I agree with all those who wish for more artistry in the programs. But is artistry inversely proportional to difficulty? The Russian women, and Hanyu Yuzuru, have both, So, for that matter, did the other men on the singles podium. Sounds like a bit of sour grapes.
5
Did I watch the same competition as many of these commenters? So many people are saying there's nothing mesmerizing about any of these programs: did they watch Yuzuru Hanyu skate? The end of Evgenia Medvedeva's short program? Javier Fernandez's delightful performances? Savchenko and Massot's engaging and triumphant program, and honestly both the other top pairs? And of course, Virtue and Moir, Papadakis and Cizeron, and the Shib sibs? There is plenty of artistry at these games, along with the athleticism that befits an Olympic sport.
I'd also just point out that Nathan Chen is ten years younger than men like Adam Rippon and Patrick Chan. I'll wager he grows into greater artistic maturity, though he is capable of a good deal already.
6
Did I miss the part where Tara Lipinski talks about how the stress to her body to do those triples resulted in both surgery and the end of her career? The year Lipinski won the gold and Kwan the silver Michelle Kwan went on to receive the 1998 Women's Sports Foundation Sportswoman of the Year and twice the endorsement money. Her grace on the ice and off endured beyond a triple triple.
12
Who cares? The Olympics are a racket.
1
I find dangerous jumps boring and wish they would do more intelligent skating. Skating on ice could augment the human body with more flowing and graceful movements and be gorgeous. I remember Peggy Fleming skating around a piano on a stage, a performance that was breath taking. I find the pairs skating much more interesting than the singles this year.
8
I would just accuse the Olympics of discrimination and claim victimhood thus claiming the moral victory.
"Risks bring rewards" Maybe at the next Olympics an American can successfully land seventy-three quads in competition and to attempt seventy-five.
1
I miss the beauty and artistry of Michelle Kwan's skating. Perhaps Tara opened the wrong door. I remember watching Kwan skate with awe as she seemed to float above the ice. I don't care how perfectly a skater does a triple move, I don't feel as impressed as the commentators. One triple looks an awful lot like every other triple I see. And, The strategy of saving all of the moves to the end means the skater is not exerting herself so fully in the beginning as to tire her legs out that much. The first part is also not so beautiful to watch but merely seems a setup for the second part. Now the gold medal winning German pair. That was something. Beautiful to watch. They skated with feeling and grace.
7
Tara's proposal reminds me of what's happening in ballet. More and more gymnastic-like choreography. Audiences cheer because, when executed, the moves look glamorous. Not the elegant technique I learned many years ago.
11
First world problems.
3
One thing Tara fails to point out regarding Zagitova's back loading her program for bonus points is how bad the program is when you do this. The first half becomes dull with no jumps and the second half is simply non stop jumps. Her component scores should topple due to this. It is not a cohesive artistic program; just a parade of elements with accompanying music. Frankly, I wouldn't give her a medal of any kind. If skaters are no longer going to present well planned artistic programs, there should be deductions for ignoring this basic aspect of figure skating.
6
If skill is all that matters, get rid of the music. No music with luge or slalom or ski jumping. Get rid of pretty costumes. Just put them out there to jump. Of course, it won't attract the people or the tv ads and perhaps the Olympics will become just another sports event somewhere in the world. There will always be an audience but it will change. figure skating was the one sport that demanded form, grace and artistry as well as technical ability. It takes immense physical ability to do the technical with form, grace and art. It doesn't have to be one or the other. They are both important in a sport that lends itself to such potential beauty.
4
Thanks for the insight, Tara! Really interesting \!
Since the judging rules were changed, skating has become a major bore to watch. The skaters look like a bunch of robots with jump after jump after jump, racking up point after point.
I see no passion, no originality, no style.
9
Ms. Lipinski was a judge at Donald Trump's Miss Universe Pageant in Moscow in 2013. I think her judgment is a bit suspect, given first her willingness to participate in that spectacle, and second, her failure to speak out about the "fix" that dictated the outcome of the contest, according to Jeff Toobin writing in The New Yorker.
5
Ms Lipinski:
Your sharing the technical causes of the U.S. failure to win gold is appreciated, yet it may be right to take this occasion to bring up another highly competitive Olympic sport that made headlines in a very different way, Gymnastics. I'll start with the assertion that the disclosure, trial and vilification of the previously respected team doctor Larry Nassar also uncovered a part of the stresses of years training for perfection that not only perpetuated his crimes, but when he was convicted made him more vilified than any mass murderer in my memory.
The illustration of this OpEd shows just how close is the failure of being awarded a 5.9 to the glory of 6.0, that Olympic Gold medal that provides adulation to the winner for a lifetime. But, that's a single person per sport every four years, while hundreds of thousands of young people around the world devote a good part of their youth reaching for this goal.
The toll must be not only to the body, with gymnasts shorter in stature with a delayed puberty, but their soul. Of course what is lauded as mental discipline has a flip side, which resulted in mothers watching Dr. Nassar's doing something to their girls under a towel, but too cowed to simply ask him what it was. The girls learned from their training that no sacrifice was too great for the possibility of becoming a world champion.
Perhaps, as with football, we should look at the full cost among all the losers who never get a gold medal.
3
No thank you. I would rather watch a graceful, fluid, perfectly executed program, than one with sporadic jumping beans. I recently watched older Olympic programs on youtube and what a treat that was. Peggy Fleming and Dick Button. They were liquid out there. And slightly off-topic, check out Olga Korbut's gold medal floor exercise in gymnastics. Same thing. She was so much more appealing than the aerialists we have now.
7
Why don't they just put in a jumping skate? Let the skaters go back and forth across the rink for 2 minutes or so and only jump, like a snowboarders run. They could be judged only on their jumping skills. In fact, why not go back to throwing in a figures section, which I believe actually gave the sport it's name. Then they could finish up with a throw everything in free skate at the end where things like spins and spirals and artistry matter and skaters could actually be downgraded for performing an expressionless circus act.
4
For me, the day ladies' figure skating died was the day the Olympic judges awarded the Gold to the bobbing bunny jumps of Tara Lipinski over the artistic (and technical) excellence of Michelle Kwan.
11
With all due respect to Tara, she is not the first woman to land that combination in competition. That honor belongs to Midori Ito.
9
While I respect and admire the perspective from skaters who are the level of Tara, there is a little bit of a loss in "advancing the sport", as well. I am 70 and have been following skating with almost a spiritual attention. The beauty of the death spiral in pairs as performed in the 60s by Ludmila Belousova and Oleg Protopopov took my breath away. As did Peter Carruthers when he threw his sister into an aerial spin AWAY from him in an exhibition skate in the 70s. However, watching the Olympic performances this year is almost hypnotic, and not in an exciting sense. The judging of required maneuvers fills an entire program, and makes all of the skaters doing almost the same performances. A triple, then a quadruple, then a .. what? And at what expense to the beauty of humans in almost ethereal flight across the ice? Sport...fine. Put away the sequins and emotion-filled music. But then let us rejoice in the joy of watching a Dorothy Hamil spin with precision as though on a string, or Brian Boitano glide with almost endless precision to Bolero, or a Nancy Kerrigan seem to transform into a swan. Some of the beauty and grace is still preserved in the Ice Dance field, tho that, too, seems to over-value technique.
8
This was an interesting editorial and I can see why Ms. Lipinski gets so excited in her television commentary when a skater is about to jump. I prefer to watch the artistry and interpretation of the music rather than seeing skaters preparing for one jump after another. I also agree with other comments that an unsuccessful jump should not count more than a successful jump. Artistry is an important part of how many fans enjoy figure skating. I have come to enjoy ice dancing more because of that. Perhaps just a technical competition could take care of all the folks who want it to be mostly sport.
7
I'm a figure skating fan, but I disagree with the overall international attention on upping the difficulty. Is a quad jump thrilling? Sure. Do we need 5 quads in a skating program? Nope. There is a reason why skaters fall so much these days. The programs are so difficult. The cost of this is not only the skaters' overall health (Tara Lipinski was forced by injury to retire as a teenager) but also the creativity and beauty of the programs. While the very top skaters can manage to instill artistry and technicality, most skaters cannot handle both. The result? We end up watching a competition full of boring programs lacking in artistry and full of skaters attempt (and often falling on) difficult jumps. I would rather watch the artistic but (basically) quadless skaters Jason Brown and Adam Rippon over Nathan Chen. Viewers watch skating for beauty, along with the occasional thrilling moment. We don't need to keep upping the ante.
7
Tara, I was thinking exactly that, watching ice dancing, technically brilliant but somehow not exciting, standard choreography. You can almost hear the discussion on how to win, few risks but hit all the right moves. The artistry is missing. I applaud all the skaters, clearly the work ethic and training is huge but more is needed for the Olympics. Where are the really great choreographers of a few years ago?
Also, IMHO, noticeably better was the Lipinsky/Weir commentary, spot on. I found the ice dancing commentary a bit upbeat, more like an amateur event where you want to be sure everyone is appreciated. The Olympics are decided by milliseconds or points and pointing out the why something is better - or not - makes me feel as if I'm there. You guys are a great team.
1
I was a competitor back in the days when compulsory figures counted for 60% of the "score." Actually, back then we used an ordinal system that took into account how a skater placed with each judge. If you placed first with a judge, your ordinal from that judge was 1; if you placed second, your ordinal was 2 and so on. The skater with the lowest sum of ordinals was the winner. Ties were broken by adding up the actual technical and artistic scores (on the 6.0 scale).
Like many other commenters, I agree that the elimination of compulsory figures has changed the sport. Rarely does one see the edge control and smoothness fans became accustomed to. Well executed quads are a joy to behold, but skaters should not receive a higher score for attempting a quad and falling, than executing a comparable triple and landing it perfectly.
If jumping is now the be all and end all of skating, my suggestion is to have skating competitions similar to diving meets. Announce to the judges that you're going to do a quad toe-loop, execute it and be judged accordingly.
9
Lipinski hits on a subject that is a growing dilemma with Olympic sports in general which is that we are approaching what may be physically possible for the (non-doped) human body. A recent speed skating event was won by only one 1/1000th of a second. How does one maintain an audience if perfection is so common place and is perfect execution even something that should be so important?
2
bring back school figures with their emphasis on precision, use of knees and edges. It was the first thing I learned (and hated...) but gave me a grounding. Back before the earth's crust cooled, school figures accounted for 40% of the overall score and were often the make or break of a champion.
All of the emphasis on jumps is leading to younger and younger skaters requiring knee, hip or back surgery from the pounding force of coming off a triple-triple. Do we want artists or young people who win gold by tricks but face years of pain? I would prefer an artist who connects to the music and doesn't just go from one end of a rink to the other to build speed for yet another leap. I refer you to Surya Bonaly (France) for a prime example -- she never medaled, and basically flipped off the judges (she did a back flip) when she knew she had no chance of an award.
9
But in the school figure days people complained about, depending on your point of view, "artistic" long programs being valued over the fundamentally important school figures or school figures which only measured a tiny bit of technical ability being too important to allow artistry to shine forth.
These arguments never change, it seems.
Everyone disagreeing with Ms Lipinski because they bemoan the "glory days of artistry" should be reminded of the huge amount of bias that would be implicit in grading something so ephemeral. Even with today's technical scoring there is *still* controversy-- recall Sotnikova getting the gold over Kim at Sochi.
I for one appreciate that ice skating is gaining cachet as a serious athletic sport, with the scoring being cleaned up and standardized accordingly. There are plenty of other avenues to celebrate the artistry and aesthetics of skating, beyond the Olympics.
