I’m not particularly the romantic type but certain things tend to spawn warm fuzzies in me. One such thing is the Olympics. Watching young men and women throw their all into sport for the chance to win (even though most won’t even come close) is one of those things. I recall the same feelings as I lived and breathed track and cross-country running in high school. I have fleeting desires of being able to race that fast, throw every cell into an activity, to think that succeeding will be the best. But then, my aching ankles and knees remind me of the consequences of doing so…
Pairs figure skating, in my mind, is one of the best illustrations of sport, romance, and perversion. It is definitely a sport. Have you ever tried to skate? To skate and jump off the ice…and not have a brain injury? To catch someone spinning over your head? To do all that and look graceful? But pairs are also supposed to be artistry and poetry. The couple skates in a way to tell a romantic or romantic/tragic story. But with the new scoring system couples are rewarded with moves, jumps, catches, positions. They are not as well rewarded for fluidity, artistry, and poetry. Maybe I’m showing my age but I found very few of the skating pairs very interesting this year. The couple that won certainly were interesting, both on the ice and their personal story. But, many just skated to music and did the moves they knew would get higher scores.
In my mind, it perverts the romance of the sport. Sure, the skaters are athletic. Sure, the moves they do are amazing taken one at a time. But, I would liken it current pop hip-hop lyrics that skip all the romance and just flaunt or demand raw sexual activity. Forget the dinner and the candles, just give me sex!
If you were watching the long program of pairs, you may have seen a Canadian couple. They fell and so wouldn’t have medaled. However, I think they had more romance and art in their skating than all of the first three combined.
Which leaves me one question. Are we beyond romance in this day and age? Missed something on television? You can catch the 30 second clip of the most important points on video. Don’t want to watch a whole football game? You can get the highlights instead. Seems we like things raw and to the point.
Maybe this is the sin of Cliffs Notes 🙂
Musings on Faith and Psychology 
Interesting thoughts. I didn’t enjoy the couples as much this year either, but their outfits were pretty amazing.
I agree that doing moves for points is a ridiculous rating system. The artistry of the sport cannot remain intact if the pair only has a certain amount of time to put in a ton of moves and do a beautiful performance.
Still, I am always AMAZED at what they do on the ice.