Go Figure

I used to watch figure skating. I wouldn't say a lot, but compared to other people, it would be a lot. Let me put it this way. I watched figure skating before the Harding/Kerrigan controversy. I first noticed the basics of skating probably around 1984 or so. This was back when Torvill and Dean were making a name for themselves as the best ice dancers in the world.

Ice dancing was the ugly cousin of the figure skating events. I'm sure it was the latest one to be added as an Olympic event (a quick perusal of the Wikipedia indicates I'm correct--while added to the World Figure Skating Championships in 1952, it did not become an Olympic sport until 1976). Unlike pair skating, which emphasizes jumps and throws, both moves are illegal in ice dance, which emphasizes dance aspects.

I didn't really pay that much attention to figure skating until 1988. This Olympics features two story lines. Debi Thomas was the first African American to win the U.S. National Figure Skating gold, and was considered a favorite to medal. Katarina Witt, who had won gold in 1984, was also expected to medal. Thomas was considered the better technical skater. She was going to do a triple-triple combination. Witt would not do that, and would depend on her artistry to win.

In those days, women skated a bit conservatively. Nerves were a big issue. Dick Button, who seems to have been commentating forever, and Peggy Fleming, his co-host, and former Olympic gold medalist, would note how the women would back off of their planned triples. Debi Thomas had skated a powerful short program, but it was to a heavy beat, not to a classical theme, and the judges downgraded her for that, much to the anger of her coach, who held his nose, and gave thumbs down to their decisions.

In the long program, Debi Thomas seemed nervous and skated nervous. While she had hit her triple-triple confidently in the U.S. National Championships, she did not nail it in the 88 Olympics. Witt was relatively solid playing the role of Carmen, and skated well enough to win. Elizabeth Manley was considered the spunky skater from Canada who had problems with confidence, but skated her way to silver. Jill Trenary skated a conservative program, but placed just outside the medal at fourth.

It was also the first Olympics for Japanese sensation, Midori Ito. There have only been a handful of women to land the triple axel in competition. A triple axel is three and a half revolutions, and is the easiest of the triple jumps to identify, because the entry is made forward and lands backwards.

In the '88 Olympics, figures were still a mandatory part of figure skating. Figures involves tracing out intricate patterns on the ice with ones skates, and is considered a form of mastery of skate control. Ito was awful at figures. It wasn't Witt's strength either, but she did well enough not to be hurt by it.

Eventually, they ditched figures from competition. In particular, the Europeans did not want the figures included in competition. Americans liked it a lot, because it lacks the pressure of jumps, and because, compared to Europeans, ice time was comparatively cheap. The figures would have hurt Ito's chances to get any better, though she probably would have improved. Ito was an athlete. Her strength were her jumps, and the '88 Olympics was a time when she simply had fun, before the weight of a nation came down on her.

Ito finished fifth and would eventually win a silver medal, where she botched a triple axel, only to throw a second, successful triple axel at the end of her routine, and preserve silver, behind American, Kristi Yamaguchi. The list of successful women to have landed the triple axel are: Midori Ito, Tonya Harding (yes, that Tonya--who effectively became the Mike Tyson of women's figure skating), Yukari Nakano, Liudmila Nelidina, Kimmie Meissner, and Mao Asada (of Japan). Meissner won silver at this years U.S. Figure Skating Championships, behind Sasha Cohen, and ahead of Emily Hughes. Hughes' older sister, Sara, won gold in the 2002 Winter Olympics.

Michelle Kwan briefly took Hughes spot due to an injury exemption. Kwan herself had been prevent from skating in the Olympics due to the Kerrigan/Harding affair. Kerrigan couldn't compete in the Figure Skating Championship, which serves as the qualifying for the Olympics. Powerhouse countries in skating, like the U.S., get to send three skaters to the Olympics (and World Championships). The three medalist get to go. Weaker countries can only send two.

Kerrigan took Kwan's spot and skated to a silver in 1992, even though Baiul didn't skate that much better. The judges liked her better. Kerrigan suffered a bit from the public relations fallout. She didn't like doing an ad for Disneyworld, thinking it was idiotic. She also complained that Baiul was taking forever to head to the medal stand. To be sure, the networks milked this up by playing her comments on the air.