3
If you care to recall when Michelle Kwan first burst on the scene at age 11 she was known for her technical skills and not her artistic skills. The same can be said for Yuzuru Hanyu and Adam Rippon who are now in their twenties and are known for their high component scores. Like everything else in life, artistry comes with age and experience. The technical aspect comes first. Since figure skating is ultimately an athletic competition, the concern here for "older" figure skaters is not the fear of losing their artistry but how to keep up with their technical skills in the face of challenges from younger skaters who are prone to take risks and break records. We all want to see creativity and expressiveness in figure skating, but on the other hand they tend to lull a figure skater and the audience into thinking that he or she is at the Bolshoi and this defeats the purpose of having a competition. Maybe that's why Tara Lipinski won gold in Nagano and Michelle Kwan didn't.
1
Agree completely. Well, maybe not about why Tara won and Michelle didn't, but otherwise, spot on.
I have enjoyed watching figure skating since the days of Nancy Kerrigan and yes the sport has changed. Elite athletes will always push the limits and reach for more technical difficulty to win. They are competitors, and skating is essentially a sport.
There are many skaters who have artistry in their programs. To name a few, (excuse misspellings) Virute/Moir, Papadkis/Cizeron, the Shibutanis, Savcenko/Massot, Jason Brown, Adam Rippon, Mirai Nagasu, Evgenia Medvedveda, the top Japanese ladies not to mention Yuzuru Hanyu and Javier Fernandez, all combine artistry with technical power.
I am not giving up on supporting figure skating because only a few of the top skaters have developed a blend between technical prowess and artistry. It is still a sport. It takes years to develop and express artistry.
However in the past, there were professional skating competitions that focused more on artistry, and there were more ice shows that also focused on artistry. We no longer have those, which leaves an artistic void.
I do hope the points for quads decrease slightly, so that a fall doesn't make trying the quad "worth it". Same for triple-triples in ladies. In other winters sports, you are disqualified for falling.
1
"In other winters sports, you are disqualified for falling."
It depends on the sport. In several sports--slopestyle and half pipe, for example--you aren't disqualified but given a score that represents the fact that you didn't complete your program or, perhaps, had a fall at the end; it's almost always such a low score that you're effectively disqualified--but should everyone fall, you still might win. However, in half pipe and slopestyle, for example, unlike figure skating competitors get three chances and the best score out of the three is the one that counts. In short track skating and snowboard cross, you can pick yourself up after the fall and continue, placing or perhaps even winning depending on your time in comparison to the others in the race. In one of this year's snowboard cross events, five of the six competitors fell, so there was a wait to find out who would pick themselves up and complete the race the fastest. And, if IIRC, in short track you don't even have to get back up if you can get your blade across the finish line before another competitor. This year, a South Korea racer fell and yet the team still set an Olympic record in the women’s 3000-meter short track relay. Norway's Simen Hegstad Krueger fell on the first lap of the skiathlon and went on to take the gold medal in a cross country event. And one of the German bobsled teams finished a run with the sled on its side--and they still set a new record. Every sport is different.
This is why figure skating is losing audience numbers. It is losing its artistry and joy. Ice dancing is all that is left and even that has had some scoring changes.
9
What I want to see in a skating program is a specific relationship to the music. There is too much skating between jumps without any connection to the music or the overall choreographic arc of the program. I appreciate technical risk, but why do risky moves if you can't execute them well? And most of the skaters who do high-risk moves lose quality in executing simple steps and transitions. A beautiful preparation for a spin can add to a program if it is executed with clarity and musical intent. I love watching high-risk jumps and acrobatics, but the artistry is important too - it's what makes it figure skating. Also, Tara, why do you say "so and so is so artistic" at the Olympics but never at Nationals?
5
The same thing happened to ballroom dancing when it became a competitive "sport". The dancers execute like automatons, but who cares...no passion, no sex, no fun.
5
I think a lot of what drove the change is scoring was the realization that judging on "artistry" too often meant judging not on the aesthetics of the skating but on the aesthetics of the skater - which was a significant problem for unconventional looking skaters like Midori Ito and Suria Bonaly. There may need to be some more balance here.
5
In order to take "real risks" to the rink, the IOC needs to eliminate the word "banned" from its vocabulary. Moves like a front flip, back flip, and other innovations not yet seen should be able to have their place, vs "you need to do x y or z in your routine." It gets boring when we know that all skaters have to land quads in order to win. The quad looks amazing, and does have its place, but you should be able to also get points for something like "an extra long routine" (10 minutes) with multiple backflips (for a point).
I always though Kwan was the better skater vs Lipinski. She'll always be my favorite- she had artistry that Lipinski lacked, but Lipinski could jump. The other option is they could award medals for Technical performances and medals for artistry. Maybe that would be the most fair? Then all around winners that score highest in both.
3
Ms. Lipinski, I'm sorry but you are exactly wrong. All sports-even Olympic sports-are, at their core, ENTERTAINMENT. Figure skating is unlike most other winter sports that reward speed to the exclusion of other factors in that it is (or should be) equal parts technical difficulty and artistry. The other sport with a similar reward structure is half-pipe. What Ms. Lipinski forgets is that the entertainment value of figure skating-unlike even half pipe-is that it is beautiful to watch.
Guess what: folks aren't tuning in to figure skating to see if Nathan Chen can do 6 quads. They can get that kind of thrill watching any number of -much more death defying- sports, including, as I mentioned, half-pipe. We're there for the beautiful translation of music into movement on ice. To see a fall in skating is to totally take the audience out of the moment they are enjoying. I'd watch Patrick Chan's program executed flawlessly with his gorgeous expression over Nathan Chen falling repeatedly any day. If skating wants to halt the precipitous decline in its popularity it should balance risk-taking and artistry appropriately. Ms. Lipinski, as Johnny Weir put it so well recently: Tom Brady doesn't get any points for throwing the ball - he only gets them when it's successfully received. Similarly, the points system for skating needs to change: stop rewarding risk taking for risk-taking's sake. Reward (and reward well) only what a skater can LAND. Skating's audience will thank you.
12
For many people who watch figure skating, it IS all about the jumps. Just listen to the crowd roar when a jump is successfully completed, the more rotations the better.
2
I guess I am the only person commenting that actually enjoys watching the technical/athletic aspects of figure skating. Elite sports push the boundaries of the human body. That is true of all of the other Olympic sports, in which competitors constantly try to break records and do what has never been done before. We find that thrilling in skiing, snowboarding, speed skating...but not in figure skating? I found Nathan Chen's free skate incredible to watch. I also love Carolina Kostner, but in a different way. The idea that figure skaters shouldn't continually push boundaries is ridiculous.
1
A fascinating question has been brought up in this comment section regarding differences between athletic achievement and artistry, and does art have a place in the Olympics? Watching Slope Style, Big Air and Half-Pipe events, I noticed judges give points to those who make the same feat appear effortless. Artistry = mastery. Though harder to quantify than time and distance, it takes incredible athletic prowess to be able to achieve the subtle nuances of artistry. Some of the greatest athletes are in, of all things, ballet....under-appreciated as athletic because it is not scored in numerical points. Ancient Greek art portraying Olympian athletics shows appreciation for grace and style. We are not robots.....not yet, anyway. May appreciation for sublime mastery always be a part of Olympic figure skating.
3
They're not Russian, they're Olympic Athletes from Russia. OAR. See the difference? Neither does anyone else except the IOC.
Make up your mind. We get articles decrying the toll the increasing demands of the jumps are taking on young bodies. An American male figure skater just wrote a piece complaining of eating disorders among figure skaters, worsened by the need to do ever more difficult jumps.
I could see how the NYT puts this in the sports section, but not in the Opinion one. Surely there are more urgent matters for readers to ponder?
Don't blame Tara for being confused though. If most of us had to sit in a room next to Johnny Weir, we might be evaluated for meningitis. He's treating his role as a commentator on figure skating like it's his personal own fashion show. Whoever would guess that he came out of the closet? Might as well tattoo it on his forehead.
2
You know I am all for men and women wearing what
ever pleaseth them and the wilder the better , except
for some reason I do not like Johnny's clothes. I have
to admit I hardly watch the outrageous duo, but why
can't I admire their taste more? How are they missing
the Lady Gaga boat? I used to do theater down
at LaMama in NYC, many moons under the bridge
and I hung out with the original drag queens, Holly
Woodlawn, Jackie Curtis, Candy Darling, Jane
County. Who all became more or less Andy Warhol
super stars, I never had anything to do with Andy
I was much too boring. Anyway I knew them before
their fame and they all had such incredible style,
and dressed outrageously and fantastically with
no money,They were also terribly funny on stage
and off stage. Oh God I am nitpicking. I am glad
for anyone finding a job and making money.
Are Tara and Johnny supposed to be funny?
I cannot quite get what they are supposed to be?
1
Tara doesn't "have" to sit in a room next to Johnny Weir. They're very close friends, and he was her brides-man at her wedding.
Plus the Russians cheat. Just keepin' it real.
1
But then you have the men's field, where men now *have* to do many quads to have a chance, and some men are recognizing the danger this puts on their bodies and refusing. That feels like a crisis in a sport: The judging system rewards technical innovation that is harmful to players and creates a separation based on those who are willing to damage their bodies and those who are not. Professionals push and injure themselves in any sport, but imagine if the *only* way to be a successful baseball, basketball, tennis player was to sacrifice your joints and bones and likely needing replacement surgery in your teens, 20s, 30s?
Besides, I'm of the camp that if we care about figure skating's popularity, rewarding jumps/technical difficulty alone is a losing strategy. Those Russian skaters are talented but I feel queasy watching them. It may sounds harsh, but they are unnaturally thin and bony and look like they could break easily. They are tiny girls, not women. Their performances lack power, expression, grace, meaning.
If people want to push themselves to break technical boundaries, sacrificing their bodies and many fans in the process, better to create separate technical categories rather than forcing everyone to play by these rules. Other sports like gymnastics, skiing, swimming are broken down by components. Why not have "Best jump sequence" as an event, and then change the judging rules for the longer performances to focus more on overall performance, rather than jumps?
6
Outside of ice dance, I’m finding figure skating to be much less enjoyable to watch because of the reasons Ms. Lipinski states. The myriad falls, the deemphasis on basic “school figures,” and the push to keep doing more, more, more have sucked out the beauty and grace of the sport (and yes, it IS a sport), which has always set it apart from other Olympic events.
The Russians, with their sketchy athletic history and reputation of pushing their teams to the physical brink, aren’t the paragons to be emulated here. Gold is nice, but not at the price they seem to be making themselves — and everyone else — pay.
13
I have enjoyed the figure-skating from PyeongChang... except for the commentary, which is unceasing and detracts tremendously from the gracious spectacle. Just shut up and let us watch.
8
In my opinion, Evan Lysachek, without much technical prowess, winning gold at Vancouver over Plushenko was the worst thing that happened to American skaters. It gave wrong impressions to young skaters that the they didn't have to challenge difficult jumps, and that they just had to maintain the status quo to win. Guess what? The world has moved on while Americans were napping. To beat American skaters, Japanese men took up difficult quad jumps; Russian men are catching up. Russian ladies, even younger ones, are learning quads. Now Americans want rule changes because their skaters never finish on the podium at major figure skating events. If they were, Americans wouldn't be talking about artistry over techniques. "Hey, our skaters can't catch up. Let's change the rules; let's go back to the old days so our skaters will be on the podium." That's quite an insult to skaters all over the world who work every day to learn difficult jumps (quad, triple A) and fell down many many times a day. It's time for Americans to move on...or stay where they are and yearn for the second coming of Michelle Kwan, which will never come. Ask yourself, "Would I be still talking about the same thing (i.e. artistry over technique), if Nathan Chen and Vincent Zho had finished one-two at the Olympics a la Yuzuru and Shoma?
Who are these straw men "Americans" you're referring to? Russian bots on the NYTimes now, too? ;) If you actually read the reasons why people are protesting the march towards ever-more-difficult jumps, it has NOTHING to do with only wanting Americans to win. Americans will win sometimes, lose other times. Figure skating fans are fans of performance, not just single minded patriots. I loved watching Yuzuru and Shoma and am glad they won; their artistry, musicality, creativity, and passion led to incredible "total package" performances.
