The number of Russian figure skaters who have mastered quadruple jumps is growing by leaps and bounds! However, so far none of them have reached the age of 18 while maintaining their quadriceps. In any case, after reaching the age of majority, no one has yet achieved a clean attempt at at least a quadruple in competitions.
Alexandra Trusova tried hard, but she never showed that adult girls are capable of skating with four-turn jumps. Show a separate quadriceps during training; okay, maybe. But what’s the point if you can’t do it in a free program? Only quadruple attempts are officially counted within tournaments. And the international ones too. But even in national competitions we don’t have skaters over 18 who can handle quads.
But among foreign athletes there were once some unique ones: Japan’s Rika Kihira and Elizabeth Tursynbaeva from Kazakhstan. Each of them has a successful attempt to achieve a quadruple Salchow in competitions.
It is true that your example confirms that quads are not a women’s story at all. Stubborn statistics also say: the older the skater, the less likely she is to see a quadruple.
Why Trusova and Shcherbakova will not play sports again:
Not a single adult panel builder in Russia
Nowadays, to see the quadruple jumps of individual skaters, it is not necessary to buy tickets to large prestigious tournaments in which the strongest athletes compete. Just look at the children’s competitions in Moscow: every year more and more quad athletes aged 12-13 appear in them. Additionally, the age limit has been lowered further. Elena Kostyleva and Margarita Bazylyuk debuted quads last season when they were only 11 years old. Lena is still 11 years old. She won’t turn 12 until October.
Some people are delighted with such an early technical breakthrough, while others, on the contrary, are scared. What if in a few years we will not have a single adult figure skater left and the main Russian competition will not be the national championship, but the youth championship?
Of course, it’s too early to panic: we have many girls with quads over 14 years old (the age of admission to the Russian Championship). However, there are no adults among them. Alexandra Trusova and Anna Shcherbakova last performed quads cleanly in competition when they were 17 years old. At the Beijing Olympics, Sasha performed a quadruple flip, a quadruple Salchow, and a quadruple Lutz waterfall-triple toe loop without errors. She also landed a quadruple toe loop and a quadruple lutz with blots. It was February 17, 2022. A historic day, after which the Russian Rocket no longer showed pure quads in tournaments. Sasha, 18, attempted a quadruple Lutz on two stages of the Russian Grand Prix last fall, but both jumps ended in falls.
Alexandra Trusova
Photo: Daria Kuzovleva, “Championship”
Perhaps over time he will be able to conquer his super jumps again at competitions, but he is in no hurry to enter the medal race. And the longer this pause lasts, the less hope there will be that Sasha will go down in history as an adult quad rider.
Ironically, Anna Shcherbakova almost managed to complete a quadruple in the tournament, having crossed the 18-year-old threshold. Only one day left: the last time she cleanly jumped a quadruple flip was at the Channel One Cup on March 27, 2022. And the next day she celebrated her birthday. Some would say that one day doesn’t matter. But in the world of big sports, the outcome of a fight is sometimes determined by one-hundredth of a point. So she did not become an adult panelist.
However, Sasha and Anya currently remain the oldest Russian women to have mastered the quadruple in competitions. Kamila Valieva can catch up with them in the near future. She demonstrated two clean quad loops, one of which was in a double axle cascade, on March 5 at the Russian Grand Prix final. She was then 16 years old. She is now 17 years old and I want to believe that she will continue to surprise with incredible beauty with quads.
In fact, it seems that maintaining quadriceps at least until the age of 16 is already an extremely difficult task for girls. Thus, Sofya Samodelkina, at 14 years old, achieved three quadruples in her debut at the 2022 Russian Championships: two with blurs and one clean. But a year later, 15-year-old Sonya’s quad set was reduced to a Salchow in the free program, and she was only successful at the Russian Grand Prix in Sochi. After her, falls plagued her. In the Grand Prix final she risked entering the quad twice and fell unpleasantly twice.
Sofia Samodelkina
Photo: Daria Kuzovleva, “Championship”
Returning after a long layoff due to a hand injury, 17-year-old Maya Khromykh has never been known for her consistency in the quadruple jumps. At the 2022 Russian Championships she flawlessly performed a quadruple toe loop in a triple toe loop cascade, but later, at the Channel One Cup, she completely failed two attempts at a quad. After Maya missed an entire season, we can hardly expect improvements over her ultra-c. Although it would be cool to see even the cleanest attempts from her.
