I may have mentioned here before that of my five siblings, three
of them have had sports-oriented careers—one was a pro baseball player for 10
years, another is a swim coach who also has a management role with USA
Swimming, and still another is a physical education teacher who spends many a
weekend working track & field meets all across the country. Their feelings
about figure skating are mixed; one seems to appreciate and respect it as a port
but probably doesn’t know much about it beyond whatever I’m posting on Twitter,
one is essentially an Olympic-year fan who asks me about certain skaters from
time to time, and one makes homophobic jokes about it and sends me pics of
Johnny Weir in high heels. (Sigh. Two out of three ain’t bad, I guess.)
I bring all this up because one of these sibs (the swim
coach) inboxed me on Facebook the night of the ladies’ short program in
PyeongChang last month and, shall we say, questioned the quality of those
representing the United States.
(The exact words were a wee bit harsher, but hey, if he wanted those exact
words out there he wouldn’t have messaged me privately.)
We went back and forth a bit—me pointing out Russian hyper-competitive
program blah blah this and that, he listing some of the criteria they use at
USA Swimming to analyze performance—but as I only semi-jokingly reminded him in
the end, the book I wrote is about what’s happened to skating via the American
TV screen… not what’s happened to American skating in general.
Of course, my brother and others that helped liven up my
inbox during the Winter Olympics were just a miniscule sampling of those asking
similar questions and making similar comments last month. Which, inevitably,
led to “answers” in the form of articles—some written with value-added input
from others, some that came across as little more than disgruntled op-eds.
You probably saw some of them, if not read completely through
a few of the pieces. Me, I made it through at least five or six. But whether you couldn’t bring yourself to
push past the depressing headlines, or you’re just dying to compare assessments,
read on… I’ve got some skater’s digest versions below!
--
Writer: Martin Rogers (includes quotes from Chen and Nagasu
from the post-event news conference in Korea)
In Short: Our ladies were an embarrassment and their
explanations were worse
Rating: 1 Toepick out of four
(I considered giving each article positive or
negative GOEs, but I want to keep it simple)
First problem here: the hyperbole. Words and phrases like “collective
wreck”, “historically bad”, and “stumbled/faltered/tumbled” (used in describing
each young woman’s biggest errors) set the piece up as a prolonged
gripefest—though, to be fair, that is exactly what it is. So, um… well done??
Second problem: the shameless passing of judgment. After the
inevitable comparison to American OGMs from yesteryear, Rogers
alludes to “explanations” and passive/aggressively suggests “we” are owed these
explanations as if “we” are the skaters’ coaches and/or parents. (Last time I
checked, we are NOT.)
Then, showing clear disdain for said explanations, Rogers
mocks Karen Chen’s yearning for her mom’s presence (stacking it alongside a
reference to new OGM Alina Zagitova which implies real winners don’t need
their mommies by their side no matter how young they are).
Bradie Tennell wasn’t spared either. After being called
“robotic” in terms of her skating style (“artistically underdeveloped” could
have worked too—just sayin’) and cited for all the ways she wasn’t technically
“on” during the ladies’ event, Rogers shares Bradie’s response to the
Impossible Question someone apparently posed to her in the post-event presser: How
can the U.S. possibly hope to close the gap on Russia?
I say “impossible” not because it can’t be answered (as you'll see in other articles), but
because it was posed to a 20 year-old athlete in the thick of it all—Olympic
hype, disappointment, discovery, recovery (?). She can’t possibly see the
future forest for the trees, not in that moment, anyway. On top of all that,
Bradie tends to give the most succinct responses of any skater out there right
now. Her actual response—a simple “Anything’s possible”—was really the best she
could’ve done under the circumstances. Of course, Rogers
called her out on it as “not too positive” nonetheless. Damned if you do,
damned if you don’t I guess…
The reality of this year's Olympic situation—that there wasn’t much hope for a medal from any
of the Team USA ladies to begin with—isn’t voiced until the ninth paragraph
of the article. That’s when the Mirai Nagasu-bashing occurs. And yeah, I agree that
some of the things she said and the way she said them post-event (the DWTS
reference, the over-claiming of Team Bronze, singling out Gabby Daleman’s poor
performance, the ‘in my mind I went for it’ line regarding the triple
axel-turned-waltz-jump)… were nonsensical at best, poorly chosen at worst. But
to say “she’ll be remembered more for what she said afterward” than for landing
the first triple axel in U.S. female Olympic history—that’s the talk of people
who care little about the sport itself even in Olympic years, if you ask
me.
