Yahoo sports!: The night they killed figure skating

[seniorita]

ditto on tralfamadoian!!!!

I've been wanting to send hugs to seniorita

lol thank you. And thanx to all many people who pmed or wrote elsewhere nice words, I got embarassed by it in a good way, i didnt know what to write back..
But I m more than fine, no worries
So that means I m official Plushy Ambassador now?

 

[chronos13]

As a lurker and relatively new skating fan, I was extremely disappointed (which is quite an understatement) with the men's free skate. Honestly speaking, I thought that Evan was completely lackluster and one of the more boring skaters. He did little to inspire me and my friends as we were watching the free skate final. We thought that Plushenko had more shownmanship and was far more entertaining with or without the quad. We thought that Takahashi and Weir had the best choreography overall and they skated beautifully. I believe that these skaters were completely robbed.

This is why I (along with many others) don't like figure skating. All the politics involved to prop up other skaters and keep better ones down bothers me and turns me off. This is why figure skating is losing so many fans. While many believe that figure skating is a marquee event of the Winter Olympics, I guarantee you that as long as politics keeps interfering with fair judgment, fans will find a new marquee event (speed skating is on the rise).

The accusations against figure skating were not uncalled for and I hope that the ISU learns for their mistakes and makes the necessary changes for the future if they want to ensure that figure skating remains a legitimate sport, let alone at the highlight of the Olympics.

 

[tricia90]

I totally agree with you chronos 13, but I don't think the ISU cares . They are remote and arrogant and they really don't care what anyone outside of their little oligarchy thinks. There may be questionable placements in other judged sports, ie diving, gymnastics, but it seems that only figure skating has decisions that are so obviously political. The corruption is at the top and will continue to filter down as long as the power group is in control...and they have no intention of gong anywhere.

It is going to be really interesting to wach the dance and ladies events. Count on more robbery.hwell:

 

[Grgranny]

Haven't read most of the posts here but cannot believe anyone who would think boring Elvis would know anything but jumps.

 

[colleen o'neill]

:agree:Senoirita - Can you take a little more embarrassment? Though I don't always agree with you , I've noticed that you are always fair-minded and reasonable in your arguements , so it's always fun to read your posts , and interesting to explore your POV.

May your popcorn never be burned.

 

[Fielding]

....having said that, I don't even think that Evan is such a great artist nor does he have the best jumps- Oda and Kozuka, for example have better triple jumps than Lysacek. .

I think that's the rub. If you want to say Lysacek won fairly under the current set of rules, absolutely. But pleeeze don't set this issue up as the Athlete versus the Artist. (For me Lysacek's performances tend to fall between the two stools - unsatisfying as sport, unsatisfying as performance.)

 

[sarahmistral]

I think that's the rub. If you want to say Lysacek won fairly under the current set of rules, absolutely. But pleeeze don't set this issue up as the Athlete versus the Artist. (For me Lysacek's performances tend to fall between the two stools - unsatisfying as sport, unsatisfying as performance.)

That, in a nutshell, is the rub. And that's what makes the gloating of a Sandra Bezic, in full Cold War mode, about Evan's 'artistry' as deciding factor, all the more galling. The fact that one can win the biggest prize in the sport without fitting into the hallowed (and easier to understand) Athlete/Artist paradigm, courtesy of CoP, will have to be accounted for in commentary on the sport, and in how we understand it as fans, as it does seem that CoP is here to stay.

 

[edge31]

Patience.......

I guess I would like to say this to all those who think the sport is going backwards: give it some more time.
This scoring system has only been around for 8 years (not to mention being constantly tweaked and modified during that time) - that's not very long in the history of figure skating. And just like it took 70+ years to get all the triples out there with school figures in play, it will take time (not that much) to get the skaters accustomed to this new set of rules. Once coaches have consistently been teaching to this set of rules from beginners on up, I believe we will see more quads pop up in the future.
But like with everything there is a lag time. I think people are a little thrown by the great push forward in the 90's with the quad jumps. This was unusual and in my opinion only happened because those pesky school figures had been eliminated and there was not much else to practice but the jumps! Same scoring system, no figures..... what would YOU practice?

Now the rules have changed and more is being scored than jumps - at least on a quantative level. Many skaters in the middle of their careers have had to relearn some things, tighten some skills up and pretty much change their entire way of skating. This takes energy and time away from things like quad jumps.

I believe that this will be corrected as the young skaters who have grown up with this system will be able to incorportate its features into their learning from beginner on up the ladder.
I mean, what would we expect if all of a sudden they put figures back into the sport when all these skaters have pretty much never done them in their lives?? Most of their time would be devoted to those again and the jumps would noticeably fade until the "new" requirements would be fully incorporated.

If after 10 years we don't see any improvements then I would definitely be on board for significantly changing the scoring system. However, it is in place now, and all in all I think that the overall skating quality is indeed on the whole better than it was in the past 12 years. I'm willing to give it a chance, even if it means having to wait for those quads a few more years. I enjoyed skating before the quad and will enjoy it after.