A Real Headache

U.S. bronze medalist Josh Farris is out of the Grand Prix circuit this year because of a concussion he suffered while attempting a quad in practice.

I love Josh's skating. One of the things that struck me most about him last year was that he managed to rack up the points and do reasonably well, even without a quad. But now no one, including himself, knows when he'll be back. I hope soon, but I absolutely understand the need to fully heal.

With all the news about the lasting effects of concussions in NFL players, one can't help but wonder if figure skating is shaping up to follow suit. There are at least 3 elite level skaters who are sidelined by concussions right now, and as we all saw up close last year with Yusuru Hanyu and Yan Han during the Grand Prix, knocks to the head will seriously mess you up. How many knocks to the head does it take to make it a thing?

Farris' WD brought up a great point for me that has been irking me about the sport for a while now. The obsession with upping the difficulty levels, particularly in the men's and pairs' events, is becoming somewhat dangerous. Falling on a quad is a lot different than falling on a single, double or even triple jump. Smacking your head on the ice while doing a quad, well you just don't want to do that (that's what Farris did, apparently).

But if you're a dude and you don't have a quad in your program, you're automatically at a huge disadvantage. A quad toe-loop, which is the easiest of the quads, is worth 10.3 points, baseline. For reference, a triple toe loop is worth 4.1. I may be crappy at math, but that's a little more than a six-point difference. It's even a stark difference compared to a triple axel, which clocks in at 8.5 points. (A quad axel, which has never been attempted, is worth a whopping 15 points, which is almost as much as the technical value of my entire program, if we're being honest.)

So elite-level male skaters are under pressure to nail these high-scoring maneuvers that are pretty rough on the body, and frankly dangerous. (See Jeremy Abbot's disastrous fall at the Sochi Olympics for an idea of how much this could hurt.) Sounds like a recipe for...well, you fill in the correct word here.