How much interest can Alysa Liu revive in figure skating in the US?

[Diana Delafield]

OK, as. the OP....

this is all very interesting folks, but I would love your opinions on my original question:

how much can Alysa's medal and performance increase interest in figure skating in the US? Whether or not deserved, whether or not comparable to others, not relevant to the query:

Can she actually increase interest in the US overall?

Looked at from outside your country, I would say "not much". Interest in her personally as a quirky celebrity whose particular talent is skating, yes. More girls taking up skating to emulate her, probably not many. More people watching skating if she's not one of the competitors, no.

 

[Mathman]

Next Thursday is official Alysa Liu day in her home town of Oakland, California, with a big rally planned at City Hall.

Lat week her father was honored at the city's annual New Years Parade (Year of the Horse. By the way, Alysa was born in the year of the Rooster.. )

Alysa Liu celebration set for March 12

Mayor Barbara Lee announced a Celebration Rally for the hometown hero at Oakland City Hall. Fans can reserve their spots as space is limited.

oaklandside.org

 

[el henry]

Looked at from outside your country, I would say "not much". Interest in her personally as a quirky celebrity whose particular talent is skating, yes. More girls taking up skating to emulate her, probably not many. More people watching skating if she's not one of the competitors, no.

I tend to be just a tad more optimistic. One person may spur interest in a sport beyond themselves, even if it starts out as a one off. Case in point: Travis Kelce. Some Swifitie daughters started watching football with their dads, and some of them actually became football fans.

Now, the pool of people interested in Travis Kelce (or more specifically his fiancee ) is much larger, and worldwide, so if even only five percent of those Swifties become actual football fans, that's a lot more fans. In a demographic the NFL covets.

I am NOT saying that will happen with Alysa, but I am saying that it is possible, IMO. Wouldn't it be cool if at least some of them stayed interested in the entire sport?

 

[DancingCactus]

Maybe some casuals will start following her skating and will watch worlds and maybe fall in love with the sport? Why not. Everyone needs a gateway drug.

I hope she's OK with all the crazy hype though.

 

[Anna K.]

Maybe some casuals will start following her skating and will watch worlds and maybe fall in live with the sport? Why not. Everyone needs a gateway drug.

I hope she's OK with all the crazy hype though.

We will see it very soon.
We have the Worlds when, in two weeks? It will bring us a full bucket of new answers [Edited: Alysa withdrew from Worlds about the very time I typed this but I think the options below are still relevant - more or less].

So, the best outcome would be: many new fans watch figure skating, like it, want to watch more, and maybe we even get new enthusiastic forum members
The neutral outcome: the Olympic interest has died, we have our niche sport back.
The worst outcome: the new fans get an impression "Alysa good, figure skating bad" and we have yet another unhealthy fandom upon our heads

Your bet?

 

[DancingCactus]

My fear is a mix between option 2 and 3. But apparently Stars on Ice tickets sell like hotcakes?

 

[pesto]

Well, she's pulled out of Worlds, so there might not be many new viewers there.

 

[noskates]

FWIW - I don't remember this much interest or media coverage over Nathan Chen when he won Olympic Gold. Alysa's personality draws people to her, her unlikely story of a comeback after taking 2 years off in an elite level sport, and her overall attitude make her extremely interesting. If that draws people to the sport - or at the very least to watch her skate - more power to her. I think it's odd that many of you are trying to minimize her impact. For those of you out of the US - how would you know? For those of you IN the US, when was the last time you saw this type of media coverage and interest in a figure skater. As for Worlds in an Olympic year, it just doesn't have the same wow factor as in other years. Many of the gold medal winners withdraw for many different reasons - the top one being they're exhausted.

 

[Mathman]

FWIW - I don't remember this much interest or media coverage over Nathan Chen when he won Olympic Gold.

For me, the big takeaway is that, in the minds of general U.S. sports fans, figure skating is still considered to be a girls' sport. Nathan Chen was cool (OK, maybe not quite as cool as Alysa ), talented, and competitively successful. Davis and White were charming, had a nice little rivalry with Virtue and Moir. Evan Lysacek was tall, handsome and played David to Plushenko' s Goliath in 2010. So we go back to Sarah Hughes -- but U.S. skating fans' excitement over Hughes winning the ladies' gold medal was tempered by disappointment that Michell Kwan didn't.

Will Alysa Liu go on to match the achievements of Nathan Chen (three world championships, 6 U.S. championships) or of Davis and White (2 world championships, 6 consecutive U.S championships, plus hit for the Olympic trifecta with Gold, Silver and Bronze (team)? Will it matter in the long run if she does or doesn't? She has landed with a sonic boom at the eye of the hurricane in a perfect storm. I for one am loving it! And March Madness (U.S. college basketball tournament) is almost upon us!

