Should Worlds be expanded to include Synchros?

[blue dog]

Colleen O'Neill's response in the Japan/Worlds thread had me thinking--should regular worlds be expanded to include synchros?

I think they should, since it would lead to greater exposure for synchros. If I recall, there may have been a time when ice dance wasn't held with the other disciplines. Of course, it will probably be very expensive...

[wallylutz]

I don't think so. Sync. Skating is a parallel sport to Figure Skating and the fan base is very different. Logistically, it's hard to add Sync. Skating into the week of World Figure Skating Championship. Put it more bluntly, it simply does not have enough popularity in general to be included with Figure Skating, yet. Also, although there are some men who also do Sync. Skating, it is by & large a female sport and therefore, it would almost be an exclusively female sport. I think it would be very hard to market this even though fans of Sync. Skating have long been trying to lump SS with FS hoping that SS can ride the popularity of FS.

[gkelly]

I think the main reason why it isn't practical is the large numbers of athletes involved in a synchro competition.

[colleen o'neill]

Yeah, I don't know if I think it would be a good idea as usual practice ,either. It's not so much the expense of sending the skaters , who are going to be sent somewhere, anyway..but having to secure a major arena for a longer period of time , or two arenas in the same location might not be an easy trick to pull off.

But Synchro has really evolved, and it would be great if the skaters could gain a bit more recognition and support.

[gmyers]

Synchro is good. But you would really be doubling the amount of athletes at the worlds! With 23 teams at the last worlds-that's a lot of people! Better to have synchro have its own worlds because I think if it was added to the regular worlds teams would be cut down to 10 or less maybe and that wouldn't be good. I think it is best to have its own worlds.

[Olympia]

What might be nice is (assuming we ever have decent TV coverage again in the U.S.) to show a few minutes of the main teams somewhere in the broadcast of Worlds, just to get a wider audience interested. This is similar to what is done at major awards ceremonies such as the Oscars, where a lot of the technical awards are given at a separate event, and then a small summary of that event is shown during the Academy Awards program. This makes use of the figure skating audience without creating logistics difficulties at the actual fs competition venue.

[essence_of_soy]

I agree about keeping both competitions separate.

Just in terms of the number of athletes that would need to be accommodated.

Promoting Synchro skating during regular worlds is a great idea.

Be fun to watch a few performances on tv and the on the jumbo tron during the ice resurface.

Having watched some of the programs on youtube, that teams can do lifts and spins, certainly makes it a different sport from the one I remember back in the 1980s.