Our protestations about the increasing focus on technical elements and the judging system that rewards falls has to do with viewers' enjoyment of the sport itself. It has to do with the sadness at watching a sport that used to move us emotionally turn into what feels like soulless jumping competition. It also has to do with concern with a sport that pushes athletes to harm their bodies in numerous ways (joint and bone injuries, eating disorders, etc). These are critiques that have grown for decades, even when Americans were winning.
5
Plushenko was the most boring gold medal skater I've ever seen. Hated his skating and his programs and could never figure out why he kept winning.
Michelle Kwan was famous for her artistry, which overshadowed the fact that she skated at a high level technically. Toward the end of her career, that started to drop off compared to some of the younger women coming up.
While we're at refining the sport in some way or another, please, ladies, stop the Biellmanns. I understand they're a display of your flexibility, but there is nothing graceful or pretty about them.
2
And retire the Moulin Rouge! soundtrack, too.
I agree. The Biellmann was a spectacular manuever 30 years ago. Now it’s just old and tired.
2
The real risk to the athletes in competition can be found among the panel of judges. Despite years of biased judging in the news it persisted. The latest are the machinations of two judges in particular in ice dancing. https://www.thestar.com/sports/olympics/2018/02/19/canadas-ice-dance-dar...
I don't usually think of the Canadians as sore losers, let alone sore winners.
Family discussion yesterday: Does anyone know why the women don't do quads? Is it not physically possible? Not permitted? Thanks!
Very few probably have sufficient strength to manage a quad, although one never knows. (Even the triple axel is rare for women.) However, Japanese figure skater Miki Ando completed a quadruple jump successfully in competition at the 2002–03 Junior Grand Prix Final in The Hague. Several other women, including Surya Bonaly and Sasha Cohen, have attempted a quad in competition but either fell or didn't manage the four rotations.
It's quite possible that in 30 years, the quint will be the newest standard.
The triple is now relegated to a "safe" choice, if not a bailout.
Time marches on.
1
Yes--this is surely the most important issue facing the world today.
1
Precisely what I don't like about figure skating now. It seems they skate just to prepare for a jump of some kind. I miss the artistry. Chen was beautiful to watch and imho thought he should have medaled. He wasn't just a jumping fool he was beautiful to watch. A shame the judges didn't think the same.
4
There is so little artistry they might as well dispense with the charade and just have jumping competitions. Kwan's programs were so much more interesting as was sasha cohen and sarah hughes. They can jump today but don't be able to hold a spiral or spread eagle for more than 5 seconds. And none of the mean can compare with paul wiley or brian boitano.
9
The not holding spirals is the thing that drives me crazy. Kwan and Boitano did skills that can only be executed properly on ice (change of edge spread eagles, the change of edge spiral, the back Charlotte spiral). The jumps aren't the only step that's difficult. Giving the audience those chances to breathe and take in the visual and musical impact of a program is great and they're often crowd-pleasers as well as athletically impressive. Oh I know, Wylie was awesome in his own way too. Also, Todd Eldredge and Rudy Galindo at their best had this sharp, intense movement style that fit the characters they played so beautifully...and I believe Eldredge was coached by the same coach who coached Ms. Lipinski.
I enjoyed this op-ed because it pinpointed something that is going awry not only with figure skating development at the lower levels--it happens in almost our educational settings. No one fails, no one loses, everyone gets a "prize." Then faced with serious competition the erstwhile "best in show" is shocked and stunned about how they are falling short.
What skating needs is emphasis on more diverse skills, that would be the true challenge, not narrowing to jumps only. Why should jumps be considered the only real technical challenge? Figure skating is a combination of artistry and athleticism, if one cares about the sport, one will advocate rules which require the ultimate combination of those for winning medals.
The last thing the sport needs is tiny jumping girls who win a medal at 15 and are out. We need skaters to stay in until they truly mature and bring out the best of the sport.
8
I remember and miss the days when figure skating was an art. Oh, how it's changed since my friend, won Gold, for the U.S,. in 1968.
5
Gracie Gold has taken a break from competing to focus on her physical and emotional health. Two female Russianskaters who medalled at the Sochi Olympics are no longer competing, in part due to heakth problems.
Encouraging little girls to focus on difficult jumps and then flinging them aside once they go through puberty might win medals but it can produce damaged young women.
In addition, as other commenters have noted, the emphasis on increasingly difficult jumps has led to programs crammed with jumps and less time to focus on the artistic asoect of the sport.
Figure skating has become less interesting and entertaining to watch.
8
If people here only appreciate the artistry and not the risk then they should go watch Disney on Ice and not the Olympics. Nathan Chen was amazing to watch and it is a real joy when skaters get the balance of artistry and technical risk right as Yuzuru Hanyu and Javier Fernández. Amazing! Also, please bring Synchro Skating to the Olympics!
4
If you want to support artistry in figure skating, then go see the Stars on Ice tour, which features American Olympic, national, and world champions. They all have high levels of technical ability but they aren't competing so don't have to "overdo" the jumps and difficulty levels. At one time, the tour visited up to 30 cities, but lack of support led to its almost folding at one point. This year it'll be in 22 cities.
Give me a skaters who can combine athleticism with grace. Not flowery "artistry" but pure simple grace. Like Irina Rodnina and Alexander Zaitzov used to do. Such a rare combination.
3
"Such a rare combination."
One of the best comments here. The argument about athleticism vs. artistry goes way back in the history of the sport. Sometimes one is in the ascendant, sometimes the other, but at all times finding skaters who can really combine the two is rare.
The Russian skaters not only have the jumps that Ms. Lipinski so loves, but also the grace of movement. The young woman who is our current has the jumps but totally lacks both grace and style. Michelle Kwan was perfection on ice. Ms. Lipinski had the "tricks" but lacked grace. Who wants to watch someone flying into the air with no sense of the music or grace of movement. Ms. Nigasu is wonderful to watch. I just don't know if she can conquer her nerves enough to perfom well. Truthfully, I no longer follow the American women's figure skating, it has become boring to watch.
4
I happened to catch the ice dancing and had one of those moments. These pairs were mesmerizing in that their movements we so fluid, like willows in the wind. Their skating was impeccable and lovely to watch, such control! Figure skating on the other hand might as well be gymnastics on ice. It's mechanical, lacking imagination and artistry. I can only hope the pendulum will swing back to a more imaginative time.
5
I'd like to point out that Tara had to permanently retire only a few short years after winning because of hip injuries; she didn't even make it to the next Olympics. She was the last skater grandfathered in before the minimum 16 years old regulation, and only 15 when she won, so at 17 was already chronically injured. The point of that rule change was to prevent young girls from ruining their bodies. I'm glad that the US puts young women's health above gold medals. Look at the two Russian gold medal winners from Sochi; they are both unable to skate and have permanently ruined their bodies as young teenagers. Should we be more like Russia?
85
Hip injuries? She had double hip replacement before she was 21 years old! Parents who finance Olympic dreams should think about that...
12
Uh, she didn't even make it to the 1998 World Championships, held one month later. She killed her kips doing that loop combo.
3
Michelle Kwan, for all her grace and artistry, suffered quite a few injuries. In fact, a groin injury was what kept her out of the Turin Olympics.
Actually, the more sublime pair (the French) lost against the more athletic and energetic but amazing pair (canadian) by 1 point. One wonders what would have been the result had the French woman not endured a costume malfunction. The artistry was there in both routines, altho maybe could have done without Moonlight Sonata in slow and fast -- a bit too pessimistic IMO for this sport. BTW there are body types -- the French lady was practically frail; the Canadaian, more robust.. Both were completely aware of what to co with hands, feet,, shoulders, knees, etc.. to make it thrilling.
1
Jumps aren't the be all and end all of skating. I prefer artistry over jumps, always have. I guess that means I'd never win a gold. But winning isn't always my goal. Trying and failing to execute a difficult jump should not win "more points." The sport has suffered greatly and I regret that.
7
The points articulated by Tara are very reasons that I fully watch ice dancing as opposed to passingly watching figure skating. The mechanistic has supplanted the artistic. Both should progressively evolve, one should not be sacrificed for the sake of the other.
8
I will never stop watching figure skating. However, I do miss the suspense that artistry provided when a jump seemed to come out of nowhere. With a triple - triple or a quad there is much more lead time or set up for the jump(s) as speed is needed for the rotation or momentum for the seconded triple. Even Tanith (Belbin) White commented on ice dancers who threw in a lift that had nothing to do with the choreography / dance just for the points. It's rare now to be mesmerized or drawn in to a program. I watched Michelle Kwan's 1998 Olympic and US National championship. It was far more appealing and interesting than current day skate around then throw in the jumps in the last half of a program.
Certain risk moves, e.g. Bielman spin, are not good for backs, and have left many young athletes out of the sport all together.
Yes scoring on technical seems more objective, but figure skating is still a judged event. If you want to bring back viewers and increase participation, risk isn't always the answer.
12
Thanks for this, Tara. I’ve been saying for a while that women’s skating had stagnated, but you helped me understand why. It used to be the marquee skating event, but the men have taken it over. Keep pushing by for technical innovation and also greater reward for creativity (not just the proverbial ‘artistry’) and non-technical excellence.
3
Perhaps there should be a separate athletic competition for those who focus on extreme technical, athletic skills, rather like the snowboarding and skiing half pipe competitions. That way the pretense of artistry can be set aside, and the number and types of jumps etc. that a skater can perform inside two minutes can be evaluated solely on those terms. The other competitions could then be more aesthetically centered on what overall impressions are presented by the program. It would be fairer both the those skaters who are tremendous athletes , and to those who are more artistically committed. There is no need to mix the two, as we do now.
3
Like gymnastics, I'm of the opinion that figure skating has been ruined by the "tricks"-focused new scoring. Compare routines from 20+ years ago compared to today for both sports. Prepare to be nostalgic/disappointed.
9
Way back when, in the days of yore, Figure Skating competitions were just that: the figures. At the early Olympics perfoming the required figure eights and intricate patterns were half of the score. A skater who could not perfect those required moves but skated a beautiful artistic performance had a disadvantage to those who had high technical scores but gave average to good artistic performances.
In order to liven up the sport and bring in more audiences the scoring systems began to change. Artistry began to play a more important role and this added to the growing enthusiasm of figure skating.
While I understand that figure skating is a sport, it is not speed skating or short track skating; the element of artistry is very important.
As a former professional ballet dancer (with the New York City Ballet) I admit to watching figure skating with a preference to artistry, but I do understand the value and necessity in this dual event (sports/artistry) to perform high technical feats.
Tara Lipinsky was certainly a risk taker. But it wasn't just her adding a triple loop triple loop combination that made her win at the 1998 Olympics so thrilling. It was her joy and enthusiasm on the ice, her ability to bring the audience in, her flow over the ice that made her performance so special.
She seems to contradict herself at the end of the article by admitting she was too focused on technical skating, but then agreeing that that focus on more technical difficulties is right.
5
I have to say that I preferred to watch freestyle skating before there were so many triples and doubles. Michelle Kwan was lovely to watch many years ago. I very much enjoy watching ice dance as there is more flow and artistry. And it's hard physically for these skaters. There are many injuries and surgeries that take place when training and competing at this level.
I am the Mom of a figure skater who does ice dance and freestyle but mainly focuses on synchronized skating. Synchro is a very fun sport to participate in and to watch. We hope it makes it as an Olympic event in 2022 #whynotsynchro2022.
5
Would love to see synchro as an Olympic event! Or even be able to watch the nationals and worlds on TV each year.
