What Does Figure Skating Have to do with Obama?

This Time article, which was touted by the magazine’s editor on"Morning Joe" yesterday in a discussion of whether experience matters in the context of the presidential candidates (specifically re: Obama), references the book Expert Performance in Sports. That book contains a study of the practice habits of 24 figure skaters, including those from elite and lower tiers. The study found that elite figure skaters spent 68 percent of sessions practicing jumps, while the second-tier skaters spent only 48 percent of the time practicing more jumps and they rested more.

"All skaters spent considerably more time practicing jumps that already existed in their repertoire and less time on jumps they were attempting to learn." In other words, we like to practice what we know, stretching out in the warm bath of familiarity rather than stretching our skills. Those who overcome that tendency are the real high performers.

The article cites the example to further the point that just having experience at something doesn't necessarily make you an expert - you have to tackle the tough stuff and not just repeat what's familiar. But it’s interesting to see how this works in the case of figure skating. Are the elite skaters only spending more time on jumping because they are better at jumping, or are they better because they are the skaters who put more time in from the get-go? It might be interesting to read more about the study and see what the researchers have to say.

Young Champions and Rules to Keep Them Out

Here's an LA Times write-up on the new U.S. women's figure skating champ, Mirai Nagasu. Sounds like a normal 14-year-old, although her parents seem a bit nervous about all the attention. They'd better get used to it since their little skater is sure to get more in the coming years, especially considering how dominating she was in the national championships this year.

Here is where I will register my dissatisfaction with the ridiculous age limitation on skaters going to world championships. Thankfully, USA Today's Christine Brennan says it better than I can:

The International Skating Union says to compete in the 2008 world championships in Sweden, skaters had to turn 15 by July 1, 2007. The intent of this minimum-age rule is to keep the kids down on the farm until they are a bit more ready for the pressure and fame, but in reality, it's just another silly skating rule. All of the top teenagers already are traveling around the world to junior competitions, doing all the toughest jumps, missing school and making money. Some even have agents. Innocent little
things they are not.

Additionally, it's not as though this rule is going to protect young skaters from overdoing it early on and being sidelined with an injury at an early age like Tara Lipinski was a few years after the 1998 Olympics. Since the skaters are allowed to compete in other competitions they've still got to get their technical scores up and will be practicing those triples anyway.

I do have one quibble with Brennan's assertion about how much it could hurt the U.S. in the long run to send their lower-ranking, yet older skates to the world championships:

If they don't skate well and get a relatively high placement, it could cost the USA one spot in next year's world championships in Los Angeles. If the placement of the top two skaters from any country sending three skaters to worlds doesn't equal 13 or less — say, a fourth place and a ninth place — that country will be able to send only two skaters to the next worlds.

And the dominoes keep falling. It's a big deal if the USA can send only two women to the 2009 worlds because if young skaters don't get a shot in front of the international judges on the biggest stage the year before the Olympics, it's unlikely they're going to win a medal at the Olympics 11 months later.

Although the statement is true, the rule is applied equally to every country, so everyone should be in the same boat on this. The other countries contending for those precious Olympic spots are at the same disadvantage and just as likely to be unable to send their top talent to worlds.

Figure Skating Fashion

Here's a Q&A from the Orlando Sentinel discussing Sasha Cohen's penchant for designing her own skating outfits (anyone remember the fiery Carmen outfit from the 2002 Olympics to the left? All her).



The article got me thinking about the days when you would hear about high fashion designers like Vera Wang and Mark Bower designing skating outfits. I don't hear that as much anymore. Does it follow that, as the more mainstream fans have left the sport, so have the more mainstream designers? Or am I just missing some great examples from the past few years?

On that note, here's an interesting article from the New York Times from last year about Del Arbour, a designer who made her name in figure skating:

Ms. Arbour is one of a handful of designers in the United States making custom figure-skating outfits for men and women. From her workroom — in a low-slung concrete building on an industrial strip just off Interstate 95 — she creates costumes for hundreds of skaters each year, with prices starting at $395 and climbing to $2,000 or more. She also produces a wholesale collection that is carried by dozens of retailers, and she operates a Web site for direct sales.

While skaters at Ms. Meissner’s level often have their own celebrity couturiers — remember Vera Wang’s glittering gold dress for Michelle Kwan at the 2002 Olympics? — most local and regional competitors have a Del Arbour creation in their closets. “All the skaters I know own at least one Del dress,” said Chris Bartlett, owner of Skaters Landing, a chain of retail shops based in North Haven. “Del has a great sense of color and a great eye for fit.”

Asada May Cut Ties with Coach

The International Herald Tribune is reporting that Japan's Mao Asada may be leaving her coach, Rafael Arutunian, and that she recently appeared at an event without him.

Additionally, Asada is expected to be training in Japan until the world Championships. She had been training in the United States with Arutunian since 2006.

Asada is ranked number 1 by the International Skating Union. She won the silver medal at last year's world championships and will be competing in this year's championships in Sweden next month.

Reason #167 Why Someone Needs to Buy Me a Wii

Figure skating screenshots! This looks super cute. I'm not sure how figure skating would work with the Wii, since I've only seen bowling and tennis played, which make more sense to me. However, a friend has the "Dancing with the Stars" game and claims it works out fine.

I'm assuming the screenshots are from "Deca Sports," which is slated to be released this summer and includes other sports such as beach volleyball and curling.

This is especially exciting due to the dearth of figure skating games out there. I've been trying to find one for my computer and all I can come up with is this old Michelle Kwan game. It's pretty hard to find nowadays unless you're willing to spend more than $30 on a used (and outdated) game, although there do appear to be some sellers on Amazon and eBay from time to time.

If anyone knows of any other games, feel free to let me know.

Twenty Years Ago Today...

The reigning Ladies Olympic figure skating champion, East Germany's Katarina Witt, and American champion Debi Thomas staged a battle of the "dueling Carmens" at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Both ladies chose music from Bizet's opera Carmen, and the drama was heightened by some off-ice sniping prior to the competition. Witt was known as the flirt who relied on style as much as substance, while Stanford University pre-med student Thomas was pegged as the technician.

Witt solidified her legacy with a second gold medal by landing four triple jumps and embodying Carmen, while Thomas, who had the lead heading into the long program, faltered under pressure and missed three of five planned triples. Witt became only the second woman to repeat as the ladies Olympic figure skating champion (Sonja Henie was the other).

While much was made of the Witt/Thomas showdown, the best story of the night may very well have been Canada's own Elizabeth Manley winning the long program, and vaulting past Thomas for the silver medal in front of the home crowd. She gave the crowd something to cheer for after less than perfect performances from the Carmens. Here's an old CBC audio interview where Manley talks about her long program win.

And here's the winning free program (poor quality video):