Is our love for a skater purer if they are not from our own country ?

[el henry]

I think its perfectably reasonable to have an extra level of positivity for your own athletes. As long as your support doesnt become irrational and strictly confined to your own nationality. I once remember seeing a Skate America poster with the sign "Go support Team USA." I dunno but going to an international event with all these amazing skaters from other country and you're just going to cheer for your own skaters doesnt sound rational.

I actually don’t find a banner to be irrational. At various comps, there are plenty of banners “Go skater X” and to see a banner “Go team X”, well, like I said, it’s outside my frame of reference, but it’s only a banner. And to me, it’s cheering, it’s not saying “I only like Team USA”.

But when someone actually *only* likes skaters for a particular country or coach, that is outside my experience. I love Jason Brown. I would love him if he skated for the US, for China, or for Tanzania. I love him if he is coached by Kori Ade, Brian Orser, or the man in the moon. I love him when he skates well and I love him when he doesn’t skate well.

I expect everyone to feel the same way about their own favorite skaters.

 

[icybear]

I actually don’t find a banner to be irrational. At various comps, there are plenty of banners “Go skater X” and to see a banner “Go team X”, well, like I said, it’s outside my frame of reference, but it’s only a banner. And to me, it’s cheering, it’s not saying “I only like Team USA”.

But when someone actually *only* likes skaters for a particular country or coach, that is outside my experience. I love Jason Brown. I would love him if he skated for the US, for China, or for Tanzania. I love him if he is coached by Kori Ade, Brian Orser, or the man in the moon. I love him when he skates well and I love him when he doesn’t skate well.

I expect everyone to feel the same way about their own favorite skaters.

I feel like a fan putting out a "Go team X" banner among several other individual banner for other skaters and a federation telling fans to go this international event to only support athletes with USA on their back is not the same thing. I guess it didnt help that they have a tendency to use only USA skaters on their main posters as if their fans would not care for foreign star skaters.

 

[Ic3Rabbit]

Hi ! I'm wondering sometimes if we can say our love for a skater/team is purer if they are not from our own country as there is no patriotic feeling behind our support...
Is general how do you react when a new skater/team emerges from your own country ? Do you automatically support them ? Or are you more demanding towards them because they represent your country ? Also, putting aside the big names that have many fans everywhere, do you think the skaters always expect a patriotic behaviour from their own crowd ? Sorry for those many questions but I'm just curious to know what people think about that complex mix of support and patriotism/nationalism....

I don't look at the flag. If I like how they skate, then I like and support them.

 

[Harriet]

The word pure is putting my back up for some reason, I think because it comes with wider fandom baggage...but I don't think there's anything particularly morally superior (which is what 'pure' implies to me) about supporting a skater from a different country that one's own. Speaking for myself, unless I actively dislike their skating I have a general overall desire for Aussies, Kiwis, South Africans and other southern hemisphere skaters to do well, whereas I'm liable to be (at minimum) indifferent to northern hemisphere skaters unless I actively enjoy their work, but if I particularly enjoy a local skater's work then that desire is more intense and personal and I pay more attention to them. So my support for Matilda Friend and William Badaoui is stronger and more specific than that for Chantelle Kerry and Andrew Dodds, and my support for Darian Kaptich is stronger and more specific than my support for James Min, but at the same time, my support for Friend/Badaoui is about the same as my support for Reed/Ambrulevicius and my support for Darian is about the same as my support for Noemie Bodenstein and Paulina Ramanauskaite and Adam Siao Him Fa and Andrea Montesinos Cantu. But maybe I'm strange that way.

 

[Interspectator]

Sports is the only time I feel any nationalism at all. My support of Yuzu not necessarily more or less pure than my support for Boyang and Han Yan tho. As others have posted, there is an accessibility to the skaters of my own country through the media. -They get a lot of coverage and you get to follow their story from the time they are kids. So there is more opportunity to support them and be a fan than there is for a skater from another country.

 

[ice coverage]

Hi ! I'm wondering sometimes if we can say our love for a skater/team is purer ...

The word pure is putting my back up for some reason, I think because it comes with wider fandom baggage...but I don't think there's anything particularly morally superior (which is what 'pure' implies to me) about supporting a skater from a different country that one's own. ...

:agree: Strongly agree with Harriet. I dislike immensely the OP's word choice of "purer," which strikes me as OTT and unnecessarily judgmental.
IMO, fans should be free to like whoever they like -- for whatever reasons -- and should be tolerant that other fans have the same freedom.

(Like many others in the thread, I have plenty of favorites who are not from my country.
No litmus test that my favorites must be from my country, but I do enjoy taking an interest in skaters who are from my country, many of whom also are among my favorites.
Happens all the time that my hope is for a favorite who is not from my country to be able to outskate and outplace a lesser favorite who is from my country.)