(It’s also the talk of perennial parade-rainers Phil Hersh
and Christine Brennan, who seem to care a great deal about the sport but
nonetheless are prone to giving its athletes the verbal beat-downs of an over
expectant parent… but I digress. Brennan actually gave one of the more metered
assessments of things in PyeongChang, as you’ll see later.)
All in all, Rogers’
USA Today article carried the gravitas of a random guy at TGI Friday’s making
a bet with the bartender on Ivett Toth’s podium chances because her unitard
caught his attention. “You’d like to see some steel,” Rogers
sneered in his article, in response to Karen’s so-called excuses.
I’d
like to see some substance in this little more than mean-spirited assemblage of words.
--
Writer: Bryan Armen Graham
In Short: Our ladies aren’t great any more, and we might
as well get used to it
Rating: Two Toepicks
According to this piece from The Guardian, failure is
the new normal in light of no U.S.
women making the “individual” podium. First problem I have with this is that
age-old argument of success vs. failure… it wasn’t even “failing to make the
podium is the new normal”; just out-and-out FAILURE. Give me a break.
Or rather, give them a break—if the results of Mirai,
Bradie and Karen are proof of anything, it’s that none of them really should
have been expected to medal. Back at the 2006 Games, Johnny Weir was in 2nd
after the short program—SECOND!—only to falter badly in the free skate and drop
all the way to 5th. And (as previously mentioned) at these Games,
reigning World Bronze Medalist Daleman was still “within striking
distance” of Olympic Bronze, as they say, when she started the Free Skate night
in 7th place… but had difficulty with just about every jumping pass
in her “Rhapsody in Blue” program, taking her all the way down to 15th
by night’s end.
Not trying to sound snarky here, but THOSE two examples are
much closer to what I’d call failures than what our team of women
delivered that night. Mirai was 10th at her last Worlds appearance,
Bradie has not yet been to a senior Worlds, and while Karen Chen was fourth last year, I don’t think anyone seriously anticipated her finishing
at the Games in the Top 5, let alone on the podium. (Gotta remember that Chen
benefited greatly last year from not only Anna Pogorilaya’s crash-and-burn free
skate, but Wakaba Higuchi’s egregious SP error that ultimately cost the Japan
team an Olympic berth.)
As for the “so what happened?” part of Graham’s article, the
explanations (“a constellation of factors”) are as wide-ranging as they are
brief—and are attributed to no one other than Graham himself. It’s not that
he’s off the mark necessarily; it’s that he seems to use them simply to
underscore the idea that our Olympic wanna-bes are hosed for the foreseeable
future. While not nearly as vindictive-sounding as the Martin Rogers USA
Today piece, it still paints a pretty grim picture.
--
Writer: Dvora Myers (w/quotes from Tom Zakrajsek and
Jackie Wong, among others)
In Short: Here are some well-informed theories about the
state of U.S.
ladies figure skating at the Olympics
Rating: three and a half toepicks
Of course the proof this is a better article is better is in
its title—it’s about “failing to medal”, not out and out failure. Writer Dvora
Myers clearly appreciates the difference.
And she doesn’t shy away from the facts about the medal
drought, nor does she bury the 9-10-11
placement. But then she gets right to it: the what’s going on? question,
followed by an IJS-rooted premise explained by Zakrajsek, Wong, and USFS high
performance director Justin Dillon.
As for the premise itself—definitely worth a read, if you’re
not familiar with it already. In short, I believe this premise is what Johnny
and Tara offered when faced with the same question during the Games except a)
it’s not delivered at breakneck speed in between skating performances (or worse
yet, between skating elements)… and b) it’s straight-from-the-source
(with the details and examples deserved), rather than seeming speculation.
My only wincing moment in the article came in the final two
graphs, where USFS spokesperson Barbara Reichert claims “they weren’t
concerned” about the U.S.
men when others were years ago (years ago? I’m still concerned about them
now!) and speaks with a confidence about the 2022 U.S. ladies that seems
more than a little premature… like she’s trying too hard to pin a big bow onto
a poorly wrapped package and call it all beautiful. Not that that’s surprising—PR
spin is PR spin, no matter what brand you’re dealing with. I just think the
article would’ve been better without it.
