#History of FS

[wtficedance]

what do you think of the 2003 controversy about the Israeli team of Galit Chait and her partner winning bronze at Worlds and 20 of the 24 dance teams signing a petition saying judging was unfairly biased by politicking from her father Boris, the head of the Israeli fed? And that the Lithuanian team should have been on the podium instead? Galit is a tech specialist now, and her father still runs the Israeli skating fed, so nearly the entire field of a competition could speak up and call foul and be dismissed anyway, no repercussions

Q #211:

Hi anon,

I think you mean 2002 Worlds but yes another strike against the 6.0 system after a very contentious Olympics. I do think it’s a very unique circumstance because there are very few times in ice dance (or skating as a whole) where a weak, non-traditional skating federation controls the narrative and is influencing the formation of judging blocks. Normally in ice dance it’s highly influenced by coach even more so than fed. The whole incident was emblematic of all of the issues with 6.0 (blind block judging and alliances, politics entirely dictating scores in face of errors, a complete and utter lack of movement in standings except in block realignment, smaller federation teams like Drobiazko/Vanagas repetitively getting screwed and being unable to build momentum) but it was only because of a few reasons that it actually resulted in change:

D/V were VERY well-liked in ice dance

Chait/Sakhnovski were not and her father was essentially widely despised

Americans Lang/Tchernyshev took point on organizing the petition

all of the traditional powers in ice dance (Linichuk, Zhulin, Tchaikovskaia, Dubova, Zazoui, Gorshkov, etc.) had teams who were being slowed down by the Israelis

Anissina/Peizerat & Fusar-Poli/Margaglio didn’t compete at Worlds and would’ve been on the podium otherwise, it wouldn’t have generated nearly as much controversy if D/V and C/S were fighting over 5th

North American media were able to leverage the fact that D/V were getting f*cked over by the Eastern Block to apply that logic to Bourne/Kraatz

C/S only won ONE segment: FD

So yes, I do believe that D/V were deserving of bronze at that worlds but I don’t think it was a highway robbery, more of just a boiling over point.

My hot 6.0 ice dance take is that there was so little actual criteria when it comes to the free dances that it is hard to actively differentiate teams beyond a certain point. And a lot of the “well X was clearly better than Y” is truly just preference unlike the CD and OD where there was a clear emphasis on footwork, linking movements, edge quality, crispness, etc. That’s why it’s a little frustrating when commentary under IJS is like “well these teams are evenly matched in everything so its really just down to PCS” because while that was basically true for 6.0 it SHOULDN’T be true under IJS. Especially because all of the top teams since the inception have had very different strengths and weaknesses with their respective rivals. A lot of the things that we value in modern, IJS ice dance are completely different than under 6.0. For example, you’ll here commentators talking about the amazing quality and speed of a dance spin and in a 6.0 FD it will literally be 4 rotations max, where in modern programs they’re at minimum 9 and almost always closer to 20. Lifts are another animal as well beyond just “this is not aesthetically pleasing / this is aesthetically pleasing.”

I don’t think we will ever see something like this replicated because of (1) the Gadbois monopoly means that MF would largely have control over results and it’s more likely that Gadbois teams would be screwed over internally and you would lose all camp backing if you tried to petition, (2) there’s now a lot more money going into each result, and money trumps uniquely intimidating personalities, (3) it was riding the wave of the biggest scandal in skating history at the time and basically everyone in ice dance was sick of 6.0.

So yes it’s not the most ethical that Chait is so involved in sport but as Israel’s whole skater development program is C-list Jewish Canadians, Americans, and Russians, I highly doubt they’re going to be relevant in the next few decades that Chait will be involved. Hope this helps!

[yeoldenews]

Yet another selection of some of the better names I've come across in Regency era newspapers recently.

[bixels]

I'm obsessed with your rarijack post. I would love to hear your thoughts on flutterdash. That one was always my favorite but rainbow was often a victim of the new writers not understanding her and writing her weirdly

SHE SOLD HER INTO SLAVERY!

