It’s all about the quad at the Pyeongchang Games
It’s all about the quad. Yes, the sport is called figure skating. Spins, footwork, synchronicity with the music, theatrics — they all are major components of a performance.
Yet, as they head to the Pyeongchang Olympics, the men who will compete for medals know what the deciding factor will be: that four-revolution jump. And how many you land. Two-time U.S. champion Nathan Chen plans five in his free skate. He’s the only one to land that many in a program; most men are content to do two well, maybe three, usually one in combination with a triple jump. That just won’t do in South Korea. “I knew it was headed in this direction,” says Michael Weiss, who along with Tim Goebel was an ice breaker for Americans doing the quad. “When I was competing and doing a quad lutz, hardly anyone was trying it. But it’s like the 4-minute mile, once it’s been done, everybody knows they can do it. And then it turns to doing the other quads, doing three or four or, in Nathan’s case, five in a program.
“And it’s doing all of those not just individually in practice, but back to back to back in the course of a program.”
For Chen, the challenge isn’t so much all of those quads: a flip in combination and a stand-alone flip; a toe loop in combo; a solo toe loop; and a solo salchow. He struggles more with the triple axel and its front takeoff into a 3½ revolution jump.
Still, even if he doesn’t land the axel and hits everything else, it’s as if Chen is driving the green on a par 5. He’s putting tremendous pressure on the others — notably defending Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan, Spain’s Javier Fernandez, Canada’s Patrick Chan — to bring their big sticks, too.
“The idea is to go out there and do everything you can do,” the 18-year-old Chen says. “It’s more than the jumps, more than the quads, it’s the entire package. But the quads are an important part of that.”
Weiss believes that Chen has an advantage simply because he knows his capabilities in the air, and that they might not be attainable for his competitors.
“There’s a few skaters who can do all the quads, but now linking them back to Nathan Chen performs during the men’s free skate event at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in San Jose, Calif. Chen, the U.S. champion, has five quadruple jumps planned for his Olympic free skate.
back, that’s like asking a quarterback to throw a 55-yard pass on the dime,” Weiss says. “He does it once or twice, sure. But then doing it consistently over and over, time after time, that’s more challenging physically and more challenging mentally.”
Watching Chen in practice can be exhausting. Run-throughs of any program can be tiresome for skaters. Chen’s sessions border on the absurd when you throw in all the quads.
All that action also can be counterproductive and lead to injuries. Getting hurt might be even more of a threat for other men not as accomplished, even natural, with the jump as Chen is.
“Don’t have a skater attempt something that is out of their realm,” says Audrey Weisiger, who coached Weiss and many other elite skaters. “It’s almost like a physics game. Girls don’t jump high enough — it takes over a half-second or more for four turns — and you’ve got to turn fast enough, too. You must understand the mechanics of the actual skill.
“Once a skater has got that going, they mentally have to be ready to take that step. If you back off, it will be a bad outcome. You can’t hold back.”
Then there’s the psychological part of tackling the quad. Plus, there’s the internal pressure skaters put on themselves to get those quads done.
Chen is 100 percent in on the quad. When asked if five of them are necessary, he smiles slyly.
“I like the idea of pushing the limits,” he says. “It’s what I think the sport needs is taking steps forward.”
And, apparently, leaps — four at a time.
Separated in age by about a decade, Lindsey Vonn and Mikaela Shiffrin head to the Pyeongchang Olympics as the past, present and future of ski racing in the United States and around the world.
In the World Cup, their sport’s annual measuring stick, Vonn, 33, owns four overall titles; Shiffrin, who turns 23 in March, is on pace for her second. Vonn has won 81 World Cup races, a record for a woman and second most for anyone in history; Shiffrin is halfway there.
Each claimed an Olympic gold medal in her specialty: Vonn in the downhill in 2010; Shiffrin in the slalom in 2014, when Vonn was out after right knee surgery. Now, with the opening ceremony in South Korea on Friday, arrives the first — and, presumably, last — chance for them to share the spotlight at a Winter Games.
“The regard they have for each other is extraordinary. Lindsey is such an incredible, achieved athlete, and Mikaela looks at her that way, in awe of her. And at the same time, Lindsey is clearly in awe of Mikaela’s accomplishments, as is the entire world, of course,” U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association CEO Tiger Shaw said. “You have two of the most powerful women in the athletic world, and they’re both battling for their own goals, and they both want to achieve as many medals as possible in these Olympics.”
Vonn will be an overwhelming favorite in the downhill in South Korea, having won the last three World Cup races in that event. She also could contend in the other speed event, the super-G, and the combined, which adds the time from one downhill run and one slalom.
Shiffrin, meanwhile, can — indeed, will be expected to — become the first with consecutive slalom golds; she won five of the past six World Cup slaloms she entered. She also could win a medal in the other technical event, the giant slalom, along with the combined, and is likely to be in the starting hut for speed events, too.
“I like to try to understand what makes them tick and makes them so great,” Shaw said of the American team’s two best racers, “and then we try to bottle that up and make the other athletes understand what that is, so they can use it, too.”
There are, to be sure, connections between Vonn and Shiffrin, who are both based in Colorado. Their success. Their widely lauded work ethic and fitness training.
Their desire to help promote ski racing and attract new fans and new athletes, particularly girls.
And, of course, the comparisons perpetuated by others.