I briefly interrupt my gaze on the Beijing programs to reflect on the whole package. What constitutes it, what is important, what we look for in a figure skating program. I use words from the past to remind us that the problem is not new, it has existed for a long time, and to compare the answers of the past with those of today. And, even though the book I comment on was published several years ago, it is remarkably current in several respects, helping to illuminate a rather serious discrepancy.

The last figure skating book I finished is Christine Brennan’s Edge of Glory. The book was published in 1998, the old scoring system was still there, then replaced by one that in theory should be more objective. Is it really so?

Brennan focuses on two seasons, 1996-1997 and 1997-1998, stopping at the Olympic Games in Nagano. Her gaze is mainly aimed at US skaters, but a certain space is also dedicated to the strongest foreign athletes. I ignore a whole series of issues that I think are interesting, but to which I will return on another occasion, to focus on the two aspects of figure skating, the technical and the artistic one, and on the behavior of the judges.

I start with the judges, on an apparently unimportant detail. Brennan starts with the 1997 US Championship focusing on Michelle Kwan. In the past season and a half Kwan had won nine of the ten national or international competitions she had participated in, including the last World Championship and the last Grand Prix Final. She was the most complete skater in all aspects. So the moment she got on the ice

she knew the nine judges would understand one silly stumble. (pag. 20)

Is it Brennan’s guess or is it a statement of fact? Because judges should judge what skaters do on that single day, not what they know the skater is capable of. If the competitions are affected by reputation, that’s a problem. And it is even more so when we think that reputations can be built or destroyed through marketing operations that have nothing to do with what skaters do on the ice.

Other skaters also enter the fight for women’s medals, but obviously Brennan focuses on Michelle Kwan and Tara Lipinski. Obviously, both because a lot of space is dedicated to two editions of the US Championship, so non-US skaters do not fit into those pages, and because, as we know, it will be the two of them who will compete for gold in Nagano. Between Kwan and Lipinski there are a couple of years of difference, while the first was already a young woman – she was 16, she wasn’t that big, but she wasn’t a little girl anyway – the second was a little girl. Even in appearance. And this is another thing that can create problems.

Brennan, recalling Kwan’s 1996 World Championship victory, talks about Kwan’s makeup, the more mature looks, something I’ve seen mentioned in several other books. Compared to 1995, when she finished fourth despite her being the best in jumping,

it was true that Kwan had become a more graceful skater and a surer jumper during that time, [but] the mature hairdo hadn’t hurt her in the eyes of the judges. (pag. 26)

And, just below, Brennan cites Lipinski’s too childish appearance as a problem. So the judges are influenced by appearance. In the female field, the dichotomy is between women and girls. In the male field it is between the virile aspect and the effeminate aspect.

Think about it. How often do skaters – or commentators – glorify their manhood to prove they are superior to their opponents? The perception of the judges in this is fundamental. Let’s think about how many absurd comments we keep reading, think about how much homophobia is still strong. If many are concerned about emphasizing the manhood of themselves or the athletes they support, this means that an athlete who is not perceived as manly is harmed. Maybe subconsciously, but he gets damaged. And one of the ridiculous things is that a manly person is praised because we see how much he tries to do difficult things, while a less manly-looking person, who does equally difficult things, but does it with grace, is not praised because the effort does not is visible. We are in the complete reversal of one of the principles of figure skating, in which who should be rewarded the most is who makes everything seem simple. In fact, now those who make everything seem simple are damaged because they receives low scores, as if they had done simple things, and those who show fatigue in what they do, are rewarded because they tries so hard.

A few pages later Brennan moves on to the men’s competition and speaking of Michael Weiss, who on the occasion tries to become the first American to land a quad, the 4T, and who the following year would try a 4Lz, reminds us that the USFSA

was always looking for new, marketable faces. The quad was a good thing for many reasons. (pag. 33)

Some considerations. Several skaters had already landed a quadruple, two North Americans (the Canadians Kurt Browning, the first quadruple jump in history, and Elvis Stojko, the first quadruple jump in combination in history) and several Europeans including Alexei Urmanov, the reigning Olympic champion. The quadruple was not so widespread, with that scoring system it was not fundamental, but they we talked about it, it had an effect. Then… the American Federation, the USFSA, was always looking for new, marketable faces.

