ESPN World Fame 100 list

[beachmouse]

I meant to say she is likely not on this 'fame' list based on her current athletic ability/recent achievements - considering she is #21 on this world 'Fame' list and her current WTA ranking is #29.

And Serena Williams is ranked even higher by ESPN despite missing most of the 2017 tennis season for maternity leave.

 

[khtmyzr]

Very interesting observations, Yoa. You mentioned country history, language and such... which led me to look at my country (Thailand)’s data. It’s pretty much 99% Yuzuru (72 provinces out of 77 had Yuzuru as 100% and the province with his lowest percentage was 74%) but what I found was that the province that had the highest percentage for Evgenia (11%) and Alina (16%) was a popular longstay vacation spot for Russian long stay tourists!

 

[shiroKJ]

The devil works hard but GS works harder

 

[CanadianSkaterGuy]

While I agree that a huge part of Hanyu's popularity comes from Japan and Rippon's spread of searches is more balanced across different regions, I don't think that there is a greater diversity of regions that search for Rippon. Rather, Hanyu's immense popularity in Japan makes recognition for him everywhere else seems dwarfed in comparison. For example, the percentage of searches for Hanyu and Rippon in Canada over the past year is approximately the same, but interest for Hanyu in Canada is scored just 2 while Rippon score is 43. In New Zealand, which is a low search volume region for Hanyu and the top 3 for Rippon, interest for Hanyu is greater than for Rippon (https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?geo=NZ&q=/m/05b51vc,/m/02wc4tf).

If you include low search volume regions, you will see that Hanyu has 115 regions listed while Adam has 102. And as I have demonstrated with New Zealand, recognition for Hanyu in his low search volume regions might be higher than Rippon's in his top search regions. In the "compared breakdown by region" section, of all 119 regions listed, Hanyu's percentage of searches is higher than Rippon's in 97 regions. How is that not diverse?

What I mean is, the spread of countries that search for Hanyu is just as diverse as for Rippon, just not as balanced.

Thanks for your analysis! I agree with most of this, however, low search volume regions I don't account for in Google Trends... it's almost like outliers. I'm pretty sure almost every country has at least one person who has Googled Hanyu/Rippon/etc. -- and you could say they have fans in every country.

But as you said, I was referring to diversity of regions, and as you said the balance of search, instead of skewing to one particular country that provides a constant stream of search activity.

And of course, regardless of the popularity argument, it goes without saying that it is incredibly obvious that DWTS boosted Adam Rippon's worldwide relevance, to the point where it was spiking above even Hanyu's worldwide relevance.

 

[narcissa]

Just my experience -- for people in my immediate circle, if they've heard of a figure skater, it's usually Michelle Kwan and Yuna Kim, and then the next most popular one would be Yuzu. Most of them don't know any skaters beyond that, but I think people in my age, geographic, and social group don't really watch reality TV or read celebrity gossip mags, which is probably where most people have heard of Adam Rippon. And I do understand that's a sizable population of the US.

 

[Haleth]

At the time of what I said, Adam Rippon actually did surpass Hanyu in worldwide popularity on his time with DWTS - as in Google search relevance. My quote was: "or Rippon who has recently become arguably more famous (worldwide, that is) than any other figure skater who competed in PC "; and Google Trends supports this. Note the peaks where Rippon's search relevance worldwide surpassed Hanyu's search relevance.

https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=now 7-d&q=/m/05b51vc,/m/02wc4tf

And as I had pointed out earlier, I acknowledge that Rippon has lower numbers overall than Hanyu and his numbers will go back down (I mean, duh, it's not like Americans are searching him on the daily, even when there's no significant news surrounding him); but his spread of search popularity extends to a greater diversity of regions (i.e. not just overwhelmingly from one country/continent).

Rippon's top 10 regions of search interest in the past 7 days: https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=now 7-d&q=/m/02wc4tf
1. United States
2. Canada
3. Finland
4. New Zealand
5. Singapore
6. Australia
7. United Kingdom
8. Austria
9. Sweden
10. Germany

Hanyu's top 10 regions of search interest in the past 7 days: https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=now 7-d&q=/m/05b51vc
1. Japan
2. Hong Kong
3. Taiwan
4. Singapore
5. South Korea
6. Malaysia
7. Philippines
8. Thailand
9. Russia
10. Canada


Maybe that clarifies better what I meant by "recently become arguably more famous worldwide" - the diversity of countries/continents Adam is popular in as well as him actually surpassing Hanyu in search relevance in the past week -- and, contrary to your initial assertion, DWTS has factored into that. And that's based on actual, factual Google Trends - sorry if they're inconvenient for you.

And it's not just DWTS, his popularity has spiked due to him being prolific on social media (which, to be fair, Hanyu doesn't have), and being openly gay and a media darling in PC, and things like being in the Time 100 Most Influential People. http://time.com/collection/most-influential-people-2018/5217596/adam-rippon/ That's so nice they both made Top 100 lists! Although, dammit Cher! You should have done more skating-based research for your write-up -- you should be extolling his Grand Prix medals, his Olympic team bronze medal, his Four Continents win, US title, etc. -- not his Academy Awards outfit!!!

Actually what struck me immediately a lack of racial diversity in the makeup of both lists: the first has 9 countries dominated by peoples of European heritage and 1 country dominated by Asians (Singapore); the second list has 8 countries dominated by Asian peoples and 2 dominated by peoples of European heritage (Russia and Canada. So, slightly more racial diversity in list 2.

Not a surprise that people on the first list gravitated towards a American man of European ancestry, whereas Asians are more interested in an Asian man.

More food for thought: this "worldwide" aka widespread geographic popularity Adam's recently gained is tied strongly to old patterns of European colonialism. Although Asian peoples have migrated and immigrated globally, they dominate countries in Asia.

There are multiple ways of looking through the data that should demonstrate how complicated this discussion could become. You could, for example, examine the countries represented based on the relative size of their skating feds, or the dominant language spoken, or you could explore their historical attitude towards particular races, as well as people of marginalized gender and sexual identities.

Note: this should not imply that I think one skater is automatically better here. If catastrophe struck and deprived us of both men tomorrow (I dearly hope both will live very long, very successful lives), they both will have left behind them a legacy of beautiful skates, as well as a legacy of bettering their home countries in ways that speak to their different lived experiences.


Signed,

Someone who adores both Yuzuru and Adam

 

[khtmyzr]

There are multiple ways of looking through the data that should demonstrate how complicated this discussion could become. You could, for example, examine the countries represented based on the relative size of their skating feds, or the dominant language spoken, or you could explore their historical attitude towards particular races, as well as people of marginalized gender and sexual identities.

Agreed. This can be a whole research paper!

Note: this should not imply that I think one skater is automatically better here. If catastrophe struck and deprived us of both men tomorrow (I dearly hope both will live very long, very successful lives), they both will have left behind them a legacy of beautiful skates, as well as a legacy of bettering their home countries in ways that speak to their different lived experiences.

This :agree:
I’m totally with you. I may have my favorite but I really appreciate all skaters and their hardwork!
(This is not specifically directed to you but) I hope my posts above didn’t come across as rude or trying to put any skaters down