No easy answers for state of figure skating

PYEONGCHANG, South Korea – After the worst performance by U.S. women figure skaters in the nearly 100-year history of the Winter Olympics, and after an Olympics in which U.S. figure skaters did not win a gold or silver medal for the first time in 46 years, the question for U.S. Figure Skating is simple: Can it do what it must do to increase its results?

There’s a question for the rest of us too: Do we as a country really want to do what might be required to once again reach the top of the figure skating medal stand?

The questions are numerous for USFS: Is it time to adopt a semi-centralized training system that would bring coaches and athletes together periodically to work side-by-side rather than compete year-round with one another?

Is it time for the governing body to ratchet up the incentive for the youngest American girls (and boys) to do the toughest jumps as early as possible, just like the Russians, knowing that burnout and injuries are likely to follow?

And is it time to tell omnipresent American parents to leave the rink and stop smothering both their kid and their kid’s coach?

See what I mean about wondering if the USA really can do this?

The question of what’s wrong with American figure skating, especially the high-profile women’s discipline, has been asked thousands of times since the retirement of Michelle Kwan a dozen years ago. Over the past 11 years, only one U.S. woman has won a medal at the world championships (Ashley Wagner’s silver in 2016), and no U.S. woman has won an Olympic medal since 2006 (Sasha Cohen’s silver).

The issue has gained a new sense of urgency since the U.S. women plunged to a new low Friday when the American Olympic trio of Bradie Tennell, Mirai Nagasu and Karen Chen finished the competition in ninth, 10th and 11th place, respectively, well behind 15-yearold Russian gold medalist Alina Zagitova and 18-year-old silver medalist Evgenia Medvedeva.

How to fix this? The most logical answer is to follow the lead of USA Gymnastics and bring together the very best skaters and their coaches every few months to train at a centralized location. This probably is the worst time to bring up this idea in the wake of the horrid Larry Nassar sex abuse scandal, of course, but as a sports strategy, it is something that should be considered — with strong oversight for the athletes’ safety, of course.

U.S. Olympic coach Audrey Weisiger, founder and president of Grassroots to Champions, a consulting company that develops young skaters, believes U.S. coaches and skaters should find a way to work together for the common good.

“We need more group training for skaters, and we need to get to them earlier,” she said in a phone interview Saturday from her home in the Washington, D.C., suburbs. “Instead of reaching the 15-, 16-year-olds, we should be looking at the 10-14-year-olds. They don’t have to be the ones who are winning every competition yet. You want to help them on their way. You want to start checking to see how they’re physically developing, help them with the appropriate nutrition information, encourage them to take ballet, that kind of thing. And if they all do it together, it’s a lot more fun.”

Right now, the U.S. system is quintessentially American, a patchwork of skaters and coaches scattered at rinks across the country, competing against one another for coveted spots on world and Olympic teams.

“It’s a free for all,” Weisiger said. Add often-frantic parents to the haphazard equation, and you have, well, ninth, 10th and 11th place at the Olympic Games.

U.S. figure skating parents want the best for their kids, but they often interfere in their child’s progress, including telling coaches how to coach.

Skating is not an inexpensive sport, so many American parents want results, and fast, which means there’s an emphasis on short-term gain vs. longterm development.

Then there is the jumping. Pushing the growing bodies of young girls and boys to practice triple jumps all day is a very Russian thing to do. But would it fly as an overall philosophy in America?

Wagner, 26, who failed to make the 2018 Olympic team but has had remarkable longevity in the sport, has spoken about the “huge culture difference” between the USA and Russia. She said her long career is due in part to not being “overloaded” with her sport, quite a contrast with the one-and-done Olympic careers of almost every Russian woman. “When you are skating that intensely from such a young age, of course these girls are going to get burned out,” Wagner said earlier this season.

The USA most definitely wants to compete with Russia again in women’s figure skating — but it will never, ever become Russia.

“It’s not going to happen like Russia,” Weisiger said. “We’re not Russia. We’re more like Canada, but Canada is way ahead of us too.”