Team figure skating, women's ski jumping new Olympic events

 

The U.S. skaters with the first-place trophy at the 2009 World Team Trophy figure skating event, a key test leading to the event's Olympic inclusion (Photo courtesy U.S. Figure Skating)

By Philip Hersh

Count the International Olympic Committee's decisions on the new events for the 2014 Winter Olympic program as rare victories for North American interests -- especially U.S. interests -- in the Olympic arena.

It was a group of U.S. women -- with some help from their friends in the Great White North -- who successfully hectored the IOC's old boys club to add women's jumping.  The event should have been in the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, but better late than never.

And, since figure skating is the most-watched Winter Olympic sport in the United States and at least No. 2 in Canada, the addition of a team skating event can only please broadcast interests in both countries.

That seems hardly a coincidence, since U.S. broadcast rights for the 2014 Winter Olympics have yet to be awarded.  Stephen Wilson of the Associated Press wrote today that deal is expected by mid-June.  A source close to the negotiations has told me it looks more like mid-May.

You read it here first as far as team figure skating is concerned.  This is what International Skating Union president Ottavio Cinquanta revealed in my June 23, 2009 post:

More Olympic figure skating?  The success of a team event (World Team Trophy) held this spring in Tokyo has led Cinquanta to consider such a competition in the Olympics.
He said a team event would come before the individual competitions in singles, pairs and dance.

``The (national) federations could use the same skaters (in individual events) or not,'' he said.
It is possible the ISU would test such an event at worlds before asking to have it included on an Olympic program.  It could not happen before the 2014 Sochi Winter Games.

The IOC announced Wednesday it had added six new events:  the two mentioned above, plus men's and women's ski halfpipe, luge team relay and biathlon team relay.

The figure skating team event will have six-skater teams: one man, one woman, one pair and one ice dancing couple. Points will be awarded to each skater/couple, and the total for all four disciplines will determine the winner.

There likely will be between eight and 12 countries in the competition.

In another post here last October, Cinquanta told me the team event would run the first three days of figure skatingt at the Olympics and gave these details on how the event would work.  :

*Ten teams (one per country) will qualify, based on results from previous ISU events, with the qualifying system yet to be worked out.

*Each team will have a men's and women's singles skater, a pair and a dance team.  (At the 2009 World Trophy, the first such competition, each country had two men's and women's singles skaters. one pair and once dance team.)

*Scoring will be cumulative.

*Five countries will be eliminated after the short program.

*Each country advancing to the long program can make two lineup substitutions from a pool including all the skaters qualified for the four individual Olympic events and the official substitutes.  Making the subs eligible would be of special significance to countries with only one entry in an individual discipline, should that skater or couple become ill or injured.  But the official substitutes would not be living in the Olympic Village, and Sochi is not easy to reach at the 11th hour, so countries thinking of using a sub would need to find the subs alternate housing in the Olympic city.

*Skaters can do the same programs they use in the individual events.

 The IOC put off for the time being a decision on five other events:  ski slopestyle (men and women), snowboard slopestyle (men and women), and Alpine team parallel competition.  They have not been ruled out for 2014.

 

Comments

[Steve Robinson]

How many times can you toot your horn and reference dated blog postings? Puhleeze!

[Julie]

Am I the only one who hates the idea of team figure skating? So what, most of the top participants from USA, Canada, Russia, Japan, etc. will skate their short and long programs twice? Isn't that overkill for the average TV watcher? Won't the skaters be tired by the time the individual competition begins? Won't the TV audience be bored for the individual events? I hate this.

[Nicole]

Team participants should just compete with one program, not two -- either just a short or a long skate.

Also, this would work better if countries couldn't have the same skaters compete in the team vs. individual events -- or could only overlap in half the categories. Less repetition, more chance for countries with deep fields to send more skaters to the Olympics (like how the USA usually sends its extra men to Four Continents, rather than the World/Olympic contenders), and more interesting strategically.

And/or, instead of having the skaters who are also competing for individual medals skate the same short and long program twice, have them compete a different program. (Maybe their exhibition program with more difficult elements.)

[Andy]

Only three countries can compete in so-called "team figure skating" - the USA, Canada and Russia. I really wonder why Cinquanta has tried to push so-called "team figure skating" into Winter Olympic events. (Baseball was omitted from Summer Olympic events because there are very few countries to participate in.) I heard that Japan (which helds "team Trophy", same with so-called "team figure skating") supported Cinquanta for this, but Japan has no pair team and ice dance team to compete at a world level; surely Japan will never be able to win any medal in so-called "team figure skating". Hmmm... why does Cinquanta want so-called "team figure skating"???