Riley Loos traces Ilya Zaika's inverted cross back to 1936
The national champion hands the spotlight to another gymnast, and viewers have found a bunny hiding in the skill's name.
Riley Loos
Story of Why this story? The video opened at a pace of 1,100,374 views a day, 17 times a normal first day on this channel (64,350).
The Hardest Strength Skill EVER 😨 #gymnastics #calisthenics #gymnast #olympics #strength #zaika
Not his skill this time. Riley Loos opens on the rings, promises a move "so hard nobody may ever do it again," and then sets the record straight: "No, not me." The skill belongs to Ilya Zaika, who debuted it a month before the video, and it carries his name.
The Zaika starts from something old. Loos cuts to footage of Leon Štukelj in 1936 to show that "the inverted cross itself isn't new." The new part is how Zaika gets there: he pulls his whole straight body up into the upside-down cross with his arms locked, a motion Loos likens to an inverted butterfly. Earlier attempts by other gymnasts follow, and Loos says nobody had completed it before Zaika did it in competition. He ends on a question: will anyone match it?
It fits the channel's habit of looking backward. Loos lists himself as a 2025 national champion, a four-time NCAA champion and an Olympic hopeful for Los Angeles 2028, yet some of his biggest Shorts are about other generations of gymnasts, from "1950's Gymnasts Were Built Different" to last week's "Which Generation is the Strongest?"
This one passed a million views in under a day, and its comment section filled about nine times faster than his Shorts usually do. Much of it is a gym-floor argument over whether the movement counts as a lateral raise with his own body weight, or something closer to a front raise. Others point out that in Russian, zaika is an affectionate word for a little bunny, which makes Loos's dead-serious delivery of it land a little differently.
Published on Trari
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What viewers say
This is really funny how serious he said Zaika😂😂 cause in russian that means a little bunny 🐇
@СемёнБудин-с3щSee it on YouTubeYo, Leon Štukelj mentioned. He is one of the best and strongest slovenian athletes, truely a pioneer of the sport. The zaika is an insane element, cant belive Ilya could pull it off.
@geniegenial7See it on YouTubeTrust ill match it
@puggozSee it on YouTube
4 more comments
I reckon now that it has been done everyone will do it now like the 4 minute mile
@94462See it on YouTubeHoly crap this is one of the most impressive things I’ve ever seen
@Wheel144See it on YouTubeThe Zaika is such a cool name
@Crystal_3978See it on YouTubeI love seeing human evolution in real time! 😅
@CityKaninSee it on YouTube
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- Channel
- Riley Loos
- Subscribers
- 301,000 ▲ 4,000 this week
- Channel views, last 7 days
- 15,702,062
- Channel views, pace per day
- 5,002,676 (on a normal day: 1,232,096)
- Video published
- October 21, 2026
- Video views so far
- 998,084 (less than a day online)
- Video views, pace per day
- 1,100,374
The numbers
A Short that ran far past this channel's usual start, on a day when the whole channel drew more than four times its normal views.
💡 Test your knowledge
Which university does Riley Loos list in his channel introduction?
His channel introduction lists a B.S. from Stanford University alongside his four NCAA titles.