"Ilia Malinin leaves even the greatest athletes of all time in awe. While Malinin is known as the only figure skater to have performed a quad axel in competition, the 21-year-old " Quad God " is turning more heads and earning more cheers for the first legal backflips on Olympic ice in almost 50 years. With a mission to break figure skating out of the four-year popularity cycle, the display of breathtaking athleticism could be a more powerful tool than any of Malinin's quadruple-twisting jumps."
""I think it's really something that's really bringing back the popularity of the sport," said Malinin, who is skating to win the men's singles gold medal during Friday's free skate, "because the backflip is something that I'm sure a lot of people know, just the basics of what it really is. So I think just having that really just can bring in the non-figure skating crowd.""
Ilia Malinin's backflips draw the largest crowd reactions even when judges favor his quadruple jumps. The backflip's simple spectacle could expand figure skating's popularity beyond the four-year Olympic cycle. The move was banned after Terry Kubicka's 1976 Olympic performance because it was deemed too dangerous, and the ISU lifted the nearly 50-year ban on somersault-type jumps in 2024. The ISU has modernized the sport in other ways, eliminating compulsory figures in 1990 and allowing music with lyrics in 2014. High-profile reactions, including Novak Djokovic's stunned response, highlight the backflip's broad public appeal.
Read at Los Angeles Times
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