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- Jun 3, 2009
I think an ideal podium would have about seven medals, so whatever the outcome, it'll be bittersweet.
I think an ideal podium would have about seven medals, so whatever the outcome, it'll be bittersweet.
Well, the real podium should have only one medal - at least that's how the Olympic sports started over 2,500 years ago. Only the victor has glory, no 2nd and no 3rd place. Coincidentally, that's still the ways many countries look at sport results, especially Olympic sports.
I haven't read anything official from NBC as increasing the ratings for figure skating on TV. However, I could believe it happened because of the GPs.
They are the first skating competitions of the new season after a 6 month layover. Even the departed casual fans might want to check it out. What are the ratings for the Nats and 4CCs?
I happend to like the GPs, and I wish they could be extended for repeating them further. It's like Major League Baseball where individual Teams play each other several times leading up to the Pennant. I'd like to believe that the GPF could be on a Sunday afternoon as a serious competition. (Yes, I am dreaming hwell
The above is spoken by an indivisual fan, and presumably a non competitive skater. Many, many moons ago, I earned a silver medal and this opinion is just killing the pride I had for that. C'est domage.I used to really hate the winner-takes-all only-first-place-matters mentality in sports but I've come to understand its purpose.
Individual sports can be extremely competitive and the difference between the first and second places is sometimes truly minute, as in a tiny fraction of a second. It just seems so unfair to bestow all the glory on one person while most competitors have trained just as hard with devotion and sacrifices. I hate that only one person is considered the winner and the rest are deemed losers. Such attitude seems more prevalent in certain societies and was a culture shock to me.
However, with more understanding of how the mind works and how individual and collective progresses are made, I see the purpose and function of such mentality. People can achieve only what they believe they can, which is why records are broken incrementally and role models are so important. They instill beliefs. Somebody has to be the first to show what can be done. The sole winner system awards and promotes excellence, brutally but effectively. To be the victor of an event, one has to beat everybody else, including the previous winner. The way to ensure this is to be the first to achieve beyond the current level. Thus the envelop is pushed and what is believed to be achievable gets raised, accomplished, and becomes the new challenge.
One way is kind and sharing, motivating more to work hard with lots of consolation prizes. Joy and glory are spread around more. The other way is relentlessly competitive, even cruel, to constantly raise the standard of the sport. Over the long run, the collective benefit of the latter system/mentality becomes clear as part of the human progress.
Back to skating, I definitely don't believe in glory for one in this rather subjective and widely encompassing sport. However, I do see the CoP system contributing to rapid raising of standard of figure skating. It's not perfect and still transitioning after all these years as can be witnessed daily on the boards. But it's challenging. It's been criticized as requiring too much technically, taking away the artistry and performance excellence, until some skaters show that programs with all the difficult technical elements can be beautifully performed. Then the competitors keep raising the levels of skills and degree of difficulty for each element and their programs (taking falls along the way ). Contrary to previous belief, it has now been demonstrated that footwork and transition need not be scraped to do quadruple jumps. The evolution of the sport has quickened under this demanding system. This has become obvious with the coming of age of the CoP babies, the most precocious of whom being Patrick Chan, who bears the brunt of many negative sentiments against the system. Neverheless, watch the new generation. They will do it all, jumps, spins, footwork......with flair and artistry.
Show programs can have the luxury of more leisurely pace to fully express the feelings and beauty of figue skating. But, in competitions, this is truly a demanding Olympic sport where competitors have to bring it under pressure, making the the most difficult athletic executions look easy, elegant, and emotionally stirring, with thousands of pairs of eyes on them, knowing there are millions more not in the arena. It's not for the meek or the weak.
...Contrary to previous belief, it has now been demonstrated that footwork and transition need not be scraped to do quadruple jumps....
cbcsports said:Joubert was angry when he saw Buttle's marks pop up.
"He didn't try a quad jump and I was disappointed about it because the new judging system is like that — it's better to do simple and clean than to try something difficult," Joubert said during the skaters' news conference. "We saw Stephane [Swiss skater Stephane Lambiel] try two quads, Daisuke also."
The above is spoken by an indivisual fan, and presumably a non competitive skater. Many, many moons ago, I earned a silver medal and this opinion is just killing the pride I had for that. C'est domage.
The expectations of Chan in winning a Gold Medal is high, but the continuous Board hype will make him a total loser if he doesn't earn gold.C'est domage.
2008 Worlds - haven't seen that one in ages! This is like an old timers' thread :thumbsup:. I'm feeling nostalgic, as this was the subject of my very first post here ("for the record, I'm a Joubert fan who thought Buttle should have won but by a smaller margin" - I stand by that). You told me to post often, post long, which I took to heart during my first two years on GS. Anyway, I just want to correct your argument, MM, insofar as that Joubert at most would have won the LP under 6.0; he was probably too far down after the SP to win in an ordinal-based system. BTW, I think Ryan would have fared better under the old system than he has under CoP; it plays more to his strengths.I think that is a huge point. In the 2008 world championships there was controversy about Buttle's win over Joubert. Joubert
(a) Did a quad
(b) Did not fall down
(c) Gave an enthusiastic and entertaining performance.
Under 6.0, that's it -- Joubert wins.
BTW, I think Ryan would have fared better under the old system than he has under CoP; it plays more to his strengths.
Are fans simply dying out with too few young replacements? Maybe figure skating needs to be cool, hopefully not by adopting the fleeting taste du jour.
It's hard to say. Cool sports like snowboarding are also relegated to niche spots on television. Although someone like Shawn White can make a lot of money as an individual.
How are entertainments which may attract similar audiences faring these days? I am refering to the arts since skating encompasses both sports and arts even if there is no definitive consensus among the fans. Of course, skating audiences may have to be lured back from gardening, working overtime, or any number of other activities. How about age demographics? Are fans simply dying out with too few young replacements? Maybe figure skating needs to be cool, hopefully not by adopting the fleeting taste du jour.
What is interesting is that Joubert is making the same argument, but in reverse, that is now being used against the CoP now. Joubert says that under CoP a clean but relatively simply program is rewarded. CoP detractors nowadays say, no, it was under 6.0 that a clean program was at a premium, and this was a plus for the 6.0 system.
In 2010 the controversy was about Plushenko's lack of transitions. Plushenko fans countered, "well of course he doesn't do transtitions, he does quads." It was even proposed that minimal transitions leading into a quad should be more highly valued than transitions in other parts of the program.
Its a new world, Golda. When Scott Hamilton does TV commentary he keeps emphasizing the idea that under the CoP every little turn you make, from beginning to end, is being scrutinized by the judges and translated into fractions of a point. If you can do that and quads, too -- you're the CoP king!
Here is an article that raises a few good points.
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/brennan/2008-01-23-skating_N.htm