The good (icenetwork.com), the bad (figure skating) and the ugly (China)

Ten things I know, and that you should too:

1. The good thing about having icenetwork.com, the U.S. Figure Skating Assn. subsidiary, is that figure skating aficionados can watch (for $29.95 a year) all the Grand Prix series skating events live on the Internet. I watched Skate Canada over the weekend on a cable connection, and the stream never broke during the many hours it was running. The picture was pretty good at 400 kbs.

2. The bad thing about having icenetwork.com is that you can see for hours on end just what a mess figure skating has become as athletes waste time and energy trying to satisfy the meaningless demands of the new (OK, not so new any more) scoring system.

3. The more you watch the current slop, the more you appreciate how good Michelle Kwan was for an extended period (1996 through 2003) –- and not just because of her artistry. Kwan landed seven triple jumps in the free skate at least six times in major competitions: 1996, 2000 and 2001 worlds; 1998 nationals and Olympics (and the qualifying round of 1998 worlds). Maybe with the nitpicking of the new judging system, some of those triples

would have been marked down for wrong edge takeoff or under-rotation. But how many women skaters today would even stay upright while doing those triples?

4. Evan Lysacek needs to reconsider his decision to drop the quad from his programs. While Lysacek won two world bronze medals without a clean one (in 2005 and 2006), the jump helped define the best performance of his career, at the 2007 nationals. Lysacek should have plenty of time to rework the quad, since he is unlikely to make the Grand Prix Final after consecutive third places at Skate America and Skate Canada. His long program at Skate Canada was watered down to the level that would be comfortable for a leading junior man.

5. Some posters to figure skating forums have suggested I must read their content.  Of course I do.  Any journalist would. Members of these groups follow the sport so closely that their posts often contain news and other useful facts. And, amidst the mindless rants and ill-informed opinions in figure skating forums (and Internet forums of all sorts) are some very informed, well-reasoned, interesting and passionate opinions. So, I confess to lurking. And following up on leads. And correcting errors in my blog posts when you note them in a forum.

6. U.S. Speedskating’s nice new media guide contains no photo or bio for 2006 Olympic champion Shani Davis of Chicago, who undoubtedly will be an Olympic medal contender again next year. The Davis clan still will not allow the federation to include anything about him. One would think that by now the Davises would have stopped cutting off their nose to spite their face. Sadly, some things never change.

7. Kara Goucher got off to a stunning start in her marathon career. Goucher, 2007 world track bronze medalist at 10,000 meters, finished third place in Sunday’s New York marathon with the fastest time ever (2 hours, 25 minutes, 43 seconds) for a U.S. marathon debutante. That time translates to 2:22-something over a faster course. And Goucher, 30, is the first U.S. woman to make the top three in New York since 1994.

8. Universal Sports is the best thing that ever happened to fans of Olympic sports such as swimming, track and field, skiing and gymnastics.  Now could you guys please get the bandwidth for HD broadcasts?

9. Marion Jones’ brief public reemergence on "Oprah" raised the question of why she got six months in jail for lying about her use of banned performance-enhancing drugs while her ex-coach, Trevor Graham, two weeks ago got just 12 months' house arrest for lying about distributing such drugs to his athletes. The difference?  The feds also had Jones for lying about her role in a money-laundering scheme. Without that leverage ("Here’s the deal, Marion:  Admit doping, you get six months in jail, max; Stonewall, maybe three years on the laundering thing."), Jones likely would have kept lying.

10. McCarthyism, Chinese-style: USA Today’s revelation that Chinese officials had compiled a list of U.S. athletes who might be troublemakers because they had spoken out about human rights or belonged to Team Darfur is just another example of how morally bankrupt the International Olympic Committee was in giving the 2008 Summer Games to the world’s largest repressive state because it also is the world’s largest consumer market. At least the U.S. Olympic Committee apparently told the Chinese to take a flying leap when a staffer at the Chinese embassy in Washington, D.C., raised concerns about the athletes to the USOC.  The athletes named -– including soccer player Abby Wambach and softball players Jennie Finch and Jessica Mendoza -– should be proud to have made the list.

-- Philip Hersh

Photo: Keauna McLauchlin of the United States is spun by her partner, Rockne Brubaker, during the gala performance at the completion of Skate Canada on Sunday. The two came in third in the pairs competition. Credit: Geoff Robins / AFP/Getty Images

Comments

[Ariana]

Evan Lysacek needs a quad, simply because his triples keep getting downgraded. He doesn't need the quad because his program isn't hard enough... He needs it because his triples sometimes do not receive credit, which is very risky.

The guy who won, Patrick Chan, had no quad, not even a clean triple axel, and a whole slew of other problems... You don't need a quad in this scoring system to win... But you do need one if your triples are sketchy. (Speaking of Chan, he deserved to lose to Ryan Bradley.)

I am still baffled that a guy who claims to hate figure skating watches hours on end on Icenetwork.com. Admit it, Mr. Hersh, you love it. And if you don't like it, why cover it?

PS, I love the photo choice... McLaughlin and Brubaker are the most exciting thing to happen to US Pairs figure skating in a VERY long time.

[Jessica]

What would we do without icenetwork.com? Actually, we'd probably save thirty bucks (sixty for me since this is my second year as a subscriber) and hours of wincing in pain and embarrassment--not just for the skaters but for what the sport of figure skating has become. I find it increasingly difficult to justify my love for this sport to, well, pretty much everyone I know. I understand and happen to agree with almost all of Hersh's complaints. I do not claim to hate figure skating (something I have not once seen Hersh claim either) but I am finding it less and less enjoyable. Yet like any true fan of a particular sport, team, or athlete, I must weather the bad times--and this is undoubtedly one of these times. Here's hoping figure skating is able to redeem itself. That said, I'll no doubt be forking over ridiculous amounts of money to reserve my tickets to the 2009 Worlds in my hometown!!

[david]

Is there any reason to watch figure skating anymore? Apparently, when Kwan left, she took beauty and artistry with her. The current crop are so unpolished or jump obsessed.

[Sklar K. Toy]

Phil, many of us agree with you that the current GoP scoring system has failed in figure skating, making a sport that was once so beautiful and fun to watch to becoming more of a sport about accumulating points by throwing as many elements into a the Free Program as possible. Add to the four levels of difficulty one can achieve with each element, it's become more difficult for the arm-chair fan to figure out. You're now dealing with grades of execution, levels of difficulty and tabulation of points that not even a CPA with a calculator can follow with the tabulation of the point totals for each skater.

The programs are jammed with so many moves, there's no time for the skater and the fan to breathe, nor be able to appreciate the beauty of the movements in a skating program these days. The need for skaters to try to earn the maximum number of points for each program, each element have taken away some of the beauty and originality.

And during the time when we're pushing towards high definition video broadcast and digital surround sound, we fans in the US are now forced to watch most of the skating competitions via the internet with lesser video and sound quality and little or no commentary. If I want to watch skating on my 46" HDTV, I'm going to have buy more accessories in order to plug my computer into my video system beside my blu-ray DVD and satellite TV DVR.