An Afterthought

The adult figure skating season has basically ended. There are some random competitions between now and August before everything starts up again with the international competition in September. However, for the most part, the competitive season is over for 2023-2024. Several things occurred this season: some good, some not so good. Personally, I could have done without fracturing my wrist (yeah, it wasn’t just a sprain, but I didn’t find out until weeks later and it was healing on its own. I did, however, find a really, really cute orthopedist, however, he’s engaged…) I could have done without plantar fasciitis, which I’m still struggling with. Or that “edge class” that wasn’t. Those are my personal items. This post is about something bigger. Did you try to watch the major adult competitions this season? Oberstdorf always does an awesome job; they are wonderful with their coverage. No, I’m talking about Sectionals. Did you see it? Could you see it? For the most part, that answer was no. Easterns, which is my neck of the woods, was available for viewing via LliveBarn, for a price. Midwesterns and Pacific Coast were not available for viewing unless you were in the arena, and you had purchased a ticket. I’m all for people making a dollar, but they couldn’t find some way to allow the folks at home to watch the competition. Not even LiveBarn? Don’t get me wrong, LiveBarn is bad, horrible, okay it stinks. Since it was made for hockey, it has a hard time following a single skater. Or that was the excuse LiveBarn gave me when I filed a complaint. It has a hard time following a single skater, but can follow a small black puck across the ice with ten skaters chasing that puck and two standing on either end of the rink? Yeah, sure. As for Nationals, well that was another joke. Again, LiveBarn, with all its problems. Skaters would disappear outside the view of the cameras. Or my favorite, the feed would just shut down in the middle of a program, only to return ten minutes later. I hope there were official videos, but since I haven’t seen any posted by the people who usually post on social media, I have my doubts. Never thought I’d say that I miss Ice Network. It’s better than last year, when there was an official videographer, but no videos. You just had to wait almost eight months to receive your video, after receiving a lot of excuses. Again, never thought I’d miss Ice Network. Would they have done this to the kids? Absolutely not. I understand the economics of running a competition. I know it’s expensive and no one ever breaks even. Making a profit is unheard of. However, if adult skaters are serious enough to put down their hard-earned money, practice for months, take off from work, fly to wherever these competitions are held and stay in a hotel, don’t we deserve recognition? Similar treatment to the kids? No, we’re not going to the Olympics (and neither are 90% of the kids), but we don’t quit until physically or financially, we just can’t do it anymore. A new boyfriend or girlfriend doesn’t cause us to toss our skates into the closet and let them rust away. We don’t need our parents’ permission to continue. And we know exactly how much it costs, and we continue. Don’t we deserve to be treated better? A recent post on social media stated that the monthly USFS Figure Skating magazine would become a quarterly publication instead of monthly. I suppose it would save money because it’s a multi-color publication on slick paper. However, by making it a quarterly publication, there will be even fewer articles about adults. There was no mention of the international competitions in Italy or Nashville in the magazine. The Gold/Senior level tests are the only ones listed in the back of the magazine. However, synchro is well represented. I was informed that someone, somewhere, is trying to make synchro an Olympic sport. Bring softball back to Olympics or add roller skating (which is really popular in Europe) before bringing in synchro in. Of course, this is just a rant about the disparity regarding the ability to watch children skating at Sectionals and Nationals and adults doing the same. It will never be even; I know that. Our dollars keep our clubs and the governing bodies afloat, our volunteering keep events for the kids from shutting down, but the end result is: we only matter to ourselves. And that’s sad. I appreciate what adult skaters have because not that long ago, we had nothing. I just wish it was a little better. Maybe I’m asking for too much. Maybe the venues for next year’s Sectionals and Nationals could start looking for videographers now so they’ll be ready for March and April. Maybe LiveBarn can improve. Seriously never expected to miss Ice Network.