This is a fundamental principle, still valid today. And the driving factor is marketing. You know that Nathan Chen was just named by Time as one of the 100 most influential people on the World? Is Chen really that influential in the whole World? I checked Google trends.

I wondered which of the athletes who participated in the Winter Olympics were the most seached. I checked who won medals in individual or team competitions, if the team was made up until a maximum of three athletes, and also some athletes who could have been expected to see on the podium but who did not get on the podium. These are the ones that have attracted the most attention in the past 12 months:

Kamila Valieva received the most attention. Valieva first became the first skater capable of completing a quadruple in a women’s competition and then was overwhelmed by the doping scandal. Shaun White follows, one of Beijing’s big disappointments. Third is Ayumu Hirano. The values of Yuzuru Hanyu and Nathan Chen are so overlapped that they are indistinguishable in this screenshot, so I’ll look better at them later. But there is a difference. The Olympic Games change all values, the interest that there is for the various sports in that period is not there at any other time.

The interest in the Olympic period is so high that the other lines are almost flat. Almost, and not all. On both Hirano and Hanyu, to a greater extent, there was a moment when public attention was focused before the Olympic Games. And, after the Olympic Games, the only one who continued to arouse interest was Hanyu. The interest on Hanyu after the Olympic Games is highest than the interest that there was on him before the Olympic Games, despite a 4th place finish.

I also looked at the interest in these athletes in February alone. If we think of the skaters, Chen skated the short program of the team event, where he scored a very high score, helping US to win the silver, then he set the new world record in the short program of the individual event – I’ll get to that score, in another post, because it is slightly higher than what the skater really deserved – and ultimately won gold in the Men’s competition. Three programs, which in theory have said that he is the strongest. Kamila Valieva skated both programs of the Team Event, remaining a little below her own world record in the short program and contributing to the team gold, then there was the doping issue and finally the two programs, complete with a drama in her relationship with her coach, for a fourth place finish. Hanyu is the one who has competed least, only two programs and no medals, for a fourth place finish.

Interest in Hirano and White has had two peaks, I suppose in correspondence with their competitions. The one for Valieva is the one which has the lowest peak, but the interests was pretty constant. And the one for Hanyu, despite the fact that he competed less and didn’t win medals, is always higher than that for Chen.

I leave aside three athletes, two of whom are not figure skaters, while the other currently can’t participate in international competitions, and I focus on just Hanyu and Chen. This is the interest there has been in them over the past 12 months.

Interest in Chen is higher in the United States. But the United States, whatever many of its inhabitants think, is not the World. And in the rest of the World, and overall, there is a lot more interest in Hanyu. I also looked at the situation of the last period, after the Olympics.

Neither of them competed. Hanyu missed the World Championship due to the injury he suffered in China, the injury we have all seen. Chen missed the World Championship due to, from what I have read, an injury, but I don’t know anything about his injury. A short time later, Chen skated in some show. By the time I have finished the text and published it, Hanyu will also have skated only one day in a show, but the screenshot dates back to before the show. In these months of Hanyu we have only seen a few very short advertising videos. Who is the more searched? Who can influence more the people all over the World?

Globally, there is much more interest in Hanyu than in Chen, so Chen’s listing as one of the 100 most influential people on the planet is wrong. Chen may be influential in the United States, and I’m not even sure if he’s that influential, or well known, in the United States. The day after Time put Chen on their list, three people at Jeopardy! had no idea who he is.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/tv/18687777/jeopardy-contestants-nathan-chen-clue-wheel-fortune-puzzle/

Okay, I don’t know a lot of famous people either. Show me a photo of a soccer player, and I have no idea of who he is. But I don’t take part in TV quizzes. But if Chen can be influential in the United States, he is not influential outside the United States. What Time has done is marketing, something the USFSA knows well, and that Brennan mentioned in her book. In this respect, nothing has changed in recent years, at most they have perfected their marketing techniques.

Let’s go back to 1997 and Weiss’s quadruple toe loop landed on two feet.

organized figure skating had been adamant in its opposition to trying instant replay as an aid to its judges as they score competitions. (pag. 33)

Why? Why this opposition? Competitions only make sense if whoever was the best on that occasion wins, and any tools that can be used to get more correct results must be used.

