Columnist Dean Juipe: Ice skating is cracking its barriers

Dean Juipe

Monday, Jan. 14, 2002 | 11:10 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or 259-4084.

If there's even one female living in your home, you know that watching figure skating on TV is unavoidable.

As a male, you have to surrender the remote and concede possession of the tube no matter what else catches your fancy. And it's a concession you have to make not just periodically but on an almost weekly basis, as figure skating has become an absolute staple of television programming.

Whether they're canned performances or grist from the pro-tour grind, figure skating does a boffo business. Ratings and gate receipts feed the belief that the world simply cannot get enough quadruple toe loops and will never max out on those triple-axle ditties that leave audiences spellbound if not short of breath.

But it's confession time, brought on by the approaching Olympics and the heightened importance of the Games' most anticipated event: The women's portion of this past weekend's U.S. Figure Skating Championships from Los Angeles wasn't too bad.

What little I saw of the pairs competