On Sept. 15, 17-year old Ilia Malinin made history as he successfully landed a quadruple jump at the 2022 C.S. US Classic. The axel is considered one of the hardest jumps, but before then, nobody ever successfully landed the four-and-a-half rotated jump.

Malinin is from Fairfax, VA, and he has been skating since 2010 under the teaching of his parents, who were both Olympic figure skaters from Uzbekistan. He had successfully landed other quadruple jumps, but his dream was to land the axel. He was inspired by Yuzuru Hanyu’s attempt at the 2022 Beijing Olympics to try it in competition. On his Instagram @ilia_quadg0d_malinin, he posted a video of him training at an ice rink in Reston where he successfully landed the quad axel earlier in the year.

“Most of the time, I don’t usually think about making history,” Malinin said in an interview with US Figure Skating. “I think it’s more about just me wanting to push myself to become better than I was before, and I always have that mentality.”

The quadruple axel is worth 12.50, helping Malinin reach the podium in competitions. During the 2022 senior Grand Prix, he successfully landed four “perfect” quad axels, earning him a grand score of 280.37, becoming the youngest male Skate America Champion.

The axel jump is named after its Norweigen creator, Axel Paulsen, who was also the first person to land one in 1882. It is figure skating’s oldest and most difficult jump. The axel is the only jump that begins with a forward takeoff, adding an extra half-rotation to the jump. It has three phases of execution: the entrance phase, the flight phase, where the skater rotates, and the landing phase, where they land on one leg. Skaters must have the strength and speed to get enough height and speed so the jump is fully rotated.

There are several jumps in figure skating, all differing from the toe jumps, which include the flip, lutz and toe loop and edge jumps, which include the loop, salchow and axel. Spinning in the air for multiple revolutions is difficult as skaters need to be in the air long enough to complete the revolutions, which is related to their jump height. Quadruple jumps require incredible speed and height of the jump, with skaters usually jumping 18 inches above the ice.

The axel is not the first quadruple jump in figure skating history. Kurt Browning accomplished the first quadruple toe loop, which is considered one of the easier jumps. Miki Ando is the first woman to land a quadruple jump in the 2002-2003 Junior Grand Prix Final. In fact, quadruple jumps are increasingly more common in the Olympics.

Ilia Malinin may be the first person to successfully land the first quadruple axel, but who will land the first quintuple jump? Some experts believe that it is theoretically possible. Who will be the first woman to land the quadruple axel? It seems like each decade, figure skaters seem to break laws of physics.