Two Rules That Need To Change:

[Ms.Anthrope]

I couldn't decide whether I was in favor of or against the age limit rule, but the more I think about the more I am in favor of the age rule. However, I do agree with julietvalcouer that it should be all across the board & not just for the Worlds or Olympics.

There is a lot of thread about the decline of interest in figure skating in recent years and how COP is the main culprit. I'm not so sure that this is true. Although I am not a big fan of Michelle Kwan, I do think that she nearly single handedly kept figure skating interesting for the general public because of her longevity and how so many people recognized her.

I do think that eliminating the age rule will hurt figure skating in the long run because there probably won't be a "recognizable" skater. We get these prepubescent 14/15 year old girls who win 1-2 titles until they have a date with the puberty monster, then they fade away as quickly as they won the "___" title. I have hard time getting excited about Zhang, Nagasu or Flatt because I just don't know if they'll survive the puberty monster or be injury free in 2-3 years.

It's also not fair to compare past skaters or champions who were very young at their first World's. They weren't trying to do 5-7 triples and contortionist moves on the ice like the current skaters are doing. The current programs require so much more of the skaters' bodies than 15-20 years ago. Correct me if I'm wrong, but hip injury seems to be more prone in recent years.

I am also all for limiting number of skaters per country. Yes, it sucks for a country that has large of number competitive skaters at the time, but to take the spot away from another country is selfish & quite arrogant. I mean talk about really jeopardizing the future of figure skating. It's like telling country A to don't even bother with this sport because your skaters has no chance of ever participating because there are too many US, Japanes or ??? skaters who are better than you. A lot of the skaters probably go to the Worlds knowing they have no chance against the likes of Asada or Kim, but they made it to the Worlds. Would we have YuNa Kim if Korea was never or hardly given a spot because it didn't have good enough skaters worthy of Worlds?

 

[Piel]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't gymnastics have a higher Olympic age requirement than figure skating? Mostly because people were so horrified by the emaciated prepubescents of the 1990s?

I'm sorry, but the "it's not fair" argument doesn't wash. LIFE ain't fair, and sports certainly isn't. It's not fair to a whole crop of skaters that they decided to stagger the Olympics between Summer and Winter, giving a bunch of skaters a second chance who might not have gotten them and throwing off the cycle for others. It's not fair that there have always been skaters who peak at the wrong time for the Olympics, who coulda-shoulda-woulda if only it had been the year before or the year after...well, tough. That's life. No matter how good you are, you do not have a God-given right to go to the Olympics.

Count me as one who'd like to see it at least 16 across the board. There is nothing enjoyable about watching little girls perform. They are not artists yet. They don't have the technique, the physique, or the life experience to be artists. Not to mention a creepiness factor involved when it comes to watching any attempt at depiciting love or sensuality. Their technique may or may not be good, but they are not the complete package. There's a reason that an eighteen-year-old ballerina is considered remarkably young to be a soloist or principle--she doesn't have the presentation skills yet. Neither do little girls. Jumping ability is not supposed to be everything.

Perfectly stated!

 

[hockeyfan228]

There's a reason that an eighteen-year-old ballerina is considered remarkably young to be a soloist or principle--she doesn't have the presentation skills yet.

I disagree. Darci Kistler did a remarkable Odette at an SAB performance when she was 15, and danced it on the main stage a year later, after having been mentored by Balanchine. Patricia McBride was a NYCB Principal Dancer at 19. The "baby ballerinas" -- Toumanova, Riabouchinska, and Baranova -- were 12, 13, 14 when they first danced with the Ballet Russe, and in the limited film clips of them, they were quite remarkable. Balanchine discovered Tallchief and Moylan as teenagers in the later years of the Ballet Russe. Baryshnikov already had star qualify and prodigious technique in his late teens. Many of the featured ballerinas on recent Kirov/Mariinsky tours have been promoted since they were in their late teens, and Obratzova is divine. There are a slew of young dancers out of School of American Ballet that have burned up the stage soon after graduation from School of American Ballet: Kathryn Morgan, Tiler Peck, Rachel Piskin among them.

Repertoire is key, and when a young dancer is miscast in a role, that dancer looks immature. But with the proper role, that dancer can be as outstanding, artistically speaking, as dancers a decade or two older. For skaters, with the right choreography and music, younger skaters can be as strong, presentation wise, as most of the skaters in their late teens and early twenties, which is more obvious from watching all of the competitors in various nationals, Europeans, and Worlds, where there are any number of uninspired and awkward renditions of "Tosca," "Malaguena," and generic tangos.

 

[chuckm]

I agree with the current age restrictions. The silly thing is that they only apply to Worlds. So a 13-year-old could win the Grand Prix Final--the second-biggest event of the year--but not go to Worlds. That makes zero sense. Either apply the age restriction to all international events, or eliminate it. I favor keeping it.

That is not true. The minimum age for the GP (and "B" Internationals like Nebelhorn and Finlandia) is 14 by July 1st. A 13-year-old can skate only in the JGP, and in fact that is the minimum age for the JGP---and the skater must be 13 by July 1st. Rachael Flatt lost out on competing in the 2005-2006 JGP (after finishing 2nd as a Junior at Nationals) because she was 20 days too young.

As to the amazing 11- and 12-year-olds in China and Russia: there are many amazing skaters at that age. The problem is that they start to grow and mature and they can no longer do the jumps, and/or suffer injury because they are pushing their immature bodies too far. Naomi Nari Nam was an amazing skater at just 13, but within a year, she started having problems with her jumps and she also incurred a hip injury (similar to the one Tara Lipinski suffered) and had to have surgery.

I do like the idea of creating some wild-card spots for Worlds. Interesting concept. I see no reason not to do it, as long as it's only adding new skaters to Worlds (rather than taking over the existing spots of smaller countries).

Sorry, but that is going to benefit only the richer federations who have depth. Sure, it would be great for Japan and the US who have lots of talented skaters, especially in Ladies, but I can assure you that many of the federations who have good Ladies (Canada, Georgia, Switzerland, Italy) but not that much depth would object to such a proposal, because it could take away any chance that they have of winning World medals.

Three skaters is a lot, and quite enough, when most of the federations have one, and not that many have two.