Death spiral (figure skating)

Figure skating element
Element name	Death spiral
Scoring abbreviation	Ds
Disciplines	Pair skating

The death spiral is a circular move in figure skating involving two partners in the discipline of pair skating, in which the male partner lowers the female partner while she arches backward towards the ice while gliding on one foot and as she holds his hand "while he rotates her in a circle with her head almost touching the ice surface".^[1] It was created by German professional skater Charlotte Oelschlägel and her husband Curt Neumann in the 1920s.^[2] Suzanne Morrow and Wallace Diestelmeyer from Canada were the first pair team to perform the death spiral one-handed (the man holding the woman in position with one hand), at the 1948 Olympic Games.^[3] In the 1960s, Soviet pair team Liudmila Belousova and Oleg Protopopov created three death spirals: "the backward-inside, forward-inside and forward-outside death spirals, which they originally named the Cosmic Spiral, Life Spiral and Love Spiral, respectively".^[4] The International Skating Union (ISU), the governing body that oversees figure skating, allows for variations of arm holds and pivot positions. Senior pair skating teams must perform different types of death spirals in their short programs and free skating programs.^[5]