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Chasing the quad
One of the most celebrated jumps in skating history turns 20 this month - and the current generation has little to show for it
| Source: |
Globe and Mail |
| Date: |
March 15, 2008 |
| Author: |
Beverley Smith |
Doing the quad
In doing a quadruple toe loop, (above, moving from right to left) a
skater flies along the ice at 32 kilometres an hour, sticks the left
toe pick into the ice, launches off the ice about
18 inches, rotates four times in the air, and lands on the right skate
blade, which is only one-eighth of an inch thick. The jump takes from
.5 to .7 seconds. Scientific studies have shown that skaters land this
jump with a force 15 times their body weight on one leg, on one skate
edge.
The quadruple Salchow, the only other kind of quad jump that has been
successfully landed in competition, has a different takeoff - without
the benefit of a toe pick.
The skater uses the edges of the skate blade to launch into the air,
in particular the left edge. Quad Salchows have been seen much less
often in competition than quadruple toe loops.
During a quadruple jump rotation, a skater holds arms tight in against
the body even though centrifugal forces work to pull the arms out. And
then when the skater lands, they have to control and stop the rotation
from continuing.
***
Twenty years after Kurt Browning became the first to land it in
competition, the quadruple jump remains the Mount Everest of
skating.
Browning created a sensation when, as a fresh-faced 21-year-old, he
landed the difficult four-rotation feat at the world figure-skating
championships in Budapest, on a raw day in March of 1988.
The jump was so rare, it was "like breaking the sound barrier," the
four-time Canadian and four-time world champion said. "I got so much
attention and so much interest over it - overwhelming interest at the
time. It was a really big moment."
It was a big moment that has remained etched in minds of fans.
Ten years ago, Browning was en route to a radio interview in a Midwest
U.S. city during a Stars on Ice tour, when he was met by a group of
fans who presented him with champagne. He was puzzled, until they
reminded him it was the 10th anniversary of his milestone.
As Browning sat in the taxi on his way back to the rink for practice
that day, he made it his goal to see if he could land the jump
again. On the third try, he got it.
But that wasn't enough for the trend-setting Browning.
During the next show he was part of a comedy routine spoofing the
Olympics - with 1984 gold-medalist Scott Hamilton playing the role of
a television reporter and doing live commentary. Browning was
scheduled to do a triple-triple combination, but, without any prior
notice, he substituted it for the quad - and landed it
cleanly.
Hamilton "freaked," Browning said. "All the skaters were on the ice
and it was a really neat moment."
Now, his life is different. He's 41, and a father of two sons, ages 4
and seven months. Browning is no longer competing professionally. His
knees are complaining. He won't be trying the quad again soon.
"Maybe I'll try to explain it to my son," Browning said of marking the
20th anniversary of his historic moment.
Despite two decades passing since that groundbreaking feat, the quad
still is a jump that will be relatively rare next week at the world
championships in Gothenburg, Sweden.
When Browning's Canadian arch-rival Elvis Stojko became a quad master
during the 1990s, the Russians followed in swift pursuit, and then so
did everybody else.
At the 1999 world championships in Helsinki, audiences saw 14 quads
landed. The following year, in Nice, France, there were a total of 20
quads properly landed, 12 of them in the short program.
But the new judging system adopted after the scandal-laden 2002 Salt
Lake City Olympics has made the quad less of a priority in recent
years.
"Right now there's a little bit of lack of interest in the quad
because the new system isn't rewarding it," Browning said. "When you
do a simpler combination, that most of the skaters in the world can
do, and get as many points as for a quad, which is exponentially more
difficult, skaters aren't seeing the payoff."
For example, a quadruple toe loop is worth nine points, but a triple
Lutz-triple toe loop combination is worth 10. Even a triple
flip-triple toe loop combination gets you 9.5. A triple Axel-triple
toe loop is worth 11.5.
And woe to those who attempt a quad in the now.
"In the short program, it is a huge risk," said Louis Stong, director
of skating development for Skate Canada. "If you do it, you're a
star. But if there is anything wrong with it - it's downgraded [not
fully rotated], you fall, or it's too weak to do a combination after
it - you may as well pack it in. You'll be down so far [in the
standings], it's too far to come back up.
"It'll be interesting to see how important it [the quad] is in
Sweden," Stong said. "I don't think you'll see that many."
It also didn't help that two-time U.S. champion Evan Lysacek withdrew
from worlds with an injury. He's one of the few who tries a
quad-triple combination in the short program. However, Daisuke
Takahashi of Japan won the Four Continents title over Lysacek without
a quad in his short program.
In the new system, the glory factor of at least attempting a quad
combination in the short is gone, Browning said. "It becomes all
technical."
Be that as it may, three-time Canadian champ Jeff Buttle became
painfully aware after finishing sixth at the worlds last year in Tokyo
that male skaters need quads to compete for a medal. He's working on
two different jumps, but they're not consistent enough to put in his
programs yet.
"With Turin [in 2006] being the first Games under the new system,
there was definitely a dip in the technical content of the programs,"
said Buttle, who hasn't landed a quad in competition since the 2003
Four Continents. "But definitely at last year's worlds, we really saw
that it was on its way back up.
"There was a bit of a dormant period there where people were starting
to train the new system, with all of the different levels [of
difficulty], and it's just more demanding."
Now, he says, other skaters are figuring out the system and getting
higher degrees of difficulty on elements. Now they have to do quads to
separate themselves from the pack.
No matter how you look at it, the quad is not an easy jump.
