As the 2026 Winter Olympics continue, we see skaters perform masterful jumps. Channel 11’s Jenna Harner went out on the ice to see how they learn to do it.
Ilya Malinin, the quad god, continues to dazzle in Milan with his jumps, spins and flips.
“To see Ilya not just doing, like quad sow and flip and loop and lutz, but when he landed that like quad axle, it was like, I mean, I’m a skating coach, and my mind was like, blown,” Figure Skating Coach Jeremy Hileman said.
But before he landed the most difficult jump in figure skating, the quadruple axel, he got comfortable by using a harness.
“You know, it takes away, like any of those hard falls, because we don’t want them to, you know, be afraid of a jump that they’re trying,” Hileman said.
Figure skaters, from Olympians to hopefuls right here in Pittsburgh, train in a variety of harnesses.
They use line harnesses, where a player straps into a belt vest attached to a pulley-like system, usually attached to a rafter.
“Flips or toe loops, anything that’s in a straight line, I like to use, but any type of edge jump, I like to use the pole harness, just so that we have that freedom,” Hileman said.
The pole harness allows for more flexibility for both the skater and the coach. They’ll spend at least half an hour sessions working on various jumps.
There’s also the spinner harness. Skaters stand on a small circle that spins to simulate the rotation they’ll get in the air. They jump up and snap into the rotation position like they would for a lutz or an axel
When you’re hanging midair from a backpack-like harness, it seems like you’re going much faster than you actually are.
Training in these harnesses is crucial to building the consistency the skaters rely on in competition.
The smallest misalignment could cause the entire jump to go wrong.
“The height matters, the speed matters, the distance matters. Everything in the jump matters: arm position, leg position, head position, everything has to be tight in your core,” figure skater Rebecca Sun said.
One thing’s for certain: practice definitely makes perfect.
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