 

[yfan1]

I think point isn't about whether or not she brings in some viewers directly after her win, but whether those viewers are retained. I don't feel those viewers would be retained, because the issues are systemic with the sport.

 

[el henry]

I started watching figure skating due to Janet Lynn. She was charming and a lovely free skater and America's sweetheart. That's it. One skater. Started watching more through Wide World of Sports. Who was this Toller Cranston and why was he so entrancing? Followed figure skating as a whole. Toller was shafted by judges IMO but who cared? I kept watching because he was wonderful.

Alysa has the gold and the story and the temperament. Is today different than the early 70's? Duh. But does that automatically mean oh we are so cool and internet savvy and this is a flash in the pan, here today, gone tomorrow? Maybe. But maybe not.

 

[Mathman]

I think point isn't about whether or not she brings in some viewers directly after her win, but whether those viewers are retained. I don't feel those viewers would be retained, because the issues are systemic with the sport.

To tell the truth, I don't really feel that figure skating has any particular "issues" that have caused its relative decline in popularity in the U.S. The wheel turns.

In the 1930s the most popular participatory sport for boys in the U.S. was marbles. In the 1950s doing tricks with a yoyo was big, both for show-off recreation and competition. The Duncan Yoyo Company hired at fleet of teenage boys to travel around the country to elementary schools putting on expert demonstrations to get boys to buy a yoyo.

(For me, the advertising blitz worked -- to the extent that I stole one at age 10. But I din't profit from my ill-gotten gains. The older boy who dared me to do it demanded that I give him the yoyo or he would tell my mother that I stole it.)

 

[Spiralgraph]

Perhaps a parrallel question would be how much interest does Alysa want to have? She is a free spirit, yes, but she knows what she wants and what limits she will accept or not from those around her, including fans and the public at large. To see her as some great force that will propel skating from a niche sport to a more popular one is very iffy. That's too much pressure on one person, just ask Ilia about that.

If the current interest in figure skating in the US lasts for more than a few months, I'll be surprised, frankly. I think interest in Alysa personally will last longer.

 

[yfan1]

To tell the truth, I don't really feel that figure skating has any particular "issues" that have caused its relative decline in popularity in the U.S. The wheel turns.

But the wheel turns because of reasons, and people lose interest because of reasons. What would you say the reasons are?

If people were tuning in because of the beauty of the sport but no longer do, would it be a systemic reason that the sport no longer has beauty to it?

Look at this article about Vaudeville:

Vaudeville ~ About Vaudeville | American Masters | PBS

"Everything I know I learned in vaudeville." -James Cagney At the turn of the century in America, the Wright Brothers made their first successful flight,

www.pbs.org

Many performers became known simply by their signature act. With the advent of the radio, however, America found a free and easy way to tap into that variety of entertainment they had looked for in vaudeville. With such specialized skills, the performers continued to perform to smaller and smaller crowds. In time, theaters began to show films, and the few vaudevillians left took what work they could get performing between reels.

I think this applies quite well to figure skating. People have many other forms of entertainment to tune into, and for much cheaper. Figure skating has a performance aspect to it - most audience doesn't really understand the tech. So where the more sporty fans might go for team sports like American Football or Soccer or Baseball because the rules are much easier to understand and the quality of the technique has far less bearing on the results, figure skating would be left with more people who are interested in that performance aspect, where good technique would actually aids that performance quality. This is where, at least to me, the worsening of the sport's overall technical quality and aesthetic strikes hardest - because people simply have better, more accessible forms of entertainment online, as well as offline, because quite a lot of movie tickets and even concert tickets are cheaper - and you get more bang for your buck.

Further, I think most wouldn't want to sit and watch 4+ hours of skating in an ice rink, just for one short program event. People are just busier nowadays. They'll say "well a movie runs for 1.5 hours. After that, I'd like to relax before I get back to work on Monday, thanks." If you only want to watch one group, well that's still the full cost you're paying. It's far easier to manage costs for other sports.

I do think cheating and the sexual abuse scandals drive people away too (I mean, I know full well it drove me to take a break before I came back... and even now, I skip quite a lot of events), but perhaps it depends on how much it's covered in the US, which you would know better.

 

[el henry]

An interview in today's NY Times with Alysa .... by the dance critic of the Times in the Arts section.

Gifted the article

Alysa Liu on Dancing Her Way to Gold: ‘The Music Carries My Body’

The free-spirited figure skater spoke to our dance critic about her approach to performing, the role of music and more.

www.nytimes.com

 

[yfan1]

An interview in today's NY Times with Alysa .... by the dance critic of the Times in the Arts section.

