I've taken a big break from writing on this blog for a few reasons.
For one, I've just been quite busy. This is more of a personal diary than anything else, and the first year of my PhD program was taxing in a lot of different ways, work-wise and health-wise. I consistently felt behind and struggled to manage my mental state to accomplish what I wanted to accomplish. But as the summer comes to a close and fall semester looms, I feel that keeping this blog up to date, for myself and anyone who wants to follow along, will help to fill my cup!
But the second reason I didn't keep on writing in the past months was because the Olympics, while such an exciting culmination, really left an overwhelmingly bad taste in my mouth. COVID fears leading up to it were exhausting to keep up with. And I think for figure skating fans, the Olympics is complicated because it feels like the public (and NBC) pulls back the curtains on the sport and misrepresents so much of its intricacies. Even though the Men's, Dance, and Pairs winners were fabulous and deserving, the drama surrounding the Women's event and the Russian competitors felt gross and sad.
The figure skating community has long speculated/known that doping of some sort was widespread amongst the Russians, particularly the women. But I don't think we anticipated the extent of those doping protocols, i.e. that it wasn't just something performance enhancing, but much more far reaching. The spectacle that transpired in Beijing was disgusting and tragic, and quite frankly embarrassing. Because so much of the public only sees figure skating during the Olympics, it felt embarrassing for that to be the representation of it to such a large audience. Seeing young girls be so manipulated and devastated, and watching the narcissistic aftermath and war from Russia afterwards, took the air out of the room. While I enjoyed Worlds sans Russia, the scandal and suspicion still hung around and it was hard for me to focus on such incredible athletes knowing that the greatness that had been praised over the last decade by officials and fans, me included, was such a farce.
But looking into this season, I feel excited to watch the sport again. Excited to watch the athletes that have previously been pushed aside by Russian rankings finally see victory. Excited to see new skaters take their places following Olympic retirements. Excited to see how the sport continues on amidst new faces and changes. Ready for a great season- hope you are too.
PS- See you at Skate America :)
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