ISU proposed figure skating changes | Page 3 | Golden Skate

ISU proposed figure skating changes

And in the artistic program we will then have 24 skaters skate to Build A Home, Fix You, Exogenesis, La Terre vue du ciel?
Yup, "being artistic" can easily run into the same dead end that "being fun and energetic" rhythm dance run into this season: very likely, it may become a plain reproduction of cliches, so boring that the audience will cry and beg for the obstacle course to come back.

If they/we/whoever want a figure skating competition be watchable as a variety show, then they/we/whoever need a proper producer approach and a plan how to provide the said variety: slow pieces of music mixed with fast pieces, a spectrum of different choreography/concepts etc. At the moment, I don't see how this could be made possible, changes or no changes.
 
If current singles skating is replaced by an artistic program with no jumps, and a "technical" program with four jumps, I will NEVER watch another figure skating competition in my life. In fact, the day it comes into effect I will never watch ISU skating again from that very moment. I'll see out the existing domestic season I'm interested in, and then it will be goodbye for me. The "sport" will cease to exist for me, it will be dead.

Maybe 16 years from now I tune into the last 6 of the women's event to see what 5time champion of the world Hendrickx is up to these days, or the 16 time champion of Poland Kurakova, but there is no point watching anything more than 30 minutes every four years.

To me ice dance is not really a sport there is so much subjectivity, now there will be four ice dance disciplines, plus pairs will probably be replaced with synchro. But ice dance has it's place, people like it, but we don't need four versions of ice dance or three versions with pairs replaced by synchro.

There will be zero competitive tension, zero risk taking, no "wow" moments like Trusova doing 5 quads at the Olympics or Malinin with 7 quads including a quad axel, just everyone with almost identical content especially in the women's competition, results completely coming down to the subjectivity and politics of the judges.

It's not even a sport any more to have 4 jumps elements across two programs. It's like they removed all the sharp high speed turns from alpine skiing to make it easier for them, put a maximum speed of 80 km/h to make it safer and more accessible for the countries not strong at luge.
 
I wonder if the ISU in all their wisdom with win ban jumps in the artistic program but allow (or even implicitly encourage) back somersaults? :biggrin:

And we all know this is not an anti-Malinin rule. He already receives perfect 10's for his program component scores, he will be just fine. ;)
 
On a lighter note maybe they should bring back barrel jumping as a competition: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1HVBp2p1aE. 😬 :fun:
I wonder if the final winner ever jumped again, after landing on his knees! OUCH!
I have found a newer video. The landing technique has significantly improved over the years!


In fact, it would be very fun to organize a barrel jumping competition between the representatives of all ice sports: figure skating, ice hockey, speed skating... I wonder which team would do the best? :scratch2:
 
I feel like by no longer airing the warm-up on TV, fans and engagement would go down? ... the warmup gives the commentators a chance to talk about the athletes and give viewers (especially first-time or casual viewers) some insight into the skaters lives and stories which I think builds a lot more interest in the sport. Most casual viewers are not going to watch post competition interviews to learn about the skaters, if we no longer have the warmup, all we'll have is Johnnny and Tara talking nonstop about Alysa Liu's comeback in the middle of her free skate :rolleyes: My mom (who couldnt care less about figure skating) only ever watches when they are discussing the skaters life, she only knows skaters by their backstories, not their skating skills haha
 
^ That looks hard to beat.

Maybe other teams could be handicapped? Like, by allowing throw jumps for figure skaters?
OK , you made me look it up. Top pairs in figure skating can get 7 meters in distance on a throw jump, which is a.bout the women's record in (unassisted) barrel jumping (6.84 meters).

To make it more exciting the barrels could be replaced by human skaters lying on the ice. Here Scott Hamilton extends his career via the new /old discipline.

 
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well to be honest, Europe and 4CC are not exactly in the same timezone... :). I cannot watch Euros because of work but most often, I manage to watch 4CC. So I don't know about it having much of an impact on the spectators.
With the ISU streaming these days you can easily watch both. I frequently watch retrospectively and with the lack of general skating coverage in the news I usually don't hear any results before I watch. There can't be much overlap of actual audience because they would be in vastly different areas of the world.
 
