Sir, – Whatever about the popularity of competitive figure skating on television in the UK (Brian O’Connor, Sports Monday, December 3rd), participation in the sport in Ireland has never been as healthy as it is today.
Emerald Learn to Skate classes, organised by the Ice Skating Association of Ireland, are full every weekend and elite figure skaters such as Clara Peters and Conor Stakelum are representing Ireland on the global stage in world, European and Grand Prix events. Sochi is very much on the radar for those in Ireland who follow the sport and for Peters, in particular, as she endeavours to become the first figure skater from Ireland to qualify for the Winter Olympics in 2014.
In light of this rising interest, it is disappointing that a newspaper that sponsors an award for Irish sportswomen has published an article with the tone that O’Connor uses in his opening paragraphs. Katarina Witt did not win two Olympic titles because she was “beautiful, a genuine shout out loud cracker”. She was an extraordinarily tough and consistent competitor who was able to execute highly technical programmes while at the same time portraying an aesthetic appropriate to the music that accompanied her skating. Witt was a supremely talented skater and deserves respect for her athletic achievements, not to be diminished by adolescent wink-wink-nudge-nudge style tabloid journalism. As for his assertion that Witt in her glory days would be “an also-ran if she competed now” under the current judging system, I very much doubt it.
O’Connor fails to mention that, as well as points earned for specific technical elements, the International Judging System in use today also incorporates programme component scores for skating skills, choreography and performance where Witt would have been amply rewarded. If he had been in Nice at the World Championships this year, O’Connor would have seen routines from the likes of Carolina Kostner and Daisuke Takahashi that would rival anything the skaters of yesteryear produced in terms of creativity, drama and excitement.
That “much of the soul” and “much of skating’s television audience” is gone will be news to those in Japan, South Korea and China where figure skating is undergoing an unprecedented boom and countries like Canada, France, Italy, Spain, Finland and Russia where figure skaters are well-known and respected sportspeople. – Yours, etc,