Media fragmentation is the absolute #1 reason. Media prominence dictates interest rather than anything inherent to figure skating. I've been watching the figure skating ratings in Russia(I'm American not Russian btw) and there's a gigantic different between being on Channel One and being on Match TV... and a big difference between being showed on live on prime time and being shown taped in a afternoon. Tangentially, figure skating never did a good job cultivating a local tradition of watching and going to figure skating events anywhere. There's nothing like Thanksgiving football or the New Years Rose Bowl for figure skating. There's nothing like UFC's 4th of July fight week in Las Vegas every year.
The #2 reason is having winners(or at least those in the hunt to win) you can identify with... which regularly comes down to nationalism. There's a chicken and egg situation between #1 and #2. The Medvedeva/Zagitova showdown helping to save the 2018 Olympics for Russia set the stage for Channel One taking up the rights to figure skating. Now that we're in the quad/3A era for ladies, there is room to create new "winners" with a tech-limited version of skating. https://www.goldenskate.com/forum/s...tic-programs&p=2477989&viewfull=1#post2477989
Before going further it's important to note that 80s/90s figure skating has a lot of extra things going for it. There was an extra Olympics which probably came at the absolute best time. The US/Western and USSR rivalries which led to shared tours after the fall of the Soviet Union. The jump technical needed to win was both still fresh and interesting but good for artistry(no long setup... easy to balance jumps and art). The spins didn't last quite as long and had fewer positions... the spectator could rest their eyes on the spin and movements in the spin could be more timed with the music making them more projecting and impactful. The culture in general back then fit figure skating better... it was more romantic and less raw... the decline of figure skating dovetails pretty closely to the decline of love ballads and slow dancing. And I don't think that's completely accidental.
Before critiquing IJS, Mathman's point that figure skating's popularity was declining before IJS or even before the 2002 Olympics is important. I remember finding a comment from him saying that a while back and I found an old article confirming it(that I wish I could find now)
#3=#4=#5: figure skating is too repetitive, there's not enough freedom to make interesting programs, figure skating's culture(just like the broader culture) is exhausted
#3 Figure skating is repetitive. It's repetitive for each skater for the season because they're doing the same program over and over again. A mid-season program changeup for all the Grand Prix qualifiers would make things interesting... having all the very top medal qualifying skaters dust off an old program(which is not done enough) or get a new program would make things a lot more interesting. The whole one program for the whole season paradigm needs to be disrupted. But the ISU has to step in as the skaters themselves won't do it(nor is it smart to do it).
#4 Figure skating is repetitive between skaters because there is not enough freedom in the rules for the skaters to differentiate themselves from one another and create interesting programs. There needs to be more time per jump pass. Some elements in the program should be able to be substituted for one another(let's say, replace a 2A with a spiral or a series of steps... part of the steps with a spiral or spin... a spin with spiral or some steps... etc). It should be able to split up the step sequences and maybe spins. The way spins are judged completely needs to be reworked for seniors I'd rather they all be judged on GOE and how they fit choreographically. Pairs is the discipline that needs this the most IMO... the idea that every single program needs a twist lift and a death spiral is something I find ridiculous. When I watch old pairs programs from the 60s and early 70s I just can't help but feel the way pairs has developed is extremely myopic. A couple of the big pair elements should be required of a team... but let a couple of the overhead and twist lifts be replaceable with more throws and side by side jumps. Or with icedance style lifts. Let the death spiral be replaceable with a close hand dance section.
#5 Figure skating's culture is exhausted. The repetition in skating music is getting really bad(see 3 Schindler's lists programs at the last Men's FS... and people on twitter listed other examples during the season of the same thing happening)... kind of like Hollywood obsession with reboots. The choreographers are too stuck in figure skating culture and there's a conservatism away from doing something new when it's easier to just reuse what worked already. It's time for radical change here... in every non-Olympic year one of the programs(alternate between SP or FS... don't let them choose which one) should be done to music no one else has ever done before on the senior circuit... and perhaps allow skaters to put "dibs" on one of their programs for the Olympics(though maybe restrict it to the top 12 at the previous worlds)
These issues are what will cause people to lose interest eventually even in countries where there are winners and when it's widely promoted.
The problem with IJS is that the art of persuasion is lost. The IJS makes it too easy to kind of entrap the judge... but the skater is kind of entrapped to skate a certain way for the judge. I just think it would be better if skating and judging was more loose and more judges were added while cracking down on cheaters. Countries with skaters in a position to win a medal after the short program should be switched out of the judging panel.
I agree and disagree with the idea that "stars" are needed for figure skating's popularity. Those that say this usually yearn for Yuna, Mao, Kostner but they had their down times... often at the same time which was very bad. I think it's more important to have constantly interesting and competitive events than it is to have any individual or even group of "stars". But more needs to be done to cultivate performance and star quality. Cultivation in figure skating has become too myopically focused on jumps. I think for juniors and below the jumps should be split off of the short program and new requirements like spirals and other choreographic moves should be added to help cultivate artistic flexibility. If you don't condition and cultivate skaters to perform without jumps they won't have a performance frame of reference for when they are skating with jumps. And this reference is important or else the jumps become a performance crutch. Star quality is immeasurable, but the best approximation is being able to perform well without jumps. So start measuring that for juniors and novices.
