I would love to see a competition between Team Russia and Team Rest of the World, I hope they find a way to organize it when better times will come for the health of our planet. I would also love if they could add a junior skater to each category (a real junior, not being able to compete in senior competitions), to give them further exposure in a fun yet competitive event. I also wouldn't mind if the Olympic team event would use the addition of the total scores of each skaters (like we have seen in the Channel One cup) instead of the ordinal number they are currently using (but holding the team events after the individual ones).
2020-21 Russian Ladies' Figure Skating
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Yeah, exactly! You’ve got to give it to them, russians know how to organize competitions well, esp FS competitions.
Would be cool to see a junior edition too
Look, it wasn't me who said Team Russia vs Team World is better because Russians like cheering for their own country. We all saw how tense feelings in this competition got and that was only within Russia.
The event's format is not designed for a normal figure skating audience especially with the backstage reactions. People will pick their allegiance and root for that team. It's not like a normal figure skating competition where all skaters will be supported. It's not a bad thing that the target audience is different but it means you're more likely to have audience reactions like they had at Sochi.
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I am not sure how competent you are in the matter. You keep writing "GPD" which for me as a person who studied macroeconomics is the same as writing "UAS" instead of "USA" for an American. Russia is maybe #50 in GDP per capita but it is #6 in the world in terms of total GDP PPP based.
List of countries by GDP (PPP) - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
And total GDP is what matters when we talk about the power of a nation. GDP per capita is important when we are talking about standards of living. And here I absolutely agree: we could have done much better than we are doing. But the reasons for that are not what should be discussed in the figure skating board.
One more thing to say. I am not a proponent of PPP based approach. There are a lot of flaws in it. If we talk nominal, Russia is currently #11. But nominal approach has flaws as well: different price levels in different countries and the influence of local currency exchange rate vs. dollar. For example, before the events of 2014 Russia was #7 in nominal GDP. Hence, the most adequate placement would be between PPP and nominal. For Russia it means #8-9 in the world as of today. Finally, it is possible to compare Russia's GDP with Texas - nominal based they are close. But Texas is the second state in the USA economy wise with 30 million people vs. 140 million people in Russia. No one would argue that per capita based nominal the US economy is 4-5 times bigger than Russia.
Now I am done with macroeconomics lecture.
Thanks for correcting my typos and for your interesting Economist lecture. I can't say I learned anything new but it reminded me that I am not diligent about proofreading my post and I will try to do so in the future.I don't disagree with what you are saying. Nor, do I wish to argue about the reasons for these Economic conditions. Nor to insult Russia or Russians who are proud, creative people with a fascinating culture and history. However, the basic fact remains that Russia is not a competitor of the West. It doesn't have the Economic or Political power to be such. It likes to frame itself that way for domestic political reasons and sometimes Western governments do that as well for their own political reasons. In the end, the facts tell a different story. That is all I am saying, and for this forum the only thing that is important is figure skating. In figure skating, Russia is top of the World. But, figure skating is best appreciated as an individual sport free of political bias. So, I don't like nationalistic competitions that pit one country against another. I didn't like them in America and I wouldn't be interested in watching such competitions in Russia. That's just my opinion.
If you're talking about my post, this isn't what I meant, sorry. It was something Medvedeva herself said in that interview.
That certainly doesn't mean it would encourage ugly behavior from the Russians. Just that the show is for the Russians, so naturally the networks will try to cater it towards Russians. Why wouldn't they? If Russians like supporting Team Russia, then so be it.
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There are perceptions related to individuals and there is the objective reality which can be defined as the truth accepted by the vast majority. The reality is that the main sports event in the world is the Olympics. And no competition with the exception of the World Cup is as nationalistic as the Olympics. All those tables with medals, all this rant what is more important: the number of gold medals or the total medal count, etc. The Olympics is the worst of all because every time when they are not in the "correct" country there is a significant boycott movement in the West. At the same time one can rant about her dislike of Olympics - so far they are here to stay and remain the source of aspiration to the athletes worldwisde as well as the key event to spectators with exorbitant ticket prices. I just don't want to recollect my Korea Olympics budget. With all this adding the figure skating competition similar to JO but with Russia as a headliner and with all 4 disciplines is hardly inappropriate.
As for Russia vs. the West direct comparisons based on GDP or other metrics mean little. With just 300 spartans Leonid faced a huge army of Xerxes. Russia is still a world power despite big lagging behind economic wise. I just don't want to go political with explanations why it is true. Moreover, it's irrelevant. The only relevant thing is that Russia is the power in figure skating. I am glad that we have the same view on that.
