In figure skating, the quadruple axel is generally considered the most difficult jump. Until 2022, when US skater Ilia Malinin—currently riding high as the “Quad God” at the 2026 Winter Olympics—started doing them, they seemed impossible. Landing one, naturally, can give an athlete a higher score. But for skaters who aren’t generational talents like Malinin, grasping exactly how to pull off a quadruple axel can be tricky. But physics can offer some clues.
In 2024, the journal Sports Biomechanics published a study by Toin University researcher Seiji Hirosawa that brought science a little closer to understanding how quad axels work. One of the biggest factors? Getting high. Like 20 inches