Figure skating could have used a good promoter leading it. The ISU has not been headed by a figure skater since 1980... to put it in perspective, MTV launched in 1981.
The #2 reason is having winners(or at least those in the hunt to win) you can identify with... which regularly comes down to nationalism. There's a chicken and egg situation between #1 and #2. The Medvedeva/Zagitova showdown helping to save the 2018 Olympics for Russia set the stage for Channel One taking up the rights to figure skating. Now that we're in the quad/3A era for ladies, there is room to create new "winners" with a tech-limited version of skating. https://www.goldenskate.com/forum/s...tic-programs&p=2477989&viewfull=1#post2477989
Before going further it's important to note that 80s/90s figure skating has a lot of extra things going for it. There was an extra Olympics which probably came at the absolute best time. The US/Western and USSR rivalries which led to shared tours after the fall of the Soviet Union. The jump technical needed to win was both still fresh and interesting but good for artistry(no long setup... easy to balance jumps and art). The spins didn't last quite as long and had fewer positions... the spectator could rest their eyes on the spin and movements in the spin could be more timed with the music making them more projecting and impactful. The culture in general back then fit figure skating better... it was more romantic and less raw... the decline of figure skating dovetails pretty closely to the decline of love ballads and slow dancing. And I don't think that's completely accidental.
Before critiquing IJS, Mathman's point that figure skating's popularity was declining before IJS or even before the 2002 Olympics is important. I remember finding a comment from him saying that a while back and I found an old article confirming it(that I wish I could find now)
#3=#4=#5: figure skating is too repetitive, there's not enough freedom to make interesting programs, figure skating's culture(just like the broader culture) is exhausted
#3 Figure skating is repetitive. It's repetitive for each skater for the season because they're doing the same program over and over again. A mid-season program changeup for all the Grand Prix qualifiers would make things interesting... having all the very top medal qualifying skaters dust off an old program(which is not done enough) or get a new program would make things a lot more interesting. The whole one program for the whole season paradigm needs to be disrupted. But the ISU has to step in as the skaters themselves won't do it(nor is it smart to do it).
#4 Figure skating is repetitive between skaters because there is not enough freedom in the rules for the skaters to differentiate themselves from one another and create interesting programs. There needs to be more time per jump pass. Some elements in the program should be able to be substituted for one another(let's say, replace a 2A with a spiral or a series of steps... part of the steps with a spiral or spin... a spin with spiral or some steps... etc). It should be able to split up the step sequences and maybe spins. The way spins are judged completely needs to be reworked for seniors I'd rather they all be judged on GOE and how they fit choreographically. Pairs is the discipline that needs this the most IMO... the idea that every single program needs a twist lift and a death spiral is something I find ridiculous. When I watch old pairs programs from the 60s and early 70s I just can't help but feel the way pairs has developed is extremely myopic. A couple of the big pair elements should be required of a team... but let a couple of the overhead and twist lifts be replaceable with more throws and side by side jumps. Or with icedance style lifts. Let the death spiral be replaceable with a close hand dance section.
#5 Figure skating's culture is exhausted. The repetition in skating music is getting really bad(see 3 Schindler's lists programs at the last Men's FS... and people on twitter listed other examples during the season of the same thing happening)... kind of like Hollywood obsession with reboots. The choreographers are too stuck in figure skating culture and there's a conservatism away from doing something new when it's easier to just reuse what worked already. It's time for radical change here... in every non-Olympic year one of the programs(alternate between SP or FS... don't let them choose which one) should be done to music no one else has ever done before on the senior circuit... and perhaps allow skaters to put "dibs" on one of their programs for the Olympics(though maybe restrict it to the top 12 at the previous worlds)
These issues are what will cause people to lose interest eventually even in countries where there are winners and when it's widely promoted.
The problem with IJS is that the art of persuasion is lost. The IJS makes it too easy to kind of entrap the judge... but the skater is kind of entrapped to skate a certain way for the judge. I just think it would be better if skating and judging was more loose and more judges were added while cracking down on cheaters. Countries with skaters in a position to win a medal after the short program should be switched out of the judging panel.
I agree and disagree with the idea that "stars" are needed for figure skating's popularity. Those that say this usually yearn for Yuna, Mao, Kostner but they had their down times... often at the same time which was very bad. I think it's more important to have constantly interesting and competitive events than it is to have any individual or even group of "stars". But more needs to be done to cultivate performance and star quality. Cultivation in figure skating has become too myopically focused on jumps. I think for juniors and below the jumps should be split off of the short program and new requirements like spirals and other choreographic moves should be added to help cultivate artistic flexibility. If you don't condition and cultivate skaters to perform without jumps they won't have a performance frame of reference for when they are skating with jumps. And this reference is important or else the jumps become a performance crutch. Star quality is immeasurable, but the best approximation is being able to perform well without jumps. So start measuring that for juniors and novices.
Figure skating could have used a good promoter leading it. The ISU has not been headed by a figure skater since 1980... to put it in perspective, MTV launched in 1981.