Blog: Figure skating in the media

Yeey! Kudos to Nu.nl for posting about figure skating again since June 2016!

This particular post is about skating to music considered “non-classical. Well I wonder if the editorial staff member in question has studied the sport to some extent. Indeed, the post gives the impression that it is “new” for a figure skater to skate to “non-classical” music.

Newsflash: This has been allowed within the sport since 2014 and is also widely used. And a good thing too, because it breaks the stigma of “old-fashioned” somewhat. So the rest of the world has known this for about four years, but our Humble little country is only now finding out. Something with a bell and a clapper? Afijn you are forgiven if you didn’t know this either, because I suspect no average Dutchman knew this.

Well I do believe that negative attention is also definitely positive, because how nice that there is finally something to read about figure skating again. What always amazes me is the fact that we Dutch call ourselves the country of ice skating. But which skates actually? Surely, in the popular mind, skating is associated with long track speed skating. If you ask a random person in the Netherlands; “What do you think of when you hear the word Schaatsen? Then you get the answer; Long track speed skating, Sven kramer, Elfstedentocht, skating the fastest time… And then when I ask about “Figure skating” the first reference is often ice dancing, short skirts, Holiday on Ice or Sjoukje Dijkstra.

Nothing wrong with that, of course, but then I always feel a tremendous need to explain to people what figure skating actually encompasses as a sport. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against long track speed skating at all, I think it is a wonderful sport. Indeed, the Dutch skating culture and history fascinates me enormously, but I would very much like to teach people in our little country the knowledge about figure skating as well, because that is where it is quite lacking.

Something that as a former figure skating artist I actually find hella crazy, because during my travels around the world with Holiday on Ice I found out that figure skating is really an immensely popular sport worldwide and it is gaining popularity from all other skating sports, with the exception of ice hockey. The conclusion I can draw is that we Dutch have a predilection for long track speed skating, which also makes sense with all those gold medals that are constantly being thrown around our ears. But there is more. Really.

Now for once I would like to explain in Jip & Janneke language (to stay in Dutch terms) what figure skating is.

Figure skating is a skating sport, which focuses on skating technique, expression and music. A sport practiced all over the world (yes even in the Sahara Desert) by men, women, transgenders, gays, straights, adults, children, the elderly and even, in the past, by monkeys in the circus. There is even a distinction to be made between amateurs (unpaid) and professionals (paid) just like in long track speed skating.

Figure skating consists of several disciplines. Solo riding (by the men and women individually, as in long track), pair riding (in which the man swings the woman through the air), ice dancing (in which the man and the woman do a kind of ballroom dance, without dangerous swinging) and synchronized skating (making shapes as a large team). Each discipline displays a freestyle (a type of dance choreography with mandatory technical elements). This freestyle is judged by a panel of judges with points and in the end there is then a winner, which is the one who got the highest points.

Compare it to the TV show “Dance Dance Dance” and there you are, only on an ice floor with skates on. It’s as simple as that. Really!

In dance to music, there are jumps (ice dancing does not), pirouettes, steps performed, dancing to music and skating with speed left, right, forward and backward. Or am I making it too complicated now? Perhaps therein lies the crux… Long track speed skating is skating forward to the left and whoever can skate the hardest. That does sound simpler yes.
In America, they have a nice expression for it: ‘Speedskating is like watching the grass grow.’ Again, that may be a bit of an American exaggeration, but is figure skating really too complicated to understand? Or do we in our little country just not have enough knowledge of it to understand it?

In any case, I see it as my personal mission to impart this knowledge to the people of our country in the hope that figure skating will gain wider support, become more popular and be practiced more. Otherwise, we will never get a new Sjoukje Dijkstra.

I challenge the media like nu.nl and schaatsen.nl, to look into this, publish more and do good research. Questions? You can always email or call me! 🙂