Posted on 02/21/2018 3:30:05 AM PST by C19fan
Bradie Tennell fell. Mirai Nagasu fell. Karen Chen had to put her hand down on the ice to stop herself from falling. Three American skaters. Three errors they likely won’t be able to recover from here at the Olympics short program Wednesday. “I’m mad,” said Nagasu, who is ninth place. “I’m upset.” “I am not going to lie, I am pretty disappointed in myself,” said Chen, who is in 10th. “We’re all human,” said Tennell, who is in 11th. “We make mistakes.” The United States hasn’t won a medal in ladies’ figure skating since 2006, when Sasha Cohen took silver. Barring a miraculous comeback, that streak will extend to 2022 in Beijing. It’s a major fall from grace for U.S. Figure Skating, which was once an international powerhouse.
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There is more to this. Specifically former eastern block training technique which has lower cost as they start the younger kids up to advanced jumps in group sessions vs individual training after the initial “learn to skate programs” to the podium. Their has been discussions that U.S. skaters may not make the podium going forward because of this, perhaps adopting this system of group training needs to looked at and that would require a culture change...
I saw an interview with Peggy Fleming the other day where she said it’s the lack of artistry that is keeping people from feeling the connection to the skaters that they used to. She’s actually starting her own skating competition where the emphasis is on artistic expression, and skaters aren’t allowed to do more than doubles. We’ve been through a good 10 plus years now of the extreme emphasis on jumping, and the result may be that fewer viewers and potential skaters are interested in the sport because of it.
Rather they fall out of honest effort than be a loud mouth self absorbed twit like Adam rippon or whatever his name is. Who didn’t even attempt a quad and not even remotely in the running. Oh I am good, but I am not remotely on par with the real competitors, but I will make sure you know it’s all about me.
Agree it is cyclical. And i agree the emphasis on big jumps is not good. For the men it is all about the quads now. I do enjoy the ice dancing because there are no throws. IIRC in the 80s ice skaters had a mandatory basics competition which had everyone doing the same basic moves and being evaluated. We never saw it because it was boring and there were only three channels. Katarina Witt said she always hated that part.
America's strength and winning strategy was always to dominate on the artistic side. Under the old scoring system skaters like Peggy Fleming, Dorothy Hamel, Kristi Yamaguchi and Michelle Kwan were princesses gliding along the ice and they "looked better" than the jumping beans and were rewarded accordingly.
Now the sport is nothing but who can jump the most times with the most spins.
now you have a scoring system where trying and failing is scored higher than being perfect at a slightly less demanding jump.
Our coaches have the skaters attempt difficult jumps almost immediately upon taking the ice, and they often miss. Foreign coaches allow their skaters to set the mood, settle down, and do the difficult jumps later in their programs.
This is strange, since the skaters who do the jumps successfully late in their program get a 10% scoring bonus. The current approach definitely isn’t working.
Maybe they just suck.
WINNER!
Even though the US winning fewer and fewer medals is a long term trend, maybe bad luck had something to do with the three falls this year. If these skaters were subject to frequent falls, I doubt they’d have done well enough in all the preliminary competitions necessary to make the Olympic team.
While I admire the athletes of the world and how well they perform, the importance should not be “winning” but how well they represent their respective countries, win or lose. All of those who compete want to win. The U.S. has a solution to having only a single winner sooooooo, (as is being done in the U.S.) give each competitor a “medal”, a pat on the back and send them home. The Olympics has become too political anyway. (End of my sarcasm)
What’s wrong with women’s figure skating? The same thing that’s wrong with men’s and pairs figure skating. The coverage has turned it into a sport that was not masculine for men, into a sport that is flamboyantly gay for any figure skating event. Less than 1% of total viewing public is gay, but 75% of those watching the figure skating events on TV are gay. NBC got the audience it wanted. They just guessed wrong on how many there really were.
Why does one care?
Probably not enough male womens skaters
And the sexual abuse is not just in gymnastics, but in swimming, too. I know a young woman who was an Olympic hopeful, several years ago, who was impregnated by her coach. She was 17.
““What’s wrong with U.S. women’s figure skating?”......”
We are not sending our best. I watched the championships leading up to this and there were better skaters out there. Once the team was selected, even the experts predicted that we wouldn’t win too many medals in it.
Don’t ya’ll keep up with the news? It is the Russians behind the fall! Collusion with the ice maybe a factor too.
There is more to life than skating. (and other sports as well).
“I am not going to lie, I am pretty disappointed in myself,” said Chen, ” an honest assessment. She has a future if she wants it. No passing the buck or excuses.
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