LOL Quad?
THE QUAD IS BACK BITCHES
DID YOU MISS IT?
Quad back after figure skating rule change
By Shigemi Sato (AFP) - 4 hours ago
NAGOYA, Japan - The high-octane quadruple jump made a dramatic return to figure skating as world champion Daisuke Takahashi led a trio of Japanese to land the manoeuvre at the season-opening Grand Prix.
The spectacle followed a rule change lessening the risk for attempting the four-revolution jump which sparked a bitter debate at the Vancouver Winter Olympics in February.
The base value for the high-scoring "quad" remains higher but the big penalty for failing it has been reduced.
"I thought to myself I won't regret if I fail. I went flat out for the jump," Takahashi, 24, said on Sunday after nailing a quadruple toeloop in his free skating to win the NHK Trophy in Nagoya, the first of the year's six Grand Prix events.
His teenage teammates, world junior champion Yuzuru Hanyu and Takahito Mura, as well as Belgian Kevin van Der Perren had already completed clean quads.
"I didn't want to be outdone after seeing them jump the quad just like that. But I did it calmly," Takahashi said. "It's a very good trend that Japanese and other skaters are trying it one after another. We were lucky we could land it in our first competition."
In Vancouver, American Evan Lysacek won the gold medal without attempting the quad, beating Russia's defending champion Yevgeny Plushenko who opened his free skating with a daring quadruple toeloop-triple toeloop combination.
Plushenko, unhappy with the silver, expressed his dismay that a man without a quad was standing on the top of the podium.
Takahashi won the Olympic bronze, despite falling on a quad attempt, and claimed the world title a month later in the absence of Lysacek and Plushenko although he two-footed a quadruple landing.
Takahashi managed a quad at the Japan Open team event in early October for the first time in two seasons.
"It's a fruit of the rule change that our three men landed a quad," said Hidehito Ito, figure skating director at the Japanese Skating Federation.
US champion Jeremy Abbott, who finished runner-up at the NHK Trophy, avoided the quad because of a lack of proper training due to his struggle to find the right pair of boots.
But the 25-year-old American said he would do it in his next Grand Prix, the November 19-21 Cup of Russia in Moscow. "I hope to get the boot issues resolved for Russia so I can go in there stronger with the quad," he said.
Frenchman Florent Amodio, 20, who finished third for his first Grand Prix podium, said: "I feel the quadruple is becoming a required element."
"But I must see to it that I won't overwork myself because the quadruple is really difficult," the 2008 junior Grand Prix final winner said. "Of course, I want to take it eventually."
His compatriot Brian Joubert is a regular practitioner of the jump.
Joubert, 26, lamented during the Vancouver Olympics that a limited number of skaters were attempting a quadruple due to the then heavy penalty for failing the jump which he called the "future of figure skating".
The first skater to land a clean quad in competition was Canadian Kurt Browning at the 1998 world championships in Budapest.
Japan's Miki Ando became the only woman to land a quadruple in the 2002 junior Grand Prix final.
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I hadn't noticed that people were doing more of them at the NHK Trophy than they would have been if the rule hadn't change. (I don't think I knew the rule changed either. :o )
So what does it all mean? How will we all be impacted? How will it affect the copious amounts of dat ass we expect to see this season? Discuss.
or not... if this isn't appropriate :)