Word: axel
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...last month's U.S. national championships in Orlando, Fla., Harding was several pounds overweight, and she sustained an ankle injury in practice. But with typical grit she stuck to her program, which includes a triple Axel, a 3 1/2-revolution trap of a jump that only Ito and she have landed in competition. In the short program she fell. In the long program, she tumbled again and lost any chance of catching Kerrigan. Was she foolhardy to try? Maybe, but she gave notice that, win or lose, she means business...
Triples are now the yardstick of the sport. They range in difficulty from the toe loop and Salchow, through the loop, flip and Lutz to the Axel, the ultimate challenge. Senior male competitors do triples routinely, but they are very tough for women who lack sufficient strength. One difference between watching on TV and seeing a competition is that at rinkside, spectators see all 20-odd contenders, not just the top handful. Among the lower rankings the number of falls is shocking. "There's a big element of risk," says Don Laws, who coached Scott Hamilton and knows that...
Experts agree that Ito has set new jumping standards in the sport. Dick Button, a TV commentator and former Olympic winner, marvels at an Ito special: a triple Axel followed directly by a camel spin. Says he: "What's amazing is that she lands the jump at tremendous speed, arrests the forward motion and creates a rotation." Inevitably, others are catching up. Says Ito wistfully: "I cannot make a mistake because people not quite so good as I am can win since they have some higher artistry." It may not say so in the rule book, but smiles do have...
...major disappointment is the loss of control over the mass media. The entire eastern publishing industry has been taken over by such western giants as Burda and the Axel Springer group. One result is an outpouring of sensationalist and sometimes sleazy newspapers and magazines targeted specifically for the east. The western quality press is barely penetrating the new market. "They don't have anything to say to us," says Marion Fischer, an east Berlin translator...
...nose, therefore, may be a key to understanding how the brain works. "These molecules will serve as useful tools" for solving a variety of scientific problems, says Linda Buck, who co-authored the Cell article with Axel. This knowledge may even yield some practical benefits. Pesticide makers may be able to design improved insect repellents based on a better understanding of why certain pests are attracted to some people and not to others. And who knows, perfume manufacturers could someday offer custom-made scents that are designed to snare not just any man, but a particular, special someone...