Sombreuil

(I’m not sure that this is the right place for this comment, but it’s stuff on social media about Kostornaia that got me thinking about it so this is where I’m dumping it. If it would be better elsewhere please move it?) On English speaking media there is a bit of a ‘Kostornaia is so wonderful because she’s a skating genius and she’s going to be a neurosurgeon afterwards etcetc ‘ narrative beginning to crop up increasingly often. It’s reminding me of the NC/Yale narrative and has crystallised my thinking on the subject, because there’s the inference (sometimes expressed but usually unspoken) that every other skater is lacking, because they don’t have such lofty ambitions. Here it’s thrown at Trusova and Scherbakova, who seem to be skate mad teenagers, and are somehow regarded as lesser beings. Firstly, as the mother of a junior doctor, I’d like to point out that doctors are like everyone else- they are not all angels of mercy, sweetness and light, ministering to the sick uncomplainingly etc etc. A very small number of individuals might live up to that, but among the ones I am acquainted with they probably manage it some of the time- the rest of the time they are a group of ordinary young people with a mixture of reasons for doing medicine, and many of those reasons aren’t particularly altruistic. Personally I would hate to be treated by some of my children’s friends because some of them seem to dislike their job and the people involved in it and some view the patient as a puzzle to be solved not a person to be treated. They do a difficult job, we are all very much in their debt at the moment with COVID etc, but they aren’t as a group superior beings who are more worthy than for example the nurse or the care home worker who are often more empathetic. Secondly Kostornaia is 16. She has a long road to qualify as a doctor, never mind neurosurgery. I don’t blame her, she has an ambition, excellent, but that’s all it is - a wish for the future, interesting to the media and fans but it’s not a reason to elevate her above the others. This is a sport, it rewards excellence on the ice,( or should) not what anyone does off the ice, what subjects they study or whether they are good at the media round or are able to express themselves in English, or which university they go to. It’s interesting to her fans but it doesn’t make her better than her rivals. Her skating might if she puts the work in.

Look on the bright side - she’s got ice , she’s talking to TCC, she has a coach there at the boards who is presumably included in the conversation re whatever can be done with this season. Given the state of play worldwide that’s not a bad position to be in.

Tracy cutting it down to the real bottom line.

Depressing but unsurprising

Sport here is either professional - football, cricket, golf, tennis etc or amateur. If amateur it’s funding depends on success- success means funding, so cycling, swimming, gymnastics, athletics get rewarded - the more success, the more funding. If results are poor, funding is withdrawn - fencing for example. What would our skating be like if this system had been in place when John Curry and Robin Cousins won back to back Olympics?

The parlous state of FS in the UK ....

Well if they can adopt NHLs awards wholesale ( still shaking my head over ‘most valuable’), why not their outdoor rink ?

I know - there’s no chance that they’re thinking of doing any of this revolutionary stuff but it’s fun to imagine. As @rockstaryuzu says imagine Yuzuru on an outside rink, somewhere picturesque - or Sui/Han, or the ice dancers/ lady of your choice. People would probably tune in just out of curiosity.

They may need to shift the whole thing forward into winter and compress it - maybe 2 /3 competitions a week as the football league had to do here in order to get finished in time for the new season. Everyone will only be doing one gp each. And outdoor rinks might actually be quite a draw - novelty, blast from the past, get Dick Button to put in his 5cents worth over zoom or whatever from his armchair.....

Do what the skiers do and wait for it to clear. Whatever this turns out to be it’s not the GP or even ISU competition as we know it - time to break the mould, be more relaxed about time etc in order to stay safe

Old school - I like it. Thinking outside the box. There used to be an outside rink at Oberstdorf iirc - any in the other areas or would they need to set up a temporary rink? Put it somewhere winter sportsy like Sapporo or idk Vermont? and you might have a local amenity for the winter.

Indoor arenas are more likely to spread the virus- that’s why indoor sports are more problematic than outdoor, and people are usually allowed to do things outside before restrictions on indoor events are lifted.