 

[noskates]

Do I automatically support and/or like a skater from my country? Absolutely not. In fact, there are a few from the past that give me hives and a few current skaters who really hit me the wrong way. So again - it doesn't matter where their country of origin is. It's how they skate and how they conduct themselves. I realize these skaters are amateurs BUT when you're in the public eye - you're in the public eye. I remember a passage from Kurt's autobiography from years ago where someone came up to him in the grocery store and asked him about his skating (he was 11 or 12 at the time) and he wasn't very polite. His mother admonished him and told him never to treat someone like that again that was interested in him as a skater. (I paraphrase) That because he was in the public eye he had an obligation to always be pleasant and friendly. I think he learned well.

p.s. think you're reading too much into the use of the word "pure!" I took it to mean abiding and above average. I could be wrong but I think it's just semantics. The essence of the question, to me, is whether nationalism enters into who you like or don't like.

 

[TontoK]

I feel like a fan putting out a "Go team X" banner among several other individual banner for other skaters and a federation telling fans to go this international event to only support athletes with USA on their back is not the same thing. I guess it didnt help that they have a tendency to use only USA skaters on their main posters as if their fans would not care for foreign star skaters.

Well, I think we have to differentiate between GS contributors who are more knowledgeable/sophisticated fans of the sport and the casual man/woman on the street that USFSA is trying to get in the door.

Attendance at some events has been very low, and I can't blame organizers for using every trick in the book to get butts in seats. But, I don't really think I've seen any signs telling fans to support ONLY Team USA skaters.

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I feel like a fan putting out a "Go team X" banner among several other individual banner for other skaters and a federation telling fans to go this international event to only support athletes with USA on their back is not the same thing. I guess it didnt help that they have a tendency to use only USA skaters on their main posters as if their fans would not care for foreign star skaters.

Well, I think we have to differentiate between GS contributors who are more knowledgeable/sophisticated fans of the sport and the casual man/woman on the street that USFSA is trying to get in the door.

Attendance at some events has been very low, and I can't blame organizers for using every trick in the book to get butts in seats. But, I don't really think I've seen any signs telling fans to support ONLY Team USA skaters.

 

[pesto]

Everyone has multiple reasons for preferring certain skaters or programmes. I don't think there is anything morally reprehensible about nationality being among those reasons.

Being British, I'd have a pretty thin time of it, if I based my support primarily on nationality. That said, while I always want all skaters to skate their best, I always spare a little extra thought for the Brits - which, given the average standard of our skaters, often amounts to hoping they qualify for a competition, or go through to the Free.

Going even more tribal, I especially take an interest in skaters who train at rinks that I have links with.

I'm a lackadaisical supporter in any case. I don't cheer or scream or wave banners or wear supporter kit, or throw things. I just quietly hope for the best.

 

[DSQ]

I think it’s a personal choice who you support and for what reasons. So there’s nothing more “pure” or “impure”.

This thread is a little judgy.

 

[4everchan]

i have had favourites from all over the world. I do encourage Canadian skaters though : eh!!! I pay tax money to fund the Skate Canada!!!! LOL

But... love being pure or not.... i am not sure that when I look at Stéphane for instance.. .just to name one ....that my thoughts are 100% pure LOL

 

[Olibritt]

The thing is that "love" is a word that I only use in my personal life and I don't find any sense using the term "pure" out of a chemical lab, so I'm gonna answer the question in terms of interest for what a skater is doing and public support as fan.

My interests are triggered by some kind of connection that I can not describe, something special, sometimes because it evokes an emotion in my memory and others because it takes me to a new and unkown place, but my interests are not written in stone, they change and grow or desappear with time.

Public support is different, I need to feel a connection but, mostly, when I do it it's because I think is needed… For instance, I publicly support spanish skaters, I genuinely like them but do I need to explain that they need all the support they can get? I support other skaters too, from different nationalities, because I like them and I have something to say about them, but I have never supported Yuzu in public, not because I don´t like him (I think his Barcelona's Seimei is one of "my" best ever), simply because... does he really need more people arguing about him? Is there anything not said yet?

These are my reasons but, probably, there're as many reasons as fans :confused2:

 

[Mathman]

I think it can go the other way, too. When a skater comes along from a country that is not regarded as a big skating power, there is an extra impetus to wish that skater well. Look how universally popular Javier Fernandez was, for instance.

I went to a skating competition once where I found myself sitting next to a bunch of young people who had brought a stack of blank placards to hold up. As each skater finished, these fans consulted their program notes to see who was going next and hurriedly wrote out,"Go So-and-so!"

