Why American Skaters Don't Got It

nabechiko29

This Rolling Stone article, "Why Is American Figure Skating Losing the Cold War," kinda nails on the head the way I've been feeling about things.

We're all sitting here on our couches wondering why American skaters, particularly the women, aren't winning gold medals in international competition. Wondering why we haven't had a World medalist since 2006. Do you want the long explanation or the short one?

Let's aim for the short one:

All of the skaters on Team USA going into this World Championship are talented athletes and superb skaters. With the exception of Ice Dancing, the Russians, Chinese and Japanese skaters are just that much better.

I think the key here to understanding it is that American skaters (with the exception of ice dancers) never really left the 6.0 system-mindset behind. They're all still skating like the judging happens like it did in 1998.

We're still farting around in the States, stuck in the glory days of Michelle Kwan and Kristi Yamaguchi, and meanwhile the rest of the world's skaters have been studying and nailing skating to do well in IJS.

Time to rethink our approach...