General Skating Chat

[SparkleSalad]

 

 

 

 

[Pink Elephants]

I'm sure this awards event is a great idea. And will not be biased at all

[fyere0]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA

 

@ ISU: Throw this entire awards show idea in the garbage, and feel free to chuck yourselves in along with it for even thinking this could possibly help the sport in any way. Of all the urgent issues that need your attention, you're spending millions of dollars on a popularity contest that will cause fans to rip each other apart when their faves don't win.

 

There's rampant abuse in the sport. Corruption at the highest levels. Bias, ineptitude, and lack of adequate training in judging. Replay technology that's twenty years behind the times, promised upgrades to make scoring more accurate that have never come. An out of control tech race with no research into its long-term physical effects. Body image and eating disorder issues. Grossly inflated ticket prices that prevent young people and low-income people from directly experiencing the sport.

 

But no, clearly what we all want to see is a televised event with Daniil Gleichengauz tearfully receiving his Best Choreographer award from Adam Rippon and Kurt Browning in sequined tuxedos.

[Fay]

Read the nominations and... weep! 

https://skatecanada.ca/2019/10/isu-skating-awards-premieres-at-the-isu-world-figure-skating-championships-2020-in-montreal/

[airi]

"Most Valuable Skater: Honors the Single Skater or Pair or Ice Dance Couple who best managed to increase the level of popularity of Figure Skating related to the fan base involvement, media attention and sponsors appreciation "

sorry, should be one candidate only

 

I can't get over what a stupid idea that is. Honestly, hope it flops so bad.

[Fay]

1 minute ago, airi said:

"Most Valuable Skater: Honors the Single Skater or Pair or Ice Dance Couple who best managed to increase the level of popularity of Figure Skating related to the fan base involvement, media attention and sponsors appreciation "

sorry, should be one candidate only

 

I can't get over what a stupid idea that is. Honestly, hope it flops so bad.

Well, if anyone else gets it, it’s going to look stupid.  

Not that it doesn’t look stupid already! 

[Lunna]

And how good of them to announce the idea when most tickets are already sold... will medalists at least still skate at the Gala? I get that Gala is not most popular event (maybe tickets must be cheaper and not as for the all-day competition event?) and maybe a couple of show numbers is not bad, but to pay to see some ridiculous awards instead of actual skating? 

[monchan]

_{^{"The ISU Skating Awards is a brand-new and exciting event combining breathtaking Figure Skating performances, entertaining music acts, astonishing artistic shows and a dazzling Award ceremony."}}

 

I've known ISU is full of clowns but now they look even more like a circus lmaooo. I mean they all know who will vote and who will win, what's the point of this (except selling tickets and exploiting fans/ or they want to feed big feds with more awards?). At least I hope the assigned winners get good money prize. The sport is sooooo expensive yet money prize in comps is so little compared to other sports.

[Salior]

some rant about the list of highest scores page on wiki

 

Spoiler

On wiki, initially the list of highest figure skating scores has a section on who lands the first jump, and it was reserved for a single landing of types of jumps only, like 4Lo or 4T-3A. 

 

Multiple landing of jumps were not counted. Nor were things like "landing in second half of program"

 

Some fans decided to ignore that and get ridiculous by putting in all the "firsts" by spreading out the criteria. Like for they started to put

"first to land two combinations in a program",

"first to land combination in second half of the program",

"first to land two different types of quads"

"first to land two 4Lz" 

you get the idea. Half of them aren't even reported in news and they just made up the criteria from the score sheets, making that single table look bloated.

 

It's clear that they only know a small recent section of skating, and want to add new fields for certain skaters without considering the entire field as a whole and what other skaters achieved. I mean if we were to apply the same criteria fairly to other disciplines, there should be a section on men's too, and other types of jumps. If we go down the rabbit hole, then should we list "first to land two 4S", "first to land a quad in second half of program" too? It just wasn't significant enough to be reported. 

 

But no it's only for the ladies quads, and when the stuff was cleaned up they added them back in again. 

 

So if they want to be ridiculous, let me be ridiculous too. It went from a single table to the below. It was fun looking at the quad history for figure skating, but things like Yuzu's first 4Lo in 2015 World Team Trophy gala wasn't included, while other failed attempts in galas were. Kevin Reynolds was credited for the first to have five quads in competition, but a few of them were under rotated so idk what the wiki editors were thinking, didn't stop the news from reporting it though. Pity things like "first quad combi landed in 2nd half" etc wasn't recorded, would love to match the ladies tables and criteria. 

 

So here we have, Yuzu, the holder of 6 records and the master of making new Eu combinations. 

 

(Boyang actually has quite a lot of records, it's really a pity that his PCS didn't "magically" increase and he never got recognition for it.) 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Salior]

I've created a poll here, please vote! 

 

[yuzupon]

I have been wondering about this for quite a while now, and it is probably nothing, but I am throwing it out there anyway.

 

For context, the only other sport I follow even more religiously than FS is Badminton.