Of Tutberidze’s coaching staff, those who have the least concern regarding the safety of the quads are Adelia Petrosyan, 16, and Sofia Akatieva. And yet, the latter made a mistake in the Russian Grand Prix final in spring, without showing a single complete quad.
The winner of the Russian Junior Championships, Alina Gorbacheva, last season achieved several excellent attempts in the quadruple Salchow, but in the summer she seriously injured her leg, which could cause problems in jumping. These same injuries that young athletes constantly suffer are perhaps one of the most important reasons why, after the age of 18, her quadriceps disappear. The body’s resources are not infinite.
At the end of the summer, Gorbachev disappeared: what happened?
Anastasia Zinina also enters the new season after an injury. She did it quite a long time ago: there was a terrible fall in the Canal Uno Cup. But afterward she was in the hospital and did not participate in any more competitions. Whether Nastya restored the quadruple sheepskin coat is a mystery. Plus whether she will be able to prove it to him in two years, when she reaches adulthood.
It is also unclear whether the young stars of “Plyushchenko’s Angels,” Veronica Zhilina and Sofia Titova, as well as Tutberidze’s next generation of quadricycle builders, Daria Sadkova and Alisa Dvoeglazova, have any prospects for maintaining quadricycles in the future. Nika and Sonya, on the one hand, are distinguished by very good physical condition, which in theory should help not to lose the current spatial content.
But perfectly developed muscles did not save Alexander Trusov. But she is the world queen of quads. She was and always will be, no matter what.
Detailed statistics of Trusova’s quads:
Almost 100 quads for 33 rentals. Cosmic statistics of Trusova’s quadruple jumps
Two foreign girls turned 18 and jumped quads
It’s hard to believe, but the figure skaters who, after 18 years, managed to perform a quadruple jump in competitions are not Russians, but foreigners. There are only two: Japan’s Rika Kihira and Kazakhstan’s representative Elisabeth Tursynbaeva, who trained in Khrustalny. They both became famous for successfully achieving a quadruple Salchow. Rika arrived at the Japanese Championships on December 27, 2020. This was her second and last attempt at a quad. The first in the 2019 Grand Prix final caused a fall, after which the athlete for a long time did not dare to take risks again.
You might think he did the right thing, because in the end he overcame the difficult element. But Rika didn’t make it to the other starts. At the 2021 World Championships, our single skaters’ most formidable rival had collapsed. And injuries are again to blame for it. They had been chasing the Japanese for a long time, but the desire to master the quad probably made them worse.
Rika Kahira
Photo: Atsushi Tomura/Getty Images
The determined girl was left without the Olympic Games, but she did not give up and returned to the competition after a long break. It is true that now she does not jump, much less the quad salchow or the triple axel, which for a long time was considered her main weapon. No. Rika sticks to junior triples, occasionally delighting fans with a triple flip.
In fact, Elisabeth Tursynbaeva did not obtain the title of panelist either. Yes, she went down in history as the first adult girl and adult to do a quadruple in competition. And even at the 2019 World Championships. But that was it. Both in quadruple acting and in Elizabeth’s career. A small tournament she attended after the World Championships was marked for her by two falls in the free skate, although there she did not attempt a quadruple Salchow. And then the skater went to treat her injuries, for a long time and with no hope of returning to the big sport.
In addition to Kihira and Tursynbayeva, in the competition among foreign individual skaters the American Mia Kalin and the Japanese Miki Ando and Mao Shimada were also able to perform a clean quad. But that was in junior age. Miki Ando is, in principle, the first woman to successfully master the quadruple jump. In 2002 she surprised everyone with a quadruple Salchow in the Junior Grand Prix final and she never jumped again.
But Mao Shimada and Mia Kalin are a new generation of foreign quads and already have several quads with clean performance in tournaments. The last time Mia successfully jumped a quad loop was relatively recently: July 29 at the Glacier Falls Summer Classic. But she is 15, Mao is 14. Will they be left with quads after 18 years? Or will they soon suffer the same fate as the American Alice Liu, who completed her quadruple Lutz only at the age of 13 (and not always), and with the onset of puberty she stopped all her attempts?
Your Majesty, time will give answers to everything. Meanwhile, she confidently plays against quadruple jumps in women’s single skating.
