Only a handful of women at the Winter Olympics in Beijing can do this type of jump. Here's why it's so difficult.
BEIJING, China — Figure skating is one of the marquee events of the Winter Olympics, which can gain a lot of attention from casual fans tuning in to the action. If you're not a die hard skating fan, one of the biggest things you may have difficulty identifying is the difference between the jumpsfigure skaters perform.
In women's figure skating, which started on Tuesday, one of the toughest is the triple axel. One thing in particular makes it different from the other triple jumps. Very few women have it as part of their repertoire and onlyfour women have landed it at the Olympics prior to Tuesday's short program.
Even more rare is a quad jump -- of any kind.
Here is how to tell the figure skating jumps apart.
First, it’s important to know that each skate blade has two edges with a curve -- or "hollow" -- in the middle. If you stand with your feet together, the edges that face each other are the inside edges. The edges that face away are the outside edges.
Credit: TEGNA
A figure skating blade has two edges with a hollow in the middle.
Most skaters land on the right foot and spin counterclockwise, but some prefer to land on the left foot and spin clockwise. For the examples below, we’ll assume the skater prefers the right foot and counterclockwise option.
As for what constitutes a single, double, triple or the rare quad, that’s simply an indication of how many times the skater rotates in the air.
Now, let’s look at the three toe jumps. All of them involve using the toe pick on the front of the skate to help launch the skater into the air.
Toe Loop
Skating backward, the jump starts with the outside edge of the right skate and lands on the outside edge of that same skate.
Flip
Skating backward, the skater takes off from the inside edge of the left skate and lands on the outside edge of the right skate.
Lutz
It's just like a flip except the skater takes off from the outside edge of the left skate -- not the inside -- and lands on the outside edge of the right skate.
Now, let's look at the edge jumps -- the ones that don't get a toe pick assist.
Salchow
Skating backward, the skater launches from the inside edge of the left skate and lands on the outside edge of the right.
Loop
Skating backward, the jump starts with the outside edge of the right skate and lands on the outside edge of that same skate.
Axel
This will be the easiest to recognize as it's the only one in which the skater is facing forward at takeoff.
The skater launches from the outside edge of the forward skate and lands going backward on the opposite skate. Because this move requires an extra half-rotation to land backward, it's generally considered the most difficult jump.
So, back to the original question -- what is a triple axel? It's three rotations in the air. And since we've established that an axel already requires an extra 1/2 rotation, that means 3 1/2 rotations.
Yes, there is such a thing as a quad axel. But while it has been attempted, nobody -- man or woman -- has landed it in competition. But other quad jumps have become the norm in men's competitions and Russia's Kamila Valievawas the first to land one in Olympic competition during this year's team figure skating event.
