Does Skating owe a big thanks to Tonya?

[Joesitz (RIP)]

I wonder how much the judging scandal at Salt Lake City actually affected the popularity of figure skating.

Why wonder? Consider the declining numbers at attendance in skating in home towns like Skate America, Skate Canada, etc. Why should people see an athletic event when they know it is rigged?

As to the historical cheating, well, Ulrich and Fuchs probably had more than skating to dislike each other for. Skating was not all that popular then. It was Jackson Haines that made it popular, and he did it with music. Sonia did it with travelling shows and movies. Show skating is still the big family thing. Competitive skating has gone down hill, and I believe it is due to SLC.

Joe

 

[Tonichelle]

or maybe it's because the USFSA jacked up it's prices so that you have to rob a bank for the nosebleed section...it's really only the US that has a very limited interest... or so it seems in my little world lol

 

[Joesitz (RIP)]

or maybe it's because the USFSA jacked up it's prices so that you have to rob a bank for the nosebleed section...it's really only the US that has a very limited interest... or so it seems in my little world lol

It's not that popular in Albania, the UK, France, even Russia.. And the people in the nosebleed section are doing fine when they move down further to ice for empty seats.

 

[Mathman]

You might be right, Joe, but I'm still not sure that the Salt Lake City scandal was any more detrimental to the public image of the sport than all the others.

Herma Szabo won five World Championships from 1922 to 1926. In 1927 there were three Norwegian judges, one German and one Austrian. The three Norwegian judges gave the gold medal to Sonia Henie (her first of ten), the two Germanic judges voted for the German Szabo. Everyone knew it would turn out that way as soon as they saw the list of judges.

BTW, here is the complete list of ladies who have won five or more world championships: Szabo, Henie, Heiss, Kwan.

 

[Joesitz (RIP)]

In days of yore we can not be sure what the popularity (attending paying fans or curious fans) of the sport was in numbers. I would prefer to think about the present state of the sport. It certainly was talked about and grew from the tragedy in the 60s with Flemming and enhanced with Hammil. I pretty much disappeared from skating due to work so I don't know how much Lynne had an effect on skating. I do know that the Canadian boys were bringing in the Technical as a positive contribution. Wide World of Sports did have an effect on attendance at skating events.

Interest in sports due to media blitz zoomed with a black gal v. a communist gal.
Russian Pairs were sooo popular and it too brought attendance up (fans of art and not tricks) and then there was the American Chinese gal coming on the scene which blew away all the other American skaters. Skating was at its pinnacle.

It was SLC, imo, that started the down spiral of interest in paying customers to see competitive skating. If one had a casual interest in the sport, how could one pay to see a rigged game? We, imo, are like those fans of wrestling knowing it could be fixed but still must watch.

Joe

 

[Kwanford Wife]

It was SLC, imo, that started the down spiral of interest in paying customers to see competitive skating. If one had a casual interest in the sport, how could one pay to see a rigged game? We, imo, are like those fans of wrestling knowing it could be fixed but still must watch.

Joe

:agree: This is totally spot on... I've been a fan of skating FOREVER... and chose to work in sports marketing mainly because my continued love of the sport gave me access to other random sports highlighted on the Wide World of Sports & its been a fun career... however, I've always known in the back of my mind that at any given moment in time the fix could be in & my favorite would be cheated... so different from say soccer - get the ball in the net one more time than the other team. If skating fans weren't comfy with the whole notion of the fix, why do we have 20 page long threads that STILL debate who should've won in Nagano? (Tara won. Kwan lost. Life went on. Let it go.) Or the oh so famous "she was held up" line...

After 2002, it was almost embarassing to admit I was an uber fan... the sport as a sport lost all crediability and once again became an "athletic performance." I don't see how CoP is addressing that, but that's a moot point now....

As for Tonya: I do think that US skating should be grateful, but I don't think it owes her a damn thing... and I'm a HUGE Tonya fan... Here's why: Nancy Kerrigan was not the US's best chance for a gold medal. She was a major headcase who could not be counted on to pull it out when it counted. Sloppy, boring and tedious are the best three words to describe her programs. Tonya on the other hand had a lethal weapon, huge talent and while not the most elegant of skaters, she was never boring. If she'd trained, she would've won Nationals. Heck, if she didn't train, she had a 50/50 shot. The US was not going to send Kwan to the Olympics - she was a child!

And what does she do? She allows her husband to attack Nancy leaving the practice ice. And does this in Detroit (my hometown that I love like the Shire...) because the assumption is that Detroit is sooo wicked & violent, it wouldn't be suspcious that she was attacked there... Are you kidding me?

Then she goes to the Games late, outta shape & jet lagged while doing paid interviews with Inside Edition... Please. Neither really had a shot beating Oksana - but both could've made the podium. And both would've have lucrative pro careers... Now Nancy has tv specials and Tonya has nothing. Cheaters never win. (unless its me playing Texas Hold 'em)

Tonya Harding has nobody to blame but herself...

 

[scorekeeper]

It seems to me that Tonya's always been her own worst enemy. Should skating thank her? Perhaps not, although it seems to me that the scandal resulted in an explosion of events that earned a lot of people (not just skaters) a tidy sum of money. Including Nancy. I was never a fan of hers -- to me, her skating was as dull as her personality -- but I think the scandal gained her a lot of fans she might not have had otherwise.

 

[Tinymavy15]

never a fan of kerrigan, i still can't say that Tonya really brought anything to the sport. sure she landed the triple axel but it asan't very nice to look at it. She had a very masculine stlye of skating and didn't even try to 'dance' on the ice.