‘Mind-blowing’ how far figure skating has come since Robin Cousins’ 1980 gold

When Robin Cousins won figure skating gold in Lake Placid in 1980, his sport was still eight years short of its first officially ratified quad jump.

“Now, novice ladies are doing what I did to win the Olympics,” says Cousins, who believes the promised history-making performances in Beijing will facilitate its push further into the realms of fantasy.

“A few years ago we were talking about triple-triples and now we’re talking about quads,” Cousins told the PA news agency. “It’s like science-fiction. It’s mind-blowing that we’re having these conversations.”

In Beijing, double defending men’s champion Yuzuru Hanyu is intent on becoming the first man to land a competitive quadruple axel, the hardest jump of all given its unique face-forward launch and four-and-a-half rotations.

Meanwhile, any one of three leading Russians will surely become the first woman to land a quad jump in the Olympics, having combined to score a total of 11 during their national championships in St Petersburg last month.

Kurt Browning landed the first quad jump at the World Championships in Budapest in 1988. Surya Bonaly attempted the first by a woman in 1992, but the first by a woman was not ratified until Miki Ando at the Junior Grand Prix final in 2002.

“You can still be a great champion without doing quads, but I don’t think you’re going to be on an Olympic podium without them,” added Cousins.

“Today, to be a phenomenal figure skater you need to bring out the technical prowess but do it in such a way that it gets recognised as brilliant artistry.”

Hanyu will go head to head with American superstar Nathan Chen in the men’s event. Chen became the first skater to attempt six quads in a single programme in Pyeongchang, landing five and ultimately