Tuesday, February 12, 2002
Stojko says his sport is suffering
In dire need of new name
By STEVE BUFFERY -- Team Sun
SALT LAKE CITY -- Elvis Stojko already has changed the face of figure skating with all of his combination jumps, but now he actually wants to change the name of the sport.
Stojko and his coach, Uschi Keszler, believe the sport would be even more popular than it is now and attract more kids, especially boys, if the word "figure" was dropped.
"It shouldn't be called figure skating, it should be called freestyle skating," said Keszler, a former international skater. "That's more representative of what the sport is. It's more extreme than most extreme sports."
Stojko, considered one of the greatest jumpers, also believes the sport is underappreciated as an extreme event because of the artistry element attached to it.
The Richmond Hill skater said that when he explained the difficulty of his jumps recently to a group of hockey players, they were totally blown away.
"A triple is no big deal to the kids," Stojko said. "But you tell them that it's a 1080 (three times around) and they get it. Because that's talking extreme sports and a lot of the stuff we do is very extreme. No one is doing 1440s yet in extreme competitions."
Stojko said male figure skaters do 1440s (quads) now as a matter of course, followed right away by a 1080.
"Kids are really into extreme sports," Keszler said. "They know what a 360 is, but they don't know what a lutz is. You tell them a lutz is three 360s and they look at you stunned and say, 'Wow.'
"We have to find other ways to explain our sport. We have to do something to get the kids interested because I think we're losing the kids."
2002 Games Figure Skating Coverage
