Gracie Gold and Elizaveta Tuktamysheva have confessed that they'll be working on quad salchows and toe loops during the offseason, in the hopes of upping the technical ante in the ladies events next year.
Only one woman has ever attempted a quad in competition--Miki Ando of Japan way back in 2002 as a junior-level skater. It was cheated by a half-turn (and in my opinion not even close) but she gets the credit for the first attempt. Since then, no other women have really tried. And rarely have any done 3axels either.
Women seem to hit a bit of a glass ceiling after the 3lutz.
I don't want to say it's a physical thing, but it kind of is. 3axels and quads require a level of strength that goes beyond just the ability to revolve in the air really really fast. You also have to jump high. And when you're tiny and twiggy, jumping high is not always a forte. If anyone, Tuktamysheva stands the greatest chance of legit pulling it off. She has the height and the muscle. I'm not holding out much hope for Gold or any of the Americans currently competing. To Gold's credit though, she has a very realistic attitude, as evidenced by something she told the St. Paul Pioneer Press recently:
“Right now, unless we add in a second triple-triple (combination jump), I’m kind of reaching the technical limit, and that means we really have to enhance the artistic component.”
And that is entirely possible for Gold. Her presentation is lovely.
Here's a decent quad from Miki Ando during a practice session in 2009:
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