What Ashley Wagner’s third U.S. Figure Skating title means for the sport

Ashley Wagner is elated after skating a flawless freeskate at the 2015 U.S. Figure Skating National Championships. (Photo: Streeter Lecka, Getty Images)

On Saturday night around 10:50pm EST, Ashley Wagner won her third national figure skating title, snatching the top spot away from 2014 national champion Gracie Gold. Wagner, who won with a score of 221.02, bested Gold by more than 15 points overall and 10 points in the free skate. Gold took a costly fall on a triple flip, a jump that she’d been struggling with since returing from a severe stress fracture in her foot which sidelined her from the Grand Prix Final in December.

Olympics in the age of Twitter: How social media has changed the Games

via www.shoshigames.tumblr.com

If you asked me four years ago when I was watching the Olympics that took place in Vancouver if I was live-tweeting the results of the Pairs Figure Skating event, I’d give you a puzzled look; just like the ones Johnny Weir and Tara Lipinksi give Terry Gannon when he tries to make golf analogies during figure skating coverage.

Without question, social media has dominated these Olympic games. NBC, the American network with broadcast rights to the games, the IOC, and the U.S. Olympic Team, among other large organizations affiliated with the Olympics, each have their own Twitter account(s). They update them constantly with endless hours of video coverage, photographs, and live updates from the slopes and ice. However, the most amazing part about the increased access to the games does not come in the form of pre-planned, canned tweets from broadcasters who may never have performed a free skate or ever strapped a snowboard to their boots. Increased access to the games also means increased public access to the athletes, making everyone around the world feel a personal connection to the Olympics in ways never previously felt.

The 2012 London Olympics were dubbed the “Social Olympics,” because it was truly the first time where athletes had unprecedented access to the Internet, and social media sites like Twitter, which are designed for updating “followers” frequently, became incredibly popular. Although Twitter and Facebook existed during the 2010 Vancouver games, and the 2008 Beijing games, neither of these two events garnered as much social media traction as 2012. In Beijing, athletes’ access to the Internet was limited due to China’s tech policy, which debilitates and quashes freedom of speech and access to websites. In Vancouver, Twitter simply wasn’t popular enough to have the intense coverage that 2012 gave the social media site.

If 2012 was the “Social Olympics,” then 2014 will be dubbed the “Viral Olympics.” Between Jason Brown’s ponytail having its own Twitter account, Ashley Wagner memes, Sage Kotsenburg’s “The Holy Crail” trending on Twitter, or the American skier who saved stray puppies that were roaming Sochi, the personal lives and stories of these athletes are reported on in ways we never previously imagined or experienced. #SochiProblems began trending almost instantly.

Watching the games with my friends, we felt a personal connection to figure skater Jason Brown, whose video (filmed by coach Kori) of him singing his own rendition of Take a Look at Me Now by Phil Collins made us laugh until we cried. Even before the games Jason’s performance to Riverdance at the U.S. National Championships (which earned him a ticket to Sochi) went viral due in part to a Buzzfeed article. His electric personality reverberates through the TV or computer screen, and we can’t help but grin as big as Jason does whenever we see him.

An even bigger reason for the increased personal connection I have to these games has been the response by the athletes to my tweets, and other fans’ as well. Over the course of the past two weeks, I’ve live-tweeted the figure skating events, including all team events, and the pairs and men’s singles. During this time, I’ve reached out to many figure skaters, including 2007 World Champion Kimmie Meissner, 9 Time U.S. Champion and diplomat Michelle Kwan, 2014 U.S. Olympians Jason Brown, Marissa Castelli, and Felicia Zhang and Ashley Wagner, and the 2014 Men’s figure skating Bronze Medalist Denis Ten, who competed on behalf of Kazakhstan. To my surprise, all of them acknowledged my tweets in some way, whether it was just a “favorite,” a retweet, or even a full-fledged conversation.

Jason Brown and Michelle Kwan have favorited numerous tweets of mine, and Kwan has even responded to me during a Twitter town hall when I asked a question about her new role at the Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

@MariManoog Being a sk8er prepared me for my role in diplomacy – engage w/foreign public & connect w/ ppl from around the world. #AskKwan

— Michelle Kwan (@MichelleWKwan) January 31, 2014

Felicia Zhang and her partner Nate Bartholomay were absolutely beautiful in their free skate performance in the pairs event, and they were one of few teams to skate a clean performance: no falls. I made sure to let her know how impressive I thought this was, tweeting at her and Marissa Castelli throughout the pairs event. Once the event was over, Felicia went through my page and favorite or retweeted EVERY tweet I posted about her. Marissa Castelli’s mom even found my tweet about Marissa and her partner Simon Shnapir, and once she retweeted it, Marissa found my account and favorited it too.

Kimmie Meissner and I spent much of Friday afternoon tweeting back and forth, bonding over our mutual love for figure skater Brian Joubert, the 4-time Olympian from France who we both had a crush on 10 years ago.

I tweeted about how impressed I was with Team Kazakhstan in the figure skating event, and how cool it was to see countries different from the normal skating powerhouses being successful. Kimmie retweeted me, and then almost immediately, the New York Times Sochi 2014 account did the same, and soon enough after Ten was finished cooling down and accepting his medal, he retweeted me too. Ten’s retweet allowed my tweet to gain over 12,000 views, which is the most exposure my social media has ever had.

The rise of Team Kazakhstan in figure skating is really awesome. So cool to see different countries make it big. cc: @kimmiemeissner

— Mari Manoogian (@MariManoog) February 14, 2014

Ashley Wagner’s recognition of my Twitter account was probably the most hilarious; she saw a tweet I posted about her “throwing shade” after receiving lower-than-expected scores in the ladies short program portion of the team event. It was a photo of her makingher signature shocked face, and I originally had second thoughts about tagging her, for fear that I might have some negative Twitter backlash from her. However, she “favorited” it almost instantly.

