Except the most important thing for figure skating is to attract more fans, and having compulsory figures return would not exactly help with that.This is a big argument in favor of the return of compulsory figures btw, cause if coaches aren't going to work on these things and judges act like it's all beautiful all the same when it isn't then it's time to bring those back to show who has those skills and who doesn't.
Except the most important thing for figure skating is to attract more fans, and having compulsory figures return would not exactly help with that.
I'd say the best way to do that would be to lower the age limit, or in other words the exact opposite of what ISU's actually trying to do, it seems. Well, not the first time they're completely out of touch.
Didn't also Denise Biellmann use to compete at a very young age at Europeans and Worlds in the 70s?
Except the most important thing for figure skating is to attract more fans, and having compulsory figures return would not exactly help with that.
I'd say the best way to do that would be to lower the age limit, or in other words the exact opposite of what ISU's actually trying to do, it seems. Well, not the first time they're completely out of touch.
I don’t want figure skating to become a more popular sport and lose all its amazing characteristics.
Imagine if the ISU and the coaches/athletes were working for making figure skating a super popular sport, we would have skaters twerking and semi-naked on ice because that’s what gets views these days. The competitions would become like a Dancing with the stars sort of tv show, and jumps would all have the same name, because the general public doesn’t want to learn about difficult rules.
Yeah, I’m happy with the way figure skating is right now.
I think Elena Vodorezeva competed at the 1976 Olympics when she was 11.
Wikipedia gives her birthday as May, 1963, so she would have been 12, turning 13 in May. She must have just qualified.
She was a prodigious child jumping bean, being the first lady to do a 2F-3T combo and known for spectacular high double Axels. She had to take the 1979-80 season off from competition due to juvenile arthritis. But she came back and competed at the 1984 Olympics.
duffyanstorn makes a good point. The sport of amateur figure skating was never intended to be a big commercial enterprise. After Sonia Henie pointed the way, talented young amateurs would try to win medals in competition so that they could then sign a big contract with an ice show and make some money. Janet Lynn won U.S. championships and world and Olympic medals. Then she signed with Ice Capades for $1,500,000. Dorothy Hamill won the Olympics, then made a fortune selling hair products and dolls.
The problem is that there is essentially no market for professional ice shows any more, so that leaves the current competitors in a tough situation. There are a few superstars like Hanyu, Kim, and i would put Zagitova in that category, who have the magic touch to cash in on their popularity as amateurs and Olympians. Still ... many are called, few are chosen. I do not think that any tinkering with the rules on the part of the ISU is going to make the public suddenly start liking amateur figure skating as much as they like football -- or even tennis.
I think Elena Vodorezeva competed at the 1976 Olympics when she was 11. Junior Worlds didn't start until 1976, so she couldn't have been grandfathered in by winning Junior Worlds. I think the limit of age 12 was in place then, so I don't know what she was doing there - other than huge double Axels and triple toes, that is.
Sports popularity is an interesting topic...
The most popular sports worldwide have in common that they're accesible, as in easy to watch, get information and practice.
They also have simple rules (whoever makes the most goals/baskets/etc. wins) in a way that, even if you've never watched it before, you can turn on the tv and all you need is a few minutes of watching to figure out the basics and follow the game.
Finally, they're team sports. I guess people are more attracted to the idea of playing with others or following/identifying with teams rather than individuals.
Unforunately, figure skating is not accesible. If you're totally new into it and you watched a competition for the first time, you would probably not be able to follow and understand the rules and scoring system without someone guiding you through it. It's also true that it's an elitist sport, expensive and unaccesible to most people around the world.
But maybe the visibility aspect carries more weight, otherwise, why is roller skating not more popular than figure skating, even though it's cheaper to practice?
Also, a sport will become more popular in a country which has succesful athletes or superstars. There was a documentary about Yuna Kim where they mentioned that FS became more popular in South Korea after her success. FS is most popular in Japan and Russia too.
I think one thing that ISU could do if they wanted to make the sport more popular is to make it super accesible to watch everywhere but especially in countries where it's far from popular and only present in people's minds during the Olympics. For example, here in Mexico, last season you couldn't even watch the competitions on the ISU Channel without VPN. I don't even know if the cable company that had the rights actually showed the competitions, but who pays for cable TV these days anyway?
Sports popularity is an interesting topic...
The most popular sports worldwide have in common that they're accesible, as in easy to watch, get information and practice.
They also have simple rules (whoever makes the most goals/baskets/etc. wins) in a way that, even if you've never watched it before, you can turn on the tv and all you need is a few minutes of watching to figure out the basics and follow the game.
Finally, they're team sports. I guess people are more attracted to the idea of playing with others or following/identifying with teams rather than individuals.
Unforunately, figure skating is not accesible. If you're totally new into it and you watched a competition for the first time, you would probably not be able to follow and understand the rules and scoring system without someone guiding you through it. It's also true that it's an elitist sport, expensive and unaccesible to most people around the world.
But maybe the visibility aspect carries more weight, otherwise, why is roller skating not more popular than figure skating, even though it's cheaper to practice?
Also, a sport will become more popular in a country which has succesful athletes or superstars. There was a documentary about Yuna Kim where they mentioned that FS became more popular in South Korea after her success. FS is most popular in Japan and Russia too.
I think one thing that ISU could do if they wanted to make the sport more popular is to make it super accesible to watch everywhere but especially in countries where it's far from popular and only present in people's minds during the Olympics. For example, here in Mexico, last season you couldn't even watch the competitions on the ISU Channel without VPN. I don't even know if the cable company that had the rights actually showed the competitions, but who pays for cable TV these days anyway?
I agree with you on most parts, except for the part where rules are necessarily easier to understand.
How many rules does American football have? No matter how much I watch it, I won’t understand it or like it, violence is not how my dopamine system works.
How many rules does Soccer have? Also many. I still can’t understand when they invalidate “gols” or things like that.
This makes perfects sense in theory, however, in practice it's not really how it works. In FS, even if you're not new to it, sometimes you have to actually take a look at the protocols to make sense of why a skater received a higher score or a lower score than another skater, with or without falls. You also have to know about the difference between TES and PCS, base values of elements, types of jumps, jump edges, e ! < <<, step sequences, choreo sequences, levels and don't even get me started on things like "artistry", "skating skills", etc.For the occasional fan of figure skating, the rules are: if you fall, you may lose; if you don’t fall, you may not lose. If you fall many times, you lose. If don’t fall at all, let’s see if your jumps are harder than other people’s. That’s quite simple, right?
Whenever I ask my boyfriend to watch FS with me (which is almost never, cause he never wants to) he’s like “this skater sucks, because he/she fell”, “does he/she jump quads? Only quads are good”, or “you cannot win if you fall”. That’s what most occasional watchers do.
Well, they have money because of sponsors and they have sponsors because they attract millions of fans worldwide. So maybe the key is visibility.Soccer, football, basketball all have money to invest in TV and to have TV investing on them. You can watch these sports even at bars and pubs.
I think you could probably find at least one of those somewhere in Russia?Have you ever been to a pub where people are watching Figure Skating? Please, tell me, I have to go there to have a few drinks and have a “Patrick Drunk Commentary” moment [emoji23][emoji23][emoji3526]
Where is figure skating’s money coming from?