I respect the years of hard work, endless hours of training and the personal sacrifices required to develop abilities that are far beyond what most people could ever do. But for me, as with other endeavors like gymnastics and diving, I'm turned off by the phony pretense of there being any real competition in these events. I don't accept that physical performances of these kinds can be "objectively" subject to judging to determine winners and losers. There have been too many instances of "mistakes", proven biases and deliberate acts of bad faith in judging.

I can watch for a few minutes but I ignore the hype pretending there's reality to who wins and who doesn't.

It's like pro wrestling - there is skill and difficulty in the movements. The made up drama and pretense of the matches being real is bogus, for anyone who wants to give it 5 seconds of thought.

I grew up skating and continued with ice dancing when I was an adult. It is a wonderful sport, but Elmer, you are wrong to say the reality of skating is hype, pretense, or made-up drama.. The requirements of every move are very specific. I watch the skates, the position of edges, positions in the air on jumps, whether a skater 'travels' as we call it when performing spins, all the small things that a casual viewer does not understand or watch. If a skater takes off for a jump from, say, an outside edge when an inside edge is an integral part of the accuracy of the performance, the score is marked down. In truth, skating is a very exacting sport. Also, with new technology, judges are able to view and review every move. This was not true when I was a young skater. I do wish competitions still included school firgures though, and I wish the commentators would just be quiet other than naming moves that most tv viewers cannot identify-there is your hype and drama.

No, it makes me dizzy watching.

Curling is more my speed.

I also like the events where the athletes might crash like skiing.

Amazing, Olychick! I’ve always loved watching figure skating and find it mesmerizing. Thanks for the link!

I love watching skating! A little less now, I’m not sure why, but back in the days of Paul Wylie, the Brians, Scott Hamilton, yes. Midori Ito, such a delight!

Cyn, I wish I knew more about the various techniques, the edges, requirements, etc. They always give a summary but it goes by too quickly, and I want replay!

Ilia is in a class by himself.

My current favorite is Jason Brown. He may be my favorite ever. He skates from his heart and his soul. Sometimes it turns into a competition between artistry and technique. And that’s why I can’t view it as a competition, but as entertainment. But without the competition, they might not be doing jumps.

I too loving watching the figure skating at the Olympics. Ice skating is hard - my brother and I took lessons when we were kids, and I spent more time on my behind than on the skates 😆

That was a joy to watch. Thanks for posting it. I'm excited for the Olympics. This is such a dreary time of year and it is nice to have something to look forward to.

@Elmer J Fudd, I'm sorry that you cannot enjoy the fine points of technique that go into making these skills a sport. As a former ballet dancer, I can well understand how the smallest angle of your leg or the tilt of your spine at a specific moment in time and space can be objectively judged. Watch some side by side slow motion replays of different athletes performing the same move and you start to understand how these things can be objectively judged.

" you are wrong to say the reality of skating is hype, pretense, or made-up drama.. "

I'm saying those things about the judges, promoters and "competition" backers pretending that judging and ultimately the results of assessing the VERY difficult and skilled maneuvers of the participants can be made into an objective competition based on subjective judging.

I remember many judging scandals in these activities? Do you?

Something that's subjective cannot by definition be objective.

A simple example of the false premise of about goes on. It's coming down to the last round. The two competitors ranked 1-2 in points are an American and a Russian. Among the judges are one American and one Russian. Tell me if you honestly believe the scores each presents for the two performances will be "objective" and free of bias. If for no other reason, history suggests that's not likely to be the case.

Wow I wrote a whole long reply and then it vanished and houzz was having issues.

Oh well I'm too lazy to write the whole thing again.......but I used to really enjoy watching, have not for a while.

Just when I thought I'd seen it, at about the 4 minutes mark, I honestly gasped out loud.

That clip was amazing. Thank you for sharing.