• In 2012 London Oly, the Chinese team swept all golds in the 5 disciplines, and basically won half of the medals contended. (Now, the Badminton event that Oly was full of scandals, but this is rather separate).
• That 'domination' led to IOC warning BWF (the badminton governing body) that if they do not do something to make sure that more countries can compete at the highest level, Badminton is in danger of being left out of the Olympics (it has not been a part of Oly for that long, only since 1992).
• In response, BWF revamped the way the grand prix events are being organised, open a Youtube channel airing matches live (from quarterfinal onward, usually), started to employ Hawk-Eye's SMART Replay and establish a procedure for players to ask for review against certain calls on court, altered the service judging procedure, started tournaments for para-athletes, and get their social media more involved. In other words, they pull themselves together. (Some of their efforts was a miss, like trying to make badminton outdoor-friendly - the shuttlecocks are made of feathers, you can imagine how well you can control it against the open-air wind. But they do many things, so some of those things, well, hit).
• In Rio 2016, China still won 2 gold medals, but the remaining 3 were earned by other countries (Spain even got their 1st ever Oly Badminton gold), and the other-colour medals were more distributed. Of course, all those other countries also did their part in upping the levels of their athletes, but BWF has been credited for the rise in the level of playing and accessibility of the sport they govern.

I know that the Russian domination of FS is only obvious in the Ladies. Although we could make the case for Pairs, and Junior Men as well.

I have little against the Russian athletes (a bit on how they manoeuvre the rulebook, tho) , and little against the West seeming domination on the sport (again, a bit on how they politick for it), as I arrived at the sport with that as the status-quo. But it cannot be healthy for any sport to be centred to a handful of countries like this, and especially not when its powers that be, not only let it happen but also rather actively facilitate it.

 

So, I wonder, if the trend continues, and only 1-2 countries *cough* dominate FS in 2022 (knock on every wooden surface), will ISU get the same warning as BWF did, so that they can finally pull themselves together?

Or was Badminton a totally different case, since the sport is 1) Asian - as opposed to western -  dominated, 2) much more objective than FS, 3) much more, shall we say, plebeian, than FS 4) a summer Oly sport that is supposed to be more accessible than the winter sports?

 

I remembered the same thing happened in speed skating, where the Dutch team basically turned Sochi 2014 into their national championship. Did ISU get reprimanded by IOC then? The Dutch no longer had the same domination in PC 2018, so... But then, Speed Skating is, like Badminton, much more objective than FS.

 

... So, Idk... Like I said, it's probably nothing.

[TallyT]

But it does mean that if the 3A dominate as their fans are wildly proclaiming they will... it could count against them and their successors heading into 2022. Interesting....

[Salior]

On 10/28/2019 at 9:08 AM, yuzupon said:

I have been wondering about this for quite a while now, and it is probably nothing, but I am throwing it out there anyway.

 

For context, the only other sport I follow even more religiously than FS is Badminton.

• In 2012 London Oly, the Chinese team swept all golds in the 5 disciplines, and basically won half of the medals contended. (Now, the Badminton event that Oly was full of scandals, but this is rather separate).
• That 'domination' led to IOC warning BWF (the badminton governing body) that if they do not do something to make sure that more countries can compete at the highest level, Badminton is in danger of being left out of the Olympics (it has not been a part of Oly for that long, only since 1992).
• In response, BWF revamped the way the grand prix events are being organised, open a Youtube channel airing matches live (from quarterfinal onward, usually), started to employ Hawk-Eye's SMART Replay and establish a procedure for players to ask for review against certain calls on court, altered the service judging procedure, started tournaments for para-athletes, and get their social media more involved. In other words, they pull themselves together. (Some of their efforts was a miss, like trying to make badminton outdoor-friendly - the shuttlecocks are made of feathers, you can imagine how well you can control it against the open-air wind. But they do many things, so some of those things, well, hit).
• In Rio 2016, China still won 2 gold medals, but the remaining 3 were earned by other countries (Spain even got their 1st ever Oly Badminton gold), and the other-colour medals were more distributed. Of course, all those other countries also did their part in upping the levels of their athletes, but BWF has been credited for the rise in the level of playing and accessibility of the sport they govern.

I know that the Russian domination of FS is only obvious in the Ladies. Although we could make the case for Pairs, and Junior Men as well.

I have little against the Russian athletes (a bit on how they manoeuvre the rulebook, tho) , and little against the West seeming domination on the sport (again, a bit on how they politick for it), as I arrived at the sport with that as the status-quo. But it cannot be healthy for any sport to be centred to a handful of countries like this, and especially not when its powers that be, not only let it happen but also rather actively facilitate it.

 

So, I wonder, if the trend continues, and only 1-2 countries *cough* dominate FS in 2022 (knock on every wooden surface), will ISU get the same warning as BWF did, so that they can finally pull themselves together?

Or was Badminton a totally different case, since the sport is 1) Asian - as opposed to western -  dominated, 2) much more objective than FS, 3) much more, shall we say, plebeian, than FS 4) a summer Oly sport that is supposed to be more accessible than the winter sports?

 

I remembered the same thing happened in speed skating, where the Dutch team basically turned Sochi 2014 into their national championship. Did ISU get reprimanded by IOC then? The Dutch no longer had the same domination in PC 2018, so... But then, Speed Skating is, like Badminton, much more objective than FS.

 

... So, Idk... Like I said, it's probably nothing.

 

[admin edit: keep feedback constructive, please]

[Paskud]

On 10/30/2019 at 12:52 AM, Salior said:

[admin edit: keep feedback constructive please]

Nah, best coach will most likely go to Gadbois. >__>

[TallyT]

2 hours ago, Paskud said:

Nah, best coach will most likely go to Gadbois. >__>

 

Oh I would love that, simply for the absolute uproar from Eteri fans