Axel Jump - Axel History

Axel History

• Axel Paulsen was the first skater to perform the jump named after him, in 1882. Curiously, he performed this feat wearing speed skates rather than figure skates.

• In the early years of skating, jumping was the exclusive domain of men. Sonja Henie is generally acknowledged as the first female skater to perform an Axel jump. Today, however, her Axel technique (preserved in her many films) would be considered very poor, since her jumps were badly pre-rotated without a "step up", giving them more the character of a jumped spin.

• Dick Button was the first skater credited with a double Axel jump in competition. He performed this at the 1948 Winter Olympics, although video footage of the jump shows that it may have been underrotated. Button's coach Gus Lussi was responsible for developing the modern Axel jump technique. In 1953, Carol Heiss was the first woman to perform a double Axel.

• Canadian skater Vern Taylor was the first to land a triple Axel in competition at the 1978 World Figure Skating Championships. It has since become a standard jump for male competitors, but it is rare for female skaters to successfully land them, or even to attempt them. The first woman to land the jump in competition was Midori Ito, who first performed it at the 1988 NHK Trophy. Since then four other women (Tonya Harding, Ludmila Nelidina, Yukari Nakano and Mao Asada) have succeeded in completing the jump in international competition, while another woman, Kimmie Meissner, first completed the jump at the 2005 U.S. Figure Skating Championships.

• American pair skaters Rena Inoue and John Baldwin, Jr. became the first pair to perform a throw triple Axel in competition at the 2006 U.S. Figure Skating Championships, and then made Olympic and ISU history landing it again at the 2006 Winter Olympics.

• Brian Orser of Canada was the first skater to put two triple axel jumps in the same program, and the first to accomplish this at the World level at the 1987 World Figure Skating Championships; since he also landed one in the short program, he additionally was the first skater to land three triple axel jumps in the same competition.

• While the triple Axel is now common for male skaters, only six women have landed the Triple Axel in competition to date. Japan's Midori Ito was the first, at the 1989 World Champsionships. She was followed by Americans Tonya Harding and Kimmie Meissner, Russia's Ludmila Nelidina and Japan's Yukari Nakano and Mao Asada. Asada became became the first woman to land three triple axel jumps in the same competition at the 2010 Winter Olympics.