In 2021, popular Russian figure skating coach Alexei Mishin SAYS no figure skater can successfully perform a quad axel in his lifetime. The following year, two-time Olympic gold medalist Yuzuru Hanyu trained to master the jump, but when he attempted it at the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing, he failed to complete four and a half revolutions in the air. Mishin’s statement, it seems, has been confirmed.

“I thought I was going to see a quintuple toe before I saw a quad axel,” said 2002 Olympic bronze medalist Timothy Goebel, known in his day as the “Quad King.” Goebel was the first skater to perform a quad salchow jump in competition since 1998, 10 years after Canadian Kurt Browning the first approved quadruple twisting jump, the toe loop, at the world championships, marked the start of the quad era in men’s figure skating.

In the following decades, many skaters, like Goebel, would come and add more types of quads. (There are six main types of figure skating jumps(named after their creators and distinguished by their takeoff, whether through the blade, edge, or toe.) By 2016, all quads had been successfully completed in competition—except for one axel that Mishin, Goebel, and others believed they would never see again.

Then, in 2022, Ilia Malinin did it. The Virginian, who was just 17 years old at the time, was already calling himself the “Quad God” online before the US International Figure Skating Classic that year, but landing the quad axel cemented the title. The American phenom did not make the 2022 Olympic team, but in the past two seasons he has won the world title twice and is the overwhelming favorite for the men’s singles gold going into the 2026 Winter Olympics based on his technical ability alone. All of this has left the skating world wondering what’s next for the jumping phenom, and for the sport in general.

The quint, a five-revolution jump, was the logical next step in this development. Malinin, who has been called the “Simone Biles of figure skating,” he did not doubt his desire to get one of these elements, reportedly preparing for a quint test late last year in practice sessions. Recently, the Associated Press weighed in and declared that a quint was impossible, saying that “most sports scientists agree that the speed and amplitude required for a five-revolution jump is truly impossible,” although they did not cite any direct naysayers.

The quint, however, is not as impossible as the AP article would have you believe, and if anyone can pull it off, it’s Malinin, a generational talent who has already done generational talent things. The quint will mark the culmination of decades of development in the sport, from its judging system to its training practices to how the jumps themselves are defined.

“I believe it is possible,” Malinin said told CBS Sunday Morning.

If you look old figure skating programs, you may notice that, in the past, they jumped differently. “When people move for a jump, (they) have a big delay, spin down, and have an open position,” said Justin Dillon, chief high-performance officer of US Figure Skating. This technique creates a very pleasing arch in the air; it has a floaty, ethereal quality.

“But that’s not efficient when we talk about these multi-rotational jumps, and that’s because now you have limited air time when you can reach your peak angular velocity and then maintain it,” said Lindsay Slater Hannigan, assistant professor of physical therapy at the University of Illinois Chicago and sports science manager for US Figure Skating.

The heights that the top male athletes can jump are the same across the board. Malinin and other elite male skaters get about 20 inches off the ground at the peak of their jump. The only remaining manipulation is the rotation speed. “What we know so far is that what really makes or breaks a jump is the ability to snap into that rotational position as quickly as possible,” Hannigan said, “because that gives you longer to maintain that high-velocity angle.”