International Fans

Originally Posted by Metapour
I'd like to see someone skate to John Lennon's Imagine. Has anyone skated to it? That would be cool...John's Imagine seems relevant to this thread

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Megan WIng and Aaron Lowe skated one of the most powerful and moving free dances I have ever witnessed at Worlds in 2003 to a John Lennon medley.

The world figure skating championships were in Washington, DC, and ran from March 24 to March 30 of 2003. On March 20, the US had just begun the invasion of Iraq. The Washington papers and the web message boards were full of speculations about whether French or Canadian skaters would be booed by the Washington audience, due to their countries' opposition to the invasion. At every event, people were just a bit edgy, wondering whether anything untoward would happen.

I'm sure Wing & Lowe were very conscious of the tenor of feelings in the US-after all, at the time, they were training with Igor Shpilband in this country. They obviously knew what they were about to do.

I had never seen this dance, since Wing & Lowe were not top-ten skaters, and so were not shown on American TV, as they were the 3rd place Canadians in the event, behind Bourne and Kraatz & Dubreuil and Lauzon. I am sure a large part of the audience had also never seen it.

From the moment they stepped on the ice in those obvious 60's peace costumes, I was certainly holding my breath, and I'm sure others were, too.

They skated it beautifully and with great conviction, although the steps did not have the difficulty of the winning skaters, perhaps.

Their performance ended with the cut from Imagine

You may say that I'm a dreamer
but I'm not the only one
I hope some day you'll join us
And the world will live as one

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They skated it with large peace symbol necklaces, and Aaron's tie-dye tee shirt had a peace symbol.

They finished 12th in the FD, but this is the only performance I have ever seen that literally left me with tears in my eyes, crying for my country's shame and for their bravery.

The video is not currently on youtube, but is available. The copy I have is from British Eurosport who were quite nonplussed and not sure what to say, as Britain was participating in the invasion. I would love to have a copy with neutral or nonEnglish commentary.

And, BTW, the two of the three most popular performances in Washington, DC, were not by Americans. The Shen & Zhao long program (still one of my very favorites) was most popular, and the Bourne & Kraatz finally winning the ice dance was very, very popular. (Kwan winning the ladies would be the 3rd).

Reactions to the men's event were mixed. Tim Goebel skated a really good LP, but the event was won by a flawed skate by Plushenko, who AFAIR, was injured. Both skaters were cheered but opinions differed as to who had skated best that night. Those who sat on the side of the rink where the judges were sitting seemed more pro-Plushenko than those who sat on the other side. This is when I first became aware of how judge-centric (and ignoring of the other sides of the rink) Plushenko's program for that year was.

BravesSkateFan said:

I think a lot of the so-called "nationalism" in the US comes from TV coverage. In the US we get American skaters, and then a few top skaters from other countries. I know in a lot of European Countries entire competitions are aired. T]This gives fans exposure to more skaters. If all I see is American skaters and a handful of non-americans I'm going to be more likely to be a fan of the American skaters.
So I don't think its so much Nationalism as it is lack of exposure

I always found Canadians to be the most nationalistic when it comes to figure skating (But IMO Nationalism isn't a bad thing)

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I think what you are saying is that it is not Nationalism per se but the feed of the TV ignorami That's very true, but for some of us, like me, we just want to see who is the best that night from anywhere. And we would also like to see more contestants than just the Americans.

Joe

iluvtodd said:

Just for the record, Todd skated to it too, back in the early 1990's (Tour of World & Olympic Champions, now known as COI).

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I've never seen his so I didn't know

see, I learn new things every day!

Katt Witt skated to it in an SOI finale, IIRC... Kristi's skated several versions of it...

as for someone not being familiar with Johnny Weir... that's surprising he's kinda hard to forget!

Wow...I don't even know what to say about this thread

I think all sports in general can be nationalistic. I remember a friend for England visiting me and thinking...what the heck is football and why do people get excited about this . It's just a bunch of guys hitting each other? then I got a lesson about football and all about Manchester United. LOL Anyway..back to the topic.

I think in general figure skating is in a decline all over the world, except maybe Japan!! There is hardly any coverage of it here in the US and I am sure that it hold true for other parts of the world. I think that people are looking for any star to bring figure skating back into people's minds. Right now there is more television coverage of extreme sports like the X games, snowboarding, motorcross and NASCAR then anything. Of course countries want thier athletes to promote thier countries, it brings in dollars. They don't want their skater to say...hey I don't like the skaters from my country but love the skaters from some other country.

As for Johnny Weir saying he loves Russia and all things Russian or whatever it was that he said...I bet if he said..I love the US but I also love Russia...would we even be having this conversation?

