Should the ISU Senior Grand Prix Go Virtual (and be announced NOW)?

[TallyT]

To me, there is a middle path. The ISU could start with a few smaller events, like a challenger. Do the best they can, then evaluate the experiment to see whether it is worthwhile pressing forward or not. If it's a bust, well, no harm done and we are no worse off than before.

Agreed, Challengers and B competitions with prize money but not points. The thing to me is, there isn't time before Skate America (and I am not blaming TPTB for this, everyone worldwide is working in a fog of uncertainty) to do 'trial runs' and iron out on-the-go problems and faults that like it or not will arise from something so new and untried. Suppose it works for some, but others turn into a tech disaster? Do you go back and cancel the results of the lot? - or disadvantage those at the latter and give an unfair advantage to the former?

And our sport isn't a simple 'first over the line, technique be damned' one, so it does matter if things go wrong and even if they don't, the details that should impact PCS and GOE are lost. We are talking about sporting careers big and small here. All very well to say "I want to see skating, I don't care if it's a bit catch-as-catch-can!' but we should care.

Start small. Work out the kinks. See if it's doable and equitable.

 

[karne]

Agreed, Challengers and B competitions with prize money but not points. The thing to me is, there isn't time before Skate America (and I am not blaming TPTB for this, everyone worldwide is working in a fog of uncertainty) to do 'trial runs' and iron out on-the-go problems and faults that like it or not will arise from something so new and untried. Suppose it works for some, but others turn into a tech disaster? Do you go back and cancel the results of the lot? - or disadvantage those at the latter and give an unfair advantage to the former?

And our sport isn't a simple 'first over the line, technique be damned' one, so it does matter if things go wrong and even if they don't, the details that should impact PCS and GOE are lost. We are talking about sporting careers big and small here. All very well to say "I want to see skating, I don't care if it's a bit catch-as-catch-can!' but we should care.

Start small. Work out the kinks. See if it's doable and equitable.

Dinga ling ling, this post folks.

The title of this thread is "should the GP go virtual and be announced NOW". Of course the answer is no - because how could they announce NOW something they don't even know how it will work and is fraught with complications? Do you want them to announce it NOW and work out the problems on the fly? Because that's asking for disaster. And we don't know what will happen. Four weeks ago Australia was doing well. Now we're falling under a second wave. The same could yet be true in Europe. We can't make plans for anything because we don't know what the rona will do next.

 

[Skatesocs]

It shouldn't happen this season - or ever, IMO. But I do want to understand some ideas.

It doesn't need to be live-streamed. You can start the video with a shot of the skater holding up a phone/labtop that displays the official world clock time (maybe even through a specific link on the ISU website for further foolproofing), and then keep that phone/labtop in frame of the camera to verify the skater's performance is taking place at the set time they have chosen to compete.

I think some of the rebuttals you were getting for this were ridiculous; this is a good enough idea, IMO, and addresses one of my concerns.

But I do think that recording performances and sending them to the ISU kills one exciting part of the competition - the competitors no longer have information about how the person before them skated. This changes strategy (and kills a visually exciting aspect of competition, for me). Do you think this is correct, or do you disagree? I'd say we no longer have on-the-fly changes of strategy in the same way as before. Of course some is preserved - if someone misses a combo, they can add it back somewhere else - but how does anyone know what happened before them and what score they need to beat? How to mess with the psyche of who comes after them? I'd love to hear how this affects the psychology of athletes, if I'm correct.

(a funny thing that can happen is people can send in ridiculous planned program content to the ISU to mess with others)

While I hope we can return to regular competitions as soon as possible, this is something about virtual competitions that really is more fair, and we should be pushing for virtual competitions ASAP to keep competitive skating going.

1. Would this mean you'd be in favour of virtual competitions being permanent? Did you think of such a thing before the pandemic happened?
2. I think you meant internationally competitive skating. National competitions are already happening in places like Russia (which was already known when this thread was opened) - and they preserve the structure of the competition, unlike what I understand to be your idea of virtual competitions.

I really did wonder if they could just invite some of the international players to the countries they were training in, and seems like that's a plan, and I'm much more in favour of that. A regular setting would give them much needed training for how an actual competition at the Olympics will happen, mentally speaking. Which brings me to:

You don't seem to know what you're talking about: There is much discussion right now that the 2021 Summer Olympics might not be held at all, or will have to be done as a virtual competition. Covid 19 is a far bigger and longer-lasting problem than H1N1 was.

Where, when, and by whom was this discussed? If there are any official ideas why didn't anyone bring them to the thread? If it was simply an idle thought like "oh maybe we will have to do the Olympics as a virtual competition", it's not particularly interesting. But if they really want to hold them virtually, they better announce what they plan asap so that the athletes can start training.


Coming to a much less important aspect of the discussion:

A live audience can help to make a performance more impactful, but if all skaters are asked to compete in the same setup of knowing they instead must perform with a single camera watching (or rather 2 cameras would be needed, but 1 of them would just be used for technical element replays as needed, to ensure a viewpoint of the blade is available), then it's fair.

It might be "fair" for everyone to know this, but performing to a camera vs audience are still different skills. Skaters don't really train the two skills in the same way or to the same extent, nor are they really expected to. This could worsen all the performances because a lot of the skaters won't know how to project to a camera, or it could creat unfair advantages who for the ones who have trained this skill specifically (which isn't the same as everyone knowing which skating skills are available to them and don't/can't train some of them).

 

[fallingsk8er]

Have the events. No spectators
Basketball makes it work. So does hockey

 

[Artemisa]

Have the events. No spectators
Basketball makes it work. So does hockey

And even Tour of France .. makes it work.. football makes it's work.. why so much drama in figure skating... the early stages of champions are already being played... change to places that only needs a covid test and no quarantine ..

 

[anonymoose_au]

They definitely should go virtual! It was in our news today that cases are on the rise again in Europe.

I wouldn't want to go to the US right now either yikes!