Debris on the Ice

So, do skaters get deductions for costume parts not staying with their rightful owner? Anyone know about this?

dr.frog said:

At 2001 Four Continents, Anabelle Langlois had a bead explosion on her costume. She and her partner spent several minutes trying to pick up the pieces, then the ice sweepers spent several minutes trying to pick up more pieces, then they sent out one of the ice crew with a squeegee, and finally the referee decided it was necessary to have an unscheduled Zamboni break before the next pair could skate. I've never seen anything nearly that disruptive happen from stuffed toys thrown on the ice. In fact, when there have been problems with spectators throwing excessive/inappropriate stuff on the ice, it's almost always been from junk handed out for free in the arena lobby (6.0 signs, pom-poms, those stupid Chevy logo things at 2002 US Nationals) rather than things that people buy themselves as gifts for the skaters.

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Glacierskater said:

So, do skaters get deductions for costume parts not staying with their rightful owner? Anyone know about this?

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Under CoP they do. Last year in the Cup of Russia FD, both Chait/Sakhnovsky and Winkler/Lohse received deductions -1 "Costume & Prop Violation."

Sk8Bunny said:

As Im reading the thread above, Ive noticed that the majority of posters think that throwing items is a very bad idea. From a skaters perspective, I happen to love it when friends and family throw me stuffed animals on the ice after I compete. I think this tradition is a good one to continue. Skaters love receiving gifts after a performance. However, I do agree that flowers can leave petals, etc on the ice and it can be damaging to a skater. When my freinds/family throw things, it is always stuffed animals, with no decoration on them. I agree that flowers and plush toys that have the potential to shed off parts of themselves should be forbidden from being thrown. But I do not think it is a good idea to ban throwing stuffed animals all together. Just make sure the object has no potential to leave any part of it on the ice surface, imo.

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OK, I can agree with you. Stuffed animals that are in ONE PIECE and do not have beads and other stuff that can fall off are nice, and I'm sure the skaters appreciate receiving this kind of tribute from the audience. However, flowers are a real problem. I remember a number of competitions in which skaters mysteriously "tripped" over the ice and/or they spotted some debris on the ice and had to skate with extreme caution around that area whenever their routine took them to that area. Tossing flowers is a bad idea, IMHO - it simply isn't worth the potential risk to the skaters. I'm not saying that only those folks who fork over mega bucks for rinkside seats can show appreciation to the skaters.
Just be careful what you throw!!!!!!!

A little bit off topic, but does flash photography going off in the skaters' faces really bother them? There are always announcements about no flash photography, but there are still one or two jokers in the front row who do it anyway.

Mathman

I remember reading after Nationals '04 that some people wanted Kwan's fans arrested for throwing those stuffed animals. They felt it was a threat to other skaters or something.
Is this unacceptable behaviours? To throw stuff animals or chevy cars? I always thought it was just what people did and has been done for years.

Mathman said:

A little bit off topic, but does flash photography going off in the skaters' faces really bother them? There are always announcements about no flash photography, but there are still one or two jokers in the front row who do it anyway.Mathman

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It doesn't take much knowledge of photography to know that a flash is to brighten a nearby object (life a face on cloudy day.


Taking a flash photo of La Belle Kwan from the stands will not reach her. Yet the flashes go off. It's kind of pretty to see but useless in photography.

Joe

Mathman said:

A little bit off topic, but does flash photography going off in the skaters' faces really bother them? There are always announcements about no flash photography, but there are still one or two jokers in the front row who do it anyway.

Mathman

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In competitions, where the lights are on, I don't think it disturbs the skaters. Maybe it can cause some distraction to skaters not very experienced? But then again, with the lights on, you don't need flash LOL I suppose in a show, flash photography can be dangerous though and indeed bother the skaters. I've read reviews and read comments about skaters popping jumps (for example) where the cause could have been the flash of a camera. And even if you're sitting somewhere far from the ice, I'm certain it can be distracting, for both the skaters and the audience. Personally, I truly dislike to be watching a show and have people taking photographs with flash.

I suppose it could be a danger. I never really thought of it before. Personally, I think the chance is low. They should hand out a flyer explaining to check for stray stuff and to make sure that flowers are wrapped. That way, fans know that a) there are rules and b) the rules a for a reason.

On a personal note, I splatted after hitting a jelly bean on public session once. So, I suppose it could happen.

SkateFan4Life said:

I must ask a simple question: Do any of the fans who toss flowers and/or other
"stuff" on the ice after their favorite skater performs think for even a milosecond of the potential disaster this debris may cause? Trips, falls, etc. Granted, a group of young skaters always flies out on the ice to retrieve this stuff, and these youngsters do an admirable job. However, I've seen them pick up tiny petals, beads, and other small things that might easily be missed. When the next skater takes to the ice, he, she, or they could be tripped up quite easily.

