Elizabet Tursynbaeva, 2019 world silver medallist, retires from figure skating

Small in stature but with explosive skating and jumps, Kazakhstan's Elizabet Tursynbaeva announced her retirement from figure skating on Monday (20 Sept.).

The 21-year-old cited a persistent back injury, the same injury that had troubled her since a career-best silver medal finish at the 2019 world championships.

"It is not easy for me to share this news with you," she wrote in Russian in a post on Instagram. "Many of you know that my back has been bothering me for a long time. Unfortunately, I did not manage to overcome this injury to the end, and therefore full-fledged training became impossible."

Tursynbaeva said she will be at home in Kazakhstan at least through the end of the year, working with young skaters: "I have always wanted to develop figure skating in my country, and I finally got this opportunity."

Her mark on the sport is a big one: She was the first female to land a quadruple jump in senior international competition when she hit a quad Salchow during the 2019 World Figure Skating Championships.

It is likely that the top women's finishers - including those in podium position - will include quad jumps at the coming Beijing 2022 Olympics as the sport has continued to modernise.

The jump helped her land in the silver medal position at the event, just behind Olympic champ Alina Zagitova.

Quad-jumping Tursynbaeva calls it a day

Tursynbaeva was the 2016 Youth Olympics bronze medallist, a silver medallist at Four Continents in 2019 and a three-time national champion in Kazakhstan. She had four top-five finishes on the Grand Prix Series and owns eight ISU Challenger medals, too.

Tursynbaeva thanked coach Eteri Tutberidze for her guidance, while she also spent time training under the watchful eye of 1988 Olympic champion Brian Orser in Toronto.

Tursynbaeva was 12th at PyeongChang 2018 in her lone Olympic appearance.