The level of ladies competition this past season took a big turn at the World Championships when Elizaveta Tuktamysheva unveiled her triple axel. It was a gutsy move, but one that turned out to be well worth it, as she posted the highest short program score for any lady in the 2014-15 season by over six points.
2014-2015 Season Best Short Program Score
But even when not cleanly landed- her fully rotated triple axel was worth more than the standard 2A that the rest of the ladies are doing. At World Team Trophy 2015, Elizaveta scored a 4.5 for her Triple axel attempt (8.5 Base Value - 3 for GOE and -1 for the fall). Gracie Gold’s clean double axel scored 4.13 with bonus points and a .50 GOE. Which begs my question- As a skater, how do you compete against someone with a triple axel? Elena Radionova- the only skater to beat Elizaveta at a competition this season- skated very well at Worlds and World Team Trophy but her scores were could not touch Elizaveta. Shortly after the season ended- and even before- several other skaters (Anna Pogorilaya, Gracie Gold, Ashley Wagner, Serafima Sakhanovich) announced plans to begin working on the jump or even a quadruple jump. It seems that they, too, understand the gap that can exist in the scores between the have 3 axels and the have nots. I am all for the technical advancement of the women’s discipline in figure skating, and am excited to if more ladies begin to compete with it- a triple axel is certainly exciting to watch. It does make me nervous, though, for some of my favorite skaters who are already struggling to keep up with the competition technically. The last lady to consistently compete the triple axel is three-time World Champion Mao Asada, who recently announced a competitive comeback. She competed with the triple axel from 2006-2014, winning an Olympic silver medal, five World medals, 6 Grand Prix final medals, and 15 medals in the Grand Prix circuit in that time. Obviously, a triple axel doesn’t make a skater unbeatable by itself, other factors come into play. Mao landed 3 of them at the Vancouver Olympics and still came in second, due to other jump mistakes and competing against Kim Yuna. However, Liza’s shocking consistency over the season coupled with a consistent triple axel and the judges love for giving her huge PCS could certainly be an unbeatable combination : ) What do you think--- will we be seeing more triple axels from the ladies? AND possibly quads??
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