Interview with Karen Preston | Golden Skate

Interview with Karen Preston

BlackPack

Medalist
Joined
Mar 20, 2013
"I think that skating took a huge hit in Salt Lake City, and the average TV fan doesn't understand why someone who falls three times wins against someone who stands up. It gets confusing and hard to follow."

None of the Olympic Champs in SLC fell.
 

LiamForeman

William/Uilyam
Medalist
Joined
Nov 24, 2006
"I think that skating took a huge hit in Salt Lake City, and the average TV fan doesn't understand why someone who falls three times wins against someone who stands up. It gets confusing and hard to follow."

None of the Olympic Champs in SLC fell.

I think she is referring to the present situation with Chan.
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
Although, Sale and Pelletier did fall a teeny bit in the closing pose of the short program. ;)
 

Rachmaninoff

Final Flight
Joined
Nov 10, 2011
"I think that skating took a huge hit in Salt Lake City, and the average TV fan doesn't understand why someone who falls three times wins against someone who stands up. It gets confusing and hard to follow."

None of the Olympic Champs in SLC fell.

She didn't say they did. The SLC kerfuffle was arguably the cause of the new judging system being implemented, which led to programs with multiple falls sometimes still being able to win. Indirect cause/effect.

I think "what's wrong with Canadian women's skating" was a pretty fair question, considering Canada was doing much better in the other three disciplines. Her answer of "it's a tough sport" really isn't much of an answer. It's a tough sport for all countries in all disciplines, so that doesn't explain the way countries compare with each other or why a country would be so much better in one discipline than another.

Of course, it's important to try to pinpoint what the problem could be and try to find solutions rather than just complaining about how poorly the women's singles are doing. (Is the very high volume of skaters hindering the development of the best ones? Are they being identified less often, falling through the cracks? Are they getting less attention, less opportunities to compete with skaters who will push them? Is the way jumps are being trained a factor, are they not being encouraged to do difficult triples early on? These are possible explanations I've heard.) I don't know why they seem to be doing better now and if anything has changed to bring that about, so I can't comment on that.
 

coppertop1

On the Ice
Joined
Sep 19, 2006
Karen's comment about how the CFSA (now Skate Canada) wasn't always supportive of her is interesting, it reminds me of when Angela Derochie's coach, Peter Dunfield, got mad at David Dore, who was the head of the CFSA at the time after the 1998 Worlds. Dore said he wanted a skater like Michelle Kwan, he just wanted a skater who can contend. At the time, Canadian women were in a bad slump, between 1995 and 1999, the highest finish was Jennifer Robinson's 18th at 1999 Worlds. Derochie finished 20th at Worlds, she was injured with a hip flexor. Karen retired after 1994, but I wonder if she had stuck around, we might have been in a better spot, with an experienced skater. Though I don't blame her for retiring.
 
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