Above: U.S. Olympian Terry Kubicka performs one of the last backflips before it was banned from competition.
By Elvin Walker
It has been more than 40 years since Terry Kubicka, the 1976 U.S men’s champion, became the first man to land a backflip in an Olympic Winter Games. At the close of that season, the International Skating Union cemented Kubicka’s name in the record books by banning the move in future competitions, leaving him as the only athlete to complete the move without violating the rules. This year at the 59th ISU Ordinary Conference in Las Vegas, however, the move was erased from Rule 610, which previously banned somersault type jumps in competition.
“It was pretty exciting,” Kubicka recalled of landing the flip in Innsbruck, Austria. “I think people were very surprised and it kind of set the house on fire. There was a lot of controversy leading up to the Olympics, because I did it for the first time a month before at the U.S. Championships. At the time, there was no ruling on as how it would be (scored) and the feedback that I got was that judges did not really see it as a pro or con because they didn’t know how to judge it.”
Earlier this season at the World Championships in Montreal, Kubicka sat on the technical panel for the men’s event where Adam Siao Him Fa from France courageously added a backflip to his free skate en route to capturing the bronze medal in the event. Kubicka admitted to seeing some irony of having to apply a two-point deduction in response to the element.
“Sonia Bianchetti was the chairperson of the ISU Technical Committee when the backflip was banned and now her son is in in the same role when it is allowed to come back,” he said. “That combined with me being a technical specialist in the last World Championships where it was illegal, is just a full circle moment for me.”
Though the element is not scored officially, perse, it may now be included as part of the choreographic sequence in the free skate. Despite the risk and little scoring incentive to attempt the element, two American men, one representing the present of U.S. Figure Skating and one, the future, have already completed the element in international competition.
Ilia Malinin, the reigning U.S. and World champion, landed his at the Lombardia Trophy in Bergamo, Italy, in mid-September en route to his first title of the season. Malinin credits his background in gymnastics for taking the leap into the world of backflips on ice.
“From a young age I was doing backflips as part of my gymnastics, but gymnastics was too much for me to balance with skating,” he said. “I was working on a backflip with my dad and another coach at home, but then I was invited to Sun Valley to do some shows, and I was feeling good one day and just decided to try it.”
With ropes around his waist for support, Malinin worked with three skaters — Scott Irvine, Jason Graetz and former U.S. champion Ryan Bradley to learn the element on ice. That same day, the World champion was already landing the move without support on ice.
“I decided to put it in my free skate, because it fits the music really well,” he explained. “It gets that audience applause, feels really suspenseful and I really just like doing it.”
Patrick Blackwell, a junior who won the silver medal in his first Junior Grand Prix event this season, is also among the men adding the element to his arsenal. At his event in Ostrava, Czech Republic, Blackwell nailed the backflip at the end of his winning free skate.
“Earlier this season I had in the back of my mind if I skated a clean program that I would put the backflip in at the end of the program,” he said. “It kind of went viral on X [formerly Twitter] and since it is allowed this season, I planned to continue to do it throughout the season.”
Like Malinin, Blackwell is a bit of a daredevil and has a background in tumbling from working on a trampoline in his backyard. The Rhode Island native is able to do double flips on the trampoline and has added in a twist for good measure. The transition to ice was pretty quick as a result.
“I knew that I was capable of it, so I asked my coaches if I could try it,” Blackwell recalled. “They agreed and they put me in the harness and the rest is history. It’s pretty easy for me now — it’s just a pick and a look back.”
All three athletes were cautious to predict how the backflip might evolve over time given the risk and possibility of injury. Malinin does not believe that multiple rotations are in the cards for him personally but can see a path to adding more difficulty to the element.
“I don't know if we'll see multiple rotations because going from a single to a double backflip takes twice the effort and it's really challenging even off the ice or on the trampoline so I don't think that would be realistic,” he said. “I think adding a twist is a lot more realistic. I’ve already done that.”
Malinin will kick off his Grand Prix campaign later this month at Skate America in Allen, Texas, where he will look to capture his third consecutive title. Blackwell has been assigned to the Junior Grand Prix event in Wuxi, China, the last stop of the season, in pursuit of his first berth into the Junior Grand Prix Final later this year.
