Quadruple Anniversary

Today marks the 30th anniversary of the first quadruple performed by a trapeze artist in front of a public audience. The “Quad” was completed during a Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey performance in Tucson, Arizona in 1982.

Miguel Vazquez completed four somersaults in the air and was caught by his brother, Juan. Miguel was 17 years old.

Several days later, photographs taken by Deborah Gilbert (one of the Ringling clowns) of this first public “Quad” were featured on the front page of the New York Times.

The “Quad” was soon featured in a full page article in Time magazine and reported by Tom Brokaw to his nightly NBC news audience.

New York Times reporter Glenn Collins wrote: “The circus folk who described it to me said that the audience began to stir for the first time when the other performers in the show raced out to Ring One, shouting and screaming, pounding Miguel on the back and carrying him on their shoulders”.

 The text from the article above reads:

Quadruple Flip is the First Ever

"Miguel Vazques whirling at 75 miles an hour during his quadruple somersault and being caught by his brother Juan. A crowd of 7,000 watched Saturday night in Tuscon, Ariz., as Mr. Vazquez performed a feat that has eluded trapeze artists for 123 years. "I always knew I could do it," he said, "but I can't believe I did it." "

Thanks to Philip Weyland for posting this to Facebook!

He lists this website below, so I'm guessing it's the original source.