- Joined
- Jun 21, 2003
Here's what I think First, it is not useful to blame an athlete for not being better than he is. It's not like they deliberately go out there and mess up just to annoy us fans. So when we say "We need to do something about it," that We can only mean the USFSA, or maybe the U.S. figure skatimg culture more nroadly. There is a deep current in the American psyche that holds that the best government s the least government (who wants to "governed," after all?) The USFSA has never been much interested in ruling figure skating with an iron first and imposing its will on the individuals who are active in the sport, mostly volunteers and children.Regarding the US Pairs performances here. Let's set placement aside because that's comparative to other teams.
Instead, let's focus on the statistic I brought up earlier, which is entirely within the pairs' control.
3 out of 18 on jump elements and throws. As I said before, each of the three US pair teams had an opportunity for 3 jumping passes and 3 throws over the course of the entire event. Each of them successfully executed exactly 1 element. That's not unfair negativity - it's a fact.
Of course, I hope for better things next year. As I have pretty much for many many years.
But I'm not sure things will get better unless some sort of fundamental change is made. What that change might be, I don't know. Perhaps we look at what hasn't been working for 50 years, give or take an exception or two, and try NOT doing that.
In fact, figure skating in the U.S. is an intensely individulal sport. This has pushed us in the following direction. The most promising young skaters are encouraged to work on their jumps. If you can't jump, you can try pairs. If you really can't jump your ticket is ice dance. And if you really, really can't jump there is always synchro.
The only truly outstanding pairs skaters that the U.S. ever produced were Tai Babilonia and Randy Gardner (altho we have had some good ones, such as Kitty and Peter Carruthers, Ina and Zimmerman -- though I liked Ina with Jason Dungeon better, even as I maintain a fondness for the dance team of Madison Chock and Greg Zuererlein -- and Meno and Sand.) The team of Tai and Randy was unusual in many ways, the most striking being that he was only a couple of inches taller than she was. This resulted in problems with some technical elements, in particular the triple twist -- he struggled to toss her high enough off the ground to get in the revolutions. But in compensation, their unison was astonishing. The very definition of two skating as one.
In the late 1980s the U.S. had a promising (world junior champions) team in Yamaguchi and Galindo. They broke up when Kristi's coach married a Canadian and moved out of the U.S. Yamaguchi follwed the coach, but Galindo was in different circumstances and couldn't make the move. The USFSA did not intervene -- it was not the business of U.S. Fingure Skating to tell a coach who to marry. Rudy was sad (more so than the eyes-on-the-prize Kristi), but in the end it worked out for both of them, Rudy eventually winning the U.S. championship and a world nronze medal in men's singles (coached by his sister). Much later, all was forgiven and Rudy even served as coach to Kristi's daughert for a hot minute.
I suppose the USFSA could have ponied up some money to support Galindo's continuation in pairs, but they didn't. A few years later, though, they found it within their means to pay Michelle Kwan $900,000 per year for her service as (literally) the poster girl of U.S.(ladies' singles) figure skating. (I know this because official financial statements of non-profits like USFS have to list how they spand their money, and these statements are available to the public.)
The team of Yamaguchi and Galindo had the oposite problem compared to Babilonia and Gardner. Kristi and Rudy were both good at individual technical skills, but thier unison was compromised by being "mirror skaters," rotating their jumps in opposite directions. Rudy dudn't win an Olympic gold medal, but I heard that they named a street after him in San Jose: the Rue de Galindo (no. I made that up. )
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