What is Happening to Women's Figure Skating? | An Essay | PART 1

What is happening to women's figure skating? In part 1 of this essay, we're reliving the last two Olympic cycles through the stories of the girls who have dominated and shaped women's figure skating in the past 8 years.
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Twitter: @Fran_klymydear
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0:00 - Intro
5:02 - The Quad Revolution
10:50 - The Tutberidze System
13:55 - Yulia Lipnitskaya
18:40 - Evgenia Medvedeva
29:03 - Alina Zagitova
40:00 - Trusova, Shcherbakova, Kostornaia
48:24 - Kamila Valieva
50:25 - The Lost Girls
52:45 - The Price to Pay

[FranTalksSkating]

As Kamila Valieva just became involved in a doping scandal at the Beijing Olympics, I once again raise the question: what is a little girl worth? Kamila is only 15. If there really were illegal substances in her tests, the blame is entirely on the adults who exploited her for their own gains, ruining her dreams, her health and her reputation.

[KOPMOPAH]

Not allowing the mother of a teenage girl to live in the same city in order to prevent distractions? Wow, this is very telling, most likely it would prevent abuse.

[thedorkone]

"What happened to women's figure skating?"

The same thing that happened to women's gymnastics. The people running it discovered that not only could pre-pubescent girls pull off more visually impressive moves, but they were much easier to manipulate and exploit.

[danceteacherrlb]

Everyone needs to stop saying teenage bodies are capable of these big jumps. If they are fracturing bones doing them they are NOT capable.

[MononokeLynn]

Karen Chen said in an interview that she’s 22 and her career was coming to an end, which made me realize just how ridiculous the teen trend at the olympics really is.

[BalletTapJazz]

Personally I think it makes so much more sense to have a Junior, TEEN, and then Senior division, as there are in dance competitions. 14 year old and woman should not be used in the same sentence

[Veritasominavincit]

If grown women cannot compete then by definition it ceases to be woman’s skating - I agree the rules/age limit should be changed. This harm to girls should be stopped.

[mdrivera]

The fact that their bodies are so broken beyond repair that they can't even skate by the next olympic cicle is horrifying. The committees should not encourage techniques that destroys this girls' career by the next year.

[vsm]

This is no different than putting malnourished 14 year old girls on a runway and calling it “women’s fashion”. Humanity is horrible to teenage girls.

[alexanderdemitrigarcia]

Shout out to Carolina Kostner from Italy for competing in the Olympic Womens Figure skating until she was 31 years old. That is longevity and something to be admired. From Torino all the way to PyeongChang.

[pwettyr]

Side note here; when girls train too hard and lose their periods its called "amenorrhea", which is directly linked to onset osteoporosis, and weak bone issues. (Estrogen and Progesterone levels drop which doesn't allow bone mass to be built as it should be in the mid-teens. Its common in female athletes and dancers, and fragile bones is often sighted as an indicator). How many of Tutberize's girls randomly broke a bone this season? Anna broke her foot, Trusova broke her leg, and Kosternia broke her arm....

[petiteange]

I was so disturbed when I watched the Olympics this year. Most of the other sports had actual adults in them, but for women's figure skating everyone looked so young. The contrast is huge when you place the female medallists next to the male medallists. Honestly, this sport can hardly be called women's figure skating anymore, if by 18 the athletes are already considered too old (they can still compete, but will lose faced with younger girls). This video explains a lot of what's happening, as I am just a casual audience.

[-lemon-aid-]

as a figure skater (literally in a hotel room for a competition right now) it’s so weird so realize that telling your friends you throw up before skating so you can be as light as possible isn’t something to be laughed at. but we do. i just did. i’m competing against two girls from my rink tomorrow and one of us said “try not to eat to much! it hurts coming back up!” as they were leaving. i’m watching 12 year olds landing doubles but also watching a 14 year old almost split her head open trying to do a jump spin. and we clap. we clap for this mistreatment of ourselves. we clap and we pay money to see ourselves waste away in the mirror. because all we are is that stupid metal that means nothing if it’s not gold.

[fskatingspain]

The jumps they do is based on a super light body weight, so they get starved. This end up with girls with brittle bones who just break way to easy.
Other female athletes jumping technique is based on building strong muscles to help their body handle the hard jumps.
I prefer triples by girls who can skate for several Olympic cycles, than quads and 3a by girls who have to retire because their body is broken at age 17.
It's very sad that the ISU has been supporting this factory that abuses children.

[MirkaImagination]

when I say I prefer to watch men's figure skating, this is what I mean. Women's figure skating is mostly young children training under extreme conditions to then disapear after a year or two. It's not about their performances, but everything around it. For example, in Men's figure skating, everyone can agree that Yuzuru Hanyu has been a top skater since 2014, he's 27 years old now. I don't remember seeing a female skater over the age of 20 win for a very long time.

It's sad when sports commentators say a male skater in their early twenties is young, but a female skater in their late teens is considered old for figure skating

[grrlsports]

I think the sport needs to deal with this problem because it’s destroying the sport. A simple way to address this is to increase the minimum age for senior international skating to 17. Gymnastics raised the minimum age to 16. Change did not happen immediately but we are now seeing grown women dominating the sport and having long careers, even as the sport is more technically advanced than ever.

[lucreziaborgia]

My late mother was a figure skater in her youth. When i was a girl, i asked her how come she stopped. She told me she quit because she was built on too big of a frame for figure skating, which was then in the 1990s corroborated by the top light and bottom heavy skaters I'd see in competitions when we watched it on tv as a family. My mom was a 6 foot tall and broad bodied amazon. Her explanation as to why she quit made sense to me. If you're too big the men can't lift you.


Now that she has passed i have not been keepin up with the sports and frankly I'm SHOCKED
1990s skaters were thin women in their 20s and 30s with very muscular limbs. I used to think their thighs look like farm horses thighs. Pure fucking muscle, pure power.

The girls in this video are smaller than i was at 12 years old
I'm speechless

[eekenma]

the worst part is that, all of these girls are extremely talented and have an incredible potential that is being wasted beacuse of the awful techniqs they are forced to learn at such a young age.

[bfetoile]

We have this problem in dance too- the younger the participants are easier to exploit and abuse. Adults don't put up with the same level of mistreatment. It is a major problem. The kids are treated like they are disposable.

[ladylibertystacker]

If a 15 year old is not held accountable for doping with banned substances, then they are too young to compete. Women’s figure skating is fast becoming the winter gymnastics of little girls. Rules definitely need to be changed to level the playing field for all eligible female skaters.