Cash Incentive For Young Canadian Skaters To Acquire Skills

Skate Canada shows young figure skaters the money

B.C.’s young figure skaters get a shot at their own Podium

BC, at least, seems to want to raise the Ladies' technical level.

Impressive streaming viewership as well. Just shows how much interest there really is in figure skating world wide, even if ticket sales are down in the US.

I've also been thinking about how little skaters get for starring in competitions while many others make money off the shows. I'm all for getting more of the money back to the skaters who really need it for their training.

Yeah, wouldn't it be nice for skaters to benefit financially. The U.S. has a kind of two-faced attitude toward skating. As a country, we don't like to spend money subsidizing anything (putting us at a disadvantage against countries whose national policy is making their sports programs look good), but we expect our skaters (especially the ladies' singles skaters) to win the gold, or else we turn our backs on them. (Not us diehard fans, of course!) Also, most Americans aren't really comfortable with male athletes in sports with music! We want killers: hockey, auto racing, football, basketball, wrestling. (Somehow, Canada manages to enjoy both. What's their secret?) I keep hoping that Maks Chmerkovsky from Dancing with the Stars will switch to skating and bring his fan base with him.

So in this country, I fear that skaters won't benefit financially from skating unless they win the Olympic gold and look like Tanith Belbin. Rats. But good for SkateCanada for stepping up its support for its skaters. If nifty skaters like Virtue and Moir come out of such a program, all of world skating fandom will benefit.