Kamila Valieva, a Russian adolescent figure skater, became the first woman to land a quadruple jump at the Olympics on Monday, and she didn’t stop there: she landed two.
The 15-year-old landed quadruple jumps, which are when a skater rotates four times in the air, as she smashed the competition in Beijing’s freestyle program team event.
Valieva seemed distraught towards the end of her performance, despite scoring 30 points ahead of second-placed Kaori Sakamoto. She had fell when attempting a third quad jump.
Valieva is a favorite to win gold in the women’s solo event in Beijing, where she is part of a squad led by coach Eteri Tutberidze.
All three skaters have landed quad leaps in the competition previously, but this is the first time they’ve done so at the Olympics.
According to the Olympics news site, a quad jump has been attempted before at the Games; Surya Bonaly attempted it in 1992, but it was demoted because the landing was not fully turned.
