Supervisor: Henrik B. Pedersen

Over the past 100 years jumps in figure skating have become increasingly important. In order to gain more points, more and more rotations in the air have been added, to a level where jumps with four rotations, quadruple jumps, have become the norm among the elite men. In September 2022, US figure skater Ilia Malinin landed the world's first quad axel - a jump with four-and-a-half rotations in the air. Naturally, this leads to the question: Can the quintuple jump - a jump with five full rotations - be done?
In this student colloquium, I look at the physics behind figure skating, specifically how classical mechanics including angular momentum and moment of inertia are important in jumps. Using this knowledge, I look at what changes would have to be made for a skater like Ilia Malinin to complete a quintuple jump.