Bpath, my coach at the Philadelphia Skating Club and Humane Society was Scott Hamilton's coach Not that I was anywhere even close. Mr. Laws was such a wonderful guy and a magnificent coach, friend, and handsome, too. He had the coolest British racing green XKE which was/is in my opinion the coolest car ever. He did so much for skating. Unfortunately, he moved to Denver with Scott whom he continued coaching. Don Laws obit

Yes, Ilia is in another universe altogether. What a joy it is to watch him.

Sephia, I think every skater spends lots of time sitting on the ice when starting out.;-)

Sigh, Elmer. well, not worth arguing with you. Against my better judgment, I will say is that the last scandal involving a judge was in 2002.

When I was searching for a link to the video to post here, I found this one where someone asked him how he decided to try adding a backflip in his program. They have been banned in competitions until fairly recently. This clip shows him practicing the flip leading up to doing on ice. I think some of the footage might be from his short program in the same competition as the video above that I posted and the skating here is not very long, but really impressive!

Learning to do backflips on ice (yikes)!

@cyn427 (z. 7, N. VA) Wow, how lucky you were to have experienced that! To even get to the level that you would HAVE a coach is quite impressive. I took lessons as a child, but hated falling on the ice so much, I didn't last, lol. Dance on wood floors didn't provide the same opportunities for falling.

@salonva, I had the same reaction to watching him...check out the new video I just posted. It's shorter with just a few amazing clips.

@Kendrah, I am now excited for the Olympics, too. I do love the winter sports. I especially love (besides the skating competitions) the ski jumping and ski boarding which might be more up @LoneJack Zn 6a, KC 's alley!

@sephia_wa did you take lessons in Seattle? I took mine at the Ballard Ice Arena. Sounds like we had similar experiences.

@bpath, since I haven't watched skating for quite a few years, I hadn't heard of Jason Brown until I was reading about Ilia's rise in the sport and they mentioned that in the last Olympics, during the competitions leading up to selecting the team, Ilia had risen quickly to win a Silver medal, which most thought would give him a spot on the team, but they selected Jason Brown instead. So I'm going to look up his videos later. Hopefully, they will both make the team this time.

I pay for a gazillion sports channels on my streaming bundle but the only thing I've EVER watched is Poker. (How can that be considered a sport???) So maybe I'll get some use from them, or more likely they will be broadcast on some channel I don't get and I'll have to pay even more to watch them.

cyn427 (z. 7, N. VA)

My sport was artistic roller skating when was I young. School figures were not negotiable. It didn't matter where your talents lay, everyone did school figures. They are the absolute foundation in my opinion. As kids we hated them but when I came back as an adult I loved them. I switched over to ice for a few years as an adult. Joined an adult precision team and walked away just weeks before a competition because they decided to play the system and skate a division that padded their chances of winning. It went against my ethics. Karma paid them back. More teams than they counted on in the division so they lost. LOL They sort of disbanded after that.

I agree with you that school figures should be brought back. I think it's lowered the quality overall. I miss skating. I go back once in a while just to skate around but my vestibular disorder limits my balance. That's why I started riding horses.

cyn, the times that cheating has been caught is an aside, a distraction. For me, as I thought I described, I can't accept that subjective assessments of performance can lead to objective outcomes and rankings. That's at the top of the list.

I know many people like these activities. I explained why I don't.

Love ice skating, as far back as Peggy Fleming and Dorothy Hannil. Probably bedause it’s a precise and beautifully executed sport that doesn’t require a ball.

@wildchild2x2 another impressive connection to skating!! I think I'm a good audience for these things. I've seen artistic roller skating, but can't recall what/where (on TV)? Maybe it's an Olympic sport, too? Used to be they would broadcast every sport, but some are impossible to find these days. I did become a huge fan of flat track Roller Derby in the last 20 years. I remember watching it as a youngster and being awed by all the toughness and physicality of those women, even tho it had a definite pro-wrestler vibe. Now it's not brutal (at least not around here) and the teams are made up of amateurs who are nurses and teachers and lawyers who happen to be great skaters. I've gone to lots and lots of their competions in Seattle and in Olympia.

