Word: quaded
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...Bronze medalist Daisuke Takahashi agreed. "For me, the ideal skate would have to include a quad on my part," he said after his performance in Vancouver. "Although I did attempt the quad and it wasn't successful, I do not regret it at all. It's a challenge to me, and good experience." (See pictures of Olympic athletes' tattoos...
...quad. It's been a hot topic among skating fans this entire week - this entire season, really - as the arguments go back and forth over whether a quadruple jump of any kind is necessary in the men's program or amounts to nothing but showboating. Lysacek decided, coming into Vancouver, not to include one in his program; he tried it at the U.S. nationals in January and fell. But he's the only skater among the top competitors who made that decision, sparking all kinds of buzz among the skating cognoscenti about whether he was pushing the sport back...
...Regardless of where you weigh in on the debate, that's the thing that should be worrying skating officials and athletes alike: that the scoring system may be sucking out the drive and inspiration for innovating and evolving the sport that jumps like the quad represent. The stricter scrutiny that the system places on the execution of elements is biasing skaters to play it safe and skate programs that are constructed - move for move, from fingertip to toe point - with an almost passionless precision...
...skater, the reason for quad queasiness is simple. If you can't land it, it's not worth even trying under the current scoring system. A quadruple toe loop jump, the most popular version of a four-revolution jump, gives you a base score of 9.8 points. You can add on a point or two for performing it well or lose a few points for bobbling the landing, but 9.8 is what the judges start with. A triple-triple jump combination yields 10 base points, without the hammering on your ankles and the angst of launching yourself into four revolutions...
...quad is only the most glamorous example of what the sport might be losing if the penalties for trying one aren't reduced somehow, whether by awarding four-revolution jumps higher base points or by reducing the penalties for skaters who try and flub them. Plushenko, one of the most consistent quad jumpers around, landed a quadruple toe loop jump in the early seconds of his program and still came up short of the gold on Thursday, earning a silver. He has been outspoken all week about how he feels about the quad jump. "I believe that the quad...