Gracie Gold opens up about body standards

[Sam-Skwantch]

^^^Couldn't agree with you more. The live chat WAS disgusting. Thank goodness I finally realized it was possible to turn off that chat. Just can't understand the cruelty to some of these ladies who are working so hard!:dumb:

My best guess is that it's 12 year olds who've never seen a good friend or family member suffer. Either that or they are just ignorant and don't realize the strength that their own words can carry. When you hate yourself...it's easy to spread hate onto others.

I would love to see speach like what we see in the YouTube chats actually met with significant punishment. If nothing else at least brought to the parents/owner of the IP address's attention what their children are saying publicly on their account.

 

[Arriba627]

My best guess is that it's 12 year olds who've never seen a good friend or family member suffer. Either that or they are just ignorant and don't realize the strength that their own words can carry. When you hate yourself...it's easy to spread hate onto others.

I would love to see speach like what we see in the YouTube chats actually met with significant punishment. If nothing else at least brought to the parents/owner of the IP address's attention what their children are saying publicly on their account.

You're probably right on the 12 year old thing. Some of the inflammatory, hate speech is pretty awful, and it seems like it doesn't take long for the comments to deteriorate into that. Sometimes it seems like disabling the comments section is the only answer.

 

[Sam-Skwantch]

You're probably right on the 12 year old thing. Some of the inflammatory, hate speech is pretty awful, and it seems like it doesn't take long for the comments to deteriorate into that. Sometimes it seems like disabling the comments section is the only answer.

I try my best to avoid them. Just yesterday I saw Gubanova called fat and Julia called a future plow cow. I can't imagine anyone is that miserable of a person and they are really just trying to make people as miserable as they are on the inside. Not gonna work on me. In fact...I'm convinced that their own misery will catch up with them sooner or later.

I'm a nerdy Karma guy like that eace:

 

[ancientpeas]

I try my best to avoid them. Just yesterday I saw Gubanova called fat and Julia called a future plow cow. I can't imagine anyone is that miserable of a person and they are really just trying to make people as miserable as they are on the inside. Not gonna work on me. In fact...I'm convinced that their own misery will catch up with them sooner or later.

I'm a nerdy Karma guy like that eace:

Some people are only happy when they are getting a response from others. Saying something so ridiculous can only be to get a reaction.

I had never looked at the chat on youtube before but for the most part people seem decent and nice. There are always trolls. That's youtube unfortunately. What is weird is I watch a few GOT live chats during youtube live streams and people there are way better behaved. Take that any way you want to. Maybe it's because most of these chats have mods or maybe because it's a relatively small community and it tends to police itself.

 

[el henry]

Words of wisdom from American ice dancer Joe Johnson on Twitter:

"Friendly reminder but that your unsolicited hot take on an athlete's body/mental state will neither help them, nor reflect well on you"

and :

"This is a pretty universal concept, but one of our own is having a hard time right now and y'all better give her some peace/time to heal"

https://twitter.com/JoeJohnsonIce/status/904067149785731072

Bravo, Joe

 

[skylark]

I agree that the senior level should start after most women have gone through puberty--maybe age 17. What happened to Julia is really sad. Also, there is a sense in which it is not quite fair to compare 4 ft 11 in girls who have not gone through puberty to fully developed women. When they do triple jumps on the ice, they are not doing the same thing.

Agree. The weird thing is that the powers that be apparently haven't realized .... or been able to agree on it, or what to do.

Maybe instead of dividing juniors and seniors by age, there should be height / weight classes in figure skating, like in wrestling. I know all kinds of abuses happen with people trying to fit the correct weight class, but from a purely physics standpoint (comparing apples to apples rather than apples to oranges when looking at what each girl is accomplishing on the ice), that seems more fair than dividing by age.

I think that would be taking it too far. Figure skating is about a whole lot more than measuring rotation, jump height, etc. If it weren't about the intangibles and unmeasurables, many fans would find it rather ho-hum. Not to mention the skaters.

 

[Tavi...]

Umm yes. There's a big difference between I don't want to waste my time at some 'meaningless' competitions and I'm getting help for a problem. If the truth is that she just doesn't want to compete at a 'cheesefest' and the 'seeking help' thing is just a cover-up, then it's disgusting manipulation of fans to announce it less than a week after another big-name skater announces their retirement after suffering from an eating disorder.

Umm, you realize that you've just built up an entire fantasy about Bad Gracie out of nothing but another poster's speculation?

