Fielding Questions About Skating

I've been mesmerized by the Olympics for the greater part of these last two weeks. I think I could hum "O Canada," I've heard it so many times.

Lately, people who know of my passion for figure skating have asked me questions about it. "Did Evan Lysacek deserve the gold medal?" someone asked. Yes, he did, because even though he didn't do a quad jump, he did everything well. His Russian adversary completed some sloppy jumps, quad or otherwise. Don't get me started about the quad. While doing a four-revolution jump is a marvelous thing, it shouldn't be done to the detriment of the rest of the program. Skating is not just about jumping. It never has been, and I hope it never will be.

"Why does it seem like skating is so different now?" My answer to that was simple: "the judging system." When skating officials created a new judging system to put an end to judging controversies, they were looking for a way to be fair. What we have now is a method of judging that assigns points to everything a skater does and how well it's done. The problem with this is that it causes skaters to craft their programs to get the maximum points possible. They pack the programs with elements that get rewarded with lots of points and leave out the elements that aren't worth much. This is what has really changed skating, and not for the better. Today's skaters don't perform the spread eagles or Ina Bauers of the past. Instead, these elements are used only as "difficult entries" into jumps and are held for just a couple of seconds.

If you look at old skating programs on youtube, as I just did, you'll see the difference. I watched Brian Boitano's gold medal performance from the 1988 Olympics. In addition to lots of jumps, he did a gorgeous spread eagle that covered a lot of ice. The tv commentator said, "This spread eagle (is) worth the equivalent of any triple jump." Amen, brother, but not anymore. Ditto for Paul Wylie's 1992 Olympic program, which included a fantastic Ina Bauer. These long, sweeping moves are what attracted me to skating.

To be fair, I'll point out a benefit of the current judging system. Since each element is assigned a point value and evaluated, the skaters really get to hone in on what they need to improve. For example, several skaters have improved their jumps after learning that they were downgraded because of taking off on the wrong edge or failing to complete the last rotation of a jump. It's valuable information to have.