Things Non-Fans Say About Figure Skating | Page 2 | Golden Skate

Things Non-Fans Say About Figure Skating

Pepe Nero

On the Ice
Joined
Dec 11, 2011
Ooh, what an interesting article, spikydurian! Thanks for bringing it to our attention. I just downloaded it. I didn't realize at first that the author also wrote a book (Artistic impressions: figure skating, masculinity, and the limits of sport) that I have been reading off-and-on for a while now. (I swear I came to the ideas in my post above independently; wasn't meaning to plagiarize Adams. :))
 
Joined
Aug 16, 2009
A very interesting article, Spikydurian. I always thought of Sonia Henie as making the sport less ladylike, because she was the first (I think) to wear shorter skirts and do athletic tricks. I see how this author's idea applies, though. Once women turned out to be really good at a sport (and keep in mind, it's done to music, which to some mentalities has to be questionable)...it couldn't be suitable for guys.

Something else strikes me. A lot of girls and women who excel in other sports, such as track and field and team sports, are often thought of as lesbians. (Presumably because their enjoyment of and excellence in physical activity is somehow unnatural.) I just realized that skating is one of the few sports where that implication is absent. Hmmm. Maybe it's the skirts.
 

karne

in Emergency Backup Mode
Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 1, 2013
Country
Australia
"Ice Dance?" People will say this incredulously, often accompanied by a dismissive smirk.

It's funny, isn't it? There have been okay crowds at Skate DownUnder - but the second O'Brien and Merriman appeared on the ice, the place was packed!
 

gmyers

Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 6, 2010
This goes back to the 2010 men's controversy but what about "if plushenko likes quads so much why didn't he do 3 or 4 and just do only one they only take 2 seconds!" this was probably formed by lysacek and carrol saying a program is not about 2 seconds but 4.5 minutes! So people in the sport can say dumb crap which leads to non fans saying dumb crap.
 

96skiluvr

On the Ice
Joined
Apr 3, 2013
My sister just claimed the other day that Austria has top figure skaters...I was tempted to start spitting out figure skating facts but restrained myself
 

Finnstep

Final Flight
Joined
Apr 5, 2013
Some non-fans can't tell a difference between pairs and ice dance, but I guess it isn't too surprising.

Also in Korea, it seems like 3A is the only jump that non-fans know about, thanks to Korean media:disapp:
 
Joined
Aug 16, 2009
Well, Austria does have top figure skaters, but they were all active in the twentieth century. Karl Schäfer, Trixi Schuba....
 

Moment

Final Flight
Joined
Jan 18, 2013
Some non-fans can't tell a difference between pairs and ice dance, but I guess it isn't too surprising.

Also in Korea, it seems like 3A is the only jump that non-fans know about, thanks to Korean media:disapp:

The second part is so true, and highly ironic for the obvious reason. :laugh:
 

HazyD

Rinkside
Joined
Jul 14, 2013
I used to work at a paper in L.A. A freelancer got tickets to a big competition and wrote a piece about it. The whole gist of the story was how people only watch skating to see the skaters fall. It was idiotic. I complained to the editor, my boss, and she looked at me like I was crazy.
Then, once, Entertainment Weekly called something as "difficult as a triple lutz, triple salchow." I wrote a letter to the mag saying that not only was it difficult, it was impossible, and described the landing vs. takeoff edge problem. Needless to say, they didn't print it.
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
Isn't it funny how some unenlightened guys look down on the glitz of figure skating and then get all excited about pro wrestling? All those muscle-bound wrestlers with long, flowing hair and glittering costumes. And skaters are too frilly? Phooey, anyway.

I think it is pretty much accepted that all wrestlers are gay. Certainly all bodybuilders are gay. All male models and movie stars are gay. All football players who wiggle their butts in the end zone when they score a touchdown are gay. :yes:
 
Last edited:
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
I think there's more to it than semantic quibbling, Mathman. Some other commenters have suggested something like this, but I think the main problem many people have in recognizing FS as a sport is that "sport" is culturally-coded as masculine/male (at least in the US, but probably most other places too), while FS is culturally-coded as feminine/female...

To tell the truth it has never bothered me that figure skating is seen primarily as a little girl's sport, and boys are allowed to participate, too, if they want to. This is just pay-back for the ninety-nine percent of other sports where it is the other way around.

