• discussions >
• Front Room

Figure Skating Season

Dudester

<p>This is the only time of the year when I pay attention to sports. Besides watching USC football, I keep up with figure skaters. Some here would say "This isn't strip club related", and they're right. We here do enjoy the female form, and in my opinion, it's at it's very best on the ice. </p>

<p>In the past few years, we've seen beauty pageant contestants embroiled in scanadal, but not counting Tonya Harding, figure skating is scandal free. Skating and training is expensive. Skaters rely on endorsements. To keep those endorsements, skaters have to steer clear of scandal. To give an idea of how lucrative those endorsements can be, from 2004 to 2006, Sasha Cohen and Michell Kwan pulled down 3.5 million a year in endorsements. Speaking of Michelle, there are moments in skating that will stay with me forever. </p>

<p>In 1996, Michelle started an eight year reign of being National Champion. In 2004, the week of Nationals, Michelle was being savaged by sports writers. Despite being to the Olympics three times, she had yet to bring home the gold. She was 22, which is ancient compared to a lot of skaters. Michelle was under pressure as she took the ice for her final skate.</p>

<p>In competition, there are eight required jumps to be completed. It's actually rare for a skater to be flawless on all their jumps. Two and half minutes into her performance, Michelle had completed the jumps-flawlessly. The crowd lept to their feet. Michelle started her footwork, in which she was incomparable. The roar of the audience was rocking the arena. Michelle completed her performance with a high speed spin. As she came to a stop, tears were streaming down her cheeks. She then went to the "kiss and cry" area to gather her scores. </p>

<p>The ovation went on for five minutes. It took eight minutes to clear the ice of all the roses and teddy bears thrown on it. Michelle completed that night with eight perfect scores. The next year, skating changed it's scoring system, so Michelle will forever be on record as the skater with the most perfect scores (35). </p>

<p>Presently, Alyssa Cyzny is the premier American skater. Watch her next week on Skate America. </p>