Fun Stuff > CHATTER
Сочи 2014 (Winter Olympics Thread)
Method of Madness:
Why is artistic an issue? It's sports. Also why is dangerous a bad thing? IT'S SPORTS.
Skewbrow:
Guessing (again).
The old scoring was based on awarding two separate scores titled something like "technical merit" and "artistic impression". That has been changed, but was the way it was done, when Bonaly was active. Those fancy costumes are also a part of the artistic impression, so artistry is still part of the contest. Otherwise the skaters could wear jumpsuit or tights, right?
Dangerous? I wasn't (am not) so sure about that. May be something like: what could possibly go wrong, when there are six skaters in the rink simultaneously (during warm ups) doing back flips? There's something about sharp blades flying through the air. You don't see hockey players diving blades first through the air either. A goalie or a defenseman often seeks to block a shot sliding like that - but not when airborne (or one skated lifted high up).
The weight of tradition is not to be underestimated. After all, an individuals figure skating (up to something like the 80s) used to consist of three parts, not just the short program and free program as it is now. They were doing something like "compulsory figures" before the short program. Something like: the skater is supposed to do two figure 8s of a prescribed size gliding on one skate, and retracing their path EXACTLY. Afterwards the judges would kneel on the ice, carefully examine the groove made by the skaters blade, and deduct points for all deviations. Needless to say, this part of the competition rarely attracted any spectators or TV cameras.
Edit: What I said about back flips being dangerous doesn't make sense really. I think the dislike is largely aesthetic.
ev4n:
It's probably just that the figure skating community in general is highly resistant to change. Just look at the Duchesnays back in the 80s - they would get low 4s and high 5s for the same routine because they were so innovative and controversial.
Akima:
--- Quote from: Method of Madness on 19 Feb 2014, 23:15 ---Edit: Sounds and looks awesome. Seriously, how does this not win?
--- End quote ---
According to the article I linked above, when Ms. Bonaly performed the flip at the Nagano Winter Olympics, not only did it not win, but although the flip was technically permitted because Ms Bonaly landed on one blade, the judges retroactively ruled it illegal and reduced her score.
As for culturally specific standards, compare and contrast Oksana Baiul of Ukraine and Surya Bonaly in the 1993 World Championships. Bonaly outscored eventual gold medallist Baiul on technical merit but was relegated to second place by poor scores in presentation. Consider which skater conformed most closely to the standards of femininity and beauty current in the judges' countries (seven of nine being European, the others from Japan and China), and which was likely to be closer to their idea of an "ice princess". The comments on both clips are typical YouTube, but it is only Bonaly who is described as "a Mack truck in a dress"...
ev4n:
Let's put this into perspective a little bit. Surya Bonaly (and Baiul) skated at a time when both men's and women's figure skating were undergoing a jumping revolution. Quality, difficulty, frequency and timing (the later in the program, the more difficult) of jumps was starting to be emphasized over traditional artistry. Skaters like Surya Bonaly, Tonya Harding and Elvis Stojko threw triples and quads into their programs, looking to outscore more traditional skaters like Oksana Baiul, Nancy Kerrigan and a slew of Russian skaters.
A disparity between technical and artistic scores was incredibly common in that era.
Let's also not discount that Surya Bonaly was a 5 time European champion. She beat Oksana Baiul twice at Europeans.
I'm not saying the racial element was absent, because I have no idea (but probably not). All I'm saying is that there's more to the story than that.
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