A male figure skater is not subject to as much derision as is the occasional hefty girl who wants to try out for the school (boys) football team.

Well, maybe he is. At least in the case of the lady footballer the guys on the other team can try to show some gallantry and not hit her so hard.

Anyway, I think it is the "displaying one's body for the approval of the audience" aspect that puts figure skating into the camp of the traditional feminine role.
 

KKonas

Medalist
Joined
Oct 31, 2009
Unless it involves a ball in some manner, most sports journalists don’t consider figure skating a sport. During an Olympic year these journalists, who know nothing about figure skating, come out of the woodwork to inhabit the media room at skating events and write articles similar to that of the NBC researcher who wrote the error-riddled “Skaters to Follow” article.
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
^ That is so true. I almost feel sorry for golf commentators, basketball commentators, etc., who at the end of their segment have to somehow get their mouths around, "Figure skating next" -- like they are being forced to eat a nasty bug.
 

cooper

Medalist
Joined
Mar 23, 2010
Things Non-Fans Say About Figure Skating??

- that figure skating is not a sport, that it is for women only
- that figure skating is boring
- that figure skating is corrupt after the whole salt lake fiasco
- that figure skating is only a recreational activity
- that figure skating is too exclusive and pro-rich
 

ElleluvsL

Rinkside
Joined
Oct 24, 2012
"Is Michelle Kwan going to skate in this competition?"

My dad used to ask me this all the time :laugh:

In fact, I was watching NBC's coverage of one of the GP events last season and Mae Berenice Meite was skating, and he asked "isn't she the one who used to do the backflips and land on one foot?" :rofl:
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
^ That is an interesting list. All sports are primarily recreational, with only a tiny fraction of participants ever aspiring to elite competitive levels. Figure skating is as expensive hobby. There is[/is] concern about the integrity of the judging, etc.

Boring? No, that one's wrong. ;)

Is figure skating a sport? I think the worst mistake figure skating could make would be to try to become "more like other sports." If figure skating were just like other sports, why would we need figure skating? Instead we should celebrate what distinguishes figure skating from mere sport.
 

FSGMT

Record Breaker
Joined
Sep 10, 2012
In fact, I was watching NBC's coverage of one of the GP events last season and Mae Berenice Meite was skating, and he asked "isn't she the one who used to do the backflips and land on one foot?" :rofl:
:rofl::rofl::slink:
One thing that makes me so angry is that a lot of people believe that FS is not physically demanding! A friend of mine once told me (I had just said that I was so tired because of the runthroughs): "Well, but you don't need a lot of stamina to be a good skater, right? It's just about grace, elegance, dancing..." No, skaters go to the gym just because they like it as an additional activity :sarcasm:
 

Scrufflet

Final Flight
Joined
Mar 1, 2010
I loved it when Battle of the Blades aired! Seeing hockey players facing figure skating was priceless! So many of these "tough guys" admitted that they had no idea how hard it was and seeing them led by petite but tough females (Sale, Langlois, Underhill, etc.) was wonderful. I went to a few of the shows live and saw all these men in hockey jackets attending, looking rather puzzled by the whole experience. It was great!
 

CanadianSkaterGuy

Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 25, 2013
"Why do they fall, if they practice so much?"

Because basketball players make 100% of their free throws, tennis players never make unforced errors, and quarterbacks/football players make all their passes. :sarcasm:

Somehow there's a "perfectionist" mentality when it comes to figure skaters because they're performing, but when other athletes make errors they're given leeway since the difficulty of the sport will make errors inevitable.
 

ice coverage

avatar credit: @miyan5605
Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 27, 2012
During an Olympic year these journalists, who know nothing about figure skating, come out of the woodwork to inhabit the media room at skating events and write articles similar to that of the NBC researcher who wrote the error-riddled “Skaters to Follow” article.

I understand the point that you are trying to make, KKonas, and I don't disagree.

But in fairness to the NBC Olympics researchers, who are known for immersing themselves in their material:
They were not responsible for the error-riddled article, as I noted in the other thread.
The faulty article was written by an NBC "web producer" -- whose past tweets seemed to acknowledge that he is new this year to the figure skating beat.

If we were to be so lucky that the NBC researchers wrote all the figure skating articles, I would expect their quality to be good.
 
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