One of the books I’m reading is Gianmario Bonzi’s Giochi di gloria. One of the books, at plural. I read several books at the same time. The book is a story from the Olympic Games. Bonzi focuses on all aspects. Briefly, because the editions of the Games are many, and he certainly cannot tell all the competitions, even if his book exceeds 900 pages, and because he also talks about something else. He talks about organizational issues. He talks about propaganda, and how the Games have increasingly been exploited on a political level.

Le classifiche olimpiche non hanno importanza? Il CIO non le ha mai considerate? I medaglieri non sono mai stati compilati ufficialmente (vero)? Andate a spiegarlo ai due grandi blocchi contrapposti, che fondano la loro strategia politico/economica anche sul predominio sportivo mondiale. (pag. 257)

This is just one of the many passages on the subject, but Bonzi explains the problem in detail, making many interesting considerations. For those who know Italian, and are interested in a history of sport (that is also the history of society), this is an excellent book.

Among the various topics that enter the text there are racial and sexual issues, the presence of women, of Asian and African countries, doping, or even the distinction between amateurs and professionals, which is often circumvented because, as Bonzi explains with a short and disturbing sentence,

la dubbia morale olimpica, che privilegia sempre l’apparenza sulla sostanza, viene accontentata. (pag. 225)

That the Olympics have a dubious morality, so it is more important to hide the problem than to solve it, arouses really bad thoughts in me. It makes me think, among other things, of Ottavio Cinquanta, former president of the ISU, who after the scandal of 2002 said that there would be no more scandals. He didn’t say there would be no more manipulated competitions, he said there would be no more scandals. They are two different things. If a competition is manipulated, but the press does not cause any scandal, because it does not notice it or because it connives, in the words of Cinquanta there is no problem. For him that’s okay. For me that is not ok. At all.

The history of the Olympic Games is also a history of how sports, and their rules, changed and are changing, There are many competitions in which at least curious episodes have occurred, wrong results, but a list here is useless. I limit myself to two episodes. One linked to the 1956 diving competition, when

gli evidenti favoritismi del giudice sovietico, Eva-Bozd-Morskaya, producono l’introduzione della norma che non farà votare i giudici per atleti del proprio Paese, vigente ancora oggi. (pagg. 296-297)

Such a rule is not enough, a judge can help his compatriot even by assigning too low marks to his opponents, but in 1956 in diving they agreed to have a problem. How is it that in figure skating they haven’t noticed it yet? Indeed, in competitions such as the World Championships or the Olympics, nations can send judges only if they have athletes in the competition. Exactly the opposite than in diving. And the judges are chosen not by the ISU, but by the individual national federations. I could be wrong, but in my opinion the federation sends the judge who votes the way the federation likes. Whether it is the right way is a secondary question.

The other episode is linked to sports-related technologies, because also sports-related technologies changed and are changing, including things like the introduction of the stopwatch, or photo-finish, to better judge competitions. And, in 1936,

è usato per la prima volta, nel torneo di spade, il segnalatore elettrico […], limitato inizialmente a un’arma e molto più tardi esteso al fioretto (Mondiali 1955), che fa addirittura scandalo, venendo interpretato come una prova di sfiducia nella tradizionale lealtà degli schermidori. O dei giudici. (pag. 215)

In 1936 in fencing they decided that technologies were essential to judge competitions well. And technologies have entered, in different ways, into numerous sports. How is it that Icescope exists but it is not used to measure jumps, even if the first bullet is linked to the size of the jump? How is it that judges can use only one camera to watch the flip and lutz edges, when for a wrong edge it can go down to a -4? You take a quadruple lutz, take off bullet 2 for good-take off (with a wrong edge there can be no good-take off), lower the GOE by the maximum, and find that the skater loses 5.75 points. A huge difference. For a quadruple flip the difference can be of 5.50 points. How is it possible that this assessment is still made in an approximate way? Why can’t judges use replay for wrong take off? The list could go on and on. Technologies are not being used because, according to Brennan, organized figure skating had been adamant in its opposition to trying instant replay as an aid to its judges as they score competitions. If evaluating competitions correctly is not so important for the federations, then what is important? Figure skating has a serious problem.

