ahsdjadhajsds hello fellow sufferer in the hellfires of figure skating!!!! 😭

can i first say that i love how you got into fs because of yuri on ice ;o; i loved it as an old fs fan, and i think it's so lovely that fandom and/or a piece of media can be so impactful that it makes people appreciate the subject matter all the more ♡ YOI YOU WILL ALWAYS BE FAMOUS

i absolutely agree with everything you've said; it's the reason why i also checked out of the sport around the same time you did. to me, the golden era of figure skating was around 2012/13 - 2016/17, and the 2018 olys rounding up the quad felt like a culmination of all that, which is why pyeongchang still has such a special place in so many hearts. i only survived the 2018-2022 quad because of yuzu. but it was so disheartening to see the conversations surrounding figure skating at the time gravitate more and more towards boosting BVs, celebrating other skaters who tried to make up for the sheer difference in artistic skill just by jamming in jump after jump that aren't even executed well on their own, much less in a cohesive programme. i properly stopped keeping up with fs after beijing, which still makes me sad because checking back in now makes me see how far the field has fallen... i only follow men's and dance, but i can count the number of proper skaters on one hand ;;

i always joke that ISU should be renamed to IJU (international jumping union) 💀

because it reflects my biggest question for figure skating today: since when — and why — has figure SKATING (!!!) been about who has the most stamina for the craziest or highest number of jumps?

in the quest to play the game of technical inflation, a whole generation of skaters are now training to do jumps before they've truly mastered anything else, and so often this means sacrificing the time spent on fundamental skating skills like spins, step sequences, edge switches. and this creates such a vicious cycle because poor fundamentals → poor entry/exits and inability to do meaningful transitions → so much empty space in programmes because skaters spend all this time teeing up to big jumps that get them the big BVs. there is no connection between the choreography and the music, no lyrical or musical skating, and we all end up just watching skaters skate OVER their music instead of TO the music

and imo this is one of the saddest parts of fs because it's losing its ability to be one of the sports that truly connect the most to the public. like. let's be honest!!! the average fs watcher will not know the difference between a toe loop and a flip, much less be able to really watch edge switches or tell how rotated a jump is. BUT everyone can enjoy poetry in motion, an athlete who is able to blend technical prowess with artistry in a way that truly does justice to the music, choreography, and the effortless level of skating expected at the olympics — but we have none of that now and we're all just left watching, as you've rightfully called them, "highly disjointed choreography" that look and feel ugly!!!

it just makes me sad as a long-time fs enjoyer that not only it is alienating older fans who've been around for the glory days, it's also painting such a poor picture for newer fans who want to love fs

i think there is no true recourse for this sport until and unless the ISU is demolished entirely and rebuilt independently from the ground up. there's just too much corruption in there (federations buying support, suspicious judging assignments, the way panels become uncharacteristically strict or lenient on some nations) and the focus has shifted so far away from what figure skating itself once was. only when the governing body changes what it prioritises can the skaters do the same, because it means then that the correct skills are being rewarded at correct levels

honestly ice dance was onto something back when they had compulsories. it made sure everyone trained the fundamentals and you can't flub it with a backflip or 1324832423 quads in a programme. ~yes i am, in bitter fashion, throwing shade!!!~

this turned out to be such a long rant i'm so sorry shdfjsf but thank you for sharing your thoughts along with this ask too, and know that you're not alone in your frustration! hug of solidarity for this universal disappointment 🫂 (also thank you for reading all my olys rambling....... most of it was neither kind nor coherent lmao)