Take the case of Alysa Liu. The 16-year-old American, who finished seventh at the Beijing Games, was able to land the four-revolution jumps until two years ago, but stopped attempting them following a growth spurt.
One by one the Russian teen figure skaters took the ice for the free skate at the Beijing Games, and one by one they attempted the four-revolution jumps that are common in the men’s competition.
Beijing may be the last Olympics any woman attempts a quad.
The quadruple jumps that sent Russian world champ Anna Shcherbakova to the gold medal and teammate Alexandra Trusova to the silver — much to her chagrin — along with the failed attempts that dumped 15-year-old Kamila Valieva out of the medals altogether could be a thing of the past by the 2026 Games in Italy.
That’s because more and more people are pushing for the age limit figure skating to be raised above 16 following Valieva’s monumental collapse Thursday night. The maturing bodies of women make it much more difficult to land a jump that they could do in their teens. No woman older than 17 has ever landed a quad in competition.
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