More recently, another French skater, Adam Siao Him Fa, did a backflip at both the 2024 European World Championships and the 2024 World Championships. (Siao Him Fa was similarly penalized for the move.)
“I knew that I was losing a couple of points, but I wanted to push our sport, to move it forward and to bring back this element,” Siao Him Fa explained at his European World Championships appearance, according to Ice Skating International.
Outside of competition, some skaters also performed backflips at non-scored events like exhibition galas, including Olympians Scott Hamilton, Keegan Messing, and Nathan Chen. In 2022, both Messing and Chen did backflips at a gala at the Winter Olympics in Beijing.
How a recent rule change is shaking things up
Everything changed at the 59th Ordinary ISU Congress in 2024. Held in Las Vegas, the five-day meeting resulted in the removal of “somersault-type jumps” from Rule 610—the statute detailing what moves can’t be performed in competition.
“Somersault type jumps are very spectacular and nowadays it is not logical anymore to include them as illegal movements,” the organization reasoned.
With that revision, the backflip was officially reinstated as an acceptable move starting in the 2024-2025 season. Right away, skaters began incorporating it into their routines if they felt capable and comfortable enough. Multiple Americans have since done one or more backflips in competition, including Will Annis, Patrick Blackwell, and, of course, Malinin. Beyond the Olympics, he has pulled off backflips at a number of events, including the Summer Sizzler in Boston; the Lombardia Trophy in Bergamo, Italy; and Skate Canada in Montreal. In the years to come, other skaters are sure to attempt them as well, opening the possibility of raising the bar by introducing new variations.
“I don’t know if we’ll see multiple rotations because going from a single to a double backflip takes twice the effort and it’s really challenging even off the ice or on the trampoline, so I don’t think that would be realistic,” Malinin told US Figure Skating in 2024. “I think adding a twist is a lot more realistic. I’ve already done that.”
Where the move goes from here remains to be seen, but one thing’s for sure: We’ll almost certainly be seeing a lot more of it on the ice.
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