The ISU has been able to afford rough scores, continues to afford them, because in figure skating, a jump (as any other element)

requires narration to help the public understand its importance and meaning. Only a very few skating fans can identify the six jumps […] or notice if the landing is two footed or not. (pag. 35)

So the storytelling is a key part of the competitions. Of the first skating program I ever saw, what impressed me most was the voice of the commentator who kept repeating “triplo axel! Ha fatto un triplo axel“. I had no idea at the time what a triple axel was, but from her excitement I knew it was that this Japanese girl, this Midori Ito, must have done something important. Depending on how the information is presented, we form our opinions, because the technical aspects of figure skating are not so immediate. Several times, watching a competition with my mom or my mother-in-law, I groaned in pain for a mistake, and then I had to explain to them what had happened, because even if they were watching television with me they had not seen the mistake. Storytelling is key, and when storytelling is influenced by marketing, competitions can be distorted. Aren’t the judges my mom or my mother-in-law? True, but soon after Brennan adds that

Even the judges have trouble with the nuances. At the 1994 Olympic Games, eventual gold medalist Oksana Baiul badly two-footed her triple lutz in the short program, but at least one judge said she couldn’t tell. (pag. 35)

By the way, after Kristi Yamaguchi’s and Midori Ito’s retirement, I cheered for Baiul, so I’m able to see my favorites’ mistakes. In 1994 for me a lutz or a flip were the same thing, but even at that time I knew the difference from one foot to two feet. But sometimes also judges could not tell.

In 1994 the judges could not watch any kind of replay, but even now the technologies are insufficient. I remember in April I asked you to judge some jumps. I cut the photos to hide the identity of the skaters, so when I did the question you can see only the legs of the skater. Only after I published the whole photos. And for 37 people, 82.22% of those who voted, these are two flips.

I see two inside edges. The technical panel determined that the edge of the jump on the left was outside, Evgenia Medvedeva received no deduction, and on this call and another dubious call, (there have been several dubious calls, all in her favor) Medvedeva won a bronze medal at the 2019 World Championship.

In 1997 Weiss landed his quadruple toe loop, at first it was recognized, the replay showed that the landing was on two feet.

The quad/no quad controversy was the best thing that ever happened to Michael Weiss (pag. 36)

with considerable interest from the Washington Post, the New York Times and the Chicago Tribune. And if the American federation clearly stated that that quadruple could not be recognized, Weiss

simply ignored the USFSA’s pronouncement, and went on as if he had landed the jump.

“Everybody saw it,”, Weiss said. “It looked like a great quad.” (pag. 36)

In other words, the skaters did not acknowledge his mistake, despite the federation’s official claims, and went on as he did and performed a perfect jump. This episode makes us understand two things. The first is that for the American press, controversy is good for attracting interest and therefore for selling. The second is that reality doesn’t matter. Just pretend nothing has happened, go your own way, and many people will also believe something blatantly false, because they want to believe it. Weiss has built a reputation like this. And I think that the American federation and the American press have followed the story very carefully and have learned everything they could learn, to exploit it in the future as soon as they had the opportunity.

As I wrote, Weiss wasn’t the first skater to land a quadruple. In truth, he did not even land it correctly, if the ISU had recognized the jumps landed on two feet, the first would have been that of Jozef Sabovcik at the 1986 European Championship, and before Kurt Browning there was also a certain Brian Boitano to try the quadruple. But with that attempt,

Weiss opened a window to a different side of figure skating, the masculine side that over the years had been overwhelmed by issues ranging from flowing costumes to effeminate men to the tragedy of AIDS. (pag. 36)

AIDS aside, which has taken far too many people, but… we’re still here. The masculine side of figure skating. The statement is at the same time boring and unfair to so many people. Can we leave aside each person’s sexual identity as something personal, which the person talks about if they feel like it, otherwise not, and evaluate the skaters for their technical skills and not their sexual identity? Can we respect the person as a person, regardless of all other consideration?