@pekemom, I loved both those women. I was a hairdresser when Dorothy Hamil was competing. OMG, I could never count all the Dorothy Hamil "wedge" cuts I've done! And Peggy Fleming was SO beautiful to watch.

Haha, Itook a quick look at flat track Roller Derby info. A "pro-wrestler vibe'? Do you think so?

I found some video online and some of the flat track "athletes" were Vicious van GoGo, Schadenfreude, Steph Infection, and Cheapshot Peggy.

Pro wrestlers like Amish Roadkill and Brutus Beefcake come up second best by comparison.

Oly, I had lessons in Burien at the Ice Chalet. It was right on 1st avenue and 152nd or so.

Now my swimming lessons were another thing. I took those at the Highlight Swim School in Burien when I was around 5-8. I had the biggest crush on my swim instructor. Steve LePenske. Never forgot his name 😄

Cyn, i know we both skated at the same club. Did you know they have done a lot of renovations recently? It honestly had not changed much from when zi was a kid.

Remember reserving a patch to practice figures? Its too bad doing figures is no longer part of the Olympics. I was in the club a couple years ago and they now have aerial bungees to help skaters learn those spinning leaps.

I regret not sticking with it as an adult, but we did skate at Dove Lake!

Oly, thanks for sharing . He is magical. However, I wish there was less emphasis on leaps and spins.

“And Peggy Fleming was SO beautiful to watch.”

She sure was! I also loved watching Kristi Yamaguchi. Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean were so good with ice dancing. This one from 1984 was pure magic. So smooth! Sorry about the video quality.

Olychick Artistic roller skating never took off like ice skating even though it is an international sport. The money wasn't in the sport. That's why Tara Lipinski switched to ice as did many former roller skaters in the past. When I was a kid there was a fine line between who could compete and who would be considered a professional. For example my older brother had to give up his amateur status because he worked as a floor guard. I was a really good flat track speed skater. Fearless. But my mother won't let me pursue it because a girls sport in her eyes. I was stuck and dance and figures and a bit of freestyle. I still have some resentment over that. I used to race against a girl who was a couple years older than me. She was in the same age grouped division as me . I was in the youngest range of the age group and she was in the oldest. She got to compete. I wasn't allowed. She ended up making nationals. That could and most likely would have been me. Or both of us since top 3 went. I loved roller derby when it was banked track. My dad would take us to live games. My older brother got to go to the local roller derby training school just for fun. A couple of guys from our speed club went on to join teams. I couldn't wait 'til got to be old enough. But life changes. For a while I was allowed in speed club. I was 10/11 years old the and a bitty little thing. The older guys would set me up in the front during pacing warm-ups. Believe me wen you have a group of teens and young men behind you to set the pace fast. LOL A 10 year old boy broke his arm one day doing a leap and fall excercise. That was all the excuse my mother needed to take me out. I might get "hurt". I do believe that was the start of my "wildchild" years. I rebelled against the smothering. I think that's why I'm still a bit of a calculated risk junkie to this day. I'm lucky to have survived my teen years. When DD was little a new rink opened near me. A neighbor convinced me to go. I put my DD into the tiny tots program and started skating again myself. Never had the desire to compete but I did go through the testing programs again. Plus I really enjoyed the exhibitions events like shows and Gold Skate theatrical based competitions.

Wonderful, Olychick. That was amazing.

As soon as I could walk, I think I had a pair of ice skates. We had a huge outdoor skating rink across our back alley when I was growing up. Lot’s of winters spent playing ”crack the whip” with the neighbourhood kids. Thank goodness for the snow banks to soften the falls. I took figure skating lessons but it just wasn’t my thing. I never really got past ”shoot the duck” or a single pirouette. I was kind of klutzy. I ice skated as an adult, though.