[usaac-official]

A 54th Fighter Squadron P-38 runs up it’s engine at an Alaskan airfield, 1943

[allekha]

Fun With Jump Arm Variations

When jumping, different skaters put their arms in different places, but generally they are pressed flat against the torso, especially on higher-revolution jumps. This compressed shape increases the skater’s rotational speed, which is important for attempting triples and quads.

But as anyone who has watched much skating has seen, you can jump with your arms in different positions, too. There are two main arm variations you will see in modern skating programs:

One arm above the head - these are nicknamed ‘tanos’ after Brian Boitano, who did not invent but did popularize the variation. Ones where the arm is bent a lot may be derisively nicknamed ‘helicopter tanos’, as some fans don’t like how they look. (Brian Boitano 1988 Olympics SP, Brian Orser 1988 Olympics SP, Petra Burka 1965 FS, Wendy Burge 1976 Olympics FS, Ekaterina Kurakova 2022 Euros FS)

Two arms above the head - these are nicknamed ‘rippons’ after Adam Rippon, who also did not invent them but popularized them when he started doing it on his lutz. (He did tanos on it for a while, but then started using both arms when he trained with Brian Orser, because he felt bad doing ‘tanos’ in front of Orser, who famously took silver behind Boitano at the Olympics.) (Adam Rippon 2016 GP France FS, Midori Ito 1988 Olympics SP, Ting Cui 2018 JGP Ostrava  SP, Sihyeong Lee 2021 Nebelhorn FS)

However, there are also other arm variations. These are all rare nowadays, although if you watch older programs, you are more likely to spot a variation that’s not a tano or rippon. Ones I’ve seen include:

Hands on hips - these used to be much more popular back in the day but have fallen out of fashion. I would guess it’s because they slow down rotational speed too much, as every one I have seen is a double except this one by Michael Chack, but I don’t know for sure. (Jill Trenary 1990 Worlds FS, Michael Chack 1992 USNats FS, Rory Flack 1988 USNats SP, Tonia Kwiatkowski 1988 USNats SP, Midori Ito 1987 Worlds SP, Anna Kondrashova 1988 Olympics SP, Yuzuru Hanyu 2010 JPNats FS)

Helicopter arms - this one has been used as a warm-up by Yuzuru Hanyu, and I’ve spotted it in competitions a couple of times with single and double jumps (Rory Flack 1994 US Open Artistic Program, Yuzuru Hanyu 2012 Finlandia Trophy SP warmup)

Arms behind back - I’ve only seen this one performed by Jason Brown in his Riverdance program, where depending on the event he placed either one or both arms behind his back during the second jump of this combo (2013 SA FS, 2014 Nats FS)

Arm switching midair - I’ve only seen this one in this lovely axel variation by John Curry (1976 Olympic SP)

Hands by the head - I believe I may have seen this used by at least one other skater, but the only example I have at hand is this one by Nancy Kerrigan (1990 Goodwill Games SP)

Beginning in 2009, ‘varied position in the air’ became a positive GOE bullet point for jumps. This was because they are supposed to add to the difficulty of a jump, although I’ve seen arguments back and forth from skaters about how true that is for some arm positions (and even if which arm is raised makes a difference for tanos). Years later, they exploded in popularity, particularly in the women’s competition. The trend had its beginning around 2014 or so; the previous season, junior World medalists Evgenia Medvedeva and Serafima Sakhanovich were given programs constructed to include raised arms on a couple of jumps, which wasn’t too unusual, but in 2014, their programs contained many more of them. Medvedeva would go on to dominate the senior circuit for several years and notably used raised arms on most of her jumps during that time, which started the trend in earnest among other skaters.