Unfortunately no, many are not capable, and then as now we have heterosexual skaters trying to stand out in what many believe is a world dominated by homosexuals by showing that they are different, stronger, more modern, better. Instead we are just the old hackneyed propaganda that decades ago – I guess I have to reread Scott Hamilton’s autobiography to find his comment on the choice of costumes, but we could also talk about the difficulties faced by John Curry – showed the virility of some skaters by belittling implicitly the others. Okay, if even now a skater put himself as a victim in a world dominated by homosexuals, it is evident that he has entered the old rut of propaganda. He denotes poor originality, poor reasoning and little respect for others, but since this propaganda has worked so far, why not continue to exploit it?

So Weiss

and his parents made sure everyone knew he was “all boy,” (pag. 36)

and said

“I don’t want to look like a wimp.”

There was little danger of that. Weiss wore black pants and tight, bicep-hugging, multicolored T-shirt tops when he skated. His long program that included the quad was strictly tie-dye and Santana. He wanted nothing fancier. (Pag. 37)

I have not looked for programs with particular music, if a skater skates on a rock song the costume is linked to the world of rock. In 1984 Scott Hamilton won Olympic gold wearing, for his free skate, what is practically a tracksuit. For his short program at the 1994 Olympic Games, St. Louis Blues, Kurt Browning had a very normal black shirt paired with equally normal black pants. The only thing that was minimally decorative was the belt. As for Weiss… why do certain costumes make me think of a T-shirt randomly caught by a blind man in a basket on a market stall? Not just the Weiss costume, even some of someone who in more recent times has felt terribly original by showing his manhood and disinterest in a real figure skating costume.

I’m not saying everyone should have the same taste in clothing. I don’t have the same tastes as Hanyu either, I don’t like some of his costumes. But they are different tastes, and in his programs he wears a costume that is linked to the program. What would we say if the protagonist of a film set in ancient Rome did not wear the toga but the jeans because in his opinion the toga is not virile? In figure skating, the emphasis on virility leads many skaters to give up the costume, and this impoverishes the program a bit. Not in skating skills or transitions, but what should we say about interpretation?

The manly look of the skaters is something that will come back again. It is a constant in figure skating, even if someone, by erasing the past, tries to present themselves as an innovator. Another constant is a certain attitude of the judges.

Weiss had allies in all the right places. Figure skating judges, the volunteers who ruled the sport, liked him a lot. For several years, they had marked him high, even a bit higher than he deserved, because of his potential. They had to deduct several tenths of a point for his mistakes, but they could prop him up on the second mark, the artistic one. And they did.

The judges had their reasons. As a youngster, Weiss had performed well on the world stage. He was America’s best international hope after Eldredge. He was the kind of skater they wanted to send to the world championship. (pag. 38)

Allies? What means that a skater had allies? A skater need a coach, a choreographer, a physiotherapist, perhaps a manager, but… allies? And the allies are the judges that, Brennan say to us, ruled the sport.

It is the judges who assign the marks, and with their marks they determine the destiny of the athletes. Judges chosen by the federations. So judges and federations, if they want, make and undo careers. Impossible? Does it depend on what the skaters do? Within certain limits. In Weiss’s case, according to Brennan, the judges gave him marks a bit higher than he deserved. Why? Because of his potential. The American judges held that Weiss was America’s best international hope after Eldredge, they decided they wanted their nation to be represented by him at the World championship and they helped him. But helping someone is always unfair towards those who are overcome thanks to that help given to someone other for personal considerations. And if Weiss made a mistake and the judges were forced to keep the technical score low, they could always count on the second score to help him, and they did. Not only.

Brennan tells us the judges raised Weiss’s score For several years. If someone claims that the score a skater has received is correct because he has been receiving those scores for a long time, this simply has no basis. It might be true that the skater deserves that score. but it could also be true that that skater is being helped by the judges with inflated scores for quite some time. For this reason, the reasoning on the scores must be accompanied by an analysis of what the skaters do on the rink.

This was the past. Now it is no longer possible? Look at how the components are assigned, and then let’s talk about it again. And not just the components. Also the marks in the GOEs can be awarded in a biased way. And, for the base value, this is the 3T of a combination. How do you judge the rotation?

The images are juxtaposed from left to right, as almost always in my series of screenshots, because I’m more comfortable to juxtapose them like this. The first line is dedicated to the take off. At first the left foot is raised, then the skater put it on the ice. We are looking at the skater from the front, his direction of the skating must be evaluated by the left foot, which in the screenshots is the one that is on the right. Since in the third screenshot both feet are on the ice and in the fourth the right foot is almost completely raised, the direction of the skating is what we see in the third screenshot. Prerotation acceptable, toe pick and not full blade, nothing to complain about the movement.

