A Canadian Triple Axel Quest

It’s been a long time coming: that first Canadian woman to land a triple Axel in competition.

Sara-Maude Dupuis, 20, of Montreal – Canada’s reigning women’s silver medalist –  is leading the charge this season. In late September, Dupuis attempted the 3 ½-rotation jump for the first time in the free skate of the Nepela Trophy.

So close. Dupuis didn’t just step out of it, she flipped out of it, getting minus 3s across the board from judges and a total minus GOE of 2.40. Not a cleanly landed jump by ISU standards, according to a technical specialist.

But so close. Former U.S. champion Adam Rippon on the skating podcast “The Runthrough” brought attention to Dupuis’ bold attempt by saying: “Great triple Axel attempt. She stood up. She’ll do it this season. She’ll become the first Canadian woman to do a triple Axel in competition, I believe.”

Just not yet.

Remember Josef Sabovcik, the talented Czech who very much appeared to be the first man to land a quad in competition in 1986? At the European championships in Copenhagen, he landed one in the free skate “almost without thinking,” he said in his book: “Jumpin’ Joseph.”

Scott Hamilton, working as a commentator for a U.S. network, clearly excited, credited him on air for being the first to land a quad. A Russian judge had given him the ultimate 6.0. But the next day, judges told him that after reviewing the video, they could not ratify the quad, saying he had landed it on two feet.

Hamilton offered the judges a copy of the U.S. tape, taken from a different angle, and according to Sabovcik “clearly showed” that he had landed the jump on one foot. His free leg was hidden on the ISU tape. But they did not look at the network tape.

“I knew in my heart that the quad hadn’t been two-footed,” Sabovcik said. “Granted, the jump had been landed very low in the knee, so when I was pulling my free leg out, I might have scraped the ice with the heel of my blade. But if that occurred, it was done after the quad had already been landed.”

In 1988, Kurt Browning got the nod for being the first man to land a quad in competition. But videos showed he turned several times out of it. Browning would later say both he and Sabovcik were the first.

So it’s a judgement call? Fully rotated? One foot? At least a neutral or positive GOE?

If Dupuis were to be credited with the Nepela attempt, then perhaps officials should go back in time and look at the work Lisa Sargeant-Driscoll did during the early 1990s. Trouble is, there don’t seem to be many videos.

But Sargeant-Driscoll’s triple Axel history – from more than 30 years ago – is this:

In 1993, she became the first Canadian woman to attempt a triple Axel at Skate Electric in England. She landed the jump on two feet, underrotated it, but did not fall. She took the silver medal, the only time she finished ahead of Surya Bonaly.

Bravely, she attempted a triple Axel in the short program at Skate America, was a quarter of a rotation short and fell. Fourth place.

“That, along with sectionals, divisionals and the Canadians of 1993, I landed many in practice at home and competition,” she said in an interview. “My best ones landed, I am not sure how clean they were as they were not on video anywhere at sectionals, divisionals and the Canadian championship of 1993.

Sargeant-Driscoll fell in the original (short) program at the 1993 nationals and did not skate in the final group of the free. So the television network did not tape her free skate, in which she finished second. She said she landed the triple Axel in the free skate. She doesn’t remember how clean it was.

“I didn’t fall, I know that,” she said. “I know that I had done a lot of them in practice. Was I on one foot? Did I have a slight tap down? Was I all the way around? I have no clue. There is no video anywhere.”

She’s sure she did a clean one at sectionals, divisionals. If she cheated a jump, she would fall. Or she would severely two-foot it.

The jump had been consistent at practices at home and even more so at competition practices, with a little more adrenaline pumping.

The thing about Sargeant-Driscoll is that she didn’t believe she had the right body type to do such a difficult jump like the triple Axel.

The idea was born when Midori Ito, the first woman to land a triple Axel in competition, came to the Royal Glenora Club in Edmonton to train for about a week. “I watched her doing her triple Axels,” she said. “And my coach [Michael Jiranek} said: “You’ve got a good double Axel. Why not try it?”

“It just seemed so hard though,” she said. “[Ito} was so much more powerful.”

Ito’s coach and Sargeant-Driscoll’s coaches often had their heads together. She didn’t know what they said. But a few months later, they agreed: “Yeah, we’re trying it.” Sargeant-Driscoll tried it first in her harness. And why not?

Not many women were doing triple Axels at the time. Ito. Tonya Harding.

Sargeant-Driscoll had fallen victim to the abolishment of compulsory figures in the sport. She had been training them eight hours a day. When that all ended, no skaters had a roadmap to continue without figures, to replace them with some other training aid. Weight lifting wasn’t a big thing in the day. They did a bit of jumping off-ice and a few little things to warm up. Not close to what skaters do today. No advice. No training aids. And figures had built up quad muscles like nobody’s business.

Sargeant-Driscoll was already a slight thing, a whisper, with long legs that didn’t necessarily help with quick movement. She lost a lot of muscle mass and it took her three years to get her strength back, well enough to try triple Axels.

