- Joined
- Dec 16, 2006
Dragonlady, I think BOP was just making clear his somewhat diplomatic earlier statement about the big boned Canadian women from whom the Canadian Ladies skaters are selected. The graceful and lithe LA princesses not withstanding, the fact is the American ladies are not generally smaller than the Canadians, or most other nationalities on earth. Now that the Babushkas of the Cold War era have turned into beautiful sexy gold diggers and super models, the strong and robust women dwell in the Canadian igloos.
thumbyskates, you made a point I had thought of. To be competitive with the wonder babes, aka Polinas, of the world, SC has to reconsider and modify their protective model. We are proud of our mature champion Ladies with longevities, but we can't afford to discover and nurture them too late. I remember SC's decision to keep Phaneuf and Sandhu from Worlds as too young and unseasoned when they became new national champions and both turned out uncompetitive internationally, albeit with other personal factors involved. At least they have not held back Chan and now Nguyan. Are they still more protective of the girls, thus the gender bias, justified or not, contibuting partly to the gender disparity?
Canada has to find a middle ground that works for Canada. What works for US, JPN, RUS...may/may not work for Canada. If you push a skater too soon, it can blow up in your face. I think Skate Canada knows this lesson all too well with what was done to Tracy Wainman:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracey_Wainman
I can see why they would want to promote health and well-being over pushing someone too soon. However, they need to find the "sweet spot," so to speak, of when to push a skater. It's almost like cooking...