Figure skaters perform their jumps in the blink of an eye. The Globe’s Robyn Doolittle, herself a skater, gives some tips on how to identify the different moves when watching the Winter Olympics at home.
Figure skating has been the talk of the town during the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics. From heartbreaking upsets to judging drama, Canadians — and the rest of the world, for that matter — have been watching in awe as the skaters flip, spin and dance their way to the podium.
But after nearly two weeks and hours of skating footage, have you learned the ins and outs of the fundamental figure skating moves? As a little cheat sheet, Olympics reporter Robyn Doolittle explains how to tell the moves and jumps apart in the video above. Give it a watch, and take our quiz to see if you’re a true figure skating fanatic.
a. Lutz. A tip to identify this variation on a toe jump: skaters often take a long stretch before pushing off their dominant leg.
c. Axel. The most famous of the edge jumps, it’s also one of the hardest.
c. Axel. Spot this one by looking at the takeoff. Axels take off from the forward outside edge.
a. Toe loop. This jump is similar to a lutz, except it pushes off the non-dominant foot. Telling this one apart from the flip jump can be tricky.
a. Flip jump. The flip jump takes off from the backward inside edge and, like the lutz, picks off the dominant foot.
d. Loop jump. A tip to identify a loop jump: it takes off from a backward outside edge.
d. Loop jump. If you’re still having trouble spotting this one, look at the skater’s setup. If their feet are in a forward straight line, it just might be a loop jump.
b. Salchow. Did we get you on that one? Named after its inventor, Ulrich Salchow, in 1909, the Salchow is quite similar to a loop jump, except the skater swings their leg around on landing.
d. Combination. A tricky one. This was a combination of the Lutz and Toe loop jumps.