The other two lines are dedicated to the landing. In the first screenshot the skater is still in the air. In the second he is already on the ice. In which direction is his foot pointing? In which direction his foot is pointing in the following screenshots? If you were in the technical panel, how would you call this jump?

Weiss didn’t need that quadruple. In 1996 Todd Eldredge had become World champion, Rudy Galindo, now retired, had won the bronze, Daniel Hollander had finished tenth. For the 1997 World Championship the United States had three places available. Eldredge, as World champion, had secured one place even if he retired due to injury. Weiss’ rivals were Hollander and Scott Davis, who had already participated in the past at three World Championships and the 1994 Olympic Games. Timothy Goebel was also in the competition, but it was his first senior participation, internationally he would have competed in the junior category also in the following season, so at the moment he was not an important rival. The others were of a lower level. Four skaters for three places. Weiss didn’t need the quadruple.

The quad was a risk. It was much likely he would fall on it than he would successfully land it. All Weiss had to do to make the top three and earn a trip to the world championship was skate cleanly (pag. 40)

Another skater comes to mind for whom, to get on the podium, it would have been enough not to risk a quadruple that he would hardly have been able to complete. But, as Brennan writes about Weiss,

Taking out the quad was out of question. Other might play safe (pag. 41)

Other, non all. But Weiss had a parachute that not everyone has.

Some of the other men ahead of him probably would fall. And even if they didn’t, the judges could place Weiss ahead of them because they liked his skating, because they liked his masculine look, because of his terrific season internationally… because they just wanted to.

This was figure skating. Weiss was a favorite of the judges. He had a perfect image for the sport in the late 1990s. If he just stayed on his feet (skating slang for not falling) he would be heading to Lausanne, Switzerland, for the world championship in March. (pag. 41)

The judges could have decided to place Weiss ahead of his rivals, as long as he didn’t make any big mistakes, because they liked his skating? Strange, I thought the judges had to evaluate the quality of what the skaters did regardless of their personal tastes. Did you know that sometimes, when I review a book on FantasyMagazine, I give a different number of stars than when I add the book to my library on Goodreads? I don’t do it by mistake. On FantasyMagazine I am an journalist who writes trying to stick to objective things, and therefore I value what, in my opinion, is the quality of the book. On Goodreads I am a reader, I value my enjoyment. They are two different ways of looking at the same thing. If I can make this kind of distinction myself, the judges should too. Instead in this case we are a skater who is rewarded only because he remains standing, even if he is skating slang for not falling. Who knows why this statement makes me think of another skater who in more recent times has simplified his skating knowing that it would be enough for him to not fall to get high marks. Oh, sure, he does quadruples. Too bad he does only quadruples. And what is it that makes these skaters loved so much by the judges? Their masculine look, their perfect image for the sport at their time.

And there is another interesting aspect. Weiss could be helped also for his terrific season internationally: a silver and two bronzes in four Grand Prix competition (the other was a 6th place), and a gold at the Nebelhorn Trophy. Weiss could have been expected to achieve remarkable results worldwide (in fact in the following years he would have won two bronzes at the World Championship, a bronze at the Four Continents Championship, a bronze at the Grand Prix Final, a silver at the Goodwill Games and six others medals, including two golds, in Grand Prix competitions). Then the judges, aware that he could fight for important medals, raised his marks, making it easier for Weiss to win those medals they expected him to win. It’s a snake biting its own tail.

As usual my post is getting very long. I count on ignoring a couple of chapters and returning shortly to Brennan’s book for some reflections on the relationship between jumps and artistry.

Ah, I was about to forget to comment on the rotation of that jump, which in my opinion should have received the underrotated call, no ifs and no buts. In the live camera it is not clear, that of the replay leaves no doubt for me. It is the triple toe with which Nathan Chen ended the program that made him set one of the most gifted world records in history. For the record, the other world records freely given by the judges are always his. Marketing about a manly skater completing simple programs in everything other than the number and type (but not the quality) of jumps to be able to not fall has worked pretty well.