Pre Title IX, figure skating was one of the few games in town for athletic girls. Even if you didn't medal or become an elite skater, you had a chance of working in the Ice Capades as well as coaching. When I was young, Ladies Figure Skating was one of the very, very few sports where Americans had a chance of the OGM. Sometimes it was the only one. So being the OGM Ladies winner was a big and lucrative deal.
Nowadays, there's no professional skating circuit, skating is expensive and there a lots of other less-expensive options for athletic girls. Unlike gymnastics, diving, tennis, soccer, etc., there's no NCAA skating league. Kids don't get figure-skating scholarships.
We'll get a better pool of skaters if it's more affordable and there's a pot of some sort of coinage at the end of the rainbow. In some ways, it's surprising that the U.S. is strong in any disciplines right now. It helps that the center of ice dance is in very affordable Detroit. It's not an accident that a lot of skaters come out of the SF Bay Area, there's enough of a history that there's this little skating culture that's there and there are enough affluent parents that they can afford skating lessons and rink time. Though, on the flip side, it's so expensive that the big-name coaches are mostly elsewhere.
Nowadays, there's no professional skating circuit, skating is expensive and there a lots of other less-expensive options for athletic girls. Unlike gymnastics, diving, tennis, soccer, etc., there's no NCAA skating league. Kids don't get figure-skating scholarships.
We'll get a better pool of skaters if it's more affordable and there's a pot of some sort of coinage at the end of the rainbow. In some ways, it's surprising that the U.S. is strong in any disciplines right now. It helps that the center of ice dance is in very affordable Detroit. It's not an accident that a lot of skaters come out of the SF Bay Area, there's enough of a history that there's this little skating culture that's there and there are enough affluent parents that they can afford skating lessons and rink time. Though, on the flip side, it's so expensive that the big-name coaches are mostly elsewhere.