Figure Skating Is Not A Sport

It is ridiculous that ice skating is in the Olympics. It is not a sport and should not be given any credibility by receiving the international stamp of approval. Ice skating is nothing more than performing on ice, which does not constitute a sport. It should be removed from the Olympics, so we do not have to continue listening to the soap opera dramas that are associated with it.

A sport is very simple. There must be a objective method to determine who the winner and loser are. In many sports a person is racing against the clock - an unforgiving force and something that cannot be manipulated. In other sports, the athlete is competing with another to score more points. That’s it.

Any activity where there is a “judge” who will provide some subjective score to determine which performer is the winner falls outside the definition of a sport. The Olympics is designed to have athletes compete with one another in sports, not performances - leave those awards up to the Tonies or the Academy.

The debacle in the 2002 Olympics is a case in point. The French judge was on the take so she sandbagged one of the ice skating competitors and gave them a score that was way out of range with the other judges. Then this big turmoil arose as to how a judge could be on the take in the “prestigious” Olympics - which was already marred by the call girl scandal (much more interesting than a French ice skating judge). If ice skating had an objective perspective that could not be tampered with this brew haha would never had occurred. The reality is that the event is completely subjective, which prevents it from receiving any credibility.

There are a number of performances that the Olympics appear to hang on to. Diving, synchronized swimming, freestyle aerials, etc. This is not to say that these and other performance based events are not difficult, they are just not sports. Ballet dancing is difficult. So is rock climbing. Neither of these are in the Olympics, because the world is content to rank these as activities and not sports. There is no difference between ballet dancing and ice skating in terms of how they should be evaluated for a place in the Olympics. Neither should be there.

There will always be some form of human error in sports. A baseball umpire can call balls and strikes differently for different teams, which will result in a different result for the ultimate score. Many sports have sought to eliminate the subjective aspect. American football has instituted the instant replay so under certain circumstances the referees can review the tv camera to determine if the call made on the field was accurate. Horse racing has had the photo finish for many many years, so an unbiased viewpoint can be used to determine the winner. These kind of checks cannot be implemented for the subjective activities.

It is time to take the soap opera out of the Olympics and stick to serious sports drama such as the Miracle on Ice and other great moments in sports history.