Oh, come on! You claim you realize it was a joke but your remark shows clearly you do not understand and just kill it !
Your post was entertaining and, to me, very much to the point. This is why I never (what NEVER? Well, hardly ever) complain about the judging. People value different things in skating. That is why a panel of judges, however expert, however experienced and well-trained, however honest and fair-minded, will never agree. No more than we do.
And, AFAIK, Worlds in Japan went down from being in Top 5 in 2019 (depending on the discipline) of Japanese TV viewership ratings, to below Top 30 in 2023, and this is in spite of Japanese skaters doing very well there. Guess why?
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I think they recognised your allegory but took issue with the fact that figure-based skating skills aren't adequately represented among the 'very different things' that they are comparing.Oh, come on! You claim you realize it was a joke but your remark shows clearly you do not understand and just kill it !
So let me explain, it is about people doing very different things and insisting on comparing them. Nothing to do with perfect circles on the ice. You might have not noticed but they did not even have skates in the cave age so obviously they did not do perfect circles with their blades as they had no blades
I appreciate your contribution but just do not share your interpretation - which I am perfectly entitled to, just like you are entitled to yours.
This is quite true. But although there's definitely an overlap, sometimes the interests of participants and spectators diverge.About figure skating being primarily a participatory sport or an spectator sport, this is surely not an either/or proposition, right? Quite the opposite. The only reason that competitive skating came into existence is because it was once a popular recreational past-time. Conversely, popular championns in the sport can, in principle, motivate new generations to participate.
And it goes far beyond skating. There is, for instance, a whole generation of successful Asian-Americans in all walks of life who still express, in their autobiographical writings, gratitude to Kristi Yamaguchi and ,Michelle Kwan for pointing the way.
Here is the guiding statement from the USFS website (next to a big picture of Davis and White
"U.S. Figure Skating's mission, vision and values guide the organization. We exist to create and cultivate opportunities for participation and achievement in figure skating. We foster fun and a lifelong passion for skating while developing champions on and off the ice."
Right, I am very well aware of traps you fall into when trying to compare apples to oranges. And yet.... there is this thin red line when innocent subjectivity turns into bias, or what you might call, an assisted subjectivity, or even - dare I say - reciprocal subjectivity....
Thanks so much for sharing these. An interesting comparison, indeed. The second performance is certainly more dramatic than the first.
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Ulrich Salchow, 1895-1920.
What is strange to me is that figure skating was at its most popular in terms of viewership precisely during the years when there were the most egregious judging incidents, accusations and scandals.
Yeah, but plenty of skaters peaked artistically before they started to have troubles with technical side. Valieva, Lipnitskaya, Hanyu, Medvedeva, Vasilievs all skated by far more memorable and attractive programs when they were in their teens then after twenty/late teens. Tbh, I don't really see any particular artistic greatness in older Kostner, and Witt is like million years old and you can't really compare anything in the eighties to modern sport. What they jumped would barely even be considered jumps now, let alone step sequences, and the artistic was all about politics. A girl from East Germany smiled, and wow! She is in artist!
Well, I'd planned to transport my mummified body to the rink this morning and skate, but I guess I should crawl back into my sarcophagus instead 
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