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Building momentum
North American figure skaters pick now to raise their sport's profile
| Source: |
Edmonton Sun |
| Date: |
March 16, 2008 |
| Author: |
Terry Jones |
en route to Sweden -- Quick now. Pick a skater. Any skater. Name a
star you can't wait to watch at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter
Games?
That's the problem.
"Any sport requires a charismatic icon. Right now, figure skating
doesn't have one," David Michaels, executive producer of NBC's figure
skating coverage put it bluntly recently.
ABC, which televised figure skating for 43 years, paying as much as
$12 million a year for U.S. rights alone to deliver spectacular TV
ratings, finally pulled the plug on the seriously sagging sport. NBC
took over this year on a zero dollar rights fee partnership deal very
similar to the one with that other hard-to-sell winter sports
television property in the U.S., the National Hockey League.
The man from Olympic rights-holding NBC and the sport in general, much
less the Vancouver 2010 people with 15,713 very expensive seats to
sell in the Pacific Coliseum, have nothing to sell.
The second last World Figure Skating Championships prior to Vancouver
2010 begins in Goteborg, Sweden, Tuesday with the following skaters
defending podium positions: Miki Ando, Mao Asada, Yu Nakim, Xue Shen,
Hongbo Zhao, Qing Pang, Jian Tong, Aliona Savchenko, Robin Szolkowy,
Brian Joubert, Daisuke Tahaskhi, Stephane Lambiel, Tanith Belbin and
Benjamin Agosto.
Any of those names turn your crank?
The biggest part of the problem is the severe shortage of Americans
and Canadians. The Americans have one bronze medal winner in that
group and Canada doesn't have a single skater who stood on the world
podium last year.
They're trying to get back on one this year.
Will somebody with some sizzle like a Katarina Witt emerge? Will a
matchup like the Battle of the Brians Boitano and Orser develop this
year to turn on figure skating fans from around the world like they
did heading into the Calgary 1988 Winter Olympics? Will a Liz Manley
put herself in position to manufacture an unexpected Olympic moment
for the host nation?
Will a Kurt Browning or a Jamie Sale and David Pelletier pair identify
themselves for Canada to fuel interest headed to the five ring circus
in British Columbia?
Who better to ask than Browning, the kid from Caroline, Alta., who
became the most enduring and endearing skater since Barbara Ann Scott
in Canadian history? He's exactly the skater the world needs to hit
the scene now.
"Skating needs a place to hang our hat," said Browning, who is headed
to Goteborg as a colour commentator with CBC.
"Yes, yes, yes we need more athletes from North America on that
podium. It seems the momentum has shifted away from our part of the
world and we need motivation for our young skaters. I remember seeing
Brian Orser on TV and that was my target."
Browning's old teammate, Michael Slipchuk, now high performance
director of Skate Canada, says there's no need to be in denial about
all of this.
It was one thing for the sport to have suffered the impact of the Salt
Lake 2002 Olympic judge fixing scandal, but there's no sensation or
sensational rivalry to bring it back.
"That's what happened," he said. "There's a real void in terms of
skaters with a name everybody recognizes.
"After Salt Lake, the sport still had Michelle Kwan and Evgeny
Plushenko, but now they're gone.
"This year's Worlds will be exceptionally important when it comes to
that. Hopefully we'll come out of Goteborg with the start of that kind
of identification."
Browning said you also need to have rivalries which don't really exist
right now in the minds of most.
"I seem to remember another Canadian on the podium with me at Worlds
making our battle at Canadians real because we carried it through to
Worlds," he said, not having to mention the name of Elvis
Stojko.
"I think Johnny Weir and Evan Lysacek have a rivalry going in the
U.S. that is worthy of talk by the water cooler. But they need to
carry that battle through to the ice at the Worlds."
The last time Canada had any big time sizzle in the sport it was with
Edmonton Royal Glenora world champions and eventual Olympic gold medal
winners Sale and Pelletier. And they were the pair the fix was in
against in the Salt Lake scandal which almost sewered the
sport.
Browning thinks he sees the second coming of himself in Toronto's
Patrick Chan, the 17-year-old who won his first Canadian championship
in Vancouver in January.
"It's only human to get excited about something new and Patrick Chan
is the new thing," said Browning of the kid he trains with at the
Toronto Granite club who will be making his Worlds debut.
"He has an opportunity now to make himself memorable. But he has
barely enough time to get it done before Vancouver. Does he have
enough time to get good enough to make a world level splash?
"If he does then not only would it be a great accomplishment but
because of how much he would have learned in such a short time, that
would make it even more so in my eyes."
Keep your eyes on the Canadian kid most Canadians hadn't even heard of
before January, despite his quick rise through the ranks.
Browning says figure skating is not like hockey where fans can see a
Wayne Gretzky or a Sidney Crosby coming and get excited about him
before he gets there.
"Our sport has a double edged sword within it. Once a skater has
captured the imagination of the audience then they build momentum. The
other side of the sword is that people like getting attached to
skaters because then they become personally invested into the
sport.
"Otherwise it's like going to a hockey game where you don't know which
team you want to win. What fun is that?."
Chan, he suggests, began the process of identifying himself to the
audience at Canadians in Vancouver in January and has a chance to
capture the imagination of the audience this coming week at these
Worlds.
And that might be a good thing for the other Canadian, Jeffrey Buttle,
as well.
Buttle has had his moments.
While he's been sixth at the last two world championships, he was
second in 2005. And he came through for Canada with a surprise bronze
medal at the 2006 Torino Olympics.
So far his successes have had as much to do with other skaters'
failures as anything. But maybe now with somebody to compare himself
to and to compete against coming out of Canada instead of Emanuel
Sandhu (who was either great or ghastly, most often the latter) Buttle
may escape from his play-it-safe mode and attempt to go for greatness
himself.
"This might be a good thing for Jeffrey, an honest push for both of
them from home," said Browning.
At the Calgary '88 Olympics, Canada won two silvers (Orser and Manley)
and a bronze (Tracy Wilson and the late Rob McCall.)
While dance doesn't do it for most, at least not since Torvill and
Dean, and despite the run that Canada's Victor Kraatz and Shae-Lynn
Bourne produced, our nation appears to have a couple of comers in
London's Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir.
Virtue and Moir, sixth at Worlds last year, became Canadian champions
for the first time this year after finishing fourth at the Grand Prix
finals.
Their timing couldn't be better.
"The top two teams from last year aren't there this year and there
isn't one team which you could really say is ahead of anybody," said
Slipchuk.
Canadians don't pay much attention to events such as the Four
Continents championship which followed nationals and provides an
opportunity for mostly second bananas and people in search of
positives to prep for Worlds.
Canada had a good Four Continents this year. Virtue and Moir, along
with Buttle and Joannie Rochette, didn't do anything but help
themselves at the event for non-European countries.
Coming up with their finest performances of the season, Virtue and
Moir won gold. Buttle, who lost his national title to Chan in
Vancouver, won a silver with a Canadian record score and Rochette also
won silver with the third highest points total in a women's
competition this season.
But it's what happens this week in Goteborg which will determine
whether anybody wets their whistles for figure skating heading into
Vancouver 2010.
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