Kamila Valieva of the Republic of China Team skating during the Women’s Singles Skating Short Program on Day 11 of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games at the Capital Indoor Stadium on February 15, 2022 in Beijing, China .
Matthew Stockman / Getty Images
hide captions
switch captions
Matthew Stockman / Getty Images
Kamila Valieva of the Republic of China Team skating during the Women’s Singles Skating Short Program on Day 11 of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games at the Capital Indoor Stadium on February 15, 2022 in Beijing, China .
Matthew Stockman / Getty Images
BEIJING – A controversial women’s Olympic figure skating competition will end on Thursday in Beijing.
15 years old Russian star Kamila Valieva is in first place go into individual freestyle skating. Her positive test results for a banned drug before the Olympics clouded the event. And it has turned attention away from what experts say could be a pivotal moment in the development of dance in the sport.
Popular Quads
When American Nathan Chen won the Olympic men’s individual figure skating competition last week, he completed five quadruple swing jumps.
And predictable.
“It’s so common now,” said former US Olympic men’s skater Adam Rippon.
It has been built so far from around 2010, and featured Canadian skater Patrick Chan.
“[Chan] Jackie Wong, figure skating analyst, from the website Rocker Skating, says he’s actually the first guy to have both consistent innings and skate extremely well. And everyone was saying, okay, we need to catch up. And that’s when, really, in this generation of skaters, the quad became the thing for men’s skating. ”
Falling behind, but trying to make it through
The women who fall behind are not due to lack of effort.
In the 1990s, French figure skater Surya Bonaly did her quad personal mission.
Bonaly says she’s hit a lot of opportunities in training, but has never competed.
Over the next 30 years, others will try, but also won’t succeed.
Surya Bonaly of France performed her short show in the women’s figure skating competition at the Winter Olympics, Nagano 1998. Bonaly was the first woman to try the quad jump in the competition.
Eric Fefferberg / AFP via Getty Images
hide captions
switch captions
Eric Fefferberg / AFP via Getty Images
Fast forward to last September, when 17-year-old Alexandra Trusova appeared at an event in Russia, how far The female figure skater has arrived.
Trusova has been participating in the competition since she was 13 years old. Nicknamed “The Quad Queen,” she was in fourth place when she entered the Olympic freestyle skating on Thursday. It is expected that she will try five quads again. Valieva, who became the first female to score four in Olympic competition, in the team event in Beijing, is expected to try three times. And second place Anna Shcherbakova, at least one.
If successful, this Russian trio can do for women’s sport as Patrick Chan has done for men.
Quick is the thing
So how did skating get here, with a popular four-person sport for men and a reality for women?
Rippon, who has helped US women’s national championship coach Mariah Bell, said figure skaters have grown in recent years so they now value agility more than raw power Help them fly high in big jumps.
“You even look at body types,” says Rippon. “In the early 2000s or late 1990s, men had wider shoulders. They were thinner. It was about having enough strength to do high jumps and make them taller and more beautiful. And that’s slowly converted to, now the body type is very long and very thin. And that’s more geared towards people with the fastest speeds possible. So how tall am I? important, important is how fast I can rotate. And that’s what really serves these skaters being done as fast as possible.”
Kamila Valieva of Team ROC became the first female to hit the quad jump at the Olympics in the Team Events on February 7, 2022 in Beijing.
Matthew Stockman / Getty Images
hide captions
switch captions
Matthew Stockman / Getty Images
To achieve this, Rippon says popular training methods, even for kids under 10, now include a device that turns the skater on a disc and then lifts them into the air with a harness. .
“They’re going to lift the skater and they’ve been launched into the air,” says Rippon, “and they can keep these spins in the air not only for two, three, four laps, but 30 laps for atmosphere. And it actually feels very safe in that shooting position. It’s almost like a technique used by astronauts to make them feel as if they can keep their center of gravity and balance, no matter how fast they’re spinning. ”
Rippon conjures up images of Broadway to further depict high-altitude skaters.
“It feels like you’re watching Peter Pan [flying] in the harness. Now just think of every kid who wants to skate now as Peter Pan in the harness. “
An unbelievable time
Peter Pan famously stated that he never wanted to grow up. And especially for female skaters, growing up and going through puberty isn’t conducive to catching up on the quad jump sequence. In fact, three Russian teenagers have raised discussion, and even debate, about the age limit, what is too young and what is fair in a sport where quads are becoming. single ticket to medals and fame.
Of course, Valieva’s positive test result for a banned drug also made the women’s event controversial. Although her case will not be heard until after the Olympics, and she has not been doping violations, New York Times reported a drug test sample provided by Valieva contained three substances used to help the heart, including one banned by world anti-doping agencies.
As a result, many people in the skating world are having a hard time believing what they see on the ice at this Olympics.
“I think the sadness for the sport is, it feels unreal,” Rippon said. “It makes us question things and we don’t want to do that.”
Kamila Valieva of Team ROC skates in the Women’s Singles Skating Short Program at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games on February 15, 2022.
Harry How / Getty Images
hide captions
switch captions
Harry How / Getty Images
Kamila Valieva of Team ROC skates in the Women’s Singles Skating Short Program at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games on February 15, 2022.
Harry How / Getty Images
That includes questioning the dazzling dance moves of Valieva, Trusova and Shcherbakova, all of whom trained under the same successful and controversial coachEteri Tutberidze.
There is no consensus that the banned drug found in Valieva’s system is a performance enhancer in sports. Whatever is revealed, Rippon doesn’t think the scandal or the questions will disrupt the development of the quad in women’s skating.
“I think that just being able to see one woman do the quads,” has inspired a lot of women to start doing it, says Rippon. When I grow up, I want to be able to do a triple jump and a quadruple jump. And I think because they don’t put a ceiling on what they think is possible, anything is possible. ”
Jump border
With the quad jump increasingly popular, where is the limit? Would a dumbbell jump out of there on the horizon not too far away? Even more?
“I think there have been theoretical studies done on whether dancing is possible,” says Jackie Wong. The effect of rotation has been and is going on, you see that there is likely room for a fifth rotation. Six? No. of course. Maybe I’ll reconsider [these comments] 20 years from now and like, what are you talking about? But, I think the maximum human body is five. At least with the skate technology that we have now and you know you can only jump really high and you can only turn really fast. And five, I think, is the edge of possibility. ”
Rippon dreams a little bigger.
“When I started skating,” said 32-year-old Rippon, “if you told me someone would do Nathan Chen’s [Olympic gold medal-winning] show, it sounds like a joke. It’s like a total joke from another universe and you know, it’s not. We watched it done almost perfectly perfectly and effortlessly. So really anything is possible. I think that as time goes on, the technique will continue to evolve and the equipment will also continue to evolve. It will be interesting to see how far the skaters can go. You know, leave it to the young athletes. ”
Fifth, three young Russian athletes, beset by controversy, will try to show how far skaters can go, right now.