I haven't watch figure skating much since about 1995 or whenever I last had cable. So I didn't know what had happened to the sport.

The women haven't improved a great deal technically. The triple axel still represents the Mount Everest of the sport. To give you some idea of where the sport is technically, if Midori Ito were still skating at the level she was in 1992 (now 16 years ago), she would still have a great chance at medalling.

Where the women have improved is in their flexibility. Denise Biellmann, the Swiss skater who skated between 1975 and 1981, was noted for her ability to spin. She was credited with landing the first triple lutz, but it was her ability to spin and her flexibility that she's noted for. Her trademark was the Biellmann spin, where she grabs her leg behind her back, and stretches it upwards, so that her two arms and leg form something of a flower.

Most women simply weren't that flexible, and few imitated it. In this year's Olympics, nearly all women can do the Biellmann spin. I've only ever seen one man do this (Viktor Petrenko, I think), although the men have become increasingly flexible too.

I'm also seeing more triple combination moves, i.e., triple, double, double. Again, I had seen Petrenko do this, though it seems to have been discouraged until recently as perhaps too gimicky (this is the reason back flips are not permitted in competition).

The men have pushed the technical level. Currently, the top skaters can land the quad. Johnny Weir has even landed a quad-triple-triple, in practice. Most choose not to place so much risk in actual competition, and certainly, Weir didn't even try the quad. I believe the only two quads landed in competition are the quad-toe and the quad salchow. We're probably a long way from the quad axel (four and a half revolutions). The Chinese pairs skaters, Zhang Dan and Zhang Hao, attempted a throw quad salchow, which she fell and hurt herself. After feeling she was fine, they finished the rest of their program and won the silver.

For the men, I'd say what's improved is the different kinds of spins you see (these are not jumps, but spins on the ice) showing improved flexibility. The triples are attempted more often and landed more solidly, often in combination (a second triple tacked on at the end).

There are some moves that appear to be rare. I saw Buttle's routine, and he did a spread eagle (which again, requires a great deal of flexibility, which is why you don't see it all that often) and an Ina Bauer. Footwork sequences also seem to be somewhat rare. In figures, things begin and end with jumps.

I missed much of the Winter Olympics but I have to hand it to NBC by posting video at their website. I can watch the short program from two weeks ago. I can watch last night's short-track run by Apollo Ohno. This is wonderful! Except that my laptop PC doesn't seem to render graphics properly in Firefox. It doesn't have this problem on the desktop, so I don't know what's going on. I had to resort to using I.E. so I could see the display.

Ultimately, I see this as a far superior way of watching the Olympics. I know that the quality of video is rather awful, but the flexibility to watch it when I want to is great. I will say that navigating the site is a pain, and that the tabs don't do what they say (for example, there's a tab saying "Pre-Torino" and "Torino", both of which display pretty much the same thing).

Using this, I was able to watch Johnny Weir's free-skate, which didn't look all that bad. Considering that Buttle touched the ground twice in his free skate and still won bronze, Weir's mistake (a fall on a triple, and not completing a triple-triple combination, leaving off the second triple---OK, that was not good, since that would have been worth lots of points) didn't seem all that bad.

I'm still trying to get used to the new scoring system, which gives weight to many different elements, technical and otherwise, thus making sure skaters can do the spins as well as the jumps.

I'm struck a bit by the way Weir's personality contrasts a bit with his body. As an athlete, he needs strength, and most of that, for a skater, is in his legs, which look like, say, a speed skater (though clearly not as developed), and his personality, which is somewhat effiminate, yet rebellious too. I believe his fascination with Russian culture may have to do with Russian skaters being able to express themselves in more balletic ways (many have had training in ballet), where Americans and Canadians used to prefer to show some masculinity (less flamboyant arm movements, less flamboyant costumes, less flexibility). Weir may simply like the way Russians skate.

The website could still be far better. It's a pain to find who won what medals, where people placed in various competitions. Still, that I can get to the videos is pretty good. It might be useful to have organized the videos by day as well, and mention which days certain programs were on. In the end, content management is king, when it comes to dealing with this much content.