Salchow

[sal-kou]

noun

Ice Skating.

1. a jump in which the skater leaps from the back inside edge of one skate, making one full rotation of the body in the air, and lands on the back outside edge of the other skate.

salchow

/ ˈsɔːlkəʊ /

noun

1. a figure-skating jump made from the inner backward edge of one foot with one, two, or three full turns in the air, returning to the outer backward edge of the opposite foot

Word History and Origins

Origin of salchow¹

1920–25; after Ulrich Salchow (1877–1949), Swedish figure skater, who first performed it

Word History and Origins

Origin of salchow¹

C20: named after Ulrich Salchow (1877–1949), Swedish figure skater, who originated it

Example Sentences

Malinin recovered to land a quad salchow before falling on his quad lutz.

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Max Naumov, the 2020 junior national champion, was a distant but surprising second after his opening quad salchow made up for a problem on his triple axel.

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She followed with triple flip-triple toe and triple loop-double toe combinations, and a triple salchow, all of which appeared to have her cruising toward a national title.

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Lindsay Thorngren, who led after the short program, fell on a double salchow but was solid with all her other jumps and placed second with 198.73 points.

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Skating to “Believer,” Kagiyama opened with a quad salchow and followed with a quad toe-loop, triple toe-loop combination and a triple axel for a season’s best score of 105.51 points.

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When To Use

What does Salchow mean?

A Salchow (pronounced SAL-cow) is a figure skating jump in which the skater jumps from the back inside edge of one skate, fully rotates (at least once) in the air, and lands on the back outside edge of the other skate. It is sometimes spelled uncapitalized, as salchow.The jump can be performed with multiple rotations, resulting in a double Salchow (two rotations), triple Salchow (three rotations), or quad (or quadruple) Salchow (four rotations).The Salchow is one of the six recognized jumps in competitive figure skating and is classified as an edge jump (along with the loop and axel; the toe loop, Lutz, and flip are classified as toe jumps).Example: She had some trouble with the Salchow in warmups, which is unusual for her, but I expect her to nail it during the routine.