2018-19 State of European Men's skating | Page 8 | Golden Skate

2018-19 State of European Men's skating

norwegianfairytale

norwegianfairytale

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Mar 21, 2018
Country
Norway
Edwin said:
How is ice hockey perceived in Norway? Sweden is very strong in ice hockey I know.

Perhaps it has all to do with figure skating not being masculine enough to attract a large contingent of young boys wanting to learn it. There is a certain prejudice agains anything which involves 'dancing' in male sports, as opposed to 'fighting'.

No teenage boy wants to be called certain terms in front of his friends, classmates, family.
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Ice hockey is not very big, but I guess some watch them. The Sportsnews have reportage on ice hockey, but you can almost never see or read about figure skating.

And yes, I do agree. I think many think the sport isn´t masculine enough and doesn´t want to be seen as unmasculine.
 
S

snowflake

I enjoy what I like
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norwegianfairytale said:
Although, I wonder the reason why Sweden has a lot more male skaters. The Country isn´t that much different from Norway. But the difference in figure skating is huge.
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Hard to answer, but here is my input:

Sweden has a lot more rinks than Norway due to Sweden traditionally being a big ice hockey nation. (though as I wrote before not enough ice rinks compared to the demand, especially in the big cities and many are closed in summer) Sweden has lots of clubs with skating schools for small boys and girls. Probably at least some boys see the girls(sisters, friends) doing tricks on ice and want to try as well.

Sweden have good men on an international level since at least the nineties. Filip Stiller and Kristoffer Berntsson and then Adrian Schultheiess(who sadly had to retire because of his back injury). So boys have had guys to look up to. Alexander Majorov moved to Sweden as a toddler when his parents got the job as coach/dance teacher in Luleå konståkningsklubb in the early nineties. Not astonishing that he and his later born brother wanted to figure skate. At Euoropeans 2009 Sweden had 3 spots: Kristoffer, Adrian and Alexander.

Actually due to the competition some Swedish men with dual citisenships chose to skate for other nations: Nicky Obreykov for Bulgaria, Michael Neumann for Slovakia and Justus Strid(retired) for Denmark.

There has also been other talented men who never participated at championships. For example Ondrei Spiegl who had injury problems. I think he had surgery on both knees.

The Swedish federation organizes special camps for boys. Skaters from other Nordic countries are also invited. I think Sondre has been at some when he was young. Berntsson is one of the coaches at these camps.

Hard to know the reason why boys don’t click with figure skating in Norway. Maybe lack of media interest because Sondre and the Gjersem twins are the only with some success. Too few? And the sport being seen as feminine.

It’s sad that Sondre has been bullied through his carrier. He's latest blog talks about it. How disappointed he is because of predudices, but also how it’s made him strong doing what he loves. Pity it's in Norwegian. All his blogs and vlogs are interesting. One of the most interesting skaters to follow in my opinion :)

I really hope Sondre gets the qualifications to go to worlds. I so root for him, always have :cheer:

On another note I wonder how Great Britain can do so well(how many rinks do they have?) Good skaters in all disciplines. Not much snow though, so almost no competition from outdoor winter sports.
 
Edwin

Edwin

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snowflake said:
Hard to answer, but here is my input:
It’s sad that Sondre has been bullied through his carrier. He's latest blog talks about it. How disappointed he is because of predudices, but also how it’s made him strong doing what he loves.
Click to expand...

That's what I feared, boys being bullied because of the sport they like. Many television drama's were made about this but still the prejudice and stigma remains.

Eurosport doesn't broadcast lots of gymnastics and figure skating anymore compared to the 80's and 90's. They want to profile themselves as sporting entertainment for males, because that's where the sponsor money is coming from. So endless broadcasts of snooker and darts, with hardly ever a female player in sight, only pub tigers.
 
norwegianfairytale

norwegianfairytale

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Joined
Mar 21, 2018
Country
Norway
snowflake said:
Hard to answer, but here is my input:

Sweden has a lot more rinks than Norway due to Sweden traditionally being a big ice hockey nation. (though as I wrote before not enough ice rinks compared to the demand, especially in the big cities and many are closed in summer) Sweden has lots of clubs with skating schools for small boys and girls. Probably at least some boys see the girls(sisters, friends) doing tricks on ice and want to try as well.

Sweden have good men on an international level since at least the nineties. Filip Stiller and Kristoffer Berntsson and then Adrian Schultheiess(who sadly had to retire because of his back injury). So boys have had guys to look up to. Alexander Majorov moved to Sweden as a toddler when his parents got the job as coach/dance teacher in Luleå konståkningsklubb in the early nineties. Not astonishing that he and his later born brother wanted to figure skate. At Euoropeans 2009 Sweden had 3 spots: Kristoffer, Adrian and Alexander.

