WHY IS FIGURE SKATING
AN OLYMPIC SPORT?
A cranky opinion for
CRANKY OPINION SATURDAY
The following is the opinion of a
cranky old man who has very little knowledge on the subject opined. Opposing opinions are welcome, they are
wrong, but they are welcome; and please, no name calling and that means you,
you big stupid head.
Don’t get me
wrong, figure skating at a high level takes tremendous athletic ability,
endurance, dedication and physical and mental strength. So does tightrope walking, so does juggling, and
so does a high wire act. Ice skating is
a circus act, a spectacle, an exhibition…it is not a sport.
The winner
of a sporting event should be the one who is the fastest, the strongest or
scores the most points. Any activity where the winner is determined by
subjective scoring based on form and grace and musicality is an act or an
exhibition and should not be an Olympic sport.
Well Cranky, what about gymnastics,
diving, synchronized swimming, gnarly snow board half-pipe crap; should they not
be Olympic sports?
Well, I’m
talking strictly about figure skating now, but no…those events should not be
Olympic sports either.
Figure skating
is beautiful to watch.
Ball room
dancing is beautiful to watch.
Ball room
dancing takes strength, endurance, athletic ability, and physical and mental
strength. Should ball room dancing
become an Olympic sport? I don’t think
so either.
Look, you
want figure skating to be an Olympic event, make it a sport.
Each
participant should skate the same routine.
There must be a double and triple Lutz, a flying camel, various spins
and jumps. Whoever completes the set
routine and successfully completes all the required jumps and spins in the
fastest time wins. Grace, musicality,
flair, facial expressions, costumes and winking at officials would have nothing
to do with winning. Skate the routine,
complete the jumps and spins, and do all faster than anyone else, and you win.
Graceful
smiling poised skaters who have that certain flair and musicality can show off
at the Ice Capades!
The preceding was the opinion of a
cranky old man, and not necessarily that of management…Mrs. Cranky.
Well, they do what you say but the score is not based on time but on versatility.
ReplyDeleteI agree. My wife doesn't. We dropped the subject....
ReplyDeleteI love to watch a perfect skate, but I totally agree with you.
ReplyDeleteI only recently found out not only figure skating is judged on points. Skiing gets points for form, not just how far they jumped, etc. In short, the Olympics are pretty much subjective, we must take them as we will.
ReplyDeleteJoanne is correct, the ski jump gets determined on a combination of distance and form..in fact I believe there is a certian distance where the hill flattens out and it is very unsafe to jump that far...I think this is also dumb, perhaps the summer olympics should judge the high and broad jumps on form. Man years ago Bob Fosbury would have scored terrible for form on his flop!
ReplyDeleteAnd we would miss all the discussions and arguments and hoopla that goes along with figure skating after the fact. Would you really want to deprive us of that?
ReplyDeleteWell... if you wanna really get technical, there is a time element.
ReplyDeleteIt just isn't related to how fast the event is performed.
I'm thinking the jumps should be like they have in the equestrian events at the Summer Olympics.
Where's the challenge to a jump if you don't have to clear an obstacle?
You know how I know that the Olympics are still going on?
ReplyDeleteYou blog about it.
Lowandslow blogs about it.
Dave Letterman makes jokes about it.
Blogs, Facebook, late-night talk shows...that's how I get my news.
I heartily agree with your proposal. Now let's move on to professional sports. I'll start with the NFL. Give each team the ball in the opposite end zone, give them unlimited downs, and the team that gets the ball across the other end zone in the shortest amount of time is the winner. Sorry, kickers, you are now obsolete.
ReplyDeletethey actually used to have some compulsory portions to figure skating including, shock of all shocks, figures. some time ago they removed alla that 'cause people were bored with it (translation- the TV ratings sucked so that part had to go). so it was at one time sportish but now is this bogus judged garbage that begs for cheating. a begging that is generously fulfilled. but it's still cool stuff.
ReplyDeleteNo arguments from me. With the world as politicized as it is there is too much potential for favoritism. I doubt we can ever escape subjective judging completely , but I prefer sports where "highest / fastest / farthest " wins. Period.
ReplyDeleteWould it be possible to combined figure skating with synchronised swimming?
ReplyDeleteNow THAT's A SPORT I'd watch
At least those performers are not paid the ridiculously extravagant sums that some professionals are paid. We have a footballer just signed a new contract at £300,000 a week! But I agree with you.
ReplyDelete