 

[Amei]

Umm, you realize that you've just built up an entire fantasy about Bad Gracie out of nothing but another poster's speculation?

Nowhere in my post did I claim she was lying, all I said was if she did lie it was disgusting.

 

[heyang]

Words of wisdom from American ice dancer Joe Johnson on Twitter:

"Friendly reminder but that your unsolicited hot take on an athlete's body/mental state will neither help them, nor reflect well on you"

and :

"This is a pretty universal concept, but one of our own is having a hard time right now and y'all better give her some peace/time to heal"

https://twitter.com/JoeJohnsonIce/status/904067149785731072

Bravo, Joe

So very true. There are so many trolls on message boards because it's an easy place to hide. Many post just to get a reaction and , unfortunately, places like Facebook will post the most frequently reacted to posts, which just seems to incite the trolls.

I hope Gracie gets the help she needs to battle her demons. While not ideal timing, it's not as though she can't train. Other skaters have had to scale back on training prior to Nationals/Olympics and have gone on to success at either and /or both events (i.e. 94 Kerrigan, 98 Kwan.) It's been apparent during the past seasons that Gracie has had to battle something inside herself as she is a very talented skater, but hasn't been skating consistently well and restrains herself during competitions.

 

[NaVi]

FWIW, I think soon there will actually be less pressure on ladies skaters because ironically there can't be such high expectations when there are so many other good skaters to compete with. Also, a lot of what went wrong with Gracie(and Yulia) were issues of media management and I think people will be a lot smarter about how they handle that in the future.

 

[GrandmaCC]

No one gifted Ashley with her mindset. She had to earn it.

Really? You seriously couldn't figure out what I was saying? Please tell me English isn't your first language!
Let me rephrase.
"If only there were a way for Gracie to learn and implement the successful mental stategies used by her competitors, both in competition and also life in general" Happy now?? Sheesh.

And whilst we're playing semantics, Ashley didn't EARN her mindset. That's...that not a thing that can be "earned". She DEVELOPED it, or it developed out of necessity due to her family lifestyle, lack of financial support, and status as an underdog.

Ok, now we've cleared that up - it is noteworthy that Ashley has had to fight for her career in a way which Gracie hasn't, and yes, that most definitely would've provided her with an incredible level of mental and emotional fortitude.
Hopefully Gracie can really work on coming into her own, breaking away from being one half of a twin set (her dependence on her sister has always appeared at best to be emotionally stilting), developing a healthy relationship with food (assuming she does in fact have eating issues), the discipline to diet and train healthily at an elite level **IF she wishes to continue to compete, the ability to handle competition...just the ability to be an adult, really. She's had those developmental years controlled heavily by her family and an elderly, out-of-touch coach, and it's obviously having consequences for her.
Hopefully the affluence of and coddling by her family works FOR her, finally, by way of top-notch therapy and a good mix of support and a good "kick up the backside" when required.
I don't know if it can happen in time for the Olympics, but at one point I'd love to see a strong, knowledgeable, emotionally stable Gracie return to competition to realise her potential.

 

[GrandmaCC]

FWIW, I think soon there will actually be less pressure on ladies skaters because ironically there can't be such high expectations when there are so many other good skaters to compete with. Also, a lot of what went wrong with Gracie(and Yulia) were issues of media management and I think people will be a lot smarter about how they handle that in the future.

MEDIA!! Oh boy, that is so incredibly spot on.
I hope coaches of future potential prodigies are paying close attention to the stories of these two ladies!

 

[surimi]

I hope Gracie gets the help she needs to battle her demons. While not ideal timing, it's not as though she can't train.

It's unfortunate that it happened just before the Oly season, but IMO, better deal with it right now than put it off. That would be just letting any ongoing issue fester, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed for Gracie that her courageous move is rewarded.

Nowhere in my post did I claim she was lying, all I said was if she did lie it was disgusting.

Yes, but why speculate at all? It's not like we have any basis for that hypothesis. There's no reason not to believe Gracie; I for one do.

 

[leafygreens]

Yes, but why speculate at all? It's not like we have any basis for that hypothesis. There's no reason not to believe Gracie; I for one do.

In the past, she has had a distorted view of her abilities. She said they should consider putting her on the world team after bombing all season. "This has been a rough season, but I think I'm still one of the best skaters in the United States and the world." This is after all the hype about making improvements with Alex that never materialized. I do not believe anything is improving until we see evidence of it. I support any time she needs to take off to get her head straight, but she and we fans need to be realistic.

