Quad jumps now expected in men’s figure skating
When American Evan Lysacek won gold in figure skating at the Vancouver Olympics, Yahoo! Sports' Elvis Stojko had a huge problem with the result. Though he had no problem with Lysacek's performance, he did have a problem with the way the skate was scored.
At the time, skaters were not given more consideration for trying difficult jumps, like the quadruple jump. When competing for Canada in the 90s, Stojko became the first man to cleanly land a quad jump at the World Championships. With Lysacek not trying to repeat his difficult feat, Stojko said the 2010 result had set back the sport 20 years. In the video above, he stands by his words.
But as they traditionally do after the Olympics, figure skating officials reviewed how to score different skating elements. Quads were encouraged in the new scoring system. Canadian Patrick Chan, the reigning world champ, is expected to throw a quad at the world championships in London, Canada, next week. Top Japanese skaters Daisuke Takahashi and Yuzuru Hanyu have also landed quads in competition. Max Aaron won the U.S. title with two enormous quads, and his U.S. teammate Ross Miner also landed a quad at the American championships.
As the world championships approach, a quad will likely be a part of the winning man's routine.