1
Tara is right. But in the bigger picture, skating has always (Lisa Marie Allen in the 70s, et al) had this schism over the relative weights skaters (and coaches and choreographers) should place on brute athleticism versus artistry. As some of these comments indicate, the debate is a thing with fans/viewers also... still. Some of the dullest, least emotionally moving programs to watch are those in which the skater seems to go from one jump to the next with long lead-ins and little creative choreography to connect them. It's on many levels an age-old debate. Is skating sport or art? The goal needs to be a moving, yet athletically challenging, mix of both.
4
I equate the ability to execute triples and quads in figure skating to batters hitting home runs in baseball. Sure, it's great that they can do it, but focusing too much on them negates the other elements of the sport that are far more skillful and beautiful. The reason that I enjoy pairs skating more than individual skating at this juncture is that their success relies less on jumping and more on teamwork and pure artistry. The free-skate of Virtue and Moir last night was stunning. I haven't been so moved by an individual skater in a very long time.
6
Still defensive, Tara. The best US skater in the past couple of decades was Sasha Cohen. She never won gold, but grace, artistry and positions that took my breath away. You may have had the tricks, but were never a beautiful skater.
21
Ah for the days of Nancy Kerrigan she had it all!!!!!!!
2
The current judging system has ruined the sport. Bring back grace and artistry and stop the emphasis on jumps. The best commentator ever was Dick Button, and the worst is Johnny Weir. All in all, it's next to impossible to enjoy Olympic ice skating any more.
11
I agree, with exceptions for the artistry, fluidity, musicality and grace of Yuzuru Hanyu, who combines the lyricism of John Curry and Robin Cousins with great technical ability. It is also a joy to watch the wonderful ice dancers.
7
And some people couldn't stand Dick Button's commentary and love Johnny's. Personally, I like both. And I enjoy Olympic figure skating tremendously. To each his own.
I disagree with some of the commenters that today's skaters focus on jump after jump with nothing in between. As a former skater (pre-Lipinski) I have noticed that there is much more interesting choreography in between the jumps than before the scoring system changes. For me, this makes it more enjoyable to watch, and permits the skaters to innovate and distinguish themselves from others.
Having said that, however, I hate the scoring system that rewards falls on quads rather than clean programs with only triples. 35 years ago, I had no trouble falling on a triple jump! That did not make me an Olympic skater. Clean performances need to be rewarded, as they are in other winter sports with subjective scoring. Nobody wins slopestyle or half-pipe after falling on a major trick.
86
Thank you for your first paragraph. I agree totally.
I'm in partial agreement with your second. I think the system needs to be tweaked on the scoring for falls on the quad. But when the CoP first came out, the complaint was that the base value of a quad was so low that a fall with the mandatory deduction and minus GOE discouraged competitors from going for it. The current system has gone too far in the other direction.
You can't really compare a fall in slopestyle or half pipe for two reasons. First, a fall in the course of completing a run effectively ends that run. The competitor cannot simply pick him or herself up and continue the program as can be done in skating. Second, currently, competitors in each of those disciplines get three runs and the best of the three is what determines their rank, not their cumulative score. Someone can have two terrible runs and still win gold with one really good one. Figure skaters, OTOH, don't get do overs.
1
I used to watch figure skating, but in the post-Lipinski era, as technical proficiency has come to dominate, I find it increasingly boring. Lipinski was never the skater Kwan was. Her gold medal was a travesty.
17
It's no longer a skating competition. It's a jumping competition. No, thanks.
15
There should be a return of school figures.
5
When was Tara Lipinski EVER a risk-taker? If I recall correctly, Ms. Lipinski wasn't so much a 'risky' skater as she was a LUCKY skater. Probably the luckiest skater in Olympic history. Lipinski has a gold medal because a superior skater, Michelle Kwan, didn't skate her best that evening. Lipinski's luck has been extended in her post-skating career by her vaudeville show with Johnny Weir which is lowering the quality of sports announcing across the board. The 'entertainment' is supposed to be ON THE ICE, not in the booth.
The emphasis on jumps has really hurt the sport. Skating has been reduced to something that's done between jumps. I don't know if Nathan Chen is a good skater but I do know that when his jumps failed him, he had nothing else to fall back on. On the other hand, all anyone has to say about a beautiful skater like Patrick Chan is that he's an inconsistent jumper.
I enjoyed watching Adam Rippon skate. He doesn't have a quad jump but what he does have is passion and artistry, which I thought figure skating was all about.
20
The champions are the ones who can step up when the greatest pressure is on.
To write that Lipinski won because Kwan "didn't skate her best that evening" is ridiculous. When the chips were on the table Kwan choked. That was the moment and Lipinski took it. That is what competition is all about and that is what makes Olympic champions; no excuses.. Kwan was a lovely skater and I take nothing away from her skating, but she lost out each time she skated for gold at the Olympics. LIpinksi and Sara Hughs were not the favorites, but when the big moment came they delivered.
As to your nasty comments about Tara and Johnny, I think you should lighten up. They are lots of fun and they both give in depth commentary instead of screams of delight and inane remarks by so many other commentators of the past.
Did you even pay any attention to Nathan Chen's footwork sequence or his circular spread eagle? Or the quality of his spins? Really?
1
With all due respect, I disagree. I do not believe figure skating needs a singular focus on landing jumps, per se. There are other technical and artistic elements that are important, such as the quality of jumps (proper takeoff position, height, distance - not merely landing the jump), spirals (deep edges/beautiful position), spins (centered, fast, beautiful position), and difficult ice-dance type footwork.
Then there is of course the artistic element: a skater who can interpret the music in his or her body. Some skaters merely look like there just happens to be random music playing in the background - ugh.
I don't know why the US, or any country, needs to focus merely on having skaters who can land the more difficult jumps. IMO the ideal is to develop skaters that have the whole package, such as Evgenia Medvedeva.
- Dee (former figure skating parent and armchair coach)
12
I understand and agree with Ms. Lipinski's remarks on some of the judging-inspired control over the performances of the contestants. It has created a number of head-scratching anomalies.
But as one who found figure skating to have become increasingly boring over the past three decade, I detect a welcome change creeping back in.
A fair number of skaters, men, women, and pairs; have a greater sense of the music to which they are performing, and are actually creating programs that match the beat and the color of the accompaniment.
It has been a delight.
I also find that the commentary by Mz. Lipinski and her partner, Johnny Weir to have been excellent. They are informative, fair, and capable of praising based on competence rather than the flag of the skaters' country. Mr. Weir. particularly, has shown a maturity and a level of comfort with himself that h as allowed his warm, sometimes humorous personality to shine.
I thank you both for the education and the entertainment that you have provided though your sessions on air.
16
Who can forget Nancy Kerrigans anguished, bewildered cry "but I skated clean!" after Oksana Baiul skated past her to the gold? Kerrigan skated clean, carefully and with grace, but without sparkle. Baiul fell once but dazzled us all with her intensity and the beauty of her performance. Baiul had the artistry.
Her fall, like Chen's hand touch after the quad, more skating more fun to watch because we no longer had to hold our breath while we watched, hoping our favorite wouldn't stumble once during an otherwise magnificent skate.
14
I used to follow figure skating and was a huge fan, starting when I was young. Could not wait to get my Dorothy Hamill haircut. It was so beautiful to watch the grace and artistry.
But now it is rather dull and boring. Too much emphasis on jumps and the technical scoring. I did enjoy some of the Olympic coverage, but Tara and her co-host Jonny were too focused on all of that and talked endlessly about it, often chiding the skaters which really turned my off.
I support the skaters, what they do is amazing. But forcing them into a technical box and forgoing the beauty of the sport has been its decline.
21
After reading the op-ed by Tara and then some of the comments, it seems clear that many in the television audience are viewing this competition as art instead of athletic performance. Anyone remember the days watching figuring skating competition and then seeing scores that could not be explained? Because the figure skating was subjective, there was no way to assure that the judges weren't simply playing favorites (wasn't there a French judge that did just that?). I would assume that the only way forward was to find a way to quantify the scoring with point values for each of the required elements based upon the level of successful completion. Obviously, more difficult elements would receive higher points. This is no different from scoring of the other competitive events.
Maybe we are just all missing the Ice Capades.
6
I don't think the comments reflect that many don't like new scoring system as a whole. The issue is how the points are being awarded.
The men's competition was deadly, because it was fall-fall-fall-fall, as one after another attempted quads. But the men attempted those jumps because a fall on a quad is worth more than a clean triple, and THAT part of the scoring system is what many of us don't like.
I have found myself most enthusiastic about the ice dancing, because while there may be a bauble here or there, the judging rewards clean skating, so the athletes don't take those technical risks.
It's playing the scoring system. In gymnastics, Marta Karolyi did the same thing when designing floor exercises, so that's why American gymnasts would perform acts that they were wobble and fall, but that scored higher points than an act that was performed cleanly.
Those gymnastic tricks, at least, were not a major part of the tumbling. But jumps in figure skating? If there's anything an amateur is able to tell when looking at a skating performance, it's when someone falls down.
1
Agree that it's become a numbers game and while I admire the expertise, the soul of the sport feels missing this time around.
10
I thought Nathan Chen's free skate, though technically superb, was a bit boring. I miss the artistry and interpretation of the old skating. Surely there's a way to have both in equal amounts and still win competitions.
15
Although speed skating may not be as "artistic" as the type of skating described here, it certainly eliminates the subjective. I saw last night a skating pair lose the gold medal by a mere fraction of a point on a scoring system that is subjective. I doubt they will be going home with the closure of saying to themselves, "The better pair won" because they probably do not believe it. This after killing themselves practicing constantly and anxiously waiting for 4 years for this moment. So unless they loved every minute of those 4 years and enjoyed every minute of the "Olympic Experience" (their faces suggested otherwise), it makes me think that most of these athletes who have surrendered normal childhoods to constant injuries and disappointments pinning so much on these outcomes have chosen poorly.
3
Perhaps it is time to end the charade that is the Olympics for the very reason that young athletes spend years with such a singular focus at the expense of the other aspects of their lives.
3
I'm sure the speed skater (or any other competitor in a speed discipline) who loses by a hundredth of a second goes home feeling so much better about being able to say that the "faster skater won". And the short track skaters must be thrilled when they get eliminated because of someone else's fall impacting them. Or the skiers who ski into a head wind while other skiers faced calm air. So, let's just keep those sports which are utterly fair and eliminate ALL the judged sports from both the summer and winter Olympics. That takes out a lot of sports.
@Annie: And that's the takeaway from what I wrote?
What Ms. Lipinski is saying probably appeals to figure skating geeks, but I’ll take passion over technical. To me, the perfect example was the performances of Chen and Rippon. During the broadcast, Ms. Lipinski gushed over Chen’s technical skills. To me, it was like watching a wind up top set loose on the ice. On the other hand, I could feel Rippon’s passion through my television. I won’t watch figure skating again, aside from the women’s program, until the next Olympics and it will be Rippon’s performance that I will remember, not Chen’s.
18
I am very tired of the focus on jumps. To the non-skater all the jumps look pretty much the same. All commentary focuses on the jumps. Boring.
Also, not too keen on vocals in the music.
Most of all, I miss Dick Button!
26
Dick Button's critiques were such that you could take what he says, and transfer that to dancing, and even writing. He talked to the common man, he and Scott.
3
Yeah, and there was a lot of criticism of Dick Button's commentary, even as beloved as he is and was by many. And of Scott's commentary, too.
I’m personally tired of watching people fall down.
21
Lipinski won one medal and that was it. She wound up with serious hip injuries from too much jumping. The last thing skating needs are little girls with bad hips doing jump after jump after jump and nothing else.
30
And yet the most memorable and wonderful skater of Lipinski's era was Michelle Kwan. It is her programs worth watching to see artistry merge with athletics. Go create an event called Ice Skating Jumping and be done with it. You can do as many jumps as you like in a three minute period. And the rest of us can go watch real figure skating where great moves like Brian Boitano's magnificent spread eagle can be properly admired and given full credit.