That’s the one - I am a subscriber so I suppose the paywall might have blocked me from sharing it - though user error is probably equally likely !

French coaching issue has made it into the Times. Can’t seem to link it unfortunately , but it says the report will be passed to prosecutors and is likely to lead to criminal investigations. It also quotes the report as denouncing the ‘ concentration of power’ among ‘very few’ FFIS executives who allowed abuse and violence to develop and whose ‘way of functioning could only .......favour a culture of secrecy .....(which) led to the absence of disciplinary action’.

I think the decision to open for US students was a dubious political choice, which had nothing to do with the control of infection. It will look bad if Canada keeps out individuals from countries who have more successfully dealt with the threat , and who are longer standing students like Yuzuru, Jun and Evgenia after letting Jason in - nothing personal against Jason, but he’s only been working in Canada for a year. That is assuming they want to be in Canada.

The only way to sensibly put this plan into effect is to identify a rink which is in an area of low infection in each of the six centres and disinfect it thoroughly, put in Perspex screens to split up the judges, referees, etc, mark out distancing throughout the backstage areas (no scrums of media, limit the numbers and each allocated a pitch and told to stay there, with skaters and coaches going to them at the correct distance), do it behind closed doors, but televise and make it available worldwide, behind a fee wall if necessary. Maybe reduce the size of practice groups on the ice, certainly allocate more space behind the boards between each skaters team. That’s just off the top of my head, thinking of things that have been done in other circumstances, but the most important one I would have thought is shifting the venue to the least infected area of each country so as to minimise risk outside the rink. The best rink in terms of ice, and space round it may be a university rink or one with rudimentary seating, which wouldn’t matter because no audience. Same goes for transport links and accommodation because it’s just competitors, officials and limited media, no need to take thousands of fans needs into account. To hold it in hotspots like Las Vegas and Osaka is madness.

People all over the world have been finding ways to work around the virus. Obviously it’s not the same as being able to move around and associate freely, and there are limits to what can be achieved, but people working in public and private sectors have used ingenuity, technology, and flexible thinking to get round some of the challenges imposed by the situation. Nothing is quite as weird as watching a football match where there is no crowd noise and every comment by players and coaches comes across loud and clear ( with the accompanying apologies for bad language from the commentators), but I am assured that it’s better than no football at all. I would love to think that the ISU was ingenious and flexible enough to come up with a novel solution to put on some kind of GPS but even while typing the words I am snorting with incredulity at the idea. The organisation is the antithesis of flexible, incapable of coping with quite rudimentary technological advances, and I’m afraid whatever half baked concept they come up with will not be better than no skating at all. You only have to look at the people they go to for ideas - Zakarian’s ridiculous awards ceremony for example? I would love to be proved wrong but I’m not expecting to be.

It was a joke - who knows what the hell went on apart from the people involved - but it keeps us chatting

Wild guess but maybe she looked at the choreo, gave it a try and had a Harrison Ford / George Lucas moment - you can’t skate this s*** Dan- but she had the guts to go.

I think if you sprayed that fiercely you’d blow the lot - I’m reliably informed that it’s the way to keep seedheads complete for flower arranging.

It’s The Ice - 2011or 2012 cant remember- there used to be a couple of full length footage on YouTube but it got purged

Hairspray

Definitely not - what price the K&C at nationals whenever they take place.....

Trace the money then I suppose - if the public funds are channelled through the school, then the school, if through the fed to the skater, then it’s hers, which doesn’t seem likely from what you say re Tsurskaya? Or direct to the choreographer via the fed as I believe happens in China then to the fed? What if the choreographer is an employee of the school - then presumably his work is owned by the school. In a way the virus might help the skater - looks like there will be a long hiatus until any competition so she’ll have time to settle.

That’s very interesting- in whose ownership are the programmes? The choreographer, the school/ coach, the fed or the skater? Or is it a simple matter of who paid the bill?