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Who introduced the axel jump to figure skating?
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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.
The axel jump was introduced to figure skating by the Norwegian skater Axel Paulsen. He first performed the jump in 1882 at what is widely considered the first international figure skating championship in Vienna.12
While the jump is named after him, it is important to note that Paulsen was an accomplished athlete who excelled in both figure skating and speed skating, winning the world speed skating championship in 1884. The jump itself, which involves taking off from the outer forward edge of one skate and landing on the outer backward edge of the other, is generally regarded as the most difficult jump in the sport due to its unique rotational requirements.234