You are delusional about American pull. Thinking that USA fed has problems politiking internationally compared to Japan or China is laughable.
ISU survives on the Japanese yen but wants American champions because American market is more important than fair scoring and North american skaters are allegedelly more marketable globally. Bye
In general, figure skating is more marketable to a wider public in Asian countries. Football, baseball, basketball, tennis and golf are the big sports in the U.S. In the U.S. we don't even have the kind of extensive television coverage of fs events that exists in most other countries where figure skating is more popular.
When there were huge television contracts for events shown in the U.S. back in the old days, U.S. fed had more clout with the ISU. Of course U.S. is a powerful country in general and since there is a long and very developed skating tradition, there's a huge depth of talented skaters in the U.S. Still it's one thing for U.S. fed to have some amount of power and influence, but entirely a different thing to know how to use it effectively. The sport of fs in general does not market skaters well, but in countries like Russia, Japan, and Canada, figure skaters are more well known and highly popular. In Japan, figure skaters are like rock stars. In the U.S., wider interest in figure skating and visibility for skaters happens mainly every four years when the Olympics rolls around.
The sport has definitely become more global over the years so there is a lot of cross-pollination with many Russian coaches in the U.S. and skaters from other countries training in the U.S., as well as choreographers and coaches in Canada and the U.S. assisting skaters from around the world. And there are partnerships that take place between many skaters from different countries.
The most dominant champions the U.S. has had in recent years have been in ice dance. The rise of U.S. ice dance happened organically over time when a number of Russian ice dance coaches settled in the U.S. and began training young students. The U.S. has had contenders and winners in pairs, but not recently (and U.S. fed has not done much to develop the pairs discipline, despite having some strong pairs historically).
Due to overemphasis on quads, the U.S. men's discipline has gone through many fluctuations over the past 7 years. We have had some wonderfully talented men skaters, but none who have been consistently on the podium at major events since 2010. The biggest men champions with marketing potential in their countries and globally have been Patrick Chan, Yuzuru Hanyu, Javier Fernandez, Shoma Uno, Dai Takahashi, and for awhile, Denis Ten. In U.S. ice dance, there's been Meryl Davis/ Charlie White, and the Shibutanis On the ladies' side a long time ago in the U.S. there was Michelle Kwan. The only near equivalent today has been Ashley Wagner in a small way with some sponsors, and Gracie Gold with a lot of sponsor interest and deals but no major championship wins to back up the interest in her. Again, the marketing opportunities and interest for U.S. skaters tends to gain momentum during the Olympics. But again, figure skaters are very low on the totem pole generally in the U.S., and especially in recent years due to there not being U.S. singles or pairs skaters winning major championships. That scenario will change with the burgeoning interest in Nathan Chen's accomplishments. However, it still remains to be seen what kind of effect Nathan's success will have in the American market that you say the ISU thinks is so important.
Jason Brown was a break out star in 2014 at the Olympics, but it was a transitional time with the quad continuing to take precedence over well-rounded skating. Since Jason has had difficulty mastering the quad, his opportunity to capitalize on the huge interest in his talent around 2014 Olympics, has been negligible. U.S. fed doesn't appear to know how to think outside-the-box and do very much to promote any of their skaters to a wider audience either in the U.S. or abroad.
I don't know what you mean by fair scoring. Shoma Uno won Skate America over Jason Brown and Adam Rippon. Nathan Chen has had a lot of success on the GP this season, and he won silver at GPF (the first GPF medal for U.S. men in a number of years). But Nathan's success is mostly tied to his ability to land multiple quads, which is the only way to rack up enough points to get on major medal podiums these days.
The last U.S. man to win gold at 4CCs was Adam Rippon, in 2010, so please explain what you mean by "American market is more important than fair scoring..." You think it's not fair scoring because a U.S. man has finally won 4CCs again? Was it fairer scoring when U.S. men were not winning 4CCs for the past 7 years?
