- Joined
- Jan 11, 2014
My only agreement with Raf has less to do with the age issue and more to do with the sport and the issue of name recognition, casual fans and rivalries. When the Olympics come around a sport needs a story to draw people in and some name recognition and if people only watch a sport during the Olympics then they might only remember Alina and Evgenia. You could certainly spin a great story there for the next Olympics about old rivalries and the whole coaching issues and Evgenia wanting the gold she thought of as hers. It's a good story and people remember the drama. However if Figure Skating was smart they could start building a really good narrative around Aliona, Alexandra and Anna and really build it to the Olympics. The problem is other youngsters come up and pushes them out then you kind of have these no name champions. We might know that they are junior world champions and such but most casual fans do not.
Great rivalries play out over time and build over Olympic cycles. I don't think it is necessarily about age but about time. Is 2 years long enough to build a compelling narrative around a skater? Is one year? Is a season? It would take a very special skater for casual fans to be invested in by just meeting them at the games.. Yulia was like that. I got the feeling a lot of people became invested in her and really wanted her to do well even though they didn't know her. I think Yulia beating Yuna might have been easier for the casual fan than Adelina.
Great rivalries play out over time and build over Olympic cycles. I don't think it is necessarily about age but about time. Is 2 years long enough to build a compelling narrative around a skater? Is one year? Is a season? It would take a very special skater for casual fans to be invested in by just meeting them at the games.. Yulia was like that. I got the feeling a lot of people became invested in her and really wanted her to do well even though they didn't know her. I think Yulia beating Yuna might have been easier for the casual fan than Adelina.