For the past year and a half, the whole world of figure skating has been following the revolution of quadruple jumps, which was arranged by the coaching group Eteri Tutberidze. At first, her students Alexandra Trusova and Anna Shcherbakov performed all sorts of options for these jumps at junior competitions, next season they will try to repeat them in adult tournaments, and Elizabeth Tursynbayeva has already overtook them both by performing a quadruple Salchow at the World Championship.

No sooner had the female quadruple jumps become as familiar as the men, as in the technique of figure skating another revolution could occur. Russian athlete Maxim Belyavsky managed to execute a toe loop in five turns, which no one had done before him. The corresponding video of a 12-year-old skater posted in his Instagram, and then commented on his achievement.

“Fifth sheepskin coat began to learn yesterday. The coach said, “Are you twisting with a five-man one?” I tried and fell. Then one more time, and gradually went, ”said Belyavsky Tass.

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Publication from Maxim Belyavsky (@ beliavskii.max) 24 Apr 2019 at 10:25 PDT

It is worth making a reservation that it is too early to call Belyavsky a pioneer in five turns. In figure skating, a new jump is fixed only when an athlete performed it at official competitions of the International Skating Union (ISU), and the judges appointed a positive extra charge for the element.

Belyavsky, on the other hand, jumped into a toe loop in training and also with the help of a lounge, or “fishing rods,” as they call it in the common people. The safety device, which helps to perform the most difficult jumps, was held by the coach of the figure skater Yevgeny Artyomov.

Anyway, the road to the five jumps in men can be considered paved. It is precisely such attempts, even with a whole mass of reservations, that ultimately lead to the fact that after some time, figure skating is completely transformed. From the first attempts to perform quadruple jumps to their official recognition, years passed.

Now men’s five jumps are still something fantastic - none of the skaters train them seriously and do not include them in the programs. Firstly, it is really an extremely complex element, requiring tremendous physical strength and dexterity, as well as incredible luck and good health - any unsuccessful touchdown in figure skating can lead to terrible injuries.

Secondly, it makes no sense to perform five-jumps for now. In the rules of the ISU they are not banally envisaged, they do not have their own criteria, designation and base cost. Even if one imagines that the skater takes and performs a five-turn jump, the judges will not count him, and the “invalid element” will appear in the minutes. In this case, the forces for performing a dangerous jump will be spent so much that the other elements risk remaining only on paper.

Before the five-man jumps become the norm, one more significant height must be conquered. Of all the elements that are allowed by the rules, one is still unfulfilled - this is a quad axel. Now he is the most difficult jump, because in fact the athlete needs to complete not four turns, but four and a half.

Now the development of this jump has stopped at the stage when it is already being attempted to be performed at official competitions. So far, only Russian figure skater Arthur Dmitriev has made such attempts. Last season, he went to the quad axel during the Grand Prix in Moscow and in the Russian championship, but both times he fell and received under-rotations from the judges. Nevertheless, these attempts were reflected in the protocol and brought Dmitriev points, albeit small ones.

The skater himself claims that he succeeds in training the quad axel, and during one of the shows, the audience was even able to see how he landed after the jump. In addition to Dmitriev, the two-time Olympic champion Yuzuru Hania spoke about attempts to perform the four-axel, but his words did not go further than words.

Another Japanese figure skater Syoma Uno also talked about the five jumps, but he himself made the reservation that it was impossible to perform such a complex element that did not yet have evaluation criteria. The likelihood that more and more skaters will try to learn how to jump, and one of them succeeds, depends on the value of the element. Here you can recall the situation in pair skating, in which skaters refused to perform a quadruple twist, since the new rules made this element simply unprofitable.

ISU Vice-President Alexander Lakernik believes that it’s too early to talk about the introduction of five jumps in figure skating, although he didn’t rule out such a possibility.

“I don’t think that the fifth jump will take place in the near future at competitions, but as soon as ISU sees that this event is close to possible in the training variants without appropriate adaptations, we will expand the table of marks for elements. Adding to the scale of difficulty tsiferki much easier than jumping toe loop in five turns. But while in the reality of this in the near future it is believed badly. Therefore, it is not necessary now to expand the scale. With a fishing rod, everything can be done: both six and seven turns. It depends on how strong you will be in figure skating, ”said Laakernik to RIA Novosti.

The head of the Federation of figure skating in Russia, Alexander Gorshkov, in turn, praised Belyavsky’s desire to expand horizons in figure skating.

"It is very interesting. It is important that Maxim has such a serious attitude. But, firstly, he is only 12 years old, and secondly, the jump was performed on a fishing tackle. There is still a lot of work to do to perform this jump without a fishing rod at least in training, and fairly stable, and then also in competitions. It is good that there is such a desire - to storm the unconquered peaks, ”said Gorshkov.

At the same time, well-known coach Tatiana Tarasova said that the five-jump with a fishing tackle should not be given increased attention, and Belyavsky’s attempt should not be officially recognized.

“Next to Maxim there is a man with a fishing rod that supports him. So we learn to jump, so that children do not fall. On the Mishin's simulator, you can do it this way - and 10, and 12, and 100 turns, in the circus on the lounge, they generally fly. Only amateurs can consider such a leap as the world's first performance of an element of five turns. Maybe in this way the trainer wanted to draw attention to what children can do, ”said Tarasova.