'I don't really know how I pulled that off.'
in the history of the Grand Prix of Figure Skating on Oct. 23. The huge accomplishment comes a little over a month after Malinin became the first figure skater to land a quad axel in competition, which he did while competing at theon Sept. 15. This time around, competing on the big stage at Skate America, the jump helped the 17-year-old American leap into first place and become the youngest men's champion in Skate America history.
In competition, the quad axel has a massive base value of 12.50, and landing it cleanly along with a bonus grade-of-execution point helped Malinin rack up 194.29 points in his free skate and win Skate America with 280.29 points overall. The quad axel was the first jump he attempted in his free skate, a typical strategy for figure skaters who'd rather go for their hardest jumps on relatively fresh legs.
Who will be the next to land, or even attempt, the difficult quad axel in competition? Well, there's always, who has reportedly attempted the jump in practice. Chen is currently taking a break from the sport, though, and won't be competing in the Grand Prix circuit this season. Chen's hiatus allowed Malinin to take center stage, where he's clearly thriving — not an easy thing to do when the pressure is on.
As the quad axel moves out of the realm of myth and into real-life skating competitions, we're sure to see even more attempts in the future. So what's next? Quintuple jumps?