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That's kind of a gross misrepresentation.
A History of Boycotts of the Olympic Games
Can sports and politics ever be separated?
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Exactly. Under no circumstances do I want to see an event that is about TeamRussia vs TeamUS/Foreigners/Westerners(?), in Russia, by a Russian channel.
We saw how the Russian audience behaved in Sochi. And it still makes me nauseous to remember.
Also, skaters like Meghan Duhamel and others have stated that they actively tried to avoid or disliked attending Rostelecom Cup during the GP because they felt there was often questionable scoring and an unpleasant atmosphere from an over the top pro-Russian audience.
Also, take a look at how Russia is mishandling Covid to the point athletes are asking "will we have to share a hotel with the Russians at worlds?".
So, I'm not sure international skaters would even want to attend such an event.
Keep doing it domestically, it's great entertainment and Russia has amazing skaters.
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It is, but I do agree that the Olympics is to nationalistic for my liking. Not because of the few boycotts that have occurred throughout history, the justifications for which each person may or not agree with, but because many people only care about how many medals their country gets and don't pay attention to the stories of the individual athletes and the beauty of amazing personal and team achievements. The same nationalism leads some federations to use substances that might endanger their athletes long-term health so that they can be on top of the table. Extreme nationalism is tragic in a sport like figure skating where many skaters offer beautiful performances that won't be appreciated by many due to nationalistic bias. But, this is far off the topic of this thread. I see no need for further nationalistic events. I would definitely prefer a friendly one.That's kind of a gross misrepresentation.
Olympics held in both Eastern and Western countries have been boycotted by both Eastern and Western countries for complex political reasons that go far beyond "correctness" and to protest large-scale human rights violations that go far beyond "correctness".A History of Boycotts of the Olympic Games
Can sports and politics ever be separated?matadornetwork.com
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Very interesting point Alex about the ratings of the NBA finals and this exhibition team event in Russia that garnered a lot of worldwide attention.
NBA is tanking and deservedly so. The NBA finals were down over 60% and the ratings are tanking this year and ESPN has its worst ratings ever. Lol. But I get the feeling figure skating is tanking in the US as well and I can't put my finger on it. Maybe they dont market it well enough maybe they don't have stars any more. I guess you can call Nathan Chen a star he is world champion but hes the 1st star in American figure skating in a long time. I just don't know hes a big enough personality to bring millions of viewers to the audience. I thought Alysa could do it with her charm and smile but puberty has hit her hard and she's trying to find her way through that. She has big star potential. But it will be very hard for her to win major titles in the future with all the Russian girls at the top with a couple Japanese girls and a Korean girl or 2.
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I think it would be fantastic.
The rest of the world can make some money in Russia as well.
Plus the competition will have a great story line for fans of Russian ladies skating: Did the rest of the disciplines amass enough of a cushion before the ladies skate?
The ladies part is going to be the textbook definition of one way traffic. Haha
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Considering Duhamel's behaviour and talks about e. g. Alina she is the very last person in figure skating whose words about alleged bias have any value for me. And as for "handling the situation", I'm sorry but when I look at countries all around the world, incl. my own and several of our neighbours, it once again looks to me like "we have to find someone who we will ridicule about his incompetence just to divert the attention from our capital failures" (because sorry but the official numbers are often complete joke at least here in Europe from Poland to UK)
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Also a lot of the differences have to do with the fact that in one country it’s a big mainstream sport shown in prime time on National TV and in another it’s not.
When is the last time you saw a major sports/news outlet cover figure skating in the USA without Nancy or Tanya being involved?
Plus, well, it's just a TV show. If someone doesn't want to do a TV show (not an official competition, those concerns are much more valid) in Russia for whichever reason, then... Don't? And if you don't like it then don't watch
I do find it kind of funny that despite all the objections, people have certainly been watching all these events, and been complaining about them.
!
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Can I go?Plus, well, it's just a TV show. If someone doesn't want to do a TV show (not an official competition, those concerns are much more valid) in Russia for whichever reason, then... Don't? And if you don't like it then don't watch
Give me a few thousand dollars and you can boo me all day. Haha
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I will give Medvedeva credit though.
She managed to fit in more excuses in 3 minutes than I thought humanly possible. And had time left over to throw her skaters under bus as well.
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I don't know. Good point.
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That is nonsense and simplification ad absurdum, but for people who dont understand basics of economics, its likeable simplification.That is a political view only in Russia. For Western countries, the real competitor is China, not Russia which has a GPD the same size as the US state of Texas
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