If you want to keep competing at the top,

you definitely need to hit quadruples.

To hit a quadruple jump,

you take off from the ice, spin four times, and land.

Is it possible to hit quintuples?

(IS IT POSSIBLE

(FOR FIGURE SKATERS TO COMPLETE A QUINTUPLE JUMP?)

Figure skating is one

of the more mesmerising Olympic sports.

But, behind all the highs and lows,

the kisses and the cries,

lies a whole load of jumping history.

What do you mean, you can't remember that far back?

I think we're going to need a montage.

Figure skating has been evolving for decades,

even before skaters started battling

for Olympic gold in 1908.

(GENUINE BLACK & WHITE FOOTAGE)

Let's start with an Axel. Axel Paulsen, to be precise -

the Norwegian who landed his namesake single jump

for the first time all the way back in 1882.

From then on, skaters continued to lay down new jumps.

The toe loop, the Salchow, the loop, the flip, the Lutz,

the kangaroo.

OK, wait, I made the last one up.

Sorry.

The next step? More rotations.

Single jumps turned into doubles,

which turned into triples.

Then came the quad revolution,

when Kurt Browning landed the first quadruple,

a toe loop, back in 1988.

He paved the way for a new era in the men's competition.

Today, male and female skating pioneers

are taking jumping to greater heights.

Is it only a matter of time before the quintuple

becomes the new hottest property in figure skating?

Shoma Uno is one of the best figure skaters on the planet.

In fact, he has an Olympic medal to prove it.

In our quest to explore the frontiers in figure skating,

I asked Shoma, "The quintuple jump - is it possible?"

The quadruple jump was previously considered

as an unrealistic thing for human beings.

But now, the fact that so many skaters hit it almost naturally

means somebody will land a quintuple someday,

although I'm not sure if I could do it or not.

I landed a triple jump

and then a quadruple before the triple axel.

As for jumping, the height, breadth and spin speed

are all different depending on the skater,

And what you need is, I never thought of it

when I tried quadruples,

so, whether it's a quintuple or a quadruple,

to imagine yourself doing well

and just execute it with your body.

That's all for me...

So, it all boils down to the...science-y stuff.

Confused yet?

Let's break it down.

For a quad jump,

skaters spent less than 0.7 seconds in the air.

They have to leap around half a metre

to be at the optimum height to land a quadruple.

For a quintuple,

more rotational energy is needed at takeoff

to increase angular momentum.

They also need to jump higher

and, most importantly, spin faster,

averaging nearer 400 rpm.

Clearly, the quintuple remains a thus-far elusive feat.

But is it possible?

Let's hear from some qualified voices.

It's a race against gravity.

Is there enough time in the air to get five revolutions done?

This is, I think, the biggest question.

Most quad jumps aren't necessarily

exactly four revolutions in the air.

So if you were going to do a quintuple toe loop,

you now need to do, give or take,

4½ revolutions in the air.

Looking at landing impacts and jumping up in the air,

the quad and the triple are pretty similar.

They're in the air roughly the same amount of time

as they are for the triple.

But the spin rate has to increase.

Do you want to know what five rotations feels like?

When you ask me if this generation of skaters

are going to include the person who would be

the first to land a quint, I probably would say no.

Because the best ones are trying to stay healthy.

Maybe they wouldn't take the risk.

It's the generation that we don't quite know yet,

who don't have as much to risk, and that was me in 1988.

Incredible! A landed quadruple jump in competition.

It requires a high level of technique,

and you might get injured.

And it's uncharted territory for us

as there is no-one that ever landed before.

But if someone hit a quintuple, then many skaters would follow.

(IS IT POSSIBLE?)

Watch Olympic Channel and learn more about "Is It Possible?"