Figure Skating Team Event

So, you've probably heard that there is a new "Figure Skating Team Event" at the Winter Olympics.  When most of my Synchro friends heard this, I'm sure we all briefly rejoiced only to have our hearts drop when we realized what they were planning to do.

The Canadian Figure Skating Team!

Instead of the fantastic, and already existing (team) sport of Synchronized Skating, they've decided to add a team event much like the team Gymnastics event in the Summer Olympics, where there are both individual and team versions of the disciplines within the Gymnastics event.

What this means is that 10 countries will be competing in the team event, in which the placements of their individual mens, ladies, pairs and dance teams will be combined to determine the medal winners. 

Note that the individual and team competitions are separate (including the short and free programs in the team event), and that a country's entries in each discipline may differ.  So, for instance, Canada could (but won't) skate Liam Firus in the team version of the Men's short program, and Kevin Reynolds in the team version of the Men's free program, and still have Patrick Chan (plus Liam and Kevin) all compete both short and free programs in the individual event.

Sounds kind of complicated...  here's a YouTube video that may help:

Those of us in the Synchro community are all doing the "Face-Palm" right now, though I understand that the team event probably gets good TV ratings and sells more tickets, as Figure Skating is a very popular sport on TV and at the Olympics.

I don't want to sound too negative, because I love all of our Canadian Figure Skaters, and I love the sport.  However, I think I would find this event more interesting if the team event required different competitors than the individual events, or if it required the competitors to perform different programs than in the individual events.  As it is, we'll be seeing the same programs competed by the same people in the span of two weeks.

The good news for Canada is that we have a very strong team here in Sochi, and are very likely to be battling for gold or silver.  The team event actually starts tomorrow (the day before the official Opening Ceremonies)!

Still, we are disappointed that Synchronized Skating has not (yet) been included in the Olympics.

I'll have more to say about that in another post!