This GOE bullet point was removed for the 2018-2019 season. But if arm variations no longer get that bit of GOE, why do we still see them so often? There are probably a few reasons:

Skaters who trained them for GOE a few years ago got used to doing them that way and don’t want to mess with their muscle memory

They can add to a program aesthetically

Skaters and their teams may still hope to impress the judges by using them

Skaters have said that rippons help straighten their jump axis

I’ve also seen speculation that rippons can be used to help muscle jumps using the upper body in some cases

I would also like to shout out arm variations on jump exits that aren’t the standard check-out position. These aren’t as common as mid-air variations nowadays and rarely get talked about as their own thing - probably in part because they were never a GOE bullet - but they can add difficulty to the exit as well as give a nice choreographic touch to a program. You can see a few in the above gifs, but here’s a few more:

(Petra Burka 1965 Worlds FS, Yuzuru Hanyu 2021 “White Nights” EX, Anett Pötzsch 1976 Olympics FS, Hana Mašková 1968 Worlds FS, Claudia Kristofics-Binder 1976 Olympics FS, Brian Boitano 1988 Olympics SP, Vladimir Kovalyov 1976 Olympics SP)

[blessyouhawkeye]

there need to be more wangxian figure skating aus because i know in my heart that if any fictional character could land the quad axel it would be wei wuxian

[leclerc-drives-in-circles]

Wait....if the gods have no DNA does that mean they can procreate homosexually?!?!

[rabidline]

2023 WORLD SILVER MEDALISTS: HAEIN LEE + JUNHWAN CHA First South Korean Senior World Medalists since Yuna Kim ”This season the first half of the season was very rough to me but I really tried not to give up and to bring back myself. This is my first time coming to Japan, to Saitama. So I really want to come, And I achieved that, and I achieved more than I expected. I brought everything that I wanted to bring to the audience and I’m really happy about it.” - Haein Lee

“I’m very happy about the medal today and also I’m very happy with what I skated, what I did today. I really trained hard and I really wanted to enjoy today and I think I really enjoyed it. And I give everything so I’m very happy about that.” - Junhwan Cha

[party-lemon]

no but hearing people's stories about how they got into mcr is so funny because most mcr fans are also total nerds and we get into the band in the most weird ways. like, for example, i got into mcr because i was 13 years old and obsessed with harry potter and was watching a youtube video about songs that represented each hogwarts house and teenagers started playing for slytherin. deadass that is how i discovered mcr

[soffij]

Since I first watched this movie I couldn't help but ship them. I don't know, I feel like Ashton Holmes had something of a crush on Viggo, and that kinda jumped out of the screen for me. HAha I could be totally wrong though.

[dyingroses]

Fashion on screen + 🤎

[domokunrainbowkinz]

this quote tweet is making me lose my mind how are you a figure skating account but don't know who Tessa and Scott are 😭

[brutalhonesttruths]

Someone said shoma had resting sadboi face and i-

[usaac-official]

M, an 80th Fighter Squadron P-400 in flight over New Guinea, 1942

[allekha]

Today in unusual jump combos: Brian Pockar, 1978 Skate Canada SP, one-foot 3S-2F.

The reason he went for this is that back in the day, every season there was a requirement to include a different double in the SP combination. In this season, it was the flip. If you struggled to land a 3T after that 2F, then you could leave a lot of scoring potential on the table by doing a 2F-2Lo/2F-2T... or you could try something a little more interesting to squeeze in a triple. Supposedly, Pockar also landed this combo at Worlds that year. (This rule, by the way, is also why Midori Ito did a 2Lo-3Lo in her 1988 Olympics SP - everyone had to do a 2Lo in their combo, but she had the technical capability to show off by putting it first.)

[roughentumble]

btw my opinion on bi lesbians is that i cant even begin to understand the logic of that identity but i am not bi and im not a lesbian and im not even a little bit female so honestly it doesnt concern me and im not sticking my nose in it. other people can discourse about that as much as they like. i am Staying Out Of It