Figure skater Vetlugin on the four-and-a-half rotation axel: “I will never be able to learn this jump”

Figure skater Matvey Vetlugine in an interview with , he said that he doesn’t have such a good reserve on the triple Axel to add another round to this jump.

On Thursday, Vladislav Dikidzhi posted a video on his Telegram channel in which he cleanly performs an Axel 4.5 in training. The first skater in history who managed to cleanly execute a quadruple axel in official competitions was the American Ilya Malinin.

— A big event for figure skating — Vlad Dikidzhi jumped four and a half laps on Axel during training. Is this a new level in men’s figure skating?

— They showed me the video. I think it’s ancient history for us. Because he is the first Russian figure skater to jump such a jump. And second in the general world ranking. During the discussion, I was told: as long as this is not done in competitions, it cannot be officially counted. But we have video evidence, and I think it’s a huge achievement.

-Are you learning this jump? Or do you think the risk is unjustified?

– No, I think that in my career I will never get to the point of studying this jump. And it’s scary to some extent, and I don’t have such a good margin on the triple Axel that I could feel the strength to add another revolution.

— Will the evolution of figure skating reach the point where this jump becomes commonplace?

– But there will potentially be quadruple jumps in the future, which will be subject to even fewer people than quadruple jumps. Here you need to take into account the initial predisposition to perform such complex elements. It will depend on talent. But something tells me, of course, that over time the technique will become more complicated, improved, and the general level of figure skating will increase. Therefore, the quadruple is likely to occur more often. Because it will no longer be seen as impossible.

– What, five can really appear?

– Yes. From today’s perspective, this seems to be on a cosmic level. And then, probably, they will start doing it. So I think Ilya Malinin can achieve this. If he hasn’t already. I think we’ll see that in his performance.

— What does coach Alexey Mishin say about the quadruple axel?

— I don’t know his opinion, but now Gleb (Lutfullin) sometimes tries to attempt this jump when he is healthy and in good condition. Or Misha Kolyada a few years ago also tried to achieve it during a training camp. And he almost did a really good job. I also consider Alexei Nikolaevich’s opinion regarding the jump in such a way that it cannot be called impossible.

—And when you tried a quadruple Lutz for the first time, were you afraid?

– There was no fear. Like in the free program, where it didn’t work – it only came out in the short program – I went in with an understanding of the actions I needed to do. And in the short program, it was precisely these actions that led to the successful jump,” Vetlugin told .