 

[OS]

MEDIA!! Oh boy, that is so incredibly spot on.
I hope coaches of future potential prodigies are paying close attention to the stories of these two ladies!

It will also be helpful for the media to self regulate.

For example I am not a fan of any reporter who condemn any skaters for not performing to their expectations. It is rather entitled attitude and bring unrealistic expectations and pressures to the skater and the federations. This expectations will rub off on the fans with nationalistic tendencies.

These are young people, some generosity, kindness, realistic expectations and encouragement can go a long way.

 

[ice coverage]

... her dependence on her sister has always appeared at best to be emotionally stilting ...

Could not disagree more.

Gracie and Carly are best friends and twins.
But when speaking of their closeness, I would not use the word "dependence" (in an unhealthy sense) and would definitely not use the words "emotionally stilting."

Plus we do not know whether geographical distance from Carly has anything to do with Gracie's struggles.

At Gracie's age, I missed my sister a lot. (She and I are not twins, but we always have been very close.)
But I would not say that missing her was a "struggle" for me.
(And in my day and age, the only ways to communicate were snail mail or expensive long-distance phone calls over hard lines. There was no Internet [no e-mail, no Skype, etc.], and there were no cell phones [no unlimited plans, no texting, etc.] or smartphones [no FaceTime and the like]. If you are a grandma in real life, you will know what I mean.)

---

... an elderly, out-of-touch coach ...

Don't agree with calling Frank "out-of-touch" either.

 

[Moxiejan]

It will also be helpful for the media to self regulate.

For example I am not a fan of any reporter who condemn any skaters for not performing to their expectations. It is rather entitled attitude and bring unrealistic expectations and pressures to the skater and the federations. This expectations will rub off on the fans with nationalistic tendencies.

These are young people, some generosity, kindness, realistic expectations and encouragement can go a long way.

Gracie is age 22 and a professional athlete. It is the job of media to accurately report on how she performs as an athlete. It is NOT the job of media to serve as her personal support staff. If anything, the skating media has been far too "hands off" in not calling her out on her lax SoI performances. If the decline in her skating had been more prominently discussed then, perhaps she would have taken steps earlier to deal with the on/off ice reasons for it.

Really, should a reporter covering an NFL game use "generosity and kindness" to describe the performance of a quarterback (same age as Gracie) who throws 4 interceptions?

 

[OS]

Gracie is age 22 and a professional athlete. It is the job of media to accurately report on how she performs as an athlete. It is NOT the job of media to serve as her personal support staff.

Really, should a reporter covering an NFL game use "generosity and kindness" to describe the performance of a quarterback (same age as Gracie) who throws 4 interceptions?

Well... 4 years ago, she was just 18, and before that. In any case, being professional can mean so many different things, just as what is being presidential can mean so many different things to different people these days.

I don't know much about NFL, i doubt it it is the culture of civility in that competitive field, but figure skating is more of a smaller and exclusive cultured sport I'd imagine, so some civility and not sensationalism would be nice.

 

[Hyena]

I haven't always been a fan of Gracie's skating, but I respect the heck out of her natural abilities, her commitment to her training over the years, and the internal battles she's had to fight in competitions. Those battles we have against our own perfectionism and self-doubt are some of the toughest. She seems like a loving person with a lot of strength inside her, even if she doesn't see it right now.

 

[Moxiejan]

Well... 4 years ago, she was just 18, and before that. In any case, being professional can mean so many different things, just as what is being presidential can mean so many different things to different people these days.

Four years ago, when Gracie was 18 (yes, already an adult), she was performing well. The comparison is apples and oranges.
As for "professional" having "different" meanings: To be "professional" in the sports world means that an athlete is being paid, whether directly for performances or indirectly by product sponsors. In no instance does it make a person immune from publicity and/or scrutiny. Don't you think the fans shelling out their $$ for SoI tickets deserved to know that one of the top advertised stars was skating at such a low level?

I don't know much about NFL, i doubt it it is the culture of civility in that competitive field, but figure skating is more of a smaller and exclusive cultured sport I'd imagine, so some civility and not sensationalism would be nice.

And yet, folks complain that skating doesn't get treated like a "real" sport and that there is no prime-time live coverage on the level of the NFL.
But at the same time want skating reporters to write as if they're covering a country club hobby.
Sorry, can't have it both ways.