Gifted the article

Alysa Liu on Dancing Her Way to Gold: ‘The Music Carries My Body’

The free-spirited figure skater spoke to our dance critic about her approach to performing, the role of music and more.

www.nytimes.com

Hey, we agree!

Things gotta change, 100 percent. I think the whole system’s got to scrap it and start over. The competition system and the setup just isn’t fit for consumption, honestly, because the competitions are too long, no one can sit through and watch all that. And people don’t understand the scoring. Sometimes I don’t either.

Good!

 

[Mathman]

But the wheel turns because of reasons, and people lose interest because of reasons. What would you say the reasons are?

In my opinion, for no reason at all. Why was rock and roll popular in the 1950s, and then in the 1980s it was heavy metal.? It just worked out that way. Cultural tastes change, something new comes along. Why don't gentlemen wear powdered wigs any more. No reason.

 

[Mathman]

An interview in today's NY Times with Alysa .... by the dance critic of the Times in the Arts section.

Gifted the article

Alysa Liu on Dancing Her Way to Gold: ‘The Music Carries My Body’

The free-spirited figure skater spoke to our dance critic about her approach to performing, the role of music and more.

www.nytimes.com

Wow, wow, wow. That might be the best figure skating interview of all time.

A couple points that caught my (perhaps superficial) eye:

----
"Alysa has studied many forms of dance over the years... contemporary, modern contemporary..."

Me: I can't wait for the next big genre, "post-modern contemporary."

------
Alysa on timing her jumps to the music. "We’ll edit the music to match the jump sometimes. If I don’t have enough time to get from point A to point B — to land a jump on the crash or something, we will add in more music just so that I can."

Alysa on preparing for a performance: "I visualize my entire program multiple times before I do it, but I also visualize the patterns of my breathing. I practice my breath while envisioning the program.

------
Interviewer" Do you think about how you will influence skating?
Alysa: You know, it’s actually been a really deep struggle in whether I want skating to be big or not.

Interviewer Why?
Alysa: I’m glad for it. I wouldn’t change my childhood at all. But I feel like no child should go through that.... sometimes it’s not toxic, but it usually is .

-------
Interviewr: I wonder about modernizing skating a little bit...

Alysa: Things gotta change, 100 percent. I think the whole system’s got to scrap it and start over. The competition system and the setup just isn’t fit for consumption, honestly, because the competitions are too long, no one can sit through and watch all that.

Interviewer ...there is all of this discourse around you and Eileen Gu.

Alysa I’ve known Eileen since I was 13 or something... her mom is an immigrant [from China]. Y’all would have told her to go back to China. Now that they’re back in China, you’re mad.

 

[AlysaLiuStan]

The girl who uttered these words performed five quads in her program during the 2022 Olympics—and it wasn't enough to win, only second place. Compare this to the program of Alisa Liu at the 2026 Olympics to appreciate the depth of her joy. Of course, Alisa is radiating joy, why not? She looks at the ISU, which doesn't want to allow even juniors from Russia to compete, ignoring IOC recommendations, and she radiates joy. Why not rejoice when there are no competitors and there never will be?

Alysa skates with joy since she knows she wasn't drugged and doped against her will.

 

[Arigato]

Do you think about how you will influence skating?

You know, it’s actually been a really deep struggle in whether I want skating to be big or not.

Why?

I’m glad for it. I wouldn’t change my childhood at all. But I feel like no child should go through that. Figure skating can be so hard and the parents that put their kids into skating — sometimes they get so into it. Sometimes it’s not toxic, but it usually is — especially at the top. Most skaters have had bad experiences.


-----------------------------------


This shows a person at age 20 who is clearly capable of critical thinking in that she is fully aware of the role parents play in skating, and it isn't necessarily positive. It wasn't positive for her, until she came back to skating on her terms, not her father's terms, so of course she's going to bring it up. It's why she now has a couple of gold medals around her neck. So when she says she doesn't know if she wants skating to be big or not, she knows damn well that if she contributes to it becoming big, she is also contributing to what? You got it - the possibility of little kids getting into the sport where parents play an outsized role that is, yes, potentially "toxic" for the child. She goes so far to say, "sometimes it's not toxic, but usually is." She doesn't want to be responsible for a kid having to go through what she did. That's huge.

By only winning gold could Alysa have the platform to become a catalyst for change within the sport itself and even more powerful, a catalyst for girls and women in all sports and even those who aren't. She has control. So can you. And it doesn't have to hurt: Do it with joy.

It's a paradigm change.