Figure Skating: Worth Watching Again

I never thought that it would happen this quickly, but the artistry has returned to figure skating. Those of you who follow the sport know that the artistry that great skaters such as Michelle Kwan and the ice dancing team of Torvill and Dean brought to the sport had been largely lost under the new scoring system that was introduced five or six years ago. If you've given up on the sport because of this, as I almost did, come back to it. You'll love what you'll see today.

I have been a casual fan of figure skating since 1964, when I happened to be a student in Innsbruck, Austria, during the 1964 Olympics, and a serious fan since 2002. Around the time of the 2002 Olympics, I collected every video cassette and DVD that I could find, and a few books as well. I managed to obtain every Olympic highlight video from 1992 on, plus everything that I could find that showed great skaters from the past. I also began recording every important televised skating event and creating my own highlight cassettes and discs.

The reason for my growing interest in the sport could be summed up in two words: Michelle Kwan. I am a very emotional person, and I'm easily moved to tears by certain films and pieces of music. Michelle Kwan was the first skater that I had seen whose performances were so beautiful that they often moved me to tears. I also fell in love with the performances of the great ice dancers, Jane Torvill and Christopher Dean, who for me will always be the gold standard in ice dancing.

Unfortunately in many ways, the sport began to change dramatically in the early years of this century, as it went to a new scoring system that encouraged rapid accumulation of points. Instead of leaving room for artistry in their performances, skaters were focusing on jumps and other technical, or athletic, elements. There was no longer any room for artistic skaters such as Michelle Kwan or Torvill and Dean. The artistic side of figure skating, now called presentation elements, had definitely taken a back seat to the athletic side.

By the time of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy, I felt that the beauty and artistry had left the sport completely. The judges were not giving the presentation marks the weight that they should have and the skaters were totally focused on racking up points. Figure skating had become little more than a jumping competition. When I wanted to remember how it used to be, I played Michelle Kwan's free skate from the 2004 U.S. Nationals on the Skating Through Time set and the video of Torvill and Dean's "Face the Music" tour from 1995.

I had concluded that the only way that beauty and artistry would return to figure skating would be if the skaters themselves decided that they needed to bring back the artistry, if only to satisfy their own need for creativity. The International Skating Union (ISU), which sets the rules, would eventually have to go along with them and give proper weight to presentation quality.

Amazingly, this seems to be exactly what has happened. Truly great skaters such as Evan Lysacek found a way to incorporate artistry into their programs. By the 2010 Olympics, artistry was back.

Now, as I watch the Grand Prix series of the 2010-2011 season--the sport's "regular season"--I'm happy to see that this trend is continuing. The number of required elements has been reduced, giving the skaters time to breathe, as it were. I'm not happy with the higher score now given to quadruple jumps (four rotations in the air), because it's forcing virtually all male singles skaters to add the quad to their repertoires. But by and large, I believe that the changes have been positive.

Looking back on it, the 2006 competition in Torino was probably the worst that I've ever seen. Typically, in each of the four disciplines, out of the final six skaters or teams, three skate below their best level, two skate competently, and one rises to the occasion. In a good event, two of them rise to the occasion, as happened in 1994 with Nancy Kerrigan and Oksana Baiul. The worst is when no one rises to the occasion. I call this a "last man standing" competition. Evgeni Plushenko won the men's event in Torino not because he skated well, but because he skated less poorly than the others.

On the other hand, the figure skating competition in Vancouver this year was without a doubt the greatest that I have ever seen. I feel that I was privileged to see it.

There were so many great stories. Yao Bin had dedicated hs life to creating and building the pairs figure skating program in China. In a great pairs competition, his life's work was vindicated when Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo won the gold and Pang and Tong won the silver. You just had to be happy for the man, as well as for the skaters.

The ice dancing competition was a revelation. Davis and White of the United States had make remarkable progress over the past two years and showed themselves to be worthy successors to Belbin and Agosto. Virtue and Mohr of Canada performed the most beautiful free dance that I have seen since the days of Torvill and Dean, and in fact Virtue and Mohr reminded me of the earlier team.

I couldn't believe the results of the men's short program. Three world-class skaters, each with scores of more than 90, led the pack. As I recall, Daisuke Takahashi fell behind in the long program, but Plushenko was up to par and Lysacek gave the performance of his life. Needless to say, I was disappointed in Plushenko's lack of sportsmanship. The video clearly shows that Lysacek beat Plushenko at his own game--the jumps--and left Plushenko in the dust when it came to presentation quality. Finally, Frank Carroll, perhaps the greatest figure skating coach that the United States has ever produced, had his Olympic gold medalist.

As good as these competitions were, absolutely nothing prepared me for the ladies' free skate, which surely must go down as one of the greatest single competitions in the history of the sport. All six of the skaters performed at their highest level, and several of them skated the performances of their lives.

Kim Yu-Na's performance brought me to tears. In my opinion, it was the greatest ladies free skate that I have ever seen at an Olympics and the equal of Michelle Kwan's performance at the 2004 U.S. Nationals. And how wonderful it was to see her coach, Brian Orser, who had lost out to Brian Boitano of the United States in the great men's competition of 1988, vindicated through his skater.

But it didn't stop there. I have always liked the Canadian skater, Joannie Rochette, but until this occasion she always seemed to choke in the free skate. Every Olympics has its story of triumph over adversity. Joannie's mother had come to Vancouver several days earlier and suddenly died of a heart attack. The entire country got behind Joannie as she decided to go forward with her competition. She fought back the tears and the tragedy of losing her mother to skate the performance of her life and win the bronze.

Somehow, all of these fantastic performances didn't faze the American skater, Mirai Nagasu, who closed the competition with the best performance of her young life. I have never seen a skating competition this good and I don't ever expect to see one again.