Hanyu Yuzuru's quest for the quadruple Axel, explained

Will we see history in figure skating at the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022?

Well, of course we will. In many ways. From record-breaking scores to medal moments, the skating is set to steal the Olympic show once again.

But in particular, will we see the quadruple Axel? A jump never fully completed in competition – much less at the Olympics – during the Games?

In short: We sure could. Namely because the reigning two-time Olympic men's singles champion, Hanyu Yuzuru of Japan, has made it his goal for Beijing.

In December, after winning a sixth national title, he said: "The biggest reason I'm going to Beijing is because I want to complete the quadruple Axel."

So why is the jump so important to Hanyu? And why is it so difficult, exactly? We discuss that - and much more about the jump's historic implications - below.

The quad Axel: Never done before

An Axel – single, double, triple or quad – is the most challenging of figure skating jumps in terms of rotations because it is the only jump in the sport in which skaters take off facing forward.

When they land (facing backward), they have done one-and-a-half rotations, for example, for a single Axel. Two-and-and-half rotations for a double Axel – and so on.

It’s also the easiest for fans to spot at home: If the skater is facing forward when he or she takes off for the jump, kicking their free leg into the air to spring into it, it’s an Axel.

Because the skater doesn’t use their toe pick to launch into the jump, it's known as an edge jump.

Currently, triple Axels are seen across elite men’s skating, while the double Axel is more common in women’s skating and pairs. More top women have implemented the triple Axel into their repertoire, including world record holder and Olympic favourite Kamila Valieva.

American Mirai Nigasu performed a memorable triple Axel at the PyeongChang 2018 Olympics during the figure skating team event.

Hanyu’s coach, Brian Orser, was the first man to land a triple Axel at the Olympics at Sarajevo 1984, while Hanyu’s countrywoman Ito Midori was the first woman to do so at the Games during Albertville 1992.

Hanyu: 'I want the championship by using the Axel'

Hanyu, now 27, was 19 when he made history by becoming the first Japanese man to win a gold medal in figure skating at Sochi 2014. Four years later, in PyeongChang, he became the first man since American Dick Button (1948 and 1952) to win back-to-back golds at the Games.

No man has won three in a row since the 1920s.

While Hanyu most certainly will look to finish atop the podium against peers like Nathan Chen (USA), Uno Shoma (JPN), Kagiyama Yuma (JPN), Vincent Zhou (USA) and others, he’s made clear his intention: The quad Axel is his priority.

“Of course, I’m shooting for first place,” he told Japanese reporters. “But I know full well that right now, I don’t have enough to win it. Sure, I could drop the Axel and look at other ways of trying to win gold but the biggest reason I’m going to Beijing is because I want to complete the quadruple Axel. I want the championship by using the Axel."

Hanyu’s note of “I don’t have enough to win it” is a nod to the technical scores that skaters are awarded for their program content. A quadruple Axel – because of its difficulty – has a higher ceiling of points, starting with its base value and then added to (potentially) with the element’s GOE (Grade of Execution).

Hanyu attempted a quad Axel in his free skate at the Japanese national championships in December. While he stood up on the jump, he landed on two feet and completed the rotation (meant to be done mid-air) on the ice. Jumps can be called under-rotated by the technical panel, or, if upon review, a jump is seen to have had one full rotation finished on the ice, it will be downgraded.

Therefore, Hanyu’s quad Axel attempt was credited as a downgraded quad Axel, lowering its point value total.

Jumping into the history books

Regardless, Hanyu said the jump has been a central focus of his training, which has primarily been based at home in Japan after he left his training base of Toronto at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020.

His coach, the aforementioned Orser, has been working with Hanyu over video the past two years. He thinks his charge could make history with the jump in Beijing.

“Yuzu, he always strives for something,” Orser told Olympics.com in November. “The quadruple Axel is just one more thing that has not been done by anybody, so I think it's amazing. Somebody will do it. And... I really hope it's him.”

Orser connected Hanyu’s current chase of history to his own: Figure skating is always evolving, and in the early 1980s it was about landing a triple Axel for the first time.

“It's quite ironic, too, because I was really one of the first ones to do a triple Axel,” he said. “So now he's doing the quad Axel, but you know his, he has a beautiful triple Axel. He climbs up into the top of this jump beautifully. But in order to do the quad Axel, he needs to get into the rotation of it while he's climbing and he's not stepping up, he's rotating up. So we've had that discussion. We're trying to understand the feet and how they have to get in sooner and tighter and quicker.”

Orser added: “And so it's a different technique for the Axel, which he can manage. He can manage this. And, I mean, I'm hoping and praying that he achieves this because it's really high on his list.”