The evolution of the quad, ice skating’s most daring jump

The scariest jump in ice skating requires your shoulders, hips, knees and feet to be in perfect alignment.

All of your body weight must be concentrated because it’s the only way to build enough power to complete at least four full revolutions in the air and land backwards on one blade. Everything happens in less than a second.

“Your legs are on fire,” said Timothy Goebel, the first skater to land three quads in one program, which earned him an Olympic bronze in 2002.

“Your lungs are screaming at you, like your body is just wrecked,” Goebel said. “You have to have that jump so ingrained in your muscle memory, but it’s also a lot of mental fortitude.”

It’s called a quadruple jump, or quad for short, and while it’s still redefining women’s figure skating, it’s become a necessity in the men’s programs.

The more advanced sibling to the quad is a quad axel, which requires a forward-facing takeoff and a full four-and-a-half revolutions in the air. Ilia Malinin, who already helped to lead the U.S. to gold in the team event at the 2026 Winter Olympics, is the only skater ever to land a quad axel in competition when he stunned the 2022 crowd at the U.S. International Figure Skating Classic.

“I never thought I would see one in competition,” Goebel said. “The fact that he can do a quad axel almost every day in practice with relative ease is mind-blowing.”

Patrick Blackwell, a 2026 U.S. Junior Men’s National Champion, already performs multiple quads in competition. He uses a pole harness, like most skaters, to practice the quads he hasn’t yet mastered. It’s a lot of falling over and over again in the pursuit of greatness.

But Blackwell has one thing on his side that Goebel didn’t: analytics.

“What they do is measure your height, your rotational speed and variations in any patterns that they can see in the jumps,” Blackwell explained.

No matter how it’s achieved, the quad is now critical in men’s competition, and it will surely be on display during the Milano Cortina Games. 

Goebel said it was crucial to his bronze medal win. 

“For me, in 2002, it was no quad, no medal, full stop,” he said.

And now?

“No quad, no top ten!” Goebel laughed. “The standard has risen from 2002, and I think that’s overwhelmingly a positive.”

When asked how he feels about how far it could go, though, Goebel was measured.

“I think that’s the exciting part about sport and about the whole Olympic movement,” he said. “But I think we’re close to that bound of  like, tapping out the human ability.”