was great to see him help deliver a key component to Team USA's gold medal for the skating team event. Honestly that was a great event to watch with various people on the team contributing.
Then his solo performance, the short program (first video below) then the long program (the 2nd video below) which combine for his overall place. He crushes it in the first, and I was very surprised of course to see him have an absolute nightmare performance for the long program. Poor guy. Handled it with absolute class though.
The 3rd video, during the skating gala at the end was really enjoyable to watch. Highly recommend.
Link to video Link to video Link to video -
What's a shame is he could've done triple jumps the whole time (he could do 20 of those easily in the routine) and won gold, but as @mik said he dared greatly and mentally choked (as he said). He has changed the sport, most male skaters now are expected to do quads if they want to win, and if you watch the last video he certainly brings joy/fun into the skate, which he said afterwards was his newfound perspective on why he skates.
