Category: snow and ice

Skating Pairs Back Flip

Back flips are finally legal in Figure Skating.

Canadians Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps have become the first pair in history to incorporate a backflip into their program, a move banned by the International Skating Union until last season.

They got elite gymnast Rose Woo to coach them on the partner toss Back Flip.

Only Ilia Malinin and Adam Siao Him Fa in men’s singles have done backflips since the move was made legal.

Stellato-Dudek has not seen a female attempt one since Surya Bonaly famously executed the banned back somersault at the 1998 Olympics.

At the 2024 ISU World Figure Skating Championships in Montreal, Stellato-Dudek—at 40 years old—became the oldest woman to ever win a world title in any figure skating discipline. 

She has no plans to retire after the 2026 Olympics, by the way. 😀

Click PLAY or watch it on Instagram.

twisting in both directions on 1 skill

More and more trampolinists are trying this — for FUN.

TILT to twist one direction. UNTILT. TILT in the opposite direction.

It ain’t easy.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

6 1/2 twists on Skis & Snowboard

Yeesh.

Six and a half spins in the air. That’s what constitutes a 2340, a dizzying track landed by both a snowboard and skier for the first time on record. At the X Games in Aspen, snowboarder Hiroto Ogiwara of Japan stomped it on Friday while Italian skier Miro Tabanelli achieved it on Saturday.

Boing Boing

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Woodward West Action Sports Camp

I coached at Woodward West several times over the years. Loved it.

And was disappointed when they dropped Artistic Gymnastics as one of their activities.

That fantastic facility close to Los Angeles is still busy, busy.

For example, there’s a Freestyle Trampoline Camp July 6-11, 2025 (week 4).

Not inexpensive at $1599 for the week. But you could get a $150 discount through the FTA.

If you don’t know Woodward West, definitely check their video.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

quintuple twist on skates

Daniil Butenko performed a quintuple twist during training with Sun Yumei.

Click PLAY or watch it on Instagram.

Ilia Malinin – 6 quads

I don’t often link to figure skating as they rarely flip 😀 … but Ilia’s performance is something we need know.

He’s the quad god. Kenzo on ice.

The new 2024 World champion.

Malinin is the first and only skater to land a fully-rotated quadruple Axel, widely regarded as the hardest jump in figure skating.

The son of Russian-born Olympic Uzbekistani singles skaters Tatiana Malinina (1999 Grand Prix Final and inaugural Four Continents champion) and Roman Skorniakov. Born Fairfax, Virginia.

Click PLAY or watch an interview on YouTube.

G.O.A.T. Mikaël Kingsbury

With his 87th career World Cup victory, Kingsbury has the most men’s World Cup wins in any FIS Olympic discipline.

Mikaël Kingsbury is a freestyle skier from Quebec. He is the most accomplished mogul skier of all time. …

He is the first man to have won both the moguls and dual moguls World Championship events (sweeping the two events three times), and has won the most medals at the Freestyle World Championships of any male competitor in history …

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Adam Siao – Figure Skating backflip

Good man. Adam Siao is pushing the sport to innovate.

He defended his European title despite deliberately taking a deduction for an illegal back flip.

Others have done it in the past — most famously Surya Bonaly from France who landed a backflip on one blade at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan.

figure skating robot – Quad Axel

Does IOC need to legislate whether robots can compete against humans?

NOPE.

This is an AI generated video.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.