New math: Figure skating’s latest recalculations change skaters’ formula for success

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New math: Figure skating’s latest recalculations change skaters’ formula for success

In the ever-changing calculus of figure skating’s mathlympics, the latest recalculations change some of Nathan Chen’s formula for success.

His two highest-valued jumps, the quadruple Lutz and quad flip, no longer add up to much – or as much – of an advantage.

When Chen hit his first quad Lutz in 2016, the element had a base value of 13.6 points, the highest score for a jump anyone has landed in competition. At that time, a quad Lutz was worth 1.3 points more than a quad flip and 1.6 more than a quad loop.

By last season, when Chen won his second straight world title with brilliant quad Lutzes in the short program and free skate, the jump’s value had been reduced to 11.5, compared to 11.0 for the flip and 10.5 for the loop.

Next season, according to the scale-of-value list the International Skating Union published last week, the Lutz, flip and loop all will have a base value of 11.0. And the Lutz now will be worth just 1.5 more than the mundane quad toe loop after having been worth 3.3 more back in 2016.

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U.S. Olympic CEO deserves credit for decision to take pay cut, but she and board still should be shown the door

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U.S. Olympic CEO deserves credit for decision to take pay cut, but she and board still should be shown the door

When it comes to tone-deafness and managerial ineptitude, I thought I had seen and heard it all in my nearly 40 years covering the leadership and operations of the U.S. Olympic Committee.

I should have known better.

I feel that way even though U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee chief Sarah Hirshland executive has, to her credit, agreed to take a voluntary pay cut of an unspecified amount from her $600,000 annual salary, as she revealed in a Friday statement to Globetrotting.

The USOC may have changed its name to the USOPC last July, but it has not changed the spots that have made its operations a confounding detriment to the athletes it is supposed to serve.

The USOPC bottomed out morally in its untenable decision to ask Congress for $200 million of the federal coronavirus stimulus bill funds, as first reported Wednesday by the Wall Street Journal.

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Even in (finally) arriving at the right choice by postponing 2020 Olympics, actions of top U.S. and IOC officials were inglorious

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Even in (finally) arriving at the right choice by postponing 2020 Olympics, actions of top U.S. and IOC officials were inglorious

Now that sanity has prevailed, and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics have been moved to 2021 because of the coronavirus pandemic (but will still be called the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in the International Olympic Committee’s parallel universe), what can we take away from the way the decision was reached and about its ramifications?

A handful of thoughts:

1. The IOC’s abysmal handling of its messaging over the last month will be a case study in how not to do public relations.

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Solomonic figure skating schedule discussed for 2022 Olympics, with events starting in morning and evening

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Solomonic figure skating schedule discussed for 2022 Olympics, with events starting in morning and evening

After agreeing to a morning start for all figure skating events at the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea, a move that benefitted NBC by providing prime-time viewing in the United States, the International Skating Union is considering a compromise for the 2022 Winter Olympics in China.

Sources with knowledge of the situation have told Globetrotting that although discussions are continuing, they think the figure skating schedule for the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing could include starting times in both the morning and evening.

That means European viewers would not need to be awake in the middle of the night to watch all the skating.

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In figure skating, a radical proposal to reshape the sport

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In figure skating, a radical proposal to reshape the sport

In an attempt to rebalance the athletic and artistic sides of figure skating, the sport’s technical committee for singles and pairs is submitting a proposal with sweeping changes for consideration by the International Skating Union at its biennial congress this June in Thailand.

The proposal comes at a moment when the jump revolutions in men’s and women’s singles skating have created a huge competitive imbalance in favor of skaters doing the most difficult jumps – quadruples for men, quads and triple Axels for women.

The proposal will not be made public until April, when the 2020 congress agenda is published. But Fabio Bianchetti of Italy, chair of the ISU singles and pairs technical committee, confirmed its essence and intent to NBCSports.com in emails.

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