32
Figure skating used to be beautiful to watch. Back in the day, there were compulsory figures the skaters had to execute, off camera, to inform the judges of their, the skaters', competence on the ice, and then there was the lovely free skate which everyone at the Olympic level managed to get through without falling.
This year I finally had enough of the compulsory jumping and stopped watching. Oh, I know, it hurts not being able to listen to the best sports commentators America has, but watching young women abuse their bodies in one tortured jump after another is NOT entertaining.
13
The skaters who were the best at the compulsory figures were not necessarily the skaters who performed "lovely free skates". Revisionism doesn't just live in the realm of politics.
1
Do you score points in football just because you tried a fancy flea-flicker play that failed? No. It's absurd that attempting a quad & not completing it successfully gains skaters more points than successfully completing a triple w/great style & technique.
16
The scoring obviously needs to be tweaked, but at what point do you stop? Every time the jump difficulty has increased, the number of falls and/or sloppy programs has increased, too. I remember some competitions from years ago that were rightfully designated as "splat fests". If completion "w/great style & technique" is the criterion for an athletic performance, then perhaps skating should have stopped at double spins.
It’s really interesting to see both sides of this conversation—Ms. Lipinsky vouches for risks and increased technical challenges, but many commentators and former olympians seem nostalgic about the “olden days” when figure skating was more about grace and less about fancy jumps. Notably there’s a big debate over how important quads should be to men’s programs.
That said, although I love watching a clean skate, I love even more the thrill of watching Nathan Chen hit 6 quads and the Russians (and Vincent Zhou) jump with their arms raised. These developments are what make the Olympics interesting from year to year.
3
The obsession with quads has totally turned me off male skating.
Jason Brown is the only male skater I watch.
14
Judging these winter games are too subjective. And let’s be honest, we (Americans) are being punished for Trumps unpopularity! Judging process should be double blinded.
I can only comment as a spectator but today too much of figure skating is run-jump-run-jump. Figure skating should be renamed jump skating or gymnastics-on-ice. What's the answer - bring back the figures part? Perhaps limiting the number and difficulty of allowed jumps in competition would give those skaters with more artistic flair a fighting chance.
14
Congratulations to NBC. It takes a special kind of creativity to make an olympics an absolute snoozefest. Chatty Tara too.
12
I miss the artistry of figure skating. I'm an dedicated fan of figure skating, and have watched it change to be a jumping sport with some required artistic elements thrown in between the jumps. Canada's Patrick Chan, who is retiring after this Olympics, is a skater in the vein of Michelle Kwan - graceful, breathtaking, strong, flowing, artistic, and with also technical capability. I'm going to miss his skating because it is the end of an era. Without skaters like Yuna Kim, Mao Asada, Michelle Kwan, and Patrick Chan, the sport may have more jumps and technical difficulty, but it will lose its heart. **I wish Figure Skating would add two more competitions in addition to the short program/long program traditional competition that combines artistic and technical components: one only judging artistry and one only judging on technical difficulty. This will preserve the emphasis on developing artistry while continuing the trend of increasing difficulty.**
71
Watching Nathan Chen's long performance was painful. Back and forth, back and forth across the rink like a trick pony, setting up jumps, jumping, repeat. Sad and boring. I could care less about the quad. Show me a skater with the grace and musicality of ballet training (yes, ballet is athletic!) The Russians Medvedeva and Zagitova combine technical and artistry exquisitely. This is why Ukrainian 1994 Gold Medalist Oksana Baiul's "Swan Lake" performance is legendary, while Harding and Kerrigan's performances are forgotten. And though he was never a Gold Medal winner due to an Olympics curse of spills, Kurt Browning is still the greatest male skater, in my opinion. For the pure joy of skating, check this out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RtL68KBBhY
11
Chen studied at Ballet West for six years as a kid. "Chen was a dedicated ballet student, taking six classes a week by age 7. He even performed alongside the company in Sleeping Beauty, Nutcracker and Swan Lake. His Ballet West teachers say that he had a natural ability for turns like pirouettes and double tours." More recently, although he still works with ballet dancers to help polish his routines, he has been focusing more on modern dance, which influenced his long program.
One thing to keep in mind is that Chen is still young. As he's matured, his artistic qualities have improved but he's still only 18 compared you Hanyu's 23 and Rippon's 28.
1
American women singles skaters virtually all come from skating families or families with plenty of money to pay top notch coaches. When your best skaters come from a narrow community distinguished by family and/or money, you get a bunch of skaters cut from the same cloth. By contrast, Shaun White's mother was a waitress. His dad worked for the local water department. Bode Miller's parents celebrated solstices in a log cabin without electricity or indoor plumbing. Bjorn Daehlie, who most consider the greatest cross country skier ever, dedicated most of his early training to soccer. The best way to get innovative athletes is to promote athletes that are innovative people.
Read the article on Mirai Nagasu in today's NYT. Nagasu's family is not a member of the 1%. Neither were Nancy Kerrigan or Tonya Harding. Many skaters come from families who sacrifice for their children's ambitions.
3
That might have been true in 1960, but is far from it today.
Bradie Tennell's mother is a nurse. Mirai Nigasu's parents run a restaurant. (Other top finishers at US Nationals this year are the children of teachers and policemen.)
1
It wasn't true in the 60s either. But it's often looked that way because of the "glamour" factor associated with figure skating. Actually, the Olympics overall have become more democratized over the years. Early Olympics were designed for true amateurs, rich (mostly) men who had the leisure and money to pursue some sport as a hobby.
I agree with many of the comments. Beauty and artistry is preferable over athleticism in the sport of woman’s competitive skating. Similarly, I prefer watching a professional baseball player strikeout with a perfect swing to a hack that hits a home run.
4
Seriously? Do you also prefer beautifully decorated cakes that taste like sawdust?
Having read a lot recently about eating disorders and injuries among female skaters, and how damaging it is that they have to compete so young (because mature bodies have a harder time landing the jumps). I have to say that this article is depressing. Lipinski herself suffered injuries because of her excessive focus on jumping. And she was never half as graceful as Michelle Kwan. More and more jumps is not an interesting way for the sport to go.
28
Tara
Wonderful piece.
I think Zagitova was sculpted with wright training to increase her upper body mass to lower her CG while jumping with her hands above her head.
The USA skaters, Well, they look like you Extremely strong lower body's and a very Feminine upper body for jumping but not Centrifugally balanced.
Time to rethink the training and hit the weights.
Johnny and You make a good team. I think Johnny's makeup at times makes him look like Data from Star Trek. So council him please,
Thanks for your fine commentary
How9000
Somewhere near Jupiter
3
In an age where technology rules, it is clear that grace and artistry have taken a back seat in a sport which once epitomized the former. For those of us who recall the 1968 Grenoble Olympics, Peggy Fleming's exceptional lightness of being on the ice stands out to this day. Not to say that technical prowess on the ice should not be a factor, but it should never take precedence over artistic expression. This is why, for many viewers, ice dancing is far more enjoyable.
Also, Ms. Lipinski, please refrain from all of your incessant, unnecessary and frequently inane comments which are a distraction to those of us who truly appreciate the entire experience, including the music. Thank you.
13
The only skater who has so enthralled me at an Olympics as Ms. Lipinski was Sarah Hughes. I remember everyone for a few years being gaga over the artistry of Nancy Kerrigan, but I found her routines boring. Chacun à son goût.
4
American figure skating rewards clean skating over risk and innovation?
I would say American figure skating is the pattern for much of American life. In much of American life you have a system of simultaneously defining what is excellent, such as clean skating over risk and innovation, then enforcing this definition by lowering the "scoring system" to this definition, so that people cannot even conceive a ceiling beyond the artificial ceiling of "clean skating being the perfect score".
Take for example education in America with regard to the humanities. You have a system which produces "excellence" but which rewards essentially "clean skating" (clear sailing) and all the awards for such are geared to this standard so that people cannot even conceive of a genius except along the acceptable lines, and no one would accept a genius because shattering the ceiling of the "scoring system", embarrassing the whole system of production and making the awards tarnished in the eyes of people.
Getting back to actual figure skating today, Russian Evgenia Medvedeva looks obvious to win, but American Bradie Tennell looks rather original to me. And without question, bold risk taking, genius, originality, willingness to be slightly sloppy so long as envelope is pushed is the path to take. Inspiration over predictability any day. This is why Oksana Baiul clearly was superior to Nancy Kerrigan despite moaners. Producing a champion is hard not for just the champion, but for entire culture.
2
Why bother with the so-called "artistic" scores in figure skating? Just hold a "jump-off" and "spin-off" in a set number of minutes. Let physical stamina and abilities be the ultimate challenge. Who can land the most number of difficult jumps? Who can achieve the highest "rpm" spins? Take a cue from "speed skating" events. Now that's "Sports".
But the "Games" is all about "entertainment value", not about athleticism. The entire Olympic enterprise is to make money from selling TV broadcast rights to highest bidders, to be recouped from advertiser dollars, the events must fill dead air-time. There are Olympic merchandises to paddle. More important, pipe tax dollars into construction contractor and politician pockets to build white elephants. Business comes first.
2
This was very enlightening, and I wholeheartedly agree! As a former competitive figure skater, the American ladies have been disappointing this year (and to some extent, at the past few World's), and it is partly because they have not been taking full advantage of the new judging system. Until I read this op-ed, I had no idea that it was because the juvenile through novice scoring had not kept up with the ISU rule change. Perhaps we don't need to "Zagitova" the whole program by putting all the jumps at the end, but surely we can do better! Bradie Tennell, as such a consistent jumper, should definitely be changing all of her jumps to have one arm over her head.
One day, I would also like to see more than one woman do a triple axel at the Olympics at a time. I love Mirai Nagasu, but the rest of her program is not technically challenging enough to compete with the Russians -- Zagitova does a triple lutz - triple loop combination in the second half with her hands above her head! It makes me miss the days of Mao Asada -- I like to think that if she were still in peak form, she wouldn't just be doing a triple axel combination, but also a quad salchow. We need a Nathan Chen in the women's competition pushing the technical envelope farther -- Midori Ito landed her triple axel only a year after Brian Orser first did triple axels at the Olympics. But today, no woman could compete with the spate of quads on the men's side.
1
Peggy Fleming says our figure skaters need more focus on the art and joy of skating.
21
Adam Rippon is much more engaging to watch than Nathan Chen. Rippon does not seem to build his program around opportunities to throw jumps. He uses them for inflection in his artistic presentation, not as the reason to be out on the ice as Chen seems to do.
The quad jump, while no doubt technically brilliant, seemed to be braced for and then muscled into brute submission or failure by every male skater who attempted it, with the exception of the gold medalist Hanyu Yuzuru. It is so fast that a viewer has difficulty distinguishing it from the triple, but the strength and practice it requires seems to bleed energy and emphasis from every other element in a program.
Figure skating is the marquee event for the Olympics, and perhaps that raises unrealistic expectations about the enjoyment of the audience versus the technical perfection that forms the basis of judging. All this unschooled viewer knows is that I admire Rippon's fluidity, grace, creativity and individualized interpretation far more than the relentless quad-chasing of much of the rest of the field.
19
I would like to congratulate and thank Ms. Lipinski for her ability to describe the nuances of her sport in a way that we can all understand and appreciate . As opposed to Bode Miller . I used to ski , and I still can't understand what he is talking about.
11
Just please remember we are talking about the Olympics. The Olympics is about sports. Athleticism is primary in sports. If you want to see artistic expression as the primary component watch ballet.
7
20 years ago this week I was with Tara, her parents and coaches in Nagano. She arrived in Japan understanding she had to skate “lights out” to defeat her arch rival for the gold. But Tara was going to do it “her way”; the only way she knew! Her coach said “no opening ceremonies”, but Tara vetoed that and went. It was suggested Tara not stay in the Olympic village...guess where she stayed. She was also told that “her turn would come in 2002”...so much for patience.
