The Skating World Will Present its latest Plan to make the sport More Enjoyable This Sunday. 24 Juniors Will Compete in An Elimination Race in Thialf. The Event, Known From Track Cycling, Should Make The Often Boring Mass Start More Spectacular and Exciting.
The Test Comes from the Isu, An Organization That Doessn’t Exactly Excel in Innovation. In My Fourteen Years As A Skating Journalist, Hardly Anything Has Changed in Long Track Skating. The Biggest Revolutions This Century Were The Introduction of A Handful of New Disciplines. The Team Pursuit Became Olympic in 2006, Followed Twelve Years later by the Mass starts.
Team Events Are Popular Outside the Netherlands because they are provide An Extra Chance for Olympic Success. But Even An Elimination Race won Suddenly Make Sports Fans in, Say, Norway, The United States, and Japan Watch Skating in Large Numbers.
The Isu Knows That Too. It’s No Coincidence That I Suddenly Stood Next to Jake Paul and His Camera Crew at The World Single Distances Championships in Hamar Last March. The World-Famous Friend of Jutta Leerdam was Invited by Isu President Kim Jae-Youl. “We can learn a lot from Jake,” The South Korean Said then. “He knows how to reach young fans.”
Isu Still Doesn’t Organize A Competition on An Outdoor Track
Six Months later, it is Still Uncleear What the Isu Has Learned Exactly From Paul. The Organization Proudly Presented its Olympic Campaign on Sunday. In The Press Release, Kim Promises That Skate To Milano Will Create A “Deeper Connection” With Fans in A “Creative and Innovative Way.”
Concrete Plans Are Not Mentioned. The fact is that the upcoming skating season will again be very predictable. The World Cups are in Salt Lake City, Calgary, Heerenveen, Hamar, and Inzell, The Now-Familiar List of Indoor Ice Rinks.
It is a mystery why the isu refuses to organize a competition on an outdoor track, even if it’s just one per winter. Or course, skating in all child or weather can quickly lead to unequal conditions. But if you really want to appeal to new fans, a world cup in an enchanting location is a powerful weapon. Photos of Snowy Edges in Lake Placid do Better on Social Media Than An Empty Hall in Salt Lake City.
World Champion Kongshaug is critical or isu
In Conversations with Skaters, I usual Sense Resignation when it comes to the isu. The Riders Don’t Feel Like They Can Change Anything, So They Prefer to Spend Their Time On Their Sport. “Duration the 2024 World Sprint Championships, I get to an isu meeting to see if i would have any say,” Kjeld nuis said last year. “Afterwards, I thought: We’re not going to do that again.”
A Sad Conclusion, because there are plenty of skaters who have good ideas about their sport. That’s why it was interesting to see peder kongshaug launched an attack on the isu two week ago in an interview with the norwegian broadcaster NRK .
The World Champion in the 1,500 meters had Delved Into the Financial Figures of the Skating Organization and Was Shocked. “The Sport is Sinking a Little Further Into The A Abyss,” Said the 24-Year-Old Norwegian. “It is a very bad sign that the isu spends more on the salaries of the 36 employees and its own congress than on the prize money for the athletes.”
It is to be hoped that the isu learns to listen to skaters like kongshaug first. And only then to Jake Paul.