Women’s Figure Skating Has to Change

Olympic gold medalist Sarah Hughes on how the Russian doping scandal could bring needed change to the sport

By SARAH HUGHES

The scene that unfolded on Thursday morning in Beijing during the Women’s Figure Skating competition — watching Kamila Valieva, the 15-year-old thrust into the center of Russia’s doping scandal, struggle so publicly — was disheartening on many levels. It also capped off a terrible week for the sport of figure skating, the Olympic Games, the Olympic movement — and, most of all, the women involved.

The women competing have spent their lives sacrificing normalcy — and their health — at a chance to be number one in the world. And this is where we have a problem.

The Olympic creed is that the most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part. But how can one take part when they are broken down? Something needs to change. Here’s how that change could start.

Update the Scoring System

Exploiting the scoring system shouldn’t result in exploiting the athlete. When the 6.0 scoring system was replaced with the International Judging System in the early 2000s — moving away from a relatively subjective and wholistic approach, into one that awards points for each individual element the skater executes — the unintended consequence was a prioritization of jumping (included in the first mark) versus the artistry and skating skills (the second mark). To gain the biggest advantage under this system, skaters focus their training on jumping. The first quad landed by a woman was in this Olympics, with the first and second place finisher doing multiple quads in their program. The goal of the scoring system, both in the 6.0 system and now, is that the skater who is the best at both marks ends up on top. But that is not what is happening, because it is so much harder to rack up points in the second mark once quads are introduced. So it becomes a jumping game. It should be noted that no woman over 17 has landed a quad in competition.

Ensure Skaters Are Healthy, No Matter Their Age

Another solution that has been suggested is raising the age limit of competitors in skating. I’m not convinced this is the answer. If a skater is good enough, and is able to do necessary elements under the scoring system, that skater should be allowed to compete at a level consistent with their skill. Since 1994, teenage women have dominated the top spot at the Games, with 7 out of the last 8 Olympic champions winning as a teenager (including myself at 16). The top men tend to be older. The age limit in skating is the same for men and women, but raising the age limit disproportionately affects women, who generally peak in the sport earlier than men.

The sport has erred towards favoring women who are very young and very thin. Maybe fixing one fixes the other. What about another metric to ensure a healthier body? That would help avoid unhealthy measures taken to delay puberty and keep weight at unhealthy levels, lessening the mental and emotional turmoil these young girls face to succeed in the sport.

Monitor Potentially Harmful ‘Stables’

One more solution to encourage the well-being of the athletes could be to stop harmful skating stables, where skaters tend to have little say and multiple skaters of the same level are pitted against each other. In a stable like this, skaters have less of an incentive to take care of their own well-being. There is a win at all costs attitude that goes against the principles of sportsmanship and fair play. The skaters are disposable, with the coaching team spreading its bets among the skaters and having less of an interest in maintaining their physical and mental well-being than if there were fewer of the top skaters under the same coach. When parents think of sending their child to the “best coach,” they aren’t thinking they are sending their child to be broken, they are thinking they are doing what’s best for their child’s success.

Perhaps the solution is simpler and more narrow: more frequent doping tests and in multiple ways, such as hair samples, blood tests, and urine tests. Harsher penalties for coaches and doctors whose athletes test positive for banned substances. The International Skating Union or International Olympic Committee monitoring magnet facilities. Being in this world, there many people who exclude the values of sportsmanship and fair play, and have fulfilling, purposeful post-Olympic lives. The solutions that need to be implemented aren’t ones that change those lives. They are the ones that will disincentive what we are seeing now. It is unfortunate that it took a positive doping test to get the ball rolling on athlete well-being — which should be table stakes — but now that we’re here, this can be the most important change of all.

Sarah Hughes won a gold medal for figure skating at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics.

Role Models Can Serve as the Ultimate Inspiration

Sarah Hughes, a law student, won the gold medal in women's figure skating at the 2002 winter Olympics. She is on Twitter.

UPDATED AUGUST 16, 2016, 3:21 AM

The life of an Olympic athlete is not glamorous. And this is coming from a person who chose, possibly, the most glamorous sport in the Games. Figure skating meant early mornings in a cold, gray rink. It meant blistered feet from new skates. It meant sore body parts, after falling in the same spot time after time, morning after morning, day after day, week after week — and in my case for one specific jump — multiplying that same process for almost four years. But who’s counting?

Well, turns out we all are. Numbers tend to be important when it comes to the Olympics.

I remember hitting a rough spot a few months before the games. My role model, Tenley Albright, the first American woman to win the gold in Women's Figure Skating, served as an inspiration. I was pursuing athletics and academics at the top level, something none of my peers were doing at the time — and something none of her peers had done either. Doing something no one else is doing is not easy. It can be very isolating. But thinking of how she was able to excel in the rink and in school kept me motivated during the times I doubted it was possible to hand in an essay on the American Revolution in the morning and perform triple-triples in the afternoon.

Having role models is integral to staying motivated. It helps change the mindset from “I’m tired. This is hard. Why bother?” to knowing it is possible to dig deeper and be better. When I think of the trickle-down effect that my efforts could have, I am also motivated to push myself a little harder. I want to inspire others too.

Months after Tenley won gold, she enrolled in medical school, one of few women in her class. All of her professors were male. Today, I am a law student at the University of Pennsylvania. Roughly half my class consists of women, and last year, three of my professors were women.

These numbers are important because — like the numbers on a scoreboard — they represent progress. Numbers can signal setbacks, participation, and help frame our goals. They keep me motivated in sport and in life.

They help me measure my work, and the world around me. After all, at the Rio Olympics, there are 292 women representing the United States, the highest number to ever compete for one nation. Continuing that upward trend (one that builds a more diverse group of role models) keeps me motivated.

A Strong Family Was the Key to Victory

Sarah Hughes won the gold medal in women's figure skating at the 2002 winter Olympics. A graduate of Yale University, she is writing her first book and blogging at the Olympics in London. She is on Twitter.

UPDATED AUGUST 11, 2016, 2:57 PM

I started skating when I was 3 years old, standard for kids growing up in Canada, my father’s birthplace. Competing in the Olympic Games had been a dream of mine from the beginning, but being one of six children, skating was not the most important aspect of my – or my family’s – life.

My parents were not willing to separate me from my family or take me out of my local public school to accomplish my dreams. If I was going to make it in skating, I was going to do it by being a functional family member and following the same rules as my brothers and sisters. And this suited me just fine – one house, one school, one community, one rink provided a very stable and productive environment.

I made it by being a functional family member in a productive environment -- one house, one school, one community, one rink.

When I was 12 years old, my mother was hospitalized with breast cancer. I was on the way to making my first national team. The thrill of seeing my excitement at each stage of qualifying gave her strength through many rounds of chemotherapy. On days she was too weak to walk down the hospital corridor, she would think, “I have to make it through. I have to be there for my kids.” My mom was able to leave the hospital to come to Philadelphia from New York to watch me win the Junior Ladies title. That day I was skating for more than just the judges.

The stability instilled in my life by my parents made all the difference when I performed in Salt Lake City on skating’s grandest stage. When I stood atop the Olympic podium five months after 9/11 – in my home country – I was able to share more than just my skating experience with the same people who were with me all along. My younger sister, Emily, who competed in the 2006 Olympic Games, was raised in the same stable, supportive environment. We are among the lucky ones whose journeys are family affairs.

It is no surprise to me that the comment heard most this week in interviews with our Olympic athletes in London, whether medal winners or not, is that their greatest joy comes from sharing the experience with their parents and loved ones. That will also be their greatest memory.