Regardless if you feel there was a controversy or not, I cannot remember the last time regular people, non die skating fans, were talking about the sport with such interest. Today at work it was a big topic of conversation. I love it.
Scandal is not going to build up interest in a sport. Being a laughing stock will decrease not increase money from sponsors, audience, which is long proven. There is a reason why marketers would drop a tainted athlete. This is marketing 101. It is crazy to think this will somehow help this dwindling event.
What is it about theses teenagers? Adelina said she wants all the gold there is out there and Mikaela just said she is going for 5 Gold medals in 2018.Before the Olympics there was some hope that Gracie will be becoming a media princess. But for now I think Mikaela is the chosen one and I expect a big growth of interest in that direction. Out of all the US Olympic women she is most marketable. And she is REALLY marketable! I expect a big media shift towards alpine skiing because of her.
Of course there will always be some interest but it is pretty much a very niche event with dwindling audience. The corruption is certainly not helping. FS is simply not a sport for modern age. ISU is a dinosaur. Look at the makeup of those judges. The majority are middle old aged white women who are completely out of touch. Sometimes you almost want to require affirmative action. Maybe 50% of judges have to be men and Asian/South American/African countries?We will be in a better position to assess how much has changed in terms of interest in four years time. But I think the interest will always be there. I'm almost 39 and clearly remember the Harding/Kerrigan farce and the Salt Lake scandal. They didn't alter things much in the long term despite some heralding the death knell of the sport. Those that believe Kim is a victim of injustice might feel the sport is doomed but I doubt it.
Regardless if you feel there was a controversy or not, I cannot remember the last time regular people, non die skating fans, were talking about the sport with such interest. Today at work it was a big topic of conversation. I love it.
My mom was a diehard fan but pretty much stop watching after 2006. However she does watch the Olympics but said she's still not watching after this is over. She said she watched other seasons but would turn eventually. She said it's just not the same and think the sport is corrupted. I think once the Olympics is over things will die down except in Russia. U.S. will lose interest. Fans from Korea and some from Japan will be moving on.
No. People consider the sport a joke because of the corrupt judging. All I've heard is "what do you expect with something that involves judges? It's not a real sport."
The Scott Hamiltons of the world who think scandal is a good thing for figure skating are totally out of touch with reality. The sport needs credibility and fairness to be embraced by the public, not riggage and reason to be laughed at.
You will not see much growth in Russia either. Again my rhy. Gymnastics and syn. Swimming example.This is the nail in the coffin for figure skating in the US. Any credibility is gone. I'm sure the ISU saw the decline happening anyway and sees Russia as one of the few growth markets out there. I'll be surprised if skating disappears from all US TV coverage and is only available from IceNetwork.
The gist of most of the main stream media coverage is 'We always new it was rigged - here's another example'
I am not sure about Russia. Their nationals attracted very few people. When the other countries cannot win due to corruption, Russia will be playing against themselves, racking up meaningless medals. I mean, look at syn. Swimming, rhy. Gymnastics. How many medals has Russia won? Nobody cares even Russians themselves in the end.
They are meaningless medals. China has won almost all medals in table tennis. These days, they are pretty much playing against themselves. Nobody cares. Table tennis is not even a sport that has to rely on subjective judging. I think after this, South Korea is pretty much done with FS. The only country that skaters can make some money is Japan.Yes, if there was judging malfeasance (not saying for sure there was, but it is a real possibility) it WAS NOT FOR SOTNIKOVA.
The judges inflating her scores do not care anything for her and will drop her like last week's dirty underwear if they perceive she's not helping their agenda (get as many medals for Russia as possible by any means necessary).
These are dinosaurs stuck in the CCCP (in their minds forever).