Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]
We hope you enjoy your visit.


You're currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. If you join our community, you'll be able to access member-only sections, and use many member-only features such as customizing your profile, sending personal messages, and voting in polls. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free.


Join our community!


If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features:

Username:   Password:
Add Reply
Growing up puts Meissner's career on thin ice
Topic Started: Jan 25 2009, 02:53 AM (249 Views)
Evil
Member Avatar
Administrator
[ *  *  *  *  * ]
Interesting article:

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/brennan/2009-01-21-figure-skating_women_N.htm
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
kioewen
Member Avatar
Novice
[ *  * ]
Thank you for posting the link. I don't personally see the appeal in Meissner, however it's a devastating article about figure skating.

The most infuriating line is this one:

Quote:
 
"I've mainly just become more womanly," she said with a nervous laugh, adding quickly, "that's a polite way to say it."

It's heartbreaking to hear of any young girl being "nervous" about talking about weight, and looking for a "polite" euphemism about becoming womanly -- as if becoming woman is a bad thing! As if it's something to be regretted rather than celebrated.

What nonsense. The same kind of thinking pervades the fashion industry, and causes models to die -- literally die -- from starving themselves. And the skating profession is plagued by this as well.

Shame on skating for making young girls think this way about themselves. It should be building their self-confidence and body-image, not destroying it.

If anyone wants to know why skating is losing popularity, here's the reason:

Quote:
 
During the past two decades, figure skating has become gymnastics on ice, where the ability to jump trumps all else. Artistry has taken a back seat to physics.

For the broad mass of the general public (not the tiny cadre of athlete-worshippers) to love figure skating, they want to see artistry, not gymnastics. Who ever comes to see stadium-shows of gymnastics? But they come -- or used to come -- to see skating, because it is beautiful and artistic. Or can be. Or was.

A lot of people would rather see a beautiful, womanly figure skater dressed in a feminine costume do an elegant, graceful, poetic routine with only doubles, rather than see an emaciated athlete garbed in a track suit do a physics routine with seven triples -- but the latter seems to be the way this profession is headed.

The final point is devastating too:

Quote:
 
One wonders what we are doing to these young women in the name of sport. The little jumping beans are rising and falling faster than ever. There has never been a more uncertain, turbulent time in U.S. women's skating

As soon as someone attains even a modicum of stardom, she vanishes. That impairs the popularity of figure skating as well. It takes years for a performer to gather a large fan following and bring new people in to the sport. If they leave soon, then the sport loses its new fans.

- - - -

But I will say one thing: Consider how much better-positioned Emily is than Meissner. First of all, Emily was always curvy, so she doesn't have to "adjust" to a new body. Emily was always womanly (and beautiful for that very reason). When she has time to devote to skating again, she'll be brilliant.

(Emily became thin late in 2008, and that didn't do anything for her -- in fact, I suspect it created the Meissner problem in reverse: performing with a figure that was thinner than what she was used to.)

And consider something else: Emily has had challenges, but she has been at university full-time. Meissner, on the other hand, has been skating non-stop. That too argues for an advantage for Emily, both in terms of her skating future (once she has 100% time for it again), and afterwards.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Particle Man
Member Avatar
Novice
[ *  * ]
Tara Lipinski's lanky, awkward 7-triple program beat Michelle Kwan in '98, so this isn't exactly new, nor is it entirely the fault of CoP. CoP has just made it worse. I'm all for restoring artistry, at least to how it was under 6.0, and have suggested a hybrid system for doing so. Unfortunately, many of the people that have remained as skating fans are the ones who support CoP, so any change is met with resistance and scorn. I fear that the powers-that-be will not waver from CoP until the sport is almost dead.

That said, jumps are and should be an integral part of the sport. Also, Kimmie and Emily's problems aren't just cause they are getting older. Shizuka Arakawa won OGM at what, age 26? And she didn't exactly look rail-thin to me. I used to blame Emily's problems entirely on college but -- hey -- Alissa Czisny just won Nationals, and she is a full-time student. That's pretty amazing. I don't know if there's an easy answer for Kimmie and Emily's problems, but I'm sad to say that I don't see either of them making a real comeback. Then again, last year I'd have said that about Alissa, so who knows.

Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
kioewen
Member Avatar
Novice
[ *  * ]
Particle Man
Jan 29 2009, 10:32 AM
Shizuka Arakawa won OGM at what, age 26? And she didn't exactly look rail-thin to me.


I absolutely agree with that -- I sincerely believe that weight is just a distraction. It's what skaters, coaches, and esp. fans default to as a skater's supposed problem, when the real difficulties lie elsewhere. It's just a deceptively easy faux-fix that doesn't get to the root of the problem.

I read that Meissner actually injured herself not while skating, but on a treadmill (!). Talk about the wrong kind of training. The same problem apparently upended Lisa Ervin -- she was spending all of her time on a stationary bike when her skating problems began, as well as monitoring her weight, when what she really should have been doing is concentrating on skating. Even with Emily, I read somewhere last year that a coach was going to be making her do distance running, or something like that. Again, too much concentration on body-diminishment, not on skating itself.

Let's not forget that Emily had an injury just before Nationals last year. It's one thing to skate while in school, another to recuperate from an injury while in school. I suspect being in school made it difficult for her to devote the time that she needed to getting better from her injury. I fully believe Emily can come back, once she has the time to devote to skating.

Also, Alissa Czisny may be at college, but I'd wager anything that the rigors of Harvard are a heck of a lot greater.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous)
« Previous Topic · Skating Discussion · Next Topic »
Add Reply

Autumnea Theme created by Zeus00 and converted by Wolt of the ZetaBoards Theme Zone

Affiliates

Tanith and Ben Forum