geri_chan | Skate America

I used to be a huge figure skating fan, but my interest has slowly been waning ever since the 6.0 judging system was replaced by the more complicated and confusing system where points are allocated to each element a skater performs, which was instituted to combat corrupt judging following the 2002 Olympic Winter Games figure skating scandal. I'm not entirely convinced that the new system really eliminates bad judging, and it might have been better to try and reform the old system, which was much more popular with the fans, since it was easier to for them to follow what was going on and think, "Well, I would have given that skater a 5.9 instead of a 5.7." And of course there was the excitement of seeing a skater earn the coveted perfect 6.0 with a stellar performance--somehow, seeing a skater earn, say, 212.38 points just doesn't generate the same level of excitement. This probably had a factor in the huge ratings decline of figure skating from its heyday, along with disillusionment about the judging system, and the retirement from competition by the more popular stars like Michelle Kwan.

Among the ice dancers, the system seems to have been beneficial, since that discipline suffered most from biased judging, being the most subjective, and there has been a lot of movement and change in the ranks, and their performances don't seem have suffered, at least from the POV of my relatively untrained eye. I was noticing that the among the singles skaters, though, that the programs were beginning to look the same, which eventually gets pretty boring. Nearly all them would do the same elements, such as spin positions--the ones that racked up the most points, naturally--and they were so busy trying to rack up points and get in all the required elements that their choreography and artistry seemed to suffer. And while the women were trying harder jumps, the men seemed to be playing it safe--many of them no longer bothered to try the quadruple anymore, since falling or making an error is very costly in lost points and not worth the reward if you can't land it consistently. Most of them, it seems, would rather play it safe and skate a clean program of triple jumps rather than take the risk.

But I watched Skate America on tv today (the men and women's long programs), and was pleasantly surprised by what I saw. The performances were far from perfect--most of the skaters made several errors--but there seemed to be more spark and personality in their programs. It may be now that they've grown used to the points system, they're better able to adapt their choreography to it. And/or it may be the fact that it's an Olympic season that has the skaters fired up. I particularly enjoyed the men's competition--U.S. skater Ryan Bradley has great personality and always charms the audience, but is inconsistent on his jumps, but today he nailed two quads, so I was really happy for him. He did stumble on a few of his other jumps, but did well enough to earn a bronze medal, and he turned in a wonderfully comedic program set to classical music, where he preened and flounced around the ice to the laughter and applause of the audience. And I was really impressed by the French skater, Florent Amodio, who had trouble controlling the landings of his jumps, but had good flow across the ice and great artistry, along with youthful exuberance and a kind of mischievous charm. Gosh, he was so cute that I just wanted to give him a hug! Technical skills can be taught, but charisma is something you either have or you don't, and this guy definitely has star quality. He's very young--19--and this is his first year competing on the senior level, so I think he's fully capable of improving with experience and becoming a world-class skater.

US skater Evan Lysacek, the reigning world champion, took the gold medal with a performance that was slightly conservative on the technical side (he didn't try the quad), but was intense and filled with emotion--a really compelling performance. He's capable of doing the quad, and I'm reasonably sure that he will add it to his program when he competes at the Olympics next year, especially since the previous Olympic champion, Evgeni Plushenko has returned to competition and is certain to do the quad. Supposedly, he's even working on a quad-quad combo. Not that the quad is the be-all and end-all to skating, but it certainly made things exciting when Plushenko and his countryman and rival Alexei Yagudin were competing against each other, each pushing the other to do more and more, both technically and artistically.

(I guess I shouldn't jinx the skaters by saying "when" they compete in the Olympics--technically, it's "if," depending on how they do in their national championships, but barring disaster, Lysacek and Plushenko will almost certainly be competing in next year's Olympics.)

Anyway, I am beginning to regain some of my interest in skating, and am looking forward to seeing the rest of the season.