US never pushed jumpers. Kwan over Lipinski and Hughes. Eldredge over Weiss and Goebel. Total package over jumpers was always US number one pirority. But even with jumps there was ur-ing problems a lot. People who could do the toughest jumps were always in the US considered lesser skaters to aritsitc ones.
I'm not sure this was on purpose. Goebel, for example, was successful during his tenure--probably the most successful American male skater internationally of that time, if you consider the number of times he made the world or Olympic podium, and he also made the national podium a good number of times, winning once. As for the women, Tonya, the best jumper in American history probably, beat Kristi in 1991 nationally (and it was in Worlds, with international judges, that their positions were reversed). Tonya didn't do well in other years because she was inconsistent and did not always train well. Debi Thomas was both a splendid jumper and an artistic skater. I don't think anyone was a better jumper than she at the time.
Tara was a fine jumper in terms of rotations, but not particularly a high jumper, so why would she be placed ahead of Michelle at her best, who in those days was doing all the jumps plus becoming one of our greatest artistic skaters ever? Remember that Tara had a flutz and was called on it internationally in the 1998 season.
I don't know. Your point is a very interesting one, and I'm just kind of investigating it rather than arguing against you.
But one thing I do feel is that the skaters today are doing less well internationally NOT because they're either jumpers rather than artistic skaters or artistic skaters rather than jumpers. They're pure and simple not as strong as some of the world's other skaters. Miki, YuNa, and Mao are all splendid jumpers (each in a different way). YuNa and Mao are splendid artists, and Miki is working hard to improve in that area. Those three are miles above whatever America has been able to produce (except for Alissa in terms of spins). Mirai seems to reach that upper level sometimes, but then she clutches and throws it away. Rachel is a consistent jumper but nowhere near as polished as the Asians in overall quality.
As for our guys of today, I don't get a "wuzrobbed" feeling from any of them. Our good skaters are only good sometimes, and look who they're competing against: Daisuke Takahashi and the other Japanese guys, plus Patrick Chan. A lot of people grumbled about Evan Lysacek at the Olympics, but thank goodness for his hard work and hard-won consistency--he was our go-to guy for several years.
So I feel that we aren't on the podium right now in singles because we just aren't good enough compared to the rest of the world. Maybe some other time. But it's going to take a lot more work, talent, and luck than we seem to have right now.
