#FashionFriday

Once again, a disclaimer that I am the opposite of a fashion authority. But I persevere.

And speaking of questionable fashion sense, I've picked the 90s as the theme for today's roundup. Unlike its mainstream counterpart, I think for figure skating fashion the 90s were the formative years, planting the seeds of some of the bold styles we see on the ice today.

LIKE: Pretty much everything Michelle Kwan ever wore, post-1994, especially the Vera Wang stuff.

Her dress at Nagano in 1998 is my favorite. I love the periwinkle color, the simple cut, the shimmery effect of the velvety fabric, and the way it complemented her every move.

NO LIKE: Pretty much everything Oksana Baiul ever wore on the ice in the 90s.

These dresses are exemplary of a more traditional, ornate Russian-inspired style. But I can't even. The feathery furry stuff and dangly crystals. Noooope. I always found Oksana's skating style a bit sloppy, and these dresses seem to magnify her weaknesses--and I daresay may have actually interfered with her skating. And I'd say the same about Irina Slutskaya, who sported very similar attire on the ice.

LIKE: Nancy Kerrigan's short program dress in 1994.

This Vera Wang dress is one of the most elegant skating dresses I've ever seen. The contrast between the black and white is striking, The sheer sleeves are lovely, as is the hint of sparkle on the wrists.


NO LIKE: Tara Lipinski's 1998 long program dress

Ok I don't totally hate this dress, and any lapses in fashion Tara may have had in the 90s have been more than erased by her recent stints as a high-profile fashion commentator. But I do really really dislike the sheer sleves on this dress from her Olympic gold medal freeskate. It looks like she has the chicken pox, or measles. Cut off the sleeves, and ease up on the crystal dangly bits and you've got a beautiful dress.

On a related note, I found this great Cosmo piece on figure skating fashion from February that really gets into modern ladies figure skating fashion. It does a much better job than I of explaining it.

#tbt Throwback Thursday

Once again, here are some of my fave throwback moments in the sport of figure skating.

This year marked 30 years since Scott Hamilton won gold in Sarajevo. Here's his winning long program:

It wasn't perfect (he popped a triple flip at the beginning), but it was enough to secure gold because of his performance in figures and in the original program. I've always been a huge fan of this guy and his positive attitude both on and off the ice. I also love the deliciously 80's synthesizer music he chose for his performance.

Also in U.S. Men, here is one of my all-time favorite skaters, in my second-favorite men's performance of all-time (a very close second to Brian Boitano's 1988 Olympic long program): Todd Eldredge, and his riveting 1996 World Championship-winning long program, skated to "First Night."

Dude NAILED it. And it's interesting to me to look back at skating in the 1990s and see the seeds of some of the trends that have caught on in skating these days--Todd Eldredge was always known for his good spinning technique, and he performed in 1996 some of the trendy modified positions that score high points in today's system.

Annnnd, more for laughs than anything else, here's me performing for the first time ever on the 1980 Rink (now the Herb Brooks Arena) in Lake Placid. I think I was 9 or 10, and it really was a thrill of a lifetime.



Ok who (of us adult skaters) still remembers the Freestyle 4 footwork sequence? I do! I do!

Wednesday Recap

Another week, another practice in the can.

This week, my husband and daughter were kind enough to accompany me to the rink, and they took some video.

Here's me nailing a double salchow. (Notice the dude in the background totally video bombs me with a wipeout.)





And here's me nailing a double flip.





Despite the video, all in all, it was not my best practice. Tried a few run-throughs of the show program and felt like I needed an oxygen tank at the end. I am still optimistic though that it's coming together in time for the show at the end of this month.

On a more positive note, I'm really proud of how my spins are improving. That's a part of skating I had always brushed to the side in favor of perfecting jumps, but now I'm starting to appreciate that there is so much more creativity in spins.

And unrelated to my own skating, I really enjoyed my daughter's wide-eyed wonder as she beheld an ice rink for the first time in her life. She seemed mesmerized for a bit by all the bright lights and the action on the ice. Maybe we have a future skater on our hands?

Anonymous Judging on the Table for ISU Congress

Next month in Dublin, the International Skating Union will be discussing a proposal to scrap anonymous judging during its annual congress. It's an effort to increase the transparency of the judging system, spawned by controversy around Adelina Sotnikova's win in Sochi.  Anonymous scoring was designed to make the judges feel less pressure to vote their conscience. However it seems to have made things worse, in that it's easier to secretly conspire to rig results.

I haven't said too much about how I really feel about the outcome of the ladies event in Sochi. Truth be told, I don't have much to say. Yes, there was most likely some rigging going on--there's no way you can argue the wife of the former president of the Russian Figure Skating Federation, who was caught on camera hugging gold-medalist Adelina Sotnikova after the competition, wasn't a part of some scoring shenanigans. What are you gonna do about it? A big fat nothing. We can protest and sign petitions until we're blue in the face, but frankly, most of us would rather be on the ice practicing.

I don't know if it's sad or funny that my reaction to allegations of results-fixing in figure skating is a calm, "Yes, and?" It may not be right in the eyes of justice, but for many of us skaters, we just kind of accept that it's how it is. Many of us tend to look at it from an earn-your-stripes kind of perspective. Do your time in the bottom or middle of the pack, and the judges will eventually notice you. Kind of like what happened to Adelina Sotnikova.

And maybe that's part of the problem that all of us are so willing to just move on and practice harder. Maybe we should be carrying signs and marching outside ISU President Ottavio Cinquanta's house. Maybe we should be lobbying the ISU or trying to get a seat at the table. I'll be honest though and say I'm probably not ever going to do that.

