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Which figure-skating jumps use a toe pick for takeoff?
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figure skating
Katarina Witt, competing for East Germany, became the first woman since Norway's Sonja Henie (1928, 1932, and 1936) to win consecutive Olympic gold medals, doing so in 1984 and 1988.
In figure skating, jumps are categorized into two types: edge jumps and toe jumps. Unlike edge jumps, which rely solely on the skate blade's edge for propulsion, toe jumps require the skater to plant their toe pick into the ice to assist in launching into the air.1
The three competitive figure-skating jumps that use a toe pick for takeoff are:
- Flip: The skater enters the jump skating backward on one skate, plants the toe pick of the opposite skate into the ice, and launches into a revolution.1
- Lutz: This jump involves a long backward arcing glide before the skater plants the toe pick and revolves in the air in the opposite direction of the initial arc.1
- Toe loop: The skater moves backward on a bent leg and places the toe pick of the opposite skate behind the lead skate, using it to pole vault into the air.1