My daughter got into roller derby in her late teens. She was a big Oscar Wilde fan and her skater name was Gory Ann Gray (Dorian Gray) and her player number was C33 which was Wilde’s prison number while he was in Reading Gaol. It’s a very high-intensity activity and really fun to watch.

Gorgeous. He’s so compact in the air.

I did enjoy watching the figures part of competitions.

roxsolid, love your daughter’s derby name!

We grew up pond skating, or flooded patio, or park rink. I took lessons at a skate center one year. And in college, I took it for PE! and later, a friend who had skated competitively when younger taught me how to jump! I felt awesome lol! My boys never enjoyed it, so i haven’t skated much the last 30 years, and now I worry about falling and breaking a wrist and not able to ring bells for a few months. Choices, choices.

I kind of wanted to be Michelle Kwan. So elegant on ice.

I used to like listening to Dick Button commentate. A curmudgeon, kind of the Len Goodman of figure skating.

I have skated on the same ice as Jason Brown! Local rink. I took my young son there for lessons one year with a friend, but he wanted nothing to do with it.

Ded, I haven't been home since my parents died and we sold the house. I wish we had bought it and I would still be skating! I loved the teas upstairs watching the adults dancing below and the cake-oh my. I still have my medals on my charm bracelet-one silver, one gold. Happy times.

I loved the snack bar and its still there. Here’s one for you, Cyn.

Not a big fan, but it is my focus in the winter olympics, as is gymnastics in summer. I get a kick out of Johnny Weir and Tara Lipinski. I think they do a good job, and are fun to watch.

Reading all of these comments, I realize part of what I loved about figure skating was watching it with my mom. I am trying to figure out when to next visit her. If the Olympic figure skating calendar is already out, maybe I will schedule my trip based on it. The idea of drinking tea on the couch with her and watching figure skating seems like heaven.

@Kendrah - It’s out, at least high level enough to plan a trip.

https://www.olympics.com/en/milano-cortina-2026/schedule/overview

Might be nice to get Peacock for the month, so you can zero in and binge on whatever you want.

Aw Ded, that makes me homesick! Snack bar-hot chocolate every session. I loved that place and skating.

kendrah, I appreciate the time you've spent in responding. But I can't buy your comment

" you start to understand how these things can be objectively judged. "

For running events, there are times and photo finishes to qualify for finals and to determine the outcome of finals. For field events, measurements of height or distance. Team events, which one wins the most games and the finals.

In skating, as my search disclosed, there can be up to 9 judges for each performance. The highest and lowest values are dropped and the remainder averaged. If this were objective, not so many judges would be required and, as you would see it, "objective scores" wouldn't be disregarded.

It doesn't matter and there's no reason to belabor it. Those who enjoy it can enjoy it without the fundamental distraction I can't overlook underlying what I think is a pretense for "competitions".

One more and I'll stop...now I keep getting videos of his showing up for me and I thought this was sweet where he talks about his parents, who were both Olympic's skaters.

Olychick, I can’t open that video but I will look for it. I don’t know if this has been mentioned but it’s kind of a fun fact:

“Malinin is also credited for introducing a unique choreographic move where he uses a "butterfly" entrance to propel his body into the air before performing a single sideways twist. He calls this maneuver the "Raspberry Twist," since Malinin means "raspberry" in Russian.”

thanks, @roxsolid, I'll have to look for a video of that (as if I need more videos of him showing up, lol). Good thing he's so easy on the eyes. I think the video I posted was FB so I'll see if it's also on youtube and fix the link. eta, I did find it and reposted the youtube video.

I love, love, love Johnny Weir!

@Jupidupi That was a really great program. I do wish Ilia combined more artistic elements in his programs...the jumps are stunning and exciting, but actually get a little boring and predictable when it's mostly what he does. I guess because I took a nosedive into his videos and watched so many at once, lol.