Actually due to the competition some Swedish men with dual citisenships chose to skate for other nations: Nicky Obreykov for Bulgaria, Michael Neumann for Slovakia and Justus Strid(retired) for Denmark.

There has also been other talented men who never participated at championships. For example Ondrei Spiegl who had injury problems. I think he had surgery on both knees.

The Swedish federation organizes special camps for boys. Skaters from other Nordic countries are also invited. I think Sondre has been at some when he was young. Berntsson is one of the coaches at these camps.

Hard to know the reason why boys don’t click with figure skating in Norway. Maybe lack of media interest because Sondre and the Gjersem twins are the only with some success. Too few? And the sport being seen as feminine.

It’s sad that Sondre has been bullied through his carrier. He's latest blog talks about it. How disappointed he is because of predudices, but also how it’s made him strong doing what he loves. Pity it's in Norwegian. All his blogs and vlogs are interesting. One of the most interesting skaters to follow in my opinion :)

I really hope Sondre gets the qualifications to go to worlds. I so root for him, always have :cheer:

On another note I wonder how Great Britain can do so well(how many rinks do they have?) Good skaters in all disciplines. Not much snow though, so almost no competition from outdoor winter sports.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your input! I think you have a lot of good points. I also read the blogpost from Sondre, it´s sad reading about the bulling and the sports beiing seing as a feminine sport. I really hope that Sondre can change some of this stigmas. I also love Sondres blog and all the other postings on Youtube and IG. Also, I would be more then happy translating the norwegian blogposts to english if anyone is interested. I have been thinking about that Sondre should have his own fan post-thread, but making the first post with all the overall info has been stopping me so far.
 
norwegianfairytale

norwegianfairytale

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Norway
Edwin said:
That's what I feared, boys being bullied because of the sport they like. Many television drama's were made about this but still the prejudice and stigma remains.

Eurosport doesn't broadcast lots of gymnastics and figure skating anymore compared to the 80's and 90's. They want to profile themselves as sporting entertainment for males, because that's where the sponsor money is coming from. So endless broadcasts of snooker and darts, with hardly ever a female player in sight, only pub tigers.
Click to expand...

The coverage from Eurosport is really becoming bad. They had listed the Grand Prix final in TV-program, but instead they just keep sending a live billiard competitions. I was really mad. I´m curious about the coverage of Euros. They better be sending the competitions live.
 
norwegianfairytale

norwegianfairytale

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Norway
Sorry if this is a little off topic, but to extend the discussion about the media coverage and interest of figure skating in Norway, Sondre will be in a Norwegian television show tomorrow morning, talking about figure skating, Euros and dreams and goals for his career. The show is called "God Morgen Norge", where they invite different celebrities and people with important stories, which is airing in one of the biggest television channels in Norway, TV2. This is really good for getting the attention for the sport now before the Euros. Also, there is a short video of Sondre in a videochannel called VGTV today, which is made by the biggest tabloid newspaper in Norway, VG. In this video he is telling about his big goal this season, to manage to get to WC. To achieve this, he says the key will be getting the points that he needs, and the key jump will be the combination of triple lutz and triple toeloop. I actually though for a moment, because the text in the video said he has a "secret joker" getting there, referering to a jump, that he was going to attempt the triple axel. But still not, we have to wait I guess.

In this video, he also talks about that it´s unfair that people see it as "not cool" and "not masculin" when he is doing figure skating, but that girls doing a man´s sport, like hockey, is cool.

The video can be seen here, although it´s in Norwegian, might be nice to watch: https://www.vgtv.no/video/169993/se-trikset-som-skal-faa-ham-til-vm

Anyway, really good that the tabloid press in Norway picks up this sport and that Sondre is telling about the stigmas around the sport, where is not seen as masculine and therefore not cool. Looking forward to see him in the TV show tomorrow :)
 
elektra blue

elektra blue

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finger crossed for fernandez and aymoz tomorrow! (and also michal, matteo, daniel, deniss and the others):pray:
 
Edwin

Edwin

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Men’s events left me with mixed feelings RE: European men’s skating overall and its global competitiveness.

Good to see many newcomers proving themselves, and some experienced men to hold on.
Sad to see some ‘old hands’ biting the ice and some favourites to falter under the pressure.

Of course very pleased with Fernandez’ final competition ending on such a high.

Pleased for Rizzo, Boe too and all the other men that got new SB's
Russians, well, some tough evaluations and possibly unpleasant decisions will be coming.

All in all, Europe’s men’s Figure Skating will have to prove its worth and value in the coming World Championship, which will be a competition on a whole different level.
 
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