Just a little more skating commentary before sleep

[kitchen_kink]

I went to YouTube and watched some Robin Cousins, some Torvill and Dean (go watch their Bolero, I mean, right now), and some Scott Hamilton. Man, the sport has come leaps and bounds, athletically speaking, in less than 30 years. In 1978, when Cousins and Hamilton were head to head at the Worlds, the men were doing single axels, and the triple lutz was the big-deal difficult jump to land. In a '94 performance of Hamilton's I just watched, where he was 36, there was commentary to the effect that he hadn't quite gotten the triple axel yet, but was hoping to become the oldest man ever to land one. By the early 90's, a few women were trying triple axels in competition, and near the turn of the century, men started landing quadruple toe loops. Watching the 2006 mens' competition, the top skaters all have quads in their programs - in combination with triples! It's completely insane. No wonder I've been feeling like there are far more falls in skating these days than there used to be - I've no doubt there are, with all of those crazy jumps. And now, with the new scoring system, scores are cumulative, so everybody's going for as many tricks as they can get. What this means is that most programs look a lot alike, and that a lot of artistry has been lost, except by the truly top people.

Overall, I have to say that in the 2006 competition, there wasn't a lot that excited me. None of the gold medalists really blew me away, and they all won because they were athletic, had decent artistry, and could skate a clean program. People like Sasha Cohen and Matt Savoie did stunning things, but these days the artistic elements count for almost nothing, and missing or falling on technical elements carries such severe penalties that there's almost no room for beauty anymore.

It's a damn shame. For a remedy, check out this.

Comments

[lillibet.livejournal.com]

Yeah--while I still prefer watching competitions to exhibitions, I've pretty much given up on caring about it as a sport, because it breaks my heart too much. The skaters I like are rarely the ones rewarded by the system, which is corrupt and constantly changing to the detriment of the sport. And don't even get me started about the politics. But there are still competitors doing marvelous, breath-taking feats of athleticism and artistry, so I can't give it up entirely.

[greendalek.livejournal.com]

Y'know, your last few posts have compelled me to go unearth a few dozen Katarina Witt routines, particularly Calgary '88. She is and ever shall be my all-time favorite, for a whole mess 'o reasons. *mild swoon*

But thanks for prompting the desire to dust off the memories!

[fanw.livejournal.com]

Does this mean that Surya Bonaly would now have a chance? I mean, I don't follow figure skating, but I still remember her from earlier Olympics and she was incredibly athletic -- ridiculously so. But she never managed to beat out the people with floofy costumes and fake violin music.

[lillibet.livejournal.com]

I don't think so, no. Firstly because one of the things that does count now is connecting steps between elements, so you see a lot less of the plain stroking around the ice till the next jump that she did a lot of. While she was an amazing jumper, her basic skating technique was always pretty rough. On the other hand, being able to spin fast is now counted less than having a lot of different spin positions and I think she would have done well with that. But secondly, the new system has not made corruption any less rampant, as far as we can tell from the outside, and the judges still manage to hold up the people they like and push down those they don't.

One of the most frustrating things about being a figure skating fan is that television makes it almost impossible to see two of the key things that judges are looking for--and that I think are basic to the sport--those being ice coverage and speed. So I think that it's pretty unlikely that the impression of television viewers will ever be reflected in the judging.

[dietrich.livejournal.com]

Wow, I didn't know you were a skating geek! Awesome.

As I recall, Bonaly didn't look attractive on the ice, which is not to say that looks are important but rather that grace and presence are. Though it's tending in that direction, I doubt (and I hope not!) that figure skating could ever become a sport of pure athleticism. Watching her used to make my teeth hurt, as did Tonya Harding, Midori Ito, and now Irina Slutskaya - they are all big, heavy skaters who have a lot of power but look particularly ridiculous in the frilly dresses and don't let what could be a more traditionally masculine grace express itself in their skating. (Slutskaya is best at the latter, admittedly. I do think that if our ideas of grace were less gendered, some of the more athletic women skaters could find a different kind of artistry.)

I also seem to recall that Bonaly was an extremely inconsistent skater who was always falling about.

[lillibet.livejournal.com]

The rule-change allowing women to compete in pants is an interesting thing--I thought I hated the dresses, but in general, I find I miss being able to see their legs and that very few women actually look graceful in pants. But it's possible that I'll get used to it and I think it's a good move. Oddly, one of the things that I find means a lot to me is the relaxing of the tradition that women must always wear white skates.

A friend of mine has written her thesis (for a Ph.D. in Dance) on figure skating and spends quite a bit of time in it discussing the ways that gender is represented and reinforced in skating by the rules, the language of the commentators, and even the video-editing (there's a tendency to use slow fades during women's programs and quick cuts during the men's, in order to emphasize grace and flow or power and drama, respectively.

The standard style for women seems much more regimented than that of men, although they don't have a lot of freedom, either. While women vary in terms of the degree of drama, sexiness, cutsiness, etc. there is still a definite pressure toward balletic, graceful programs. Men have similar constraints, but there is more emphasis on their power and room for people such as Toller Cranston and Elvis Stojko to seriously challenge the standard.

Bonaly is black, was a former gymnast who came to skating late, and was coached through most of her career solely by her mother. Those things made her very different and unusual in the skating world and it is not very quick to accept difference, especially among women.

[tisana.livejournal.com]

Thank you for that. I used to love to watch the Olympic figure skaters, but lately the ones I've caught all seem more focused on the tricks than on the dance. The Bolero was amazing--that's the sort of stuff I used to love.

[catya.livejournal.com]

That's exquisite :)

[jencallisto]

Oh... The Bolero was beautiful, thank you for posting the link. I used to love figure skating when growing up, but I grew away from it. This makes me want to go back and watch some of the old programs.