Two quadruple jumps in the freestyle
15-year-old delivers big Olympic moment
2/7/2022 10:46 am
So far, no figure skater has shown two quadruple jumps in a freestyle – until the morning. Kamila Valieva’s great run led the Russian team to gold in the team event. Valieva is experiencing her first major competition in the adult category: the junior world champion is only 15 years old.
Kamila Valieva is only 15 years old – and already a legend in her sport. Not because the Russian figure skater became European champion in January. Even a Russian runner-up and a title at the Junior World Championships are not enough for the history books. Valieva has been there since February 7, 2022 because she showed the world’s audience something unique on the biggest stage in sport: the teenager was the first woman to show two quadruple jumps in a freestyle in a team competition. In the Russian team’s win, she presented both a toe loop and a four-turn salchow.
The world premiere delighted the commentators even more than the exclusively Chinese audience: “We will be talking about this moment for the next 100 years,” said the 1998 Olympic champion Tara Lipinski, who accompanied the competition for the US broadcaster NBC, during the broadcast. “Gosh. If that accomplishment didn’t inspire the whole world to skate, then I don’t know what could,” said NBC pundit Johnny Weir. “Incredible”, “unbelievable”, amazed Daniel Weiss, who commented on the run for ARD. “We bow to a 15-year-old Russian woman.”
“Unable to do what they do”
Teammate Nikita Katsalapov ennobled Valieva with big words: “All the good qualities of a figure skater come together in this delicate girl,” he said. “She motivates the whole team… It’s just a pleasure to see her accomplishments. She improves from one competition to the next.” The competition is as enthusiastic as it is at a loss: “I’m not able to do what they do,” said US figure skater Karen Chen, looking at the Russian team. The US team took silver.
Valieva opened her performance with a quadruple salchow before landing a triple axel. Shortly thereafter, she followed up with her second quadruple jump, the toe loop, which she could not stand. Valieva got 178.92 points for her freestyle, which brought the Russian team the gold medal – the second in the third Olympic edition of the team competition. “It was a fantastic feeling. But I also felt a burden, which I then got over,” said Valieva after the premiere at the Capital Indoor Stadium in Beijing – and at first she didn’t seem completely enthusiastic about her own performance. Valieva also goes into the individual competition as a huge favorite. The first quadruple jumper ever was the Japanese Miki Ando, who managed a quadruple jump in 2002, but not at the Olympics.