Browning says it's "exponentially" more difficult than a triple and
should be worth more marks. He landed only four in Olympic-eligible
competitions in his career.
There's actually nothing very difficult about doing the jump - when
you do it right, Browning insists. As soon as a skater's triple jump
is big and high enough, and they are strong enough, they'll get the
fourth rotation in. But if one small thing goes wrong, the quad
collapses like a house of cards.
There are very few skaters who can make a mistake on the quad and
still land it. But there are some. Browning points to quad monster
Brian Joubert of France, the reigning world champion, as one. Another
is rising star Tomas Verner of the Czech Republic, the current
European champion who finished fourth at the world championships last
year with two quads in his program.
Takahashi, the favourite to win this year, is one who can't afford to
make mistakes in his quad, Browning said.
Quads today are different from the quads of Browning's era. Skaters
such as Browning and Slovak wunderkind Jozef Sabovcik, used to leap
high into the air, hang for a moment and then rotate.
Today's quad jumpers just don't have time for delays. Browning says
their technique is better and they're more efficient at doing
quads. But today's skaters also taking "shortcuts" and their quads are
smaller.
(There are some who maintain today that Sabovcik is actually the first
skater to land a quad in competition - at the European championships
in 1986. But the next day, International Skating Union officials ruled
that the landing was flawed.)
Still the quads of yesteryear had a more glorious look, Browning
said. Joubert is one who still has the old quad impact.
"His is a big, huge robust jump," Browning said. "I think you see four
revolutions when you see him do it."
It was Stojko who actually prompted the rest of the world to adopt the
quad in increasing numbers. Always ahead of the curve technically, the
seven-time Canadian and three-time world champion became the first man
to land a quad in combination (with a double jump) at the 1991 worlds
when he was only 19.
Stojko remains amused at the "young bucks" who get a quad and think
they can compete against the best in the world. It's not so easy to
land it in the program, the two-time Olympic silver-medalist
said. "Doing one quad changes the whole dynamics of the
program."
In essence, a skater's body becomes attuned to the timing of triple
jumps and so does the muscle structure. The timing of a quad is
different from any triple jump.
And the quad comes with physical risks, too. Recent studies estimate
that 90 per cent of skaters who do triples and quads suffer injuries
each year.
Olympic champion Alexei Yagudin was forced to retire because of a hip
injury; Stojko suffered an injury at the 1998 Nagano Olympics
involving inner hip muscles; 2006 Olympic champion Evgeny Plushenko
has suffered from hip and groin injuries.
Is the quad still important? Yes, says Browning. "It's fun. It's
interesting. It's beautiful when it's done right."
However, Browning never let the quad define him. It helped both he and
Stojko get the attention they needed en route to winning world
championships. But Browning went on to develop unusual triple-triple
combinations, a flair for artistry and performance and dazzling
footwork sequences.
Stojko said the quad is absolutely necessary to continue to attract
fans to the sport. He says he's lost interest in figure skating since
the adoption of the new judging system.
"It's not exciting any more," he said. "No one is taking any
risks. Everyone looks the same. They're doing the same footwork. It
showcases artistry, which is fine, but in order to keep it a sport,
you have to have some risk."
Quad milestones
1988 Kurt Browning of Canada is the first man to land a quadruple jump
(toe loop) in competition at the world championships in
Budapest.
1989 Czech Petr Barna became second man and first European to land a
quadruple jump (toe loop) at a competition in Germany.
1990 Alexei Urmanov became the first Russian to land a quad (toe loop)
at the Soviet championships.
1991 Elvis Stojko of Canada became the first man to land a quad in
combination (quadruple toe loop-double toe loop) at the world
championships in Munich.
1992 Barna becomes first man to land a quad (toe loop) at the Olympics
in Lillehammer.
1997 Stojko becomes the first man to land a quad-triple combination
(toe loops) at the Champions Series Final in Hamilton. Guo Zhengxin of
China becomes the first man to land two quads (both toe loops, one in
combination with a double toe loop) in a single performance at the
world championships in Lausanne, Switzerland. Anthony Liu becomes the
first Australian man to land a quad (toe loop) at his
nationals.
1998 Michael Weiss of U.S. attempts quad Lutzes at both his national
championship (landed on two feet) and Olympics (fell) in Nagano. Ilia
Kulik of Russia is the first Olympic champion to land a quad in his
winning program. Tim Goebel becomes first American to land a quadruple
Salchow at the Junior Champions Series Final, and also the first to
land the quad Salchow in combination. The ISU votes to allow quads in
a short program. Stojko becomes the first man to attempt a quad (toe
loop) in a short program at Skate America, but falls.
1999 Zhang Min of China becomes the first man to land a quad (toe
loop) in a short program at Four Continents. Goebel became the first
man to land three quads in a program at Skate America. Evgeni
Plushenko of Russia became the first man to land a three-jump quad
combination at the NHK Trophy (quadruple toe loop-triple toe
loop-double loop). Ilia Klimkin, the 1998 world junior champion from
Russia, became the first man to land two different quads (toe loop and
Salchow) in the same program at the Nebelhorn Trophy in
Germany.
2002 Plushenko lands a quadruple-triple-triple at Cup of
Russia. (quadruple toe loop-triple toe loop-triple loop). Goebel
became the first man to land four quads in a program at the Salt Lake
City Olympics. Miki Ando of Japan becomes the first - and, thus far,
the only - woman to land a quad (Salchow) at the Junior Grand Prix
Final.
2008 Kevin Reynolds, 17, becomes the first Canadian man to land the
quad-triple-triple at the national championships.
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