The bottom line is Tara’s words are spot on. If the US women are to regain their foothold in ladies Skating then we have to encourage them to be bold and push the envelope. I miss the days when we owned the ladies podium; follow Tara’s advice and we will be back sooner than you think!
10
Lipinski has serious, lingering health issues from her days as a jumping bean. She is not where figure skating should go.
10
Why is innovation described purely in terms of jumping? Frankly, though the athleticism of the jumps is impressive, they don't seem very imaginative or innovative, the way some of the lifts in ice dancing are. Figure skating is distinguished from, say, luge, by its capacity for artistry and expression. Jumps are not very expressive. And they result in so many falls it becomes nervewracking to watch these routines. If I wanted to worry all the time about whether a competitor is going to crash I'd go watch NASCAR.
18
I agree. I much preferred Michelle Kwan's artistry; I still miss her. Tara, although a Gold medalist was a flash in the pan.
19
I agree. It is all about taste. I've always preferred Johnny Weir's artistry over his main competitor, Evan Lysacek's, athleticism.
5
I appreciate what Nathan Chan accomplished, turning in a solid performance and landing all those quads, but Adam Rippon's performance was far more compelling and engaging - the fact that he (and Jason Brown) are essentially punished for not doing quads is unfortunate.
23
The "seeds" were planted when jumps became more important that artistic quality, which was lost when "Tara" won Gold because she jumped. How ironic that she would bring that up.
11
And Tara jumped poorly - low jumps that covered no ice and ones that were frequently "cheated" where the jump was finished on the ice. Under COP Kwan would have won in Nagano because her GOE scores would have buried Lipinski.
6
The fatal flaw is subjectivity. How each judge views cannot be avoided, leaving us reeling in endless debate and speculation.
I can't watch the spectacle.
1
Some of those who disagree with Ms. Lipinski link tecnical excellence with injury. These are caddy arguments by those well aware that Ms. Lipinski’s own career ended very early. because of her own. Injuries.
3
Figure skating is a wonderful display of artistry and athleticism, just like ballet, costumes, music, choreography and all. It should not, however, be an olympic sport. The winners are decided by the votes of judges who often favor their nation's competitors, and were found to be so corrupt that a new scoring system had to be implemented. Unlike true sports, you will never find a an upset winner who comes out of nowhere. Witness the gold medalist in the women's Super-G ski race. NBC had ended its coverage, and wrongly listed the winners, before the unheralded gold medalist ran her race. That will never happen in figure skating.
2
Tara is certainly offering the right advice for winning, but at what cost?
The Russian girls (and they are girls) are spectacular, but they seem to work their bodies to death before age 20. Tara, herself a master jumper at 15, required major hip surgery in her teens and retired soon after her remarkable win.
As in Balanchine-style ballet, this push is also likely to further entrench disordered eating and body dysmorphia among young skaters. The physics of ladies jumping generally favors rail thin figures like Bradie Tennell and prepubescent phenoms. While increasing difficulty in gymnastics rewards powerful bodies like Aly Raisman’s, the opposite seems true for most in figure skating.
Frankly, after the abuse scandals in USA Gymnastics and USA Swimming, we should be deeply skeptical of a winning at all costs mentality. A culture that prizes medals (and ratings) over the health and safety of young women athletes is nothing to admire.
26
I want to thank Tara for a well-written and informative article. I agree that a clean program alone should never be the highest criteria for winning. I think an inconsistent judging system is harmful to the sport no matter the reason. I was a competitor, a pro for a short time and a judge (roller figure skating) so I have seen the skating sport from many angles and while I hope skating never loses it's artistic side it should never be forgotten that it is a sport and the Olympics are not the Ice Capades. When favoritism from committees overshadows the technical ability of skaters who have the legitimate right (having demonstrated their ability by winning events that should qualify them to go to the Olympics as in the case of Nagasu) to be our reps but are passed by because someone else has something else to offer (for example paying one's way when a country is supposed to pay it for their athletes) it discourages those of us who believe in sportsmanship, true competition and putting in the sweat necessary to be excellent. This, more than any defect in the judging standards destroys the heart of the sport. Maybe we need another category of competition to allow the manner of performance champs without the necessary chops to shine. They, too have much to offer to the sport, but under current standards should not be permitted to step over the more accomplished technical athletes.
(Rhett's wife. My husband is not a skater.)
3
I do not watch figure skating anymore as I feel it has completely lost its beauty. I don't care how many rotations anyone skates if it doesn't move me. I wonder how many other people feel the same way that I do?
29
Just before the Code of Points came into use, I was about to give up on watching men's skating. Very, very few of the men skaters did anything but skate, jump, skate, jump, skate. There were some who were more interesting but they were few and far between. I find the men's programs now on the whole to be far more interesting than what we saw in the late 1990s and early 2000s, when artistry seemed to be a lost cause completely. I'm baffled by the fact that so many people look back on that era and find it superior to what we see today.
Women's and pairs' programs, OTOH, didn't suffer from the same problems. I miss things like those long gorgeous spirals that Michelle Kwan and Sasha Cohen did, but overall, I enjoy them as much as I ever did. Ice dancing, OTOH, used to the the odd man out, and it took a long time for the figure skating world to come up with a format and competitors who could give us what we see today. But ice dancing is highly technical in a subtle way that most of us probably don't realize. That's undoubtedly why so many people only react to the artistry, either loving it or dismissing ice dancing a non-sport.
2
Maybe there need to be 2 types of figure skating. One as a “sport” - with all the risks and athletic features, the other as an “art form.”
Like many who’ve posted i enjoy the art form the most - like ballet.
As for skating as a sport, the risks worry me. So many injuries. But that’s true of all these ski and snowboarding feats, which also scare to watch.
Take it from an old lady, don’t ruin your body. Take fewer risks. Stay in shape safely.
8
thera...the art form of skating already exists...ice dancing...both technically challenging and sublimely artistic...it is by far the most pleasurable of the olympic skating events to watch...
7
Elliott:
Yes, ice dancing is lovely! But why not competitions of “dance” which allow for solo skaters? They already have 2 types of couple skating. So why not 2 types of solos?
1
I think that many of the "I miss the good old days" remarks fail to understand Ms. Lipinski's article.
The goal of an Olympic figure skater is to win a gold medal. The entire purpose of the event is to select a champion. That is the fundamental distinction between competitive and artistic endeavor.
Many thanks for this op ed piece. Fascinating insight from a previous champion.
A seriously refreshing change from the constant drumbeat of how the GOP is destroying our republic.
59
You fail to address the fact that there are both technical and artistic scores given to the skaters. Moreover, the organization that regulates international figure skating has changed all sorts of things related to the scoring over the years. Many people, including me and Peggy Fleming, believe the current balance is somewhat ridiculous. In ski racing, if you fall you are out. It should be the same in skating, IMHO. I agree completely with Ms. Fleming that the artistry should be re-emphasized. A quad completed poorly should never be worth as much or more than a less difficult jump completed perfectly and with elegance.
5
Thanks, NYC Father. I needed that reminder of our foul politics in an article on skating.
2
While the goal of an Olympic figure skater may well be to win a gold medal, IMO one of goals of the figure skating organization should be to increase the popularity (and the revenues) of its sport. While I (sort of) appreciate the technical difficulty of quad jumps, I would much prefer see a skater skate cleanly without falling on his or her backside while attempting to perform an extremely difficult maneuver.
Perhaps someone should remind Tara that she was only able to compete in one Olympics before skating injuries forced her to give up competition before she was old enough to vote.
3
I went back and looked at Torville and Dean's perfect routine in the 1984 Olympics--the famous Bolero free skate. Like the early Beatles music, that dance holds up beautifully, a masterpiece that didn't need the physicality permeating the sport today.
Treat yourself and look at those T&D tapes. Quite simply amazing.
37
Pure athleticism exists in the skating world; speed skating and hockey. Figure skating is supposed to be about artistry. It does appear that the artistry has devolved to a rest period between jumps. Mr. Chang had six spectacular jumps but all but fell during one of them, but this did not eliminate him from contention. If the athleticism is more important then just set up a series of tricks like the half pipe and cut out the music.
25
The system of "back loading" jumps was instituted in order to prevent favoritism in judging, which is a problem in subjectively evaluated sports. The United States has another problem which remains unspoken. Participation in sports is very, very expensive. With the shrinking of the middle class there is too little money left over for a stressed parent to spend on sports development for a young child. Inexpensive figure skates may start at $200-$300 dollars, and a child might need a new pair every 6 months due to growth alone. Most other sports have the same problems, except for those supported by schools (football, etc.). Our national sports achievement is a reflection of our society and its norms. Anyone who is disappointed should also look to our politicians, and how their policies have hurt ordinary families. There will be no "risks" in the rink without a serious political discourse regarding middle class wealth.
32
Actually, "back loading" jumps was done because of skaters like Plushenko who did all his jumps at the very beginning of his programs and then mostly just skated aimlessly--if well--around the rink doing a spin or some footwork here and there. By offering a bonus for jumps in the second half, the intention was to make the programs more balanced. Of course, now we sometimes see the opposite phenomenon, skaters who pack all or almost all of their jumps into the last part of the program.
2
Can't argue with Ms. Lipinski, but NBC needs to start broadcasting each routine is slow motion if casual viewers are going to be able to keep up. As I read Ms. Lipinski's well-argued and well-written piece, I couldn't help remembering a time when I could really enjoy and appreciate a figure skater gracefully and smoothly carving a figure eight on the ice. Do they still even do that?
14
Compulsory figures were dispensed with years ago. It used to precede the short program, as a qualifier. I gave the sport its name.
2
I didn't name the sport: that's a typo for 'it'.
Compulsory figures were eliminated in 1990. (The ice dance equivalent, the pattern dance, lingers, but has been integrated into the short dance.)
The world of ice skating seems to ping pong back and forth every few years between a focus on jumping versus attention to artistry and finesse. As Ms. Lipinski implies, it usually has to do with what it will take to win world championships and Olympic medals. One of the big controversies before the Games was that veteran skater Ashley Wagner was left off the U.S. team, presumably because of her lesser jumping skills.
As a casual fan, it gets a little boring to watch routines from skaters who seem to be biding their time between jumps, because the jumps are the biggest part of what they offer. On the other hand, skaters who are mostly about "artistry" and who do not have the big tricks in their bags, can likewise be a bit dull.
Nathan Chen jumped himself into contention, but Yuzuru Hanyu was a wonderful combination of beautiful skating and athleticism. The difference between the two was very apparent. As was the reason why skating cannot be one thing or the other--it needs to be both.
51
I think the only way to bring the importance of the artistic side of figure skating to the forefront is to reward more points for artistic moves - like the way Michelle Kwan held beautiful flexible extensions for a good long time before moving on to the next choreographed move. Those kind of moves are so important to the overall impression a skater makes. If they weren't, so many commenters here wouldn't keep emphasizing their absence.
I hope the US and Olympic figure skating associations take to heart a lot of what is written here. You are all obviously passionate fans of skating (or were, until the new scoring turned it into a jumping contest). I also find ice dancing so much more fun to watch, despite all the rules, because ice dancers have figured out how to be clever and innovative without the cookie-cutter jumps and throws. I don't miss the jumps and throws for a moment, and am so glad they aren't part of ice dancing..
And if, as many suspect, the emphasis on jumping quads (and yes, the quints that are coming) takes too big a toll on young skater's muscles and bones, if it starts to shorten skaters' careers, that is another big reason to rethink the scoring that rewards the most points to jumps.
I remember watching Dorothy Hamell with her glasses on, doing the compulsory figures. Boring to watch, but important skills that all skaters should have. Maybe bringing them back, too, would help figure skating re-focus on what is best for the sport?
30
Yes, technical aspects certainly matter, but if the skater cannot seamlessly combine his or her technical skills with artististry and expression on ice, I think it may not be enough to win a place on the podium...
