Things Non-Fans Say About Figure Skating | Page 4 | Golden Skate

Things Non-Fans Say About Figure Skating

spikydurian

Medalist
Joined
Jan 15, 2012
Ooh, what an interesting article, spikydurian! Thanks for bringing it to our attention. I just downloaded it. I didn't realize at first that the author also wrote a book (Artistic impressions: figure skating, masculinity, and the limits of sport) that I have been reading off-and-on for a while now. (I swear I came to the ideas in my post above independently; wasn't meaning to plagiarize Adams. :))

Pepe, unfortunately my (workplace) library doesn't carry Adam's book as I thought I may wish to have a read too. I only found a review on the book in a journal. I think it's true that anything seen 'feminine' is lesser sport. I asked a young man what his immediate reaction in relation to figure skating as a sport after watching program? The answer I received was 'NO, he didn't think it is spport because of how it was presented - music and nice costumes'. I think the glamourization of sport played down its technical difficulty. People (who doesn't know figure skating) see great costumes, pretty girls and nice music but not the blade and edge skills required to do what these skaters do. Interestingly when I talked to people who have learnt figure skating, they talked about its technicalities and edges whereas casual fans look for the 'special connection' to the music and the program. In short, hard to please all. :)

A very interesting article, Spikydurian. I always thought of Sonia Henie as making the sport less ladylike, because she was the first (I think) to wear shorter skirts and do athletic tricks. I see how this author's idea applies, though. Once women turned out to be really good at a sport (and keep in mind, it's done to music, which to some mentalities has to be questionable)...it couldn't be suitable for guys.

Something else strikes me. A lot of girls and women who excel in other sports, such as track and field and team sports, are often thought of as lesbians. (Presumably because their enjoyment of and excellence in physical activity is somehow unnatural.) I just realized that skating is one of the few sports where that implication is absent. Hmmm. Maybe it's the skirts.

Yes, I think so.:biggrin: I do think track and field can be glamourous. Look at this lady! :love:
 

gkelly

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Oh, I also knew someone who used to insist that when they changed the camera shot during televised ice shows, it was because the skater fell and they were trying to "cover it up."

That is sometimes true, for televised shows. Not every camera change, of course. But in a non-competitive, non-live context, where the purpose is to present an entertaining performance, if the performance was marred by a disruptive mistake, they would often do a retake of that part of the program after the show as a whole was over.
 

Rachmaninoff

Final Flight
Joined
Nov 10, 2011
That is sometimes true, for televised shows. Not every camera change, of course. But in a non-competitive, non-live context, where the purpose is to present an entertaining performance, if the performance was marred by a disruptive mistake, they would often do a retake of that part of the program after the show as a whole was over.

Yeah...the person I'm talking about thought every camera change during a show was for that reason. A skater could be doing crossovers to the other side of the ice, the camera switches, and it's, "Ha! She fell!"

Some other things not listed yet:
Don't they get cold in those skimpy little dresses?
Don't they get dizzy spinning all the time?
"Crotch lift" (to refer to a certain air position in a pairs lift).
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
Joined
Aug 16, 2009
^ Kurt Browning was the best at retakes. They would ask the audience to stay so the stands wouldn't be empty for the shot, and Kurt put on a little one-man show to thank them.



Flo-Jo still holds the record for the fastest women's 100 and 200, set in 1988. She died at age 38, probably from complications of long-time anabolic steroid use.

Had they ever really proved she used steroids? I remember when she died. It was such a shock. She certainly was a glamorous woman. It was such fun to see someone in track and field who was so stylish. When she knelt in starting position, the camera used to show a close-up of her artfully done nails.
 

spikydurian

Medalist
Joined
Jan 15, 2012
Had they ever really proved she used steroids? I remember when she died. It was such a shock. She certainly was a glamorous woman. It was such fun to see someone in track and field who was so stylish. When she knelt in starting position, the camera used to show a close-up of her artfully done nails.
Sorry, I didn't know she had died. My memory of Flo, as Olympia said, was the most glamourous athlete on the track .. and yes I remember her painted fingers and make up. She was actually pretty good looking, IMO. Sad.
 
Joined
Aug 16, 2009
Sorry, I didn't know she had died. My memory of Flo, as Olympia said, was the most glamourous athlete on the track .. and yes I remember her painted fingers and make up. She was actually pretty good looking, IMO. Sad.

It was exceedingly tragic, as you can imagine. She certainly was glamorous, and she clearly enjoyed that aspect of life. There was even a doll made of her, a Barbie-sized doll that actually had a pretty good resemblance to her. (The doll's tiny nails were painted in different bright colors.) FloJo designed her own running attire, and the doll came in a FloJo-style one-long-leg unitard.

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl...oYUvjKMo_o8wT6jIHYBw&ved=0CEgQ9QEwAg&dur=4260

Here's a recent CNN article about FloJo. It says that there was no proof, even from the autopsy, that she took drugs. As her widowed husband Al Joyner said after the autopsy, "She passed the ultimate drug test." A friend of mine who was a runner said (and I don't know enough to verify this), that if you look at her muscle definition, it's a different kind from that caused by anabolic steroids. Between that and the autopsy, I have always given her the benefit of the doubt. Maybe she was just one of those people like Bob Beamon who had a miraculous, once-in-a-lifetime moment at the Games. Maybe I'm wrong, and if I am, I'd be truly sorry to hear it.

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/08/10/sport/olympics-flo-jo-seoul
 
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