I've been the both the victim and the benefactor of biased judging. At regionals one year, I very clearly outskated several skaters during the short program portion of the competition. Skaters that placed ahead of me fell on required elements, multiple times. I ended up in fifth place, when I should have been at least third, if not second. My coach spoke to one of the judges afterward, who confessed that she placed other skater above me for political purposes. She said I had the best double axel of any of the skaters in the field. But that didn't count for beans.

Yet a year later, I crashed and burned during a long program, and earned a silver medal for my efforts, placing above at least 5 other more deserving skaters. It was blatantly unfair, but all I could do was collect my medal and go home. Don't want to appear a sore loser, or you'll fall out of favor with the judges.

Anyway, I hope that whatever is decided during the annual ISU Congress will have a beneficial effect on the sport overall. Maybe getting rid of anonymous judging within the new ISU system (versus the 6.0 system) will improve the objectivity in judging.

The Icemen Cometh

I heard about this cool new program through US Figure Skating the other day. Had to share.

It's called the Icemen Network, and I think it's an awesome idea. Through the program, male skaters receive mentorship from elite male figure skaters, and can skate in a series of competitions. From US Figure Skating:

The Icemen Network is a way for males to learn more about what to expect in their skating career and provide them with an opportunity to build a peer communication network through newsletters, conference calls and other media.

Skating is a predominantly female sport, and as a result, the majority of programs out there to support figure skating in general seem geared primarily toward the ladies. The only support it seemed like men were getting was from folks trying to pimp them out as pairs or dance partners. But not all dudes want to do pairs and dance. Lots want to do singles. And even some go for synchro!

When I skated as a youngling, I knew exactly 4 male skaters (not counting coaches). I once saw a 12-year-old Johnny Weir at a competition, but that doesn't count. And on any given session, while there would be 15-20 female skaters on the ice, there might be one guy. If you wanted to do ice dance as a young female skater, you skated with your coach. And I was lucky enough to land a pairs partner for a season or two, but I was one of only two pairs in the region, like, ever.

Men's figure skating has a stigma I'm sure you all know about, that turns away a lot of prospective skaters. My own brother, who was a great skater, stopped skating largely because he was being taunted by classmates. But like most competitive extracurriculars with stigmas attached, the more we all lend to supporting and mentoring the individuals involved no matter their race, creed, sexuality or taste in music and fashion, the easier it is to see past it all and just enjoy the pursuit. (And get more dudes on the ice!)

I look forward to seeing all the great skaters to come out of this program!

Figure Skating #fashionfriday

In honor of Johnny Weir and Tara Lipinski calling out Derby fashion this weekend, I too will be delving into the fashion of figure skating.

First a disclaimer--there is no way on earth I can claim to be any sort of authority on the topic of fashion. My fashion sense has always been conservative, comfort-based and highly suspect. I am not a trendsetter, and I tend to scoff at runway fashion every season as being ridiculous. ("What the hell is that??" is a frequent response.)

So, figure skating fashion. I'll kick off this weekly roundup with a review of the fashion in Sochi.

LOVE: French skater Mae Berenice Meite's short program dress this season. It's elegant and conservative, but has a little edginess to it at the same time with the one sleeve and the bust line. I love the color and the applique patterns too. Neither is obnoxious, and they pop really well with her skin tone. And, they're catchy enough to keep eyes on her all over the arena.

DON'T LOVE: South Korean Olympic silver medalist (and Vancouver gold medalist) Yuna Kim's short program dress. I cannot STAND the color, it makes me want to avert my eyes. It clashes with her skin tone and the applique pattern makes it look reptilian. It also made her look a little sickly, and amplified the visible anxiety she was experiencing at the time.

LOVE: Jeremy Abbott's short program ensemble this season. As far as men's figure skating fashion goes, I've always been a fan of the simple and elegant (sorry Johnny Weir). Something with a little contrast and maybe a hint of bling I think works best for dudes on ice, like what Jeremy was wearing. And it even looked great as he wiped out!

I do want to be clear though that I absolutely do not have a problem with frilly and fluffy (or feathery) and feminine on a male, and I think one should have the freedom to express themselves on ice (and in life) howsoever they choose. I just tend to think that outfits that are too busy detract from the awesome athleticism that men's figure skating can deliver. I also think gimmicky--on a male or female--distracts too much from the actual skating, which is the very thing I want to watch!

And, because it's also #fbf (Flashback Friday), here's one for laughs...

DON'T LOVE: My short program dress from my intermediate ladies season. It was a cheap getup I got it at a dance shop, I think, and while the color popped, the fabric was thin and SUPER absorbant, resulting in some seriously embarrassing sweat stains.

#tbt Throwback Thursday

I love #tbt because it gives me an excuse (like I need one, really) to click around the Internets and re-live the glory of skating past - both mine and that of skating greats.

Here's this week's #tbt:

Video footage from the 1913 World Championships in Stockholm. Seems like there was a lot more use of the toe-pick back then in freestyle.

The "Battle of the Brians" at the Calgary Games in '88, revisited. Hey, remember when they still did figures in competition? Yeah me neither...

And since this is my blog, here's one from my first-ever pairs performance at the Achilles FSC annual exhibition at Union College. I was 11ish maybe, and did a group number with my then pairs coach, Chip, as well as with two other skaters that he taught. I'm the littlest skater up first in the routine, which is aptly performed to "Head over Heels," by Tears for Fears. Get it? Because during the first lift I'm head over...nevermind.

More #tbt next week!