Coach Julia talks about the proposed changes from her perspective:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBTaSS43wVo

To describe her perspective, she is a former U.S. champion in Moves in the Field (I understand that it replaced competitions in skating school figures after school figures were dropped) who now has other projects including her YouTube channel.
 
Are they really going to introduce an "artistic program" without jumps instead of a free program?

That sounds essentially like a "exhibition program". I never watch Galas, as I find them BORING, so that would be the end of figure skating for me.

I think figure skating should be about technique done beautifully. A bit like Mikaela Shiffrin in slalom, who have such great technique it looks like she is dancing down the slope. It's beautiful to watch because of her technique, and she wins because of her beautiful skiing.

I am all for cutting a jumping pass and penalizing falls more . And you can add in one or two more Choreo Sequences or whatever.
But a purely "artistic program" would be the death of the sport imo.
 
Are they really going to introduce an "artistic program" without jumps instead of a free program?

That sounds essentially like a "exhibition program". I never watch Galas, as I find them BORING, so that would be the end of figure skating for me.

I think figure skating should be about technique done beautifully. A bit like Mikaela Shiffrin in slalom, who have such great technique it looks like she is dancing down the slope. It's beautiful to watch because of her technique, and she wins because of her beautiful skiing.

I am all for cutting a jumping pass and penalizing falls more . And you can add in one or two more Choreo Sequences or whatever.
But a purely "artistic program" would be the death of the sport imo.
I don't see the difference between a jumpless "artistic program" and solo dance, and that already exists as a separate event. I seldom watch the singles events because there are too many jumps and they have no connection to the music playing in the background. While it wouldn't bring any new fans, I sometimes think I'd rather see a no-music "compulsory jumps" segment similar to the former compulsory figures, and then reduce the number of jumps permitted in the free skate. As it is, all but a few top skaters have to spend too much time just setting up jumps with little time left to interpret the music except for a few random arm gestures stuck in here and there between jumps.
 
I don't see the difference between a jumpless "artistic program" and solo dance, and that already exists as a separate event. I seldom watch the singles events because there are too many jumps and they have no connection to the music playing in the background. While it wouldn't bring any new fans, I sometimes think I'd rather see a no-music "compulsory jumps" segment similar to the former compulsory figures, and then reduce the number of jumps permitted in the free skate. As it is, all but a few top skaters have to spend too much time just setting up jumps with little time left to interpret the music except for a few random arm gestures stuck in here and there between jumps.

This whole discussion started me wondering something, and I wanted to ask you.

In the era that you were competing, there were:

  • 3 segments to Singles Skating (Compulsory Figures, Short Programme, and Free Skate)
  • 3 segments to Ice Dance (Compulsory Dance, Original Dance, and Free Dance)

But was there ever a time that there were 3 segments to Pairs Skating? And if so, what was the segment?

I haven't come across any third segment in Pairs before, but I had never really thought about the possibility until I started reading this thread. But, now I am really curious to know.

CaroLiza_fan
 
This whole discussion started me wondering something, and I wanted to ask you.

In the era that you were competing, there were:

  • 3 segments to Singles Skating (Compulsory Figures, Short Programme, and Free Skate)
  • 3 segments to Ice Dance (Compulsory Dance, Original Dance, and Free Dance)

But was there ever a time that there were 3 segments to Pairs Skating? And if so, what was the segment?

I haven't come across any third segment in Pairs before, but I had never really thought about the possibility until I started reading this thread. But, now I am really curious to know.

CaroLiza_fan
No, there was only one until the 1970s, just before my years, when the short program was added. The pairs event was always contested first, our boast being that we gave the fans something interesting to watch while the others slogged away at compulsory figures and set pattern dances before getting to their free programs. (Their short programs were added later than ours, so for a while each discipline just had two parts, and then dance and singles became three each. Pairs never had more than two parts, and just one originally.)
 
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