People free skated more after the loss of compulsories. But it uses different muscles and it burns calories, so you lose more muscle weight.

“It was kind of a sad era for us,” Sargeant-Driscoll said.

She and peers Karen Preston and Josee Chouinard have talked about it. “And we all feel sad for ourselves that we were kind of left out in the dark as the top skaters of that era, and trying to manage without help. The amount that is out there now for skaters, the specialist things, the advice, anything they need right now is at their fingertips. We just didn’t get that.”

Dropping figures was like pulling the rug out from skaters. They knew this had been coming for years, but nobody took the time to research just how much that would impact skaters.

“At the time it happened, even among ourselves, it was like: ‘Look at us. We are not the skaters we used to be. And now we’ve aged, so that affects your confidence and everything.”

Landing the triple Axel became a personal goal for Sargeant-Driscoll. She had already won international medals, was Canadian champion in 1990, had the other colours, too – bronze in 1989, silver in 1991. She did not compete at nationals in 1992, but with her new goals, she finished fifth in 1993 and 6^th in 1994. She had already been to worlds twice. If the risk was great, she was willing to take the chance at the end of her career, after having already achieved much.

It’s worth remembering that Sargeant-Driscoll finished sixth at the 1990 world championships in Halifax and was second once at Skate Canada International.

Sargeant-Driscoll had arguments with jumps other than the triple Axel. She stabbed herself twice while attempting triple Lutzes when she ‘almost cut my toe off,” and required stitches. Browning wasn’t keen on them either, after having stabbed himself at least four times. It was a rare jump for both. Sargeant-Driscoll did land them.

Triple flip was another bugbear. She did them in 1002.

She almost would have rather returned to the triple Axel than the triple Lutz in 1994. But she did land one at the 1994 Lalique Trophy in France, where she finished third. This was the year that minimal prize money started, too.

It was also the year that the ISU allowed skaters back into the fold who had left Olympic eligible skating. And triple-triples were becoming a thing. If women did them, they were usually triple Salchow- triple toe loop or triple toe loop-triple toe loop. Sargeant-Driscoll also did a double flip – triple toe loop, a combination that was often rewarded. (So why risk triple Axels?)

Sargeant-Driscoll wasn’t alone in her quest of the triple Axel. Josee Chouinard was doing them in 1992, and then, not again. Remarkably, at the age of 30 as a pro skater, Chouinard brought back the triple Axel very carefully. She went to Doug Leigh for help. It took her a year. Two weeks before the Sears Open Championships in Hamilton, Ont., she landed her first one. And then she used it to win the event, defeating Michelle Kwan.

At age 31, Chouinard she could land a triple Axel whenever she wanted to. Her technique was more certain. But to do a triple Axel, a woman has to be very fit and strong, Chouinard said.

Sargeant-Driscoll said that with her body type, she had to have her technique spot-on. She’s inspired now by the athleticism of women of all body types, landing triples and more triples. And triple Axels.

Interesting: during the 1988-89 season, Ito was the only female landing triple Axels, first at NHK, then at 1989 world championships.

Tonya Harding stepped in at worlds in 1990 the next season. The season after that, there were still only two.

In 1991-91, six triple Axels were ratified, with Harding and Ito providing all of the excitement.

But between 1992 and 2003, no women landed triple Axels at all.

At the 2002 Skate America, a couple of unknowns landed back-to back triple Axels: Yukari Nakano and Ludmila Nelidina of Russia. From 1988 to 2003, we saw only a total of 14 triple Axels.

Under the new code of points system, more gradually began to show, with Mao Asada (25 of them) being by far the main star, and then Elizaveta Tuktamysheva showing up in 2014-15 doing them.

Rika Kihara landed one at a Junior Grand Prix in Slovenia in 2016, and then her career took off before injury took her off the trail, and she has just turned into an ice dancer for Japan.

Russian skaters also mastered the jump, with Alena Kostornaia having one of the best.

Two-time Canadian champion Alaine Chartrand attempt a couple in competitions but fell.

Dupuis landed a beauty at the high-performance training camp at the end of August in Mississauga, On. She says she does it every day in training. She first landed the jump at 16, but lost it when she couldn’t make it consistent.

After a few weeks of training it this year, she got it back. “I learned what to do to NOT lose it,” she said. “It takes a lot of energy. And if I wasn’t careful, I would run out of energy. “

Now she is managing her energy better.

Sargeant-Driscoll is applauding the proliferation of this difficult jump. “I’m looking forward to seeing more triple Axels,” she said. “The more, the merrier.”

She hopes Dupuis will get that triple Axel. “Somebody has to be the first one,” she said.

Following is the triple Axel done by 16-year-old Kim Yujae of Korea. This jump alone scored 10.29 points, the highest scoring triple Axel scored by a woman since the 2022/23 season. It also makes the top 35 highest scoring 3Ax done by a woman in the code of points system. Her GOE was 2.29 for it.