I think that people should be able to like whoever they want from whatever country they want. Who cares really?

Hey mathman...CCCP is the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics AKA the USSR!! You are right when most people would not know what that was since half the people don't remember a time before Russia was Russia.

Dog sled racing isn't nationalistic... at least the Iditarod isn't... lol

so not all sports are all that nationalistic...

Joesitz said:

I think what you are saying is that it is not Nationalism per se but the feed of the TV ignorami That's very true, but for some of us, like me, we just want to see who is the best that night from anywhere. And we would also like to see more contestants than just the Americans3

Joe

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Not exactly. I'm not saying that Americans DON'T want to see other skaters. I'm just saying that the US media doesn't generally show them and that results in a lot of "nationalism" becuase the majority of the skaters we see are American. Its hard to be a fan of a skater that you never or hardly ever see. Take the Kerrs for example. They are raved about on a lot of FS boards, but I think they've been shown on US TV only once or twice. How can I become a fan or appreciate their skating if I never get to see it?

I completely agree that many of us Americans (me being one of them) would like to see more of the top skaters, and more skaters in general, regardless of nationality, but my point is that we don't and that makes it hard to be fans of them.

Originally Posted by Metapour
I'd like to see someone skate to John Lennon's Imagine. Has anyone skated to it? That would be cool...John's Imagine seems relevant to this thread

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Johnny Weir skated to it and so did S/P and B/S as a group number.

I love many different skaters from around the globe, and I am an American. However, I have to agree that Americans do not get a chance to see enough skaters from different countries so there lies the answer as to why US Skaters get discussed a lot here. I would discuss skaters from other countries if I could assess them like I can most American skaters.

DORISPULASKI said:

Megan Wing and Aaron Lowe skated one of the most powerful and moving free dances I have ever witnessed at Worlds in 2003 to a John Lennon medley....

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Thanks for that reflection, DP. Your remembrance is as spellbinding as the performance.

Tonichelle said:

Dog sled racing isn't nationalistic... at least the Iditarod isn't... lol

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Are you sure there is no patriotism about the Iditarod?

http://shageluk.iasd.schoolaccess.net/Graphics/ala-flag1.gif

Not from a nationalistic standpoint... certainly local pride is a big deal (Alaskans tend to cheer for Alaskans, not just the big names)...

Swingley and Swenson - two past champions - are both 'outsiders' and aren't as popular as say King or Buser who were once outsiders but now live in Alaska and are basically Alaskans in every sense of the word... those that come up here strictly to race are still great athletes in their own right, but not to the point of mass hysteria when they're around (and aside from Butcher I don't think we ever truly have mass hysteria when our local celebs come out lol)

so no, it's not nationalistic. Though some 'outsider' mushers from other countries do wave their flags during the start of the race... but really it's all about Alaskans vs everyone else lol

Alaska is not its own country (though sometimes I think it would be a good thing if we were lol), lest we forget, we are part of the US of A... but it's not an American patriotism that drives us to cheer... and the mushers are not racing for their country or state or province or whatever... they're running for themselves and their dog team.

I think we are about to kill this thread. Why not?

Tonichelle said:

several times over... it's almost overused anymore...

Jenny Kirk, Katt Witt, Kristi Yamaguchi, Johnny Weir... those are the first names I can come up with...

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Also Nicole Bobek!

Elena Glebova

Btw, someone mentioned Elena Glebova upthread so I decided to post a youtube link to her Worlds skate http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLEnqvp4fZ0 to see if we can get some discussion going...

I think she's yet to get any of her jumps solid. She only manages to rotate most of them but not land them on two feet. Her spins are allright but the choreography and interpretation seem to be barely there... I think she could improve on all of these aspects and break the top 15...

BraveSkatesFan - if you want to see the Kerrs, all of their dances are on their website www.sineadandjohn.com.

In Britain (and I don't have Eurosport) we got two half hour programmes on the World Championships. The only dance shown in full was the Kerrs FD! I rely on youtube to get skating updates.

I was a massive fan of skating in 94 as a little girl when T&D made the comeback and it was all over the press. Since then, the British media have no interest in skating whatsoever, even when the Kerrs do quite well. No coverage in the papers at all. I rely on these forums to keep me up to date, since I don't usualy get to see programmes during the GP part of the season - I can't see them!

I'm sure the BBC is just as biased as the American coverage!

Half an hour? Even the German TV shows more...But besides Eurosport, no channel shows figure skating. But at least they show all of the programs!
If it wasn´t for Savchenko & Szolkowy, the press wasn´t interested in skating at all, they are unfortunately the only couple who appears in the medias from time to time. But thanks to them, the interest in this sport grew a bit lately