Quadruple jump controversy

At the 2010 Winter Olympics held in Vancouver, Canada, the final results of the men’s figure skating competition sparked what has been dubbed a quadruple jump controversy.

At the heart of it lies a quadruple jump, the toughest jump there is in figure skating, done in combination with a triple toe loop, which Evgeni Plushenko of Russia landed in both his short and long programs. Evan Lysacek of the United States, however, did not include quads in either of his programs. Plushenko, who led Lysacek by half a point after the short figure skating program, was beaten out by the American in the final free skate despite performing a quadruple toe loop/triple toe loop. Lysacek’s free skate was regarded as having lower difficulty but better quality than Plushenko's.

Many experts of the field have offered their opinions about the results, and many members of the general public have weighed in on the controversy through online message boards, forums and social networking sites.

Though the argument over the quad has attracted attention mostly following the men's figure skating competition at the Vancouver Olympic Games of 2010, the controversy itself is rooted in the quad's history, and its role at major figure skating competitions, including the Winter Olympics. The jump had become so common in men's figure skating since Kurt Browning first landed it in 1988 that it came to be viewed as a deciding element in a winning program and the lack of it almost a handicap.

Since the 1994 Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway, where Alexei Urmanov won gold without one, the quad, if landed in a competition (absent major weaknesses), made a difference between the first and lower placements. In a Sports Illustrated article dated January 19, 1998, E.M. Swift wrote that "no Olympic gold medal will ever again be won by a man who doesn't try a four-revolution jump." Many, therefore, tried to make themselves competitive by including it in their skating arsenal. In the twelve years leading up to the 2010 Olympics, only two skaters won the World Figure Skating Championships without a quadruple jump. Both wins were under the new ISU judging system.

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