18
Why not have a special technical side event just to judge technical skills and specifically quads and whatever else qualifies, then have a free skate that presents the ability of the skater to combine technical with artistry. Combining shows the real worth and ability of the skater. At least I think so. Ballerinas aren't judged on how many of this or that they can do. They have to be able to do it all. Why not skaters?
28
There used to be a technical event: figures. It's what gave the sport its name.
8
Watching skating in the Olympics has become somewhat predictable and sometimes almost mechanical. However, I thoroughly respect the art, the amazing training, passion for the sport, divine talent, and we cannot deny the grace and beauty.
As for me, though, on the other hand, let me gaze at the beginners and those who just want to do something they consider daring - many of the Rockefeller Center skating rink amateurs. As they wobble and land on their behinds, or try to dance with their new girl or boyfriend, or clutch to the hand of their toddler, there is something so touching and innocent about the escapade, and the relationship of the body to enjoyment of ice. Throw in background music to the magic.
The teeny tiny percentage of the best bring ice skating close to perfection. They drive to become more perfect, and congratulations to them and the passion.
For the rest of the world - just try the ice and have fun! That can be beautiful too. After all, life is short.
9
Yes, and going to a T-Ball (the Little League entry level) has cute kids who play with great cuteness and touching innocence, so I suppose we should skip going to any major league baseball game. Sheesh.
Ms. Lipinski did push the sport forward with the 3L/3L and 3T/half loop/3S combinations. Otherwise, everything she did in the rink in her short time in the sport was forgettable, and forgotten. While Michelle Kwan did cease taking risks -- athletically and artistically -- in her latter programs, and in general had to be pushed by rivals to add difficulty to her routines, many of her earlier programs were both athletic and artistic masterpieces.
I was glad, for his personal sake, that Nathan Chen had such a successful free skate performance in Pyeongchang, but his performance was basically just skating from one quad to another and the quality of his jumps and skating generally, which are very stiff kneed, could use a lot of attention. If we really want to judge technical prowess and push the envelope that way, then why not get rid of the music (especially music with lyrics, which has made choreography literal and lazy) and the idea of "routines," disaggregate the technical skills, and have skaters compete on those individual elements in a row, side by side -- including figures, which would be a true test of body control on the ice.
52
Amen and amen again. There was NO comparison between these two skaters. One was an artist and an athlete, while the other a jumper. Michelle rightfully deserved that gold medal years ago. She out-skated Tara in every regard.
11
Thanks for this article; it's nice to hear from someone that understands the system. Michelle Kwan was my favorite for her grace and artistry, however. One thing that all the Russians and very few American skaters, have is real ballet training and a feeling for music, especially classical music. Most American skaters can't relate to anything beyond the latest pop song, and have no feeling for posture, fluidity of movement or dance, as elements in the program. Medvedeva, like most Russians, dances her routine, dotted with jumps. Most of the Americans can be seen mentally ticking off their "elements" whether footwork or jumps.
60
I have great respect for Tara Lipinski, her accomplishments and her entertaining television commentating but … there is a problem in figure skating right now, especially for the men. Even if you prefer athletic to aesthetic skaing, falling on a gazillion quads is decidedly not a better display of athleticism than performing a “clean” program, especially one which proves to be technically and artistically exquisite. In many other Winter Olympic sports, from snowboarding to freestyle skiing, a single fall is instant elimination. There's a reason for that. Falling is synonymous with failure. The trick was not completed and therefore cannot be scored. The idea that falling on a quad toe loop earns far more than landing a gorgeous triple axel actually contradicts athletic success.
Risk can be rewarded by giving very high scores to those who actually land difficult jumps, as Mirai Nagasu did in the short program. But falling should not be rewarded. The risk should actually pay off to be scored highly. As for innovation, as others have said, there are other places to innovate than just the jumps. So many programs right now feel the same! Same spins, same jumping passes, same footwork. One thing that skaters must realize about the future is that eventually the laws of physics will catch up. Smaller, lighter skaters who learn rotation early might be able to do quads, but there will be a limit. Once you’ve reached that limit, then what will be left? Artistry.
87
I couldn’t agree more.
3
I just watched the ice dancing competition. I was totally enthralled, mesmerized. Couldn't get enough of it. Now, I have little interest in watching the rest of the figure skating. They call it art for a reason.
64
You wouldn’t think today’s ice dancing was so mesmerizing if you had ever seen Torvill and Dean. Nothing has come close in decades.
5
If you saw the two Russian women you could not possibly come to that conclusion. They are both breath taking in artistry as well as their jumps.
2
Michelle Kwan changed thes port because of her superb and unique artistry. She was also a superb technical skater, but I would argue she had a much larger impact on the sport than the author of this article. The two top Russian skaters are incredible artists as well, especially Medvedeva. There is a real danger in this country of quantifying everything and losing a sense of what else counts.
100
Lipinski's gold medal in Nagano changed figure skating. (Maybe the change had been brewing for a while, but that was the moment that cemented it.) A decision clearly had been made that, rather than being a combination of art and athleticism, figure skating from now on was going to be a sport pure and simple. 20 years later, the artistic elements are mostly gone; they remain in vestigial form only as a way to rest between tricks without looking too obvious about it.
It's telling that in this article, Lipinski's idea of "taking risks" only means "trying harder tricks."
196
To be fair, Tara's artistry was very good. A narrative was arrived at that Kwan was artistry and Tara was technical and it isn't really accurate. Re watch Tara's long program and you will see what I mean.
3
This great skater (and excellent writer, it seems) is right. We all pine for the artistry of yore. But art is about aesthetics, not athletics, and sport is about athletics, not aesthetics. Ice dancing and what we call figure skating should no longer be conflated in the same event. There's a place for both, but their purposes compete and to some degree conflict.
8
I can see this view, but it’s hard to agree with it when we see the effects so many difficult jumps have on skaters’ bodies — every olympics, there is a new cast of figure skaters, not because they’re significantly better than the skaters four years before, but because those skaters are too worn out from landing triple-triples and quads. I understand wanting innovation in the sport, but innovating at the cost of so many talented young athletes seems like much too high a cost to pay.
90
I like watching athletes who push themselves to do their best. Among women, I think of Allyson Felix, Diana Taurasi and Katie Ledecky. All push themselves to the limit and all have had their share of injuries. When the most skilled women at any sport give maximum effort, they will get hurt. The only way to avoid injuries is to compromise on the effort required. If you don’t want the very best to do their very best, you are not a sports fan. And more than that, you are not a fan of the ballet, or any other dance form.
1
Having just watched the ice dance competition, it's clear that this is where most of the artistry of skating can now be found. The other three competitions are primarily about technical skill at the expense of grace.
147
Not the Russian women. Not by a long shot. And many of the men skaters combined ecquisite artistry with powerful technical elements. The two Japanese men were mesmerizing, as was the Spanish skater. Kenneth is very young, and artistry generally comes with time. give him a chance. (Hopefully he won't be injured before he can mature aesthetically.)
2
I agree. Ice dancing is now the only aspect of figure skating that still shows off the "figures" that used to count in the days of Dick Button and Peggy Flemming. Some people have commented that they miss the compulsory "figures" part of ice skating competition. I am a gymnastics mom, former coach and judge, and I miss the compulsory routines that gymnastics used to require at the Olympics. It was great to be able to see the different national teams perform the same skills, and compare the subtle differences in style that contrasted the different nnational approaches to the same skills. I wish the governing bodies would bring back the compulsories in skating, too. Someone who is not intimately acquainted with all the "tricks" or skills in the sport cannot understand the scoring procedure to see how a beautiful and perfectly executed routine gets less points than one in which the competitor fell down 2-3 times. With compulsories, a lay person can clearly see the differences in execution, both artistic and technical. And by the way, I wish skating would bring back the "perfect 6" and gymnastics bring back the "perfect 10." Those were scores we cold all understand. What the heck is a "perfect" score when it can be 17.973, or 109.34?
1
But do you lose something when it’s all about the technical over the artistry ? Seems that’s the rub.
64
Yes - love Tara as I do, I still loved the artistry of Michelle Kwan more.
4
Great piece. You and Johnny have it all -- brains and beauty -- and you guys are hilarious! Keep up the great work. You're the highlight of the Olympics. This analysis provides much needed context for the question of what happened to the glory days?
42
This isn’t the Tara & Johnny show. They are gaudy and tacky, and intrusive. I would prefer more subdued analysis and NOT during the performances....
6
Well-said by Ms. Lipinski. I agree with her comments and the overall view that risk-taking should be rewarded over playing it safe.
“If we’re growing, we’re always going to be out of our comfort zone.” – John Maxwell
7
It is absurd to reward falling on your behind. One could develop a more intelligent scoring system that rewards risk and success.
3
It’s a shame that more difficult moves seem to be needed because there is something to be said for grace and excellence. You were beautiful to watch Tara . You had it all as far as I’m concerned— technique , grace , passion and were a joy to behold .
The skaters we remember are the ones like you that touch us and bring out the human element of art and style . You should always know that . You are very special .
20
I dislike the turn figure skating has taken in recent years - I value artistry as much as athleticism. A great skater should have both in their arsenal.
On the other hand, the judging system is what it is. It is unfair to our athletes to judge them when they're young on the old system, and then be surprised when they don't thrive under the new one when they hit the senior level.
15
Risk should be rewarded. However, the figure skating program as mathematical equation might be pushing the technical envelope but it is off-putting to the general public. Putting your hands over your head while you jump might be difficult, but it turns the event into nothing more than a trick circus. If you fall on a quad, you should get zero points which would encourage successful jumping. Michelle Kwan was a terrible role model for US figure skating as she was constantly rewarded for programs that were some of the least difficult being performed. Moreover, compared to the generation that preceded her (Ito, Yamaguchi, Harding), she represented a technical step backwards. Yes, Lipinski pushed the technical envelope but without the code of points which turns every program into carbon copies she was allowed to create clean programs that were unique. She wasn't rewarded for attempting difficult jumps that did not succeed in lovely performances that defined her art. There needs to be a happy medium. The current way of doing things is not the answer.
All one needs to do is compare the winning pair of Savchenko and Massot with Gordeeva and Grinkov from 1988. S&M performed incredibly difficult tricks and gave an inspiring performance but one still got the sense they were checking things off a list. G&G made seamless art and overwhelmed with the beauty of their performance while incorporating many difficult technical elements exactly where they belonged.
45
There is a huge difference between skating to jumps and a true program. It is immediately evident, no matter how spectacular the jumps are. The men's gold winner this year skated a seamless program, especially in the short program which had none of the distracting wobbles. It fit with the music and tone and told a story. Same with the silver and bronze winners.
Still remember skaters like Oksana Baiul who simply took your breath away. I have no idea what jumps or how many she performed, but I know I was mesmerized and moved to tears at her performance, and thought I had never seen anything like it.
Bradie Tennell jumps are so perfect they are artistic in themselves but she needs time to develop her aesthetic, which I am sure she will.
13
Smart essay. Hope she considers coaching...
6
Or NOT. Besides then she couldn't go to the competitions and dress as though she was still competing.
1
This is so interesting, I am sure you are right Tara, but what
am I to do with my heart, you see Michelle Kwan will
always be there. Her artistry meant more to me than
all the jumps. I honestly think the jumps are kinda silly,
the grimacing when the skater girds themselves up twirling
away and the relief on their face when they pull it off
take away from the interpretation of the music, and Yes
Nathan is a wonder horse. I wonder why they do not
have just jumping skaters, why bother at all with any
music or choreography, just let them jump and twirl
in one spot, oh yes and sake across the ice once to
show foot work. I am an actress and do I get thrilled
watching a trained actor use their technique? No,
It is all to obvious, I know exactly what they are doing'
and how they do it. What I want to see a trained actor
do is surpass all that training and technique till they
are breathlessly living the part in front of me and I am
swept away with them. Jumps smumps!
