Choreographic

One of the common criticisms of CoP is that the 'free' program isn't quite free enough. Admittedly, even under the 6.0 system, the free program wasn't entirely 'free' in the sense that skaters could do whatever they felt like doing, but under 6.0, it was much more easier to distinguish between the short program (where the focus was on the completion of the mandated required elements) and the free program (in which skaters, while still subject to the "well-balanced program" rules, had more freedom to perform whatever combination of elements best suited their individual skills). Indeed, under the various incarnations of CoP so far, the free program has more often than not looked rather like a longer version of the short program and (even worse) acquired a certain homogeneity in terms of program construction.* Of course, some of this was rather inevitable given the way CoP has been structured (when everything is evaluated in terms points, eventually everybody does those same things that earn the most points), but perhaps the dinosaurs at the uppermost echelons of the ISU have not been entirely deaf to the protestations of the trilobites down below as there has been a slow but steady shift towards how a free program is structured under CoP. The most important development in this regard has been the implementation of the level-free element in the free program, one of the most positive CoP developments as of late.

An Evening With Champions 2012

Despite not actually liking figure skating shows and sleeping a grand total of five hours over the past two days, I somehow managed to find myself at Harvard's Evening With Champions yesterday night (don't ask why).

Caveat lector: I took no notes, filmed nothing except for Jeremy Abbott's performance, and was suffering from the debilitating effects of sleep deprivation during the show.

2012 United States Figure Skating Championships: Ladies

In some respects, American figure skating looks to have flourished in the past few years. American ice dance has never looked stronger with two US teams on the world podium last year and very impressive depth even further down the ranks. An American man is the reigning Olympic champion, and as for pairs.....er, well, they're typical US pairs. But for some fans of American figure skating, all that does not matter. Instead, it is All About the Ladies, and as such, the ladies discipline has inspired near-unprecedented levels of hand-wringing among many fans of US figure skating in recent years. Gone indeed are the days in which a bad day for the top US ladies skaters translated to a mere silver or bronze on the international podiums. With the ladies world podium completely devoid of US ladies for almost six years and perhaps lacking faith in the current crop of ladies, many fans have been hurriedly anointing whatever up-and-coming US skater without a Y chromosome capable of landing a proper triple lutz and/or a triple-triple as the Savior of US ladies skating (e.g. current Chosen One: Gracie Gold)....often to hilarious results.

Such behavior is not entirely unreasonable, however. Winning in figure skating is all about youth (particularly when it comes to ladies, famously the disciple of prepubescent champions) and reputation, so having someone who has been competing at Nationals for ten years as the highest-ranking US ladies skater as well as several talented but wildly inconsistent headcases who don't turn in enough decent performances to properly build up their reputations is understandably going to inspire quite a few anxiety attacks. With the recent results of the 2012 US National Championships, it is clear that fans of US ladies figure skating may have to hang onto their Zoloft tablets for quite a bit longer.