I agree... with this... especially on the general appeal.... there is a reason why freestyle skiing kept moguls and aerials and dropped ballet as well as artistic swimming now being focused on the team event instead of solosMy gripe with the team event is that it should be after the main event rather than before, other than that I'm fine with it.
As for Solo dance, the judging is even more subjective and random than couples dance, which is going to be the main barrier to seeing it becoming an Olympic Sport. Perhaps with ISU they will propose stricter judging standards, and this can fix it - although with the way couples dance and even free is being judged at the moment I don't see it happening. That being said, popular sports with subjective judging are stating to take off at Olympics.
This now brings to light the viewership challenge. For avid skating fans, it's a fantastic discipline - for people who understand skating skills and the concepts behind high quality turns and steps, it provides a lot of entertainment. For the casual viewer, it doesn't really fulfil a niche as such to really gain high traction - and with marketability concerns it'd be hard to get it to the Olympics. Lots of performance aspects is evident in solo figure - even if the avid viewers can spot the differences in turn/edge quality and cleanliness.
The main thing with solo dance, is that until it takes off most of the top dancers will form couples. If it takes off, this might change in the future - and it'll be interesting to see the effect over say 5 years in the standard. It is however, worth noting, that there are many circumstantial issues that effect getting a partner. Particularly the ratio of women to men.
Some people, mostly women, due to citizenship, height, body shape, location etc and a lot of things out of their control do not have the opportunity to form a partnership in ice dance - especially one to match them. This leaves lots of solo skaters with amazing skating skills unable to compete internationally. This will allow those talents a chance to internationally succeed despite circumstances working against them.
Given the fact that men get partners much easier, I'd except at the senior solo dance level to see much higher quality and depth in the womens category (in addition to on average metrics such as flexibility). The additional strength and power (a.k.a typically the male advantage) doesn't really counteract this, so I can see argument for unisex solo dance (although pattern dances would need adjustments). Especially since the top male ice dancers find it easy to get partners. Of course, if solobdance takes off and becomes a more lucrative competition this might change things in both quality and depth. I'd still expect the women's field to be much deeper.
The last point I want to make may be a little "snobby". When adding a new event to the Olympics, they need to take into account how it will effect the other events. If the quality of the skaters isn't at the level of the more developed disciplines, it might reflect poorly on the other disciplines and damage the popularity of those. I'm not a believer in this point necessarily, but rather explaining another challenge if they want an olympic pathway in the future.
The final thing I want to note is that an event doesn't have to be an Olympic event to be successful. A world championships is meant to find the best skater in the world, and this could make solo dance a successful discipline reguardless of Olympic opportunities - such that we should try be supportive of it, both as preparation for future couples, and just as importantly if not more importantly as a stand alone discipline to allow those strong skaters with circumstantial difficulty a chance to find internationally success.
Last edited: