I think Rob makes some good points.
Who was skating's first superstar? It was Sonja. Recently in was Michelle, who influenced many of today's skaters including the current Ladies OC.
Dick Button won back to back OGMs but it was Carol Heiss who went to Hollywood and made a movie. She could have made more but had no interest.
I see no evidence that Men, Pairs or Ice Dancers have raised the profile of figure skating let alone having much impact on Pop culture.
Although some have been very popular it is mostly within the skating world.
Today Yuna is a huge star in her homeland just as Mao is in Japan. Were Kurt, Yags or Plushy ever anywhere near as popular in their own countries?
Yes they were popular and possibly raised interest in skating but compared to the top Lady stars they are distant seconds.
Maybe Ice Queens are not good for the sport but aside from Torville/Dean I can't think of any Dance or Pairs teams that captured the imagination of the public or became even in a small way a part of the popular culture.
My thought is that without ice queens skating would drop even farther off the radar. At the moment I am not sure if that would be a good thing.
Hi, ImaginaryPogue, I do think your point is quite valid, and I don't disagree; my post (as can be seen) was, as you say, focused primarily on the issue of the US market. Two thoughts, though.
-While I can see your point re: the popularity of skating in Canada and Russia being traditionally buoyed by disciplines other than ladies singles, would it be correct to say that they also have the advantage of being skating-mad countries anyway? (I get this image in my mind of a hypothetical advertisement for Canada, in which an avuncular grandpa is helping his 2-year old grandson put on his first skates, then giving him a Life-Savers, with the eponymous jingle playing in the background
)
For many other countries, my suspicion is that the equation for widescale popularity:
"r=(L x p) raised to the power of G"
(where r=ratings, L=homegrown ladies skater, p=photogenics, and G=championship gold)
is pretty solid for some time to come. I agree that, as policy, skating should make efforts to change this, but IMHO it may not happen quickly.
-Also, my hunch is that if a Sotnikova/Tuktamysheva won gold at Sochi (and similarly if a young Canadian ladies superstar were to embark on a meteoric rise), the the popularity of figure skating (as entertainment) would reach levels beyond what a championship in another discipline might create. Again, I freely admit I could be wrong on this, and am interested in hearing your thoughts.
1. I've often wondered if figure skating would be more popular in Canada with a recognized, medal contending lady skater consistently. As a nation, we've had only eight medal winning ladies: Burke, Scott, Magnussen (all World champions), Manley, Rochette, Griner, Wilson-Smith, Smith (the last three I hadn't heard of). To give you an idea for comparison, in the eighties, the USA had SEVEN medal winners (Chin, Zayak, Sumners, Fratianne, Thomas, Cadavy, Trenary). In the 90s, USA had eight (Trenary, Cook, Harding, Kerrigan, Yamaguchi, Bobek, Lipinski, and someone else
).
2. I don't think so. Partially because I think gender/sex/sexuality circulates a lot differently here (due to factors like urbanism vs ruralism, cultural-make-up as a result of immigration etc, religion), and partially because of who we've had to represent us as a nation. Partially because our successful representatives were uniquely successful (First triple lutz: Donald Jackson. First triple Axel: Vern Taylor. Two triple axels: Brian Orser. First quad: Kurt Browning. First quad combo: Elvis Stoijko. First 4-3. Elvis Stoijko). The totality of the achievements from our guys stands up to any other nation, and consequently, the achievements of the ladies, relatively speaking, doesn't get as much play/tsursis.
To analogize, use the Summer/Winter Olympics as a comparison. As a rule, Canada doesn't do very well in the summer olympics. Why? Any number of reasons, but we're simply not that interested in many of the sports and that extends to funding them. But during the Summer Olympics, we get frustrated when we don't do well. We demand that our politicians spend more money. We feel we should be able to compete on the level of Great Britain or Australia (two countries that regularly outperform us). But our politicians know that we're interested in winter sports; the fervor dies down, two years later the Winter Olympics come around, and we do well. We're a nation that watches curling. Of course we do well. And we stop worrying about funding.
3. Hernando, I don't know where you are, but I will say that impacting pop culture the way that Kwan, Harding/Kerrigan, Witt or Henie did is a tall order. Sale/Pelletier did (for reasons beyond skating). Virtue/Moir are in the process of doing that - it's worth mentioning that approximately 25% of the Canadian population watched them at the Olympics. That's more people than watch the World Series in the USA (percentage wise); more people than watched Kerrigan vs Baiul during their Olympics (again, percentage wise).
4. Canada doesn't have ice queens. Neither Rochette nor Manley fit that description. Without them the popularity in Canada wouldn't be dramatically affected, if at all.
5. But it's not just the gender issue. Canada, on the whole, is more successful in pairs and in dance than the USA. Why is that? To be honest, I think this decade will see the growth in dance push to pairs as well so that stops being the case, but why is that the case now?
6. But gender roles definitely do play a part. Look at the most popular male skater in Japan: Daisuke Takakashi. He's a flamboyant, outward performer. If he was American, there would be questions on his saleability due to that. Whereas, one of Skate America's stated goals for the past few seasons has been to play down someone like Weir in favour of Lysacek.
7. I guess ultimately the difference is this: the interest in AND success of the American ladies so dwarfs that of any other discipline such that the popularity of the sport nowadays hinges on that discipline. In Japan, that interest in singles dwarfs that of their pairs/dance for the same reason. In China, pairs. In Canada/Russia, even if one field dominates, the success in the remaining fields is enough such that a downturn is more easily absorbed and doesn't negatively impact interest. I mean, has Russia EVER had an ice queen when there wasn't success elsewhere?
Just my two cents.
