Christine Brennan is a pot-stirrer. It's her style as a sports writer who specializes in figure skating. The more controversy in the sport, the more there is for her to write about. She has a vested interest in keeping figure skating controversial.
Of course she may truly believe the COP is causing a "rash" of injuries and in any case, Brennan is entitled to her opinion. But that's all anybody has on this subject now and for the forseeable future: opinion. Last winter I compared the number of empirical studies on figure skating injuries compared to the number of studies on dance injuries. There are far more studies on dance injuries than there are on figure skating injuries. I don't think it's because dance has more injuries per relative number of participants, though that's JMO because there was no study comparing the number of skating injuries to the number of dance injuries. My point is that the subject of injuries in figure skating hasn't been studied nearly as long or as much as what might be described as the similar activity of theatrical dance.
Also, at the '92 Lillehammer Olympics, all the medalists in the ladies singles division had either at least one full fall or, in Kristi's case, an awkward step-out hand-down on a 3sal in the middle of her program. She opened her program with a 3Lutz/3toe and Midori Ito attempted the 3Axel twice, falling the first time and nailing it at least three minutes into her program. After the competition, there was an article in the
New York Times bemoaning, "Are triple jumps ruining ladies figure skating?" Because none of the women had skated an absolutely clean LP, the writer (I forget who; wasn't Brennan), "Woe is me! I've never seen so many falls in a ladies Olympic figure skating competition. This is terrible. Women just aren't meant to jump like this."
Well, of course she'd never seen so many falls in a ladies Olympic figure skating competition; in '88 you could still throw in a double on something besides the Axel and not in a combo and be competitive. Kat Witt's "Carmen" FS had very weak technical content. Even Witt admits to thinking, as she lay "dead" on the ice, "Did I do enough technically?" IIRC, Liz Manley actually won the FS but Witt had such a big lead built up in the figures portion of the competition (no SP in '88) that Witt won the gold, Manley the silver, and Debi Thomas, who clearly gave up on her performance after not completing her opening 3/3, the bronze.
So every time there's a big ratcheting up of the technical difficulty in any division of figure skating, virtually always during an Olympic year, and skaters tend to have an unusually high number of injuries. It's not unusual in an Olympic year, though most skaters want to keep their injuries quiet, so other skaters don't feel a psychological advantage over them and they can at least behave confidently if they can compete; Kulik never talked about his injuries until after Nagano, but he didn't have to pull out of any high profile competitions and answer the press. In the case of Michelle and Sasha, all US eyes are on them as well as figure skating eyes the world over, they both had to pull out out of the first major competition of the season, so they HAVE to face the media, many of whom are doing the usual, "The sky is falling!"
Also, if we see a lot of falls or wonky landings in Turin, the sky will be faling again for many. Sports such as gymnastics and figure skating are not like track and field, where OGMs and world records move along in 1000ths of a second, 1/8ths of an inch, very, very small increments--except for Bob Beaman's long jump in the '70s, which was a glorious freak of nature.
At the 2010 Olympics ("The Year We Make Contact"--sorry, bad "2001" joke), IMO all the things we're talking about re the COP, artistry in programs, 3/3s, too many "jumps, steps, and spins," etc. will be worked out, for better or worse. The sport will continue evolving, which does not necessarily mean more rotations on the jumps because there is a biomechanical and physiological limit even among those with bodies built for axial rotation; but skaters, coaches, federations, judges, the ISU, and fans will all be part of the soup that figure skating becomes--talking singles and pairs mostly, but also ice dance.
Meanwhile, it's Christine Brennan's job to sell papers.
Rgirl
) because scandal is what gets people interested, it seems. (Except when it happens DURING the Olympics. 
