When Robin Cousins won figure skating gold in Lake Placid in 1980, his sport was still eight years short of its first officially ratified quad jump.
“Now, novice ladies are doing what I did to win the Olympics,” says Cousins, who believes the promised history-making performances in Beijing will facilitate its push further into the realms of fantasy.
“A few years ago we were talking about triple-triples and now we’re talking about quads,” Cousins told the PA news agency. “It’s like science-fiction. It’s mind-blowing that we’re having these conversations.”
In Beijing, double defending men’s champion Yuzuru Hanyu is intent on becoming the first man to land a competitive quadruple axel, the hardest jump of all given its unique face-forward launch and four-and-a-half rotations.
Meanwhile, any one of three leading Russians will surely become the first woman to land a quad jump in the Olympics, having combined to score a total of 11 during their national championships in St Petersburg last month.
Kurt Browning landed the first quad jump at the World Championships in Budapest in 1988. Surya Bonaly attempted the first by a woman in 1992, but the first by a woman was not ratified until Miki Ando at the Junior Grand Prix final in 2002.
“You can still be a great champion without doing quads, but I don’t think you’re going to be on an Olympic podium without them,” added Cousins.
“Today, to be a phenomenal figure skater you need to bring out the technical prowess but do it in such a way that it gets recognised as brilliant artistry.”
Hanyu will go head to head with American superstar Nathan Chen in the men’s event. Chen became the first skater to attempt six quads in a single programme in Pyeongchang landing five and ultimately settling for bronze after mistakes in his short program.
Hanyu is such an ethereal creature and his performances are mesmerising. Nathan has such a wonderful, joyous feeling about his skating. They complement each other, and yet are so different.
Hanyu, 27, is aiming to become the first man to win three straight golds since Gillis Grafstrom in 1928. He returned from injury to dazzle in the Japanese championships and has made plain his desire to outshine Chen by landing the quad axel.
“Hanyu is such an ethereal creature and his performances are mesmerising,” said Cousins. “Nathan has such a wonderful, joyous feeling about his skating. They complement each other, and yet are so different.”
Russia looks almost certain to sweep the medals in the women’s event, led by the audacious 15-year-old world record holder Kamila Valieva, one of three skaters out of Eteri Tutberidze’s Sambo 70 club in Moscow, which also includes her rivals Alexandra Trusova and Anna Shcherbakova.
All are aiming to succeed Alina Zagitova, who won gold in Pyeongchang after packing all 11 of her jumps into the second half of her program in order to take advantage of a 10 per cent bonus score, but has subsequently taken a step back from the sport citing motivational issues.
“Valieva is the full package, the ground-breaker,” added Cousins. “If you took the jumping elements out and just let her free-form skate, you would still want to watch. With someone like Valieva, she is quite lovely and quite unique.”
Natasha McKay will represent Great Britain in the women’s event, while Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson are the latest British ice dancers to arrive at their first Games saddled with inevitable comparisons to Torvill and Dean.
Fear and Gibson finished fifth at last month’s European Championships and Cousins sees plenty of potential in the pair provided they are given time to develop as a partnership in the four years building up to the next Games in Cortina and Milan.
“For Lilah and Lewis, this is a feeling not dissimilar to how I was in 1976 when I was second-string to John Currie,” said Cousins, who is president of British Ice Skating.
“It’s all about being able to experience their first Olympics, then start to build, to crack the whip and start targeting European medals and top fives. They are a new partnership with a freshness, and I think everything is potentially there for them.”
