The figure skating season resumes with the new feature, the backflip | Did you see?

For the first time in 48 years, figure skaters will be able to perform backflips without being penalized.

The International Skating Union (USI) modified its regulations this summer aimed at discouraging skaters from performing the maneuver, considered too dangerous by some.

The young American Ilia Malinin successfully performed the figure at Skate Americaon October 19. He could integrate it again into his program in Halifax, this weekend, at Skate Canada International.

On the other side of the Atlantic, a Frenchman, Adam Siao Him Fa, also performed this jump for the first time legally, during a competition that he won in Nice. A double victory for him, who made lifting this ban a personal fight last season.

It was my first competition of the season, and I was able to do the backflip without deduction. I was happy, but it was more when the regulations were changed that I felt something, that I had the feeling of having made things happen.he explained in an interview with - Sports.

In Montreal, during the World Championships, he indulged in this little offense on his way to the bronze medal. By including the backflip in his choreography, he accepted losing a few points.

At the same time, he somewhat encouraged the International Federation to place the subject on the agenda of its last annual congress.

No one had really tried to do the backflip since Surya Bonaly at the Olympics. In 25 years, there hasn’t been anyone who has tried backflips in competition, Siao Him Fa said. If no one is doing it, it shouldn’t be a surprise that it doesn’t change. Now Malinin does it, [Patrick] Blackwell too. Young people are learning to do it, and it’s a good thing for the sport.

The maneuver captured the imagination, after being banned at the end of the 1976 world championships, during which Terry Kubicka amazed the gallery with this feat. Canadian Kurt Browning, four-time world champion, has vivid memories of it, even though he was only 11 years old at the time.

It marked me. I remember his backflip more than his other famous stunts, like the triple lutz. There’s a reason for that, it’s exciting.

Kubicka inspired Browning to attempt hundreds of backflips in galas and other non-competition events. Most went well, except the very last one.

My last attempt ended with a bloodied face. You have to understand that once you have mastered the jump, it is not very difficult, but it is still very dangerous.

Kubicka was also one of the judges during Adam Siao Him Fa’s performance in Montreal.

At their own risk

Surya Bonaly, three-time world vice-champion, said goodbye by performing a backflip in her last performance at the Olympics, because she was no longer in a position to catch up with her opponents. It was in Nagano, in 1988, three years before the birth of Adam Siao Him Fa.

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When I was younger, in a way, yes, I was inspired by her and the others who achieved backflips, says Siao Him Fa. I found it spectacular. I was too young, too small to succeed. And about a year ago, I asked Rodolphe [Vermeulen, de la Fédération française] to teach me the technique. And there you have it.

Kurt Browning remains cautious about the great return of the backflip. There are all kinds of dangerous tricks. Malinin succeeds raspberrieswhere he twirls sideways. It is also dangerous and there is a risk of injury. But there is more risk of twisting a wrist. A failed back jump carries the risk of injury to the head and spinal cord.

But we cannot stop the evolution of sport. We cannot stop athletes from progressingadds the 58-year-old Canadian, who is now an analyst at CBC.

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If the backflip becomes a new trend, it will have to be well supervised, believes Browning.

I hope that the coaches will do a good job of education, to clearly explain the risks associated with this practice. The risk of collision during training is higher than for other jumps, since the feet are at the back.

His comments echo those of Alain Goldberg, analyst at -. There is an additional danger in training, in the sense that in a backflip you no longer see what is behind you. You have the right to do the maneuver, but you don’t have the right to miss ithe says.

Small and big fantasies

With this change, Adam Siao Him Fa hopes to change the sport and give more freedom to skaters.

This is a first step for us, to allow us to innovate, create and take the sport to another level. Only one left backflipbut there will be plenty of possible variations. It will be possible to add our personal touch.

The goal, to develop the sport, is that each skater is free to give their maximum, without feeling limited.

The 23-year-old athlete, native of Bordeaux, believes that there is always work to be done to make his discipline more attractive.

Our sport could have more impact and be more entertaining, for us, for the jury and the public. But it also depends a lot on the ISU’s willingness to let change go.

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A point of view which echoes that of Alain Goldberg, in a universe which is in great need of renewal.

They changed the rules for their image, to say: “You see, we are not against it.” Because there was controversy. But the federation regulates the sport so much that there are lots of young people who get sick of it and give up because it’s too painful.

Figure skating competes with other sports where there is more freedom. Young people want to play sports freely, doing what they want, dressing the way they want. The handicap of figure skating is the constraints.

On a sporting level, however, the back jump hardly moves Alain Goldberg. There are no specific points awarded for this figure. For him, the real feat of the season is the quadruple axel, a maneuver only achieved by Malinin to date.

The sport is in rapid progress. But the backflip really isn’t the main element of figure skating progression, Mr. Goldberg says. We’re making a big deal out of it because it was forbidden. There is a kind of controversy. But at Skate Canada this weekend, what will be really interesting is not seeing if Ilia Malinin will attempt a backflip. He surely will. It’s to see if he will try to reproduce a quadruple axel. That’s really the feat.

Kurt Browning believes that the novelty effect could quickly wear off. This will be an interesting novelty between now and the next Olympic Games. But if almost everyone does it within five or six years…