With tweaks, proposed figure skating changes make sense

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With tweaks, proposed figure skating changes make sense

It used to be that the start of the Grand Prix Series marked the start of a figure skating season.

The first Grand Prix event of this Olympic season still is three weeks away, but so much already happened, on the ice in Challenger Series events and away from it with discussions of change in format and scoring, that it’s already time to offer some observations on the sport’s present and future.

I will do it in two parts, one today and one tomorrow.

Let’s start with some thoughts on the potential scoring and program changes I revealed in an icenetwork exclusive Sept. 11.  A top International Skating Union official called the changes "radical" and part of an effort to help figure skating regain some of its past popularity after its rapid decline everywhere but Asia, especially Japan, without whose fans the sport would be reeling toward irrelevance.

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ISU proposes "radical change" to rebalance figure skating's artistry and athleticism

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ISU proposes "radical change" to rebalance figure skating's artistry and athleticism

A top official at the International Skating Union said the organization is looking at "radical change" in figure skating in order to achieve a better balance between the athletic and artistic sides of the sport.

The change would involve substantially lowering the base values of quadruple jumps and, for pairs, quadruple throws. For three of the five quads being done in men's singles, the reduction would be more than 10 percent, according to proposed numbers obtained by icenetwork.

"This is the direction line I am working on with the intent to make a radical change for the future development of the sport, hoping to bring back the popularity that figure skating used to have in the past," Italy's Fabio Bianchetti, the chair of the ISU Single & Pair Skating Committee, wrote in an email.

Another change may include replacing the current short program and free skate with what would effectively be an athletic program and an artistic program. Each would award full medals in events like the Olympics and the world championships, and there also would be a full medal for the all-around winner.

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Japanese figure skating star Uno makes big leap(s) with help from U.S. coach

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Japanese figure skating star Uno makes big leap(s) with help from U.S. coach

It was a perfect mid-August morning, sunny and dry with a temperature in the low 80s. On such a summer day, most people would do anything to get outdoors.

That is where field hockey player Itsuki Uno, 15, and his father, Hiroki, were going to be. They were headed for the golf course, just as they had almost every day during the Uno family's three-week stay in the Chicago suburbs.

Itsuki's older brother, Shoma, 19, would not be in the golfing party.

"I don't particularly like being outdoors," Uno said through an interpreter, with a sly grin that needed no translation.

Uno was perfectly happy spending his days in an environment that could best be described as anti-summer: the indoor ice sheets at rinks north and west of Chicago, where he was working with the man whose expertise as a jump coach had helped the skater make the podium at all nine of his competitions last season. Five of those were victories, and Uno leaped from seventh at the world championships in 2016 to the silver medal in 2017.

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Brown holds optimism despite quad-less programs

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Brown holds optimism despite quad-less programs

HELSINKI, Finland -- The practice rink for the 2017 World Figure Skating Championships is carved out of the granite below the main arena.

As Jason Brown skated in that stonewalled ice cave Tuesday afternoon, the setting was an appropriate metaphor for the state of his career since he made his only appearance at worlds in 2015.

With injuries having slowed his progress the past two seasons, Brown, a 2014 Olympian, finds himself caught between a rock and a hard place.

The rock? Quadruple jumps.

The hard place? Being the only one among the world's once-and-current top men to never land a quad in competition.

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