Also, it’s not only social media in the form of Twitter that has taken over the games. Blogs such as The Wire and Slate run continuous Olympic coverage just like NBC and other traditional media. However, The Wire, Slate, and others are covering stories that few others caught on to: the rise in popularity of Tinder among athletes in Olympic Village, the blatant sexism in snowboarding and other sports, and the fabulously shady commentary provided and sassy outfits worn by former Olympians figure skaters Johnny Weir and Tara Lipinski. There’s even a Tumblr page called Shoshi Games devoted to photoshopping Girls character Shoshana into Olympic sports and interviews, and the articles about comparisons between Disney characters and Olympic athletes just seem endless.

It’s amazing how connected fans and bloggers can be to these games, and this would be impossible without the popularity of Twitter. Although it can be tough to maintain a professional image on Twitter, especially for an athlete who feels the agony of defeat and the joys of success on a near daily basis, having Twitter become a major part of these Olympics has allowed fans to be fully engaged in sports, and also emotionally invested in the success of the Games and the athletes.

Understanding Olympic figure skating: a GIF guide to spins

By far, the most-hyped Winter Olympics event is figure skating. The drama, politics, and scandal that has wracked this sport since the beginning keeps skaters, die-hard fans and casual viewers glued to their televisions Olympics after Olympics. One thing that has stayed constant over the years is the confusion that non-skaters have about the different elements that skaters perform. The most common question I’ve gotten as a figure skater is by far: “Can you do a triple Salchow?” First of all, the answer is certainly no–triple jumps (rotating 3 times in the air) are among the hardest elements in all of skating. Second, not all jumps are a Salchow. The second most common question I’ve gotten: “What’s a camel spin?” This post serves to compliment The Wire’s piece on the different jumps you’ll see this week and next in the Sochi games, and will explain all of the basic spin positions in skating.

Spins, specifically spin positions in figure skating, were popular during the era of the old 6.0 judging system. After the new points-based system was introduced following the Olympic Scandal of 2002, spins have become even more complicated, and more skaters have achieved levels of flexibility that used to be rare within the sport. For example, the Biellmann Spin, the final spin on our list, was a spin that only the most flexible skaters used to perform. Now, it’s a rarity to see a ladies freestyle performance without one. The new system includes different levels of difficulty for each spin as well, so skaters who hold their position in a spin for a greater length of time, or skaters who change feet and position during a spin receive more points for difficulty.  Below are some of the basic spins that are performed either solo or in combination:

Scratch Spin 

Nancy Kerrigan (USA) performs a scratch spin at the end of her freeskate at the 1994 Lillehammer games.

The first spin that a skater learns, the scratch spin is ironically one of the hardest spins in all of figure skating. This is due to the speed that a veteran skater has when entering the spin, and the difficulty of “centering” the spin so it doesn’t travel–in muggle, non-skater terms, making sure the spin stays in one spot on the ice as the skater rotates, rather than moving across the ice. The more a skater moves, the less balanced they are, causing the spin to slow, and making it more difficult for the skater to hold the spin.

Sit Spin

A young Michelle Kwan (USA) performs a sit spin at the 1994 US National Championships.

Sit spins are the next spin that a skater learns. They are relatively easy to center, and with increased flexibility, the skater can sit lower to the ice, increasing difficulty. In higher levels of competition, skaters perform sit spins either in combination, or as we’ll see later, in a “flying” spin.

Camel Spin

Tara Lipinski (USA) performs a camel spin during her gold-medal performance at the 1998 Nagano games.

The camel spin is arguably the most difficult spin to learn at first, because the center of gravity is completely different from the previous spins. A camel spin not only requires flexibility, but the ability to maintain control when entering the spin by slowly rising from a slight knee-bend into the full extended position that we can see in the .gif above. Camel spins are often a favorite of pairs skating teams, because if done in perfect unison, they add an unparalleled aesthetic quality to the program. Camel spins are often converted into “catch-foot” or “doughnut” spins, in which the skater bends the knee of the free leg and is able to grab on to it, creating a more difficult position.

Flying Spin

Jason Brown (USA) performs a flying sit spin at the 2014 US Nationals. He went on to win the long program, and finished second overall, earning him a bid in Sochi.

Once the three spins of camel, scratch, and sit spin are mastered, skaters learn how to “fly” into them. Flying spins are when a skater actually leaves the ice in the entrance into the spin. The flying spin can also be in a variety of positions, but usually the sit spin and camel spin are the “base” movements, with some alteration in arm and free-leg (the leg not spinning on the ice) position.

Layback Spin

Kim Yu-Na (ROK) performs a layback spin at the exhibition following the 2010 Olympic Winter Games, where she claimed ROK’s first gold medal in Figure Skating.

The layback spin is likely the most iconic spin in all of figure skating, and perhaps even the most iconic element. Typically only performed by female skaters, the layback is actually a scratch spin in disguise. The skater begins the spin by centering themselves on their standing leg while spinning for a couple rotations, and then arches her back while using her arms to maintain balance. Depending on flexibility, the skater can then grab their free leg and switch positions to the Biellmann (seen below).

Biellmann Spin

Alissa Czisny performs a Biellman spin, one of the toughest elements in all of figure skating.

The Biellmann spin is by far the most difficult spin on this list. It requires unparalleled flexibility, balance, and muscle control. Only skaters experienced with the layback spin, and who are flexible enough are able to perform this spin, which also justifies the ISU’s high number of points awarded when this spin is successfully completed. All skaters aspire to this level of flexibility, but few ever achieve it.

(.gifs from Tumblr and Mashable)