The Human Drama of Athletic Competition
The Human Drama of Athletic Competition by Jimmie Santee
Originally published in the Mar/Apr 2014 PS Magazine
“Spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of sport... the thrill of victory... and the agony of defeat... the human drama of athletic competition... This is ABC's Wide World of Sports!”
Doug Wilson, U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame inductee was known as the premier director in figure skating for ABC or for that matter, any network. In a recent interview on The Manleywoman SkateCast, he referred to the iconic opening of Wide World of Sports. Interestingly, I think we all immediately focus on the visual image of ski jumper Vinko Bogataj’s horrible crash but according to Wilson it wasn’t “the thrill of victory... and the agony of defeat” that made the show popular for 37 years. It was the line, “the human drama of athletic competition.” The theatre he describes compelled the viewer to an emotional connection to the athletes. In Wilson’s opinion there was no better sports drama than figure skating. Wilson purposely directed the show to create that bond between viewer and skater. ABC’s Roone Arledge popularized the spot “Up Close and Personal” that made the athletes human, creating a special bond that drove the fan to care of the outcome. As reported in a Sports Illustrated article in 1984, “Tiffany Chin was cast as a china doll. All the lighting, camera shots and settings were selected to remind the viewer of her fragility.” For all intent and purpose, the human drama was the secret of our success.
Unfortunately, for a number of years now, there has been limited coverage of figure skating on over-the-air TV and a plethora of other sports programming. The result is that our diminishing fan base lacks the emotional connection to our skaters that we once enjoyed. Of the last ten years, we have had eight different ladies champions. I believe it difficult for the casual fan to become connected to our stars when they are continually being introduced to the next champion.
Figure Skating also has an aging fan base. Again, because of our limited exposure on over-the-air broadcasting, this elderly demographic group is becoming more difficult to reach. They still prefer to read printed newspapers and watch the evening news of one of the major networks. Many are not comfortable surfing the net for coverage or follow our current skaters on Twitter.
That all being said, I do believe we are poised for a renaissance. The recent U.S. Championships is a great example. The Boston championships were filled with great performances, remarkable disappointments, and drama… major drama, and at the forefront was the Olympic team selection of Ashley Wagner over Mirai Nagasu which sent shockwaves through the fandom. While most of us expect USA Today and the Chicago Tribune to cover Nationals, all of a sudden we were top stories in many new outlets; ESPN, Sports Illustrated, CNN, and People to name a few. In fact, the January 17th issue of Entertainment Weekly listed the Championships #3 on their “Must List; the top 10 things we love this week.” All eyes will be waiting to see if Ashley can prove the International selection committee right.
Then there was the men’s event. Jason Browns program will be remembered as one of the greatest performances of all time a U.S. Championships. Reported on the Team US website, his coach Kori Ade estimated that the most hits on YouTube he had ever had was 8000. Just over a week after nationals, his program had generated over 2.5 million views! As I write this it has surpassed 3.1 million! To continue with the men - Rules of Sport 1322 states: “Before each performance, the name of the competitor shall be called. A competitor must take the starting position… no later than one minute after the competitors name has been called. Failing to do so, the competitor shall be considered withdrawn.” So…Jeremy Abbott’s name is called…at thirty seconds, he steps away from the boards and proceeds to present himself to the audience. Casually he circles the ice taking in the crowd and atmosphere. At fifteen seconds I was thinking to myself, ‘He better take his spot.’ At ten seconds he passes his starting position and starts back up the ice…at five, the crowd starts counting down. Quoted on ESPN.com, Jeremy said, "I thought, 'Why is everyone counting?'" Abbott said. "Then I realized, 'That's the time left!'" Scrambling, he hit his position at ZERO! Can you imagine if he had been disqualified!
All in all, skating has a great opportunity to create the next boom. There has been more media attention on skating than there has been in years… Gracie appeared on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Jason Brown on Arsenio Hall. Gracie was the cover of Sports Illustrated. We are creating that great emotional attachment to these young skaters…let’s hope we can capitalize on it!
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