I agree with Skater Boy. This is rather a boring bunch--nobody new, nobody with a strong personality except for Chan.
I disagree with the woman who wrote the article. If you want figure skating to be an elite sport with so many rules that only those who have skated themselves and a few obsessed fans understand it, well, that's one thing. Perhaps the integrity of the sport will be maintained, so that those skaters/obsessed individuals can sigh in appreciation over a perfectly pointed toe or a perfectly quiet edge and realize that's what's really important, not those tacky, attention grabbing jumps.
If you want figure skating to reach a wide audience, you have to have the winner be the one who seemed to skate the best. Period. Because it looks like the judges are making up some subjective nonsense to give the medal (and the prize money) to whomever they want. So Favorite Skater fell so many times? Yes, but look at his bent knee in that turn! That more than makes up for it! I'm not saying that is what they're doing, but the system is certainly open to abuse.
So the ISU has two choices: do something so that you don't have another incident in which someone who falls multiple times wins over someone who skated clean, or leave it as it is and enjoy their small but more "educated" set of fans.
I disagree with the woman who wrote the article. If you want figure skating to be an elite sport with so many rules that only those who have skated themselves and a few obsessed fans understand it, well, that's one thing. Perhaps the integrity of the sport will be maintained, so that those skaters/obsessed individuals can sigh in appreciation over a perfectly pointed toe or a perfectly quiet edge and realize that's what's really important, not those tacky, attention grabbing jumps.
If you want figure skating to reach a wide audience, you have to have the winner be the one who seemed to skate the best. Period. Because it looks like the judges are making up some subjective nonsense to give the medal (and the prize money) to whomever they want. So Favorite Skater fell so many times? Yes, but look at his bent knee in that turn! That more than makes up for it! I'm not saying that is what they're doing, but the system is certainly open to abuse.
So the ISU has two choices: do something so that you don't have another incident in which someone who falls multiple times wins over someone who skated clean, or leave it as it is and enjoy their small but more "educated" set of fans.