 

[Scrufflet]

"pure"? Not sure about that term but I figure a balance of both is a good way to go. Support and encourage your own but appreciate those from other countries! And keep the dissing to an absolute minimum! Focus on what you love!

 

[el henry]

I am fine with the term “pure” and I don’t make any judgments about it It may be easier to love a skater from our own country, because we all love, or are taught to love, our country. So when we love a skate from another country, we do not have that “country love” as part of the equation. (Whether we choose to continue with what we taught or raised in as “country love” is a completely different question, and outside the scope of discussing skating, I believe )

I am enjoying seeing (which I expected) the affirmation that all of us love skaters regardless of where they are from, but because of who they are. That to me indeed is “pure”.

I just wish I had a Star Trek translator to understand everything about the skaters I love from different countries, Google translate is a wonderful thing, and one we didn’t have back in the day, but I would like perfection.

 

[YuBluByMe]

I think it can go the other way, too. When a skater comes along from a country that is not regarded as a big skating power, there is an extra impetus to wish that skater well. Look how universally popular Javier Fernandez was, for instance.

Everyone loves an underdog. Everything about Fernandez - particularly the trajectory of his career and the federation he belonged to - is a contradiction. It was more than being a “late bloomer.” Fernandez was literally a stronger skater at 25 than he was at 20.... which is practically unheard of. I think this is the main reason for his universal popularity; the fact that he was a very competitive skater from Spain is icing on the cake. It’s going to be decades before we see another skater like him. The last was Candeloro!

Look at the sort of support Brezina gets, especially last year when he had a very realistic shot at a GPF medal. Can you imagine if he continues his career and if by some miracle he would turn out to be a podium threat for the Beijing Olympics? People would be losing their minds rooting for him and I’ll definitely be one of them.

 

[fzztsimmons]

To repeat what many others have said, generally I tend to love a skater for their skating rather than where they're from. What country they represent doesn't really bother me or make too much of a difference.
However, as Britain has so few international-level skaters, and even fewer who are remotely competitive, I definitely root for Lilah & Lewis to do well and probably gloss over flaws I may notice in other couples. In skating terms we're a little fed, and I enjoy seeing skaters from less powerful countries break through (and especially when it's my country!)

 

[PaulE]

I just wish I had a Star Trek translator to understand everything about the skaters I love from different countries, Google translate is a wonderful thing, and one we didn’t have back in the day, but I would like perfection.

These are the times I wish Babel Fish were real: https://hitchhikers.fandom.com/wiki/Babel_Fish

 

[Mathman]

I am fine with the term “pure” and I don’t make any judgments about it It may be easier to love a skater from our own country, because we all love, or are taught to love, our country.

The thing I could never get into is school spirit. I remember in high school, when the football coach would hold a big pep rally: "Oak Ridge High is the best school in town!" Everybody shouts "yay!" I am sitting there going, "We are? In what possible sense are we the best school in town?"

"We're going to beat George Washington High on Saturday!" "Yay." I'm thinking, "Don't be ridiculous -- GW is leading the league, we're in last place."

Oh, well. After I got beat up a few times I began to understand the logic of the argumentation a little better.

 

[TallyT]

What on earth 'pure' means outside a chemist's lab is impossible anyway, but where love or any emotion (even dislike or hate) is concerned... ummm no.

After all, if we were being totally honest, how many fans connected with Javi just and solely for his skill on ice and austerely ignored his appealing personality, his gift for emotional connection, warmth and sense of fun, his struggles coming from a small fed (everyone likes to cheer a battler) and oh yes, the fact that he - like a lot of them with large fan bases - is entrancingly easy on the eyes? (Ours is an intensely visual sport and maybe fripperies like looks, grace, taste in costumes/music etc shouldn't count as much as it does, but anyone who claims they pay no weight to said fripperies is IMO fooling themselves, especially now given social media).

Any or all of those, like a touch of national pride, may make the love less 'pure' sportswise. Sure, maybe patriotic thrill is a touch more impersonal. On the other hand, Yuzuru has a massive international following, sometimes estimated to be bigger in China than any of their own skaters, possibly the same in NA and other places... does that make those fans' adoration 'purer' than say Boyang's or Jason's countrymen/fans? Of course not. Are his Japanese fans, especially from his home province, less 'pure' in their adoration of his skating because it's irreversibly mixed up with their feelings for him as a symbol of hope and survival and rebuilding? Equally of course not, because a whole heap of factors - sporting, aesthetic, personal, emotional - go into what and why we feel.

Which is a longwinded (sorry, my Javi love may not be pure but it's voluble) way to answer the OP.... unless their nationality is the only thing you honestly like about them, which no one is gonna admit even to themselves...

No.