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USA's Throw Triple AxelFirst pair ever to land a throw triple axel in Olympic competition
Congratulations to USA figure skaters Rena Inoue and John Baldwin, the first pair ever to land a throw triple axel in Olympic competition!
The USA figure skating 2006 Pairs champs knew that the podium was probably not within their reach at the Torino Olympic Games, but they didn't mind. These figure skaters accomplished something no on else had done. They were the first pair to perform a throw triple axel in competition and landed cleanly into figure skating history books. A throw jump requires the man to heave his partner into the air with perfect timing and precision. The woman's job is to rotate in the air and land cleanly on a quarter-inch blade, flowing smoothly over the ice to demonstrate control. Most competitive pairs perform a triple throw, where the lady rotates three times in the air before landing. Inoue and Baldwin's triple axel required Rena to turn three-and-a-half times, making their move just half-a-turn away from a quad. Kurt Browning and Jozef Sabovcik were the first people to land a quad jump in competition in the late 1980s. A decade later, a male skater can't win without it. In fact, the women of ice skating are now beginning to compete with quadruple jumps too. Miki Ando's quadruple salchow landed her in the Guinness Book of World records and made a statement that the ladies are not far behind the men. Why was Inoue and Baldwin's achievement so important? Any time a skater accomplishes a new move, he or she raises the level of competition and changes the sport forever. At the 2006 Olympics, Inoue and Baldwin proved that more is possible.
The copyright of the article USA's Throw Triple Axel in Figure/Speed Skating is owned by Timbre Beck-Murphy. Permission to republish USA's Throw Triple Axel in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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