91
Agree. If it is indeed a technical contest, let's do away with the music and costumes and just perform jumps, spins and footwork that can be judged comparatively easy in front of a panel. After all, ski boarding, jumping and downhill racing aren't performed to music and no Swavroski crystals required. As for the Russians and even some of our American skaters, many suffer from anorexia making them susceptible to bone fractures and other injuries. Imagine spinning several time in the air and coming down on a single blade on ice with tremendous force. Gracie Gold, a lovely and talented skater has taken time off to recover from the demands skating put on her mind and body. There's a reason we love ice skating. It's because it's not just a technical competition. But fair judging requires a set of standards, and artistry can't come down to a checklist. But let's not unreasonably demand that our skaters become technical wizards with stunning costumes in flawless makeup all while being extraordinarily graceful. And all starting at a very young age. Pressure?
4
Great advice Tara. Only one problem, I don’t know anyone in my county that is trying to win a gold medal in figure skating. I don’t even know anyone who wants to receive a college scholarship in figure skating because there no scholarships. I suggest instead, people concentrate on their post up moves to defeat the 7 ft 285 lb defender.
While I'm sure Tara is correct, personally, I cannot stand Evgenia's programs. The excessive stage-like emoting, the depressing music - I have been challenged trying to watch any of her programs all the way to the end. Bradie Tennell skates cleanly and lands the jumps like a machine, but the artistry isn't there (yet.) I hope we can nurture a better crop of female skaters in the next 4 years.
10
I feel it’s the Russian looked anorexic, which might be needed to help with the jumps etc. I doubly appreciated the dancing Couples this year because of the grace.
2
Jason Fagnoe's Grantland article "Dropped", about competitive juggling, is instructive here.
The world's best competitive juggler is capable of technical excellence. He can juggle more objects, for a long time, with more embellishments, than any other juggler alive. Whenever someone enters the sport and beats a record he set, he can quickly post a YouTube video showing him besting that record. He's the best. He beat juggling. It's over.
But he doesn't like doing it ... and it's no fun to watch ... and he is essentially retired from performance, instead running a concrete company for a living and managing contractors.
Juggling is over. It has been beaten. What will happen to figure skating if the technical excellence wins?
17
Team Tara!
1
I can't get my head around the scoring system anymore. I suppose it's my own ignorance, but, what the heck does 137.3 mean? I can't look at a score and know if a skater did well.
7
A healthy balance between the technical and artistry is best. Just as it is boring and unchallenging to watch skaters who are solely expressive with no technical difficulty, the same applies to watching endlessly jumping and spinning tops with no artistry.
43
They need the foundation in technique but it's what they do with that that makes a program exciting to watch imho.
Ms. Lipinski writes as though the only variables in the quality of a figure skating program are accuracy ("cleanness") on the one hand, and technical difficulty (which she terms "innovation") on the other. Absent from her calculus are fluidity, interpretive artistry, choreography, musicality, originality, communication between partners, and more. There are many ways to be "innovative" and to "take risks." Most don't involve ever more spins on the jumps. What a bore. We wouldn't judge a ballet or modern dance performance in this way. It's a shame to do so with Ice skating.
87
Yes, but ballet and modern dance are not part of the Olympics, are they?
1
Unless this was heavily edited by a pro, Tara is an outstanding writer. This is an extraordinarily well written piece… pithy, pertinent, and very persuasive. I don’t follow figure skating, nor do I really care about the sport. But this article will stick with me for some time; the lessons outlined here apply to many areas of life.
8
As in gymnastics (i.e. the floor routine) ice skating has become more about the athletics than the artistry. It's so much more interesting to watch skaters with classical ballet training as well as athleticism. There should be both in world class skating. I disagree that a fall on a quad is scored higher than a well executed triple, although i understand the reasoning. I also dislike when a skater puts all their jumps in the second half, again, boring. Maybe that's why after decades of enjoying ice skating i am now drawn to watching the ice dancers.
105
To skate with the control and precision of Jason Brown or Adam Rippon is itself a technical feat. These skaters control every muscle in their body and make every movement on the ice deliberate and meaningful. In my view that is no less technically challenging than a quad lutz. Obviously the ultimate ideal is one who can exhibit that control and precision and also land quads. Maybe Yusuru Hanyu came close to that. Patrick Chan at his peak. But in general the problem is that the current scoring system insufficiently rewards the precision of a Jason Brown or Adam Rippon, and thereby has undermined the popularity of the sport by making it so much less fun to watch. Also - please stop talking so much Tara. I can't hear the music.
86
I like artistry as well. I don't see how artistry is less important at all since the more athletic one is the better one should be able to control the grace and flow of the artistry. They come together.
Yes, I've been watching CBC 24 hour coverage and CBC talks too much as well. I want to hear the music.
7
Where WAS Jason Brown, America's most fascinating ice skater?
1
I don’t enjoy the riskier performances for a couple of reasons. The performances aren’t as fluid and artistic as they were a decade or so ago. It’s all about the lead in to the next jump. The other reason is the importance of triple and quad jumps forces the commentators to continually explain the mechanics which ruins the artistry on screen. I don’t care about red, yellow and green dots or 10% bonus points. The music is a critical element for the viewer. Please don’t talk during it. Analysis should wait until the skaters are on the kiss and cry bench.
128
I used to follow figure skating but don't anymore because of the increased emphasis on the technical. All the jumps in the second half of the program makes for a very dreary, tedious program. No thanks. I'll take the Michelle days every time over that.
238
I agree they should change the name from "figure skating" to "acrobatics on ice" !
1
Absolutely, MIchelle was the best. All the beauty has gone out of ladies figure skating. The men do a better job of skating to and interpreting the music - especially the Chinese and Japanese.
3
Watching a competitor skate through a check list of technical accomplishments may be impressive, but it can also be pretty dull. What makes a routine soar is artistry, is tapping the emotional depths, not solely physical prowess.
151
Remember when there were actually figures as part of figure skating? Ah, those were the good old days, when watching skating was the highlight of my olympics. I get that skaters are athletes, but now athleticism is all you see. I yearn for the artistry again - maybe someday we’ll see a strong skater who executes all the quintuple quintuple jumps (that are sure to come someday) and that also emotes and tells a story with their routines...
55
Absolutely, Gentle Commenter! The gold medals won by Peggy Fleming and Dorothy Hamill are all the more remarkable because they were for the skating equivalent of the Nordic Combined--two different yet complementary skills (e.g., perfect figures required excellent control and precise edges). No women, and few men, skated triples then.
I disapproved of the school-figures portion carrying greater weight than the free skate (I don't recall there having been a short tech program back then), but ditching the figures altogether was a boneheaded move. In 1980, the GDR's Beatrix Schuba, who was not exactly built like a sylph (her costumes had floaty diaphanous sleeves & skirts to conceal her musculature and make her "line" appear more lyrical) could free-skate without her appearance being downgraded and win gold by virtue of her figures precision. (Her exhibition was a school-figures demo)! Why even call it "figure skating" now?
Why not reinstate school figures as a separate discipline? We see ski racers competing separately in downhill and slalom, snowboarders in half-pipe and slope style, and freestyle skiers in slope style, aerials & moguls. I know the answer to my question: the flashy triple and quad jumping skills are so all-consuming to learn and so punishing on the body that skaters lack the time and energy to develop the precision skills that gave the sport its name. More's the pity.
40
The short program was added for the TV audience, at or around the time school figures were dumped.
1
I sorely miss the days when artistry was valued over mere athleticism. One without the other isn’t the option, but when you think of the emotion conveyed by Michelle Kwan or Brian Boitano as they took the ice, tears come to my eyes. There are powerful skaters competing these days, but so very few are story tellers. Sorry Ms. Lipinski, you may have won gold, but you were never in their class.
137
Frank:
I agree. I remember thinking when Ms. Lapinski won, that she was just a “little jumping machine”. Michelle Quan was the true skating artist.
Watching figure skating today is getting boring....
9
Exactly right. No skater today comes close to Boitano. It wasn't just his skating, perfect thought it was, it was his choreography. Adding jumps takes no brilliance only stamina and practice. The truly artistic skaters take your breath away.
If winning world and Olympic medals is the goal then Tara is exactly right. If increasing the popularity of figure skating is the goal, then the rules need to be changed at the international level. Watching figure skating isn’t fun like it used to be. Most of today’s skaters are unpolished and their careers are short lived. By the time they develop any artistry in their skating their technical skills have disappeared. A fall on a quad should not be worth more points than a perfectly executed triple. The casual fan doesn’t understand this. All of Adam Rippon’s performances at the Olympics remind me of why I used to love the sport. We need more of that if we want to bring figure skating back to its glory days.
373
Furthermore, the judges' aesthetic prejudices in valuing a long, lithe "line" in a skater penalize athletes like Rippon who--just in the nick of time--decided to combat the anorexia that the sport currently requires to produce the underweight bodies that achieve that "line." Instead, RIppon gets shamed for his lower body musculature and strength. And last night, as I watched the ice dance short programs, I noticed that the taller and slimmer the women (and more equal in height to their partners), the higher the scores--despite technical errors. The Shibutanis' score, despite a clean and delightful program, suffered in large part from the sibs' height discrepancy--especially Ms. Shibutani's petite stature.
And the old and execrable practice of subjectively scoring early skaters lower than those in the "elite" final grouping (Chen's long program being the lone exception) in order to "leave room" for those who've "paid their dues" persists despite various tweaks to scoring methods over the past couple of decades. (Bradie Tennell, in the team competition, skated a cleaner and more difficult program than several of those who skated later and less cleanly). Plus ça change...
6
If artistry is more important than technical skills, why call figure skating a sport at all? At that point it is merely entertainment. I remember when skaters had to perform figures for judges before they performed their programs set to music. Athletes should be judged more on their athletic prowess than on their balletic interpretation. Otherwise, create a Skating with the Stars TV program and be done with the sport.
2
Artistry is what ice dancing is for. As far as I can tell, figure skating is mainly an exhibition of really hard jumps and spins.
1
I liken women’s figure skating to classical ballet. As gifted artists, great ballet dancers and skaters are also exceptional athletes. What robs both endeavors of their artistry is when the performance becomes robotic and predictable. Kudos to Tara for championing the creative, risk-taking artist.
17
Tara is actually saying the opposite. She equates innovation with harder jumps, not with other kinds of artistry and creativity.
4
One of the things that has been frustrating to watch someone like Nathan Chen, as opposed to, say, Adam Rippon, is the lack of finesse.
By simply rewarding the technical you create almost robot like humans whose sole purpose is to garner as many points as possible. The artistry and story gets lost.
I wish the rules would change to reward more interesting skates overall instead of just knocking off items on a list.
203
"By simply rewarding the technical you create almost robot like humans whose sole purpose is to garner as many points as possible. The artistry and story gets lost."
Correction: It doesn't get lost. It gets thrown away. Anything that doesn't generate points is a waste of time and effort. Artistry and story don't generate points, so they are actually a detriment to the sport.
5
Since the olympics are about sports and measurable competence, not artistry your wish is unlikely to be realized there.
2
Really? When I watch Nathan Chen skate I see beautiful, balletic arms, fabulous choreography AND amazing jumps, and I think he is skating with more emotion and expression as he matures. I'm sure there are skaters whose focus on technical advances has compromised their artistry, but I don't find that in Nathan Chen's skating. Are we watching the same guy?
3
I agree Tara, and I'm grateful you spoke out. I'm thrilled to see Marai at the Olympics this year. I think she was robbed last time. I watched her 2014 free skate in person, and her artistry was gorgeous and thrilling. I'm so glad that she was willing to keep pushing herself for these Olympics. Both Marai and Adam Rippon have been so inspiring to watch during these games. I wish there was more room for artistic scores in judging. It's not that I don't want skaters to push themselves athletically, but I also appreciate the gorgeous lines and musicality of both Marai and Adam.
74