Remember the pandemonium that followed Michelle Kwan's brilliant long program at this year's US Nationals? The rink was practically covered with flowers, stuffed animals, and other presents. The women's free skate was on prime time live television, so the "cleanup crew" was under the gun to race out, pick up all the stuff and get off the ice so the next skater could perform. Sure, there was a pause for commercials, the interview with Nancy Kerrigan, and the display of Kwan's scores, but there was so MUCH stuff to pick up. Egads!

IMHO, it would be better to give the skaters time to personally accept all the flowers -- I can see the network bigwigs screaming at me -- or to simply prohibit people from purchasing flowers at the arena for tossing onto the ice.

Of course, I'm a neat freak, anyway, and I can't stand clutter. That probably explains my point of view, as far as this topic is concerned.

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Your point is well taken. Throwing flowers and stuffed animals on the ice was not a part of figure skating in the past; As a matter of fact there used to be an announcement at skating events not to throw items on the ice. Most Canadian fans seem to still honour this request. I don't know when it became such a big phenonemon. Maybe the movie "Ice Castles" had something to do with it. Remember the end - all the flowers cascading on the ice? And she was visually impaired!!!

Of course, the skaters do have costume "melt down" from time to time and hair pins, etc.find their way on to the ice. They are used to spotting materials on the ice and dealing with it. Part of the training.

I think fans should respect the safety issue of the skaters and also the time it takes for the "flower girls" to skate out and pick up items tossed onto the ice and avoid this practice.

A bit of history: it used to be common for people to bring their flowers and other gifts to the boards and for the skaters to go around and collect them personally after they were finished skating. But this got out of hand and led to delays at competitions (particularly at 1988 US Nationals, when the men's free skate ended up dragging out well after midnight). So new rules were adopted requiring the skaters to exit the ice promptly after taking their bows. There also didn't used to be ice sweepers -- video of the 1976 Olympics shows Dorothy Hamill struggling for quite a while to pick up all her own flowers, for instance.

At big competitions like US Nationals they now *expect* people to throw gifts for the skaters on the ice and have a whole army prepared to deal with it. They have sweepers assigned to every event and volunteers who collect the stuff into bags, then the bags are tagged with the skaters' names and left for them to pick up backstage when they leave the kiss-and-cry area. Most skaters enjoy getting the gifts -- especially the younger ones who are new to the whole experience -- and it seems like a pretty harmless tradition to me. I'm told that even Michelle Kwan takes great care with the huge piles of gifts and flowers she receives.

A few things I can suggest, though. Most skaters appreciate a well-written fan letter as much as a stuffed toy. Second, you might consider making a donation to the skater's training fund in lieu of a gift, or for skaters like Kwan who don't need the money themselves, a donation to their favorite charity in their honor. Finally, one skater I know has for two years in a row had his bag of "loot" lost or stolen in the confusion backstage at Nationals. If you want to make sure your skater gets your gift, it may be better to present it personally or mail it to them in care of the rink where they train.

Mathman said:

A little bit off topic, but does flash photography going off in the skaters' faces really bother them? There are always announcements about no flash photography, but there are still one or two jokers in the front row who do it anyway.

Mathman

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I'm sure it does bother them sometimes. I remember reading something from a while ago (I can't remember exactly when it was, but I think it was a GP event, maybe last season), when a skater actually fell on a jump because someone took a flash photo at that very second. I assume flash photography is banned because it *can* distract a skater.

Flash photography certainly *does* bother the skaters. In recent years at US Nationals, they have had the skaters themselves doing the blurbs begging people to turn off their flashes and talking about how unfair it is to the skaters to have their concentration ruined by idiots who think the rules don't apply to them.

Seriously, if somebody unexpectedly pointed a flash at *you* from 10 feet away when you were doing something delicate that your whole career depended on, wouldn't *you* be bothered?

At Worlds 2003 in DC, there were numerous announcements saying that flash was forbidden and could affect the skaters' performances. In the Ladies SP Julia Sebestyen fell coming around the short side of the rink on forward cross-overs, marring what had been and continued to be a powerful and otherwise accomplished program, one of the best of the day. There was a very stern announcement after her program about flash, and the Washington Post reported that she may have fallen because of flash.

hockeyfan228 said:

At Worlds 2003 in DC, there were numerous announcements saying that flash was forbidden and could affect the skaters' performances. In the Ladies SP Julia Sebestyen fell coming around the short side of the rink on forward cross-overs, marring what had been and continued to be a powerful and otherwise accomplished program, one of the best of the day. There was a very stern announcement after her program about flash, and the Washington Post reported that she may have fallen because of flash.

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Skating fans who insist on taking flash photographs during competitions should be escorted out of the arena. Their cameras should also be confiscated. I have a "take no prisoners" attitude toward this behavior. It is absolutely, completely STUPID for people to take flash photos during competitions. Where are the brains, folks? Egads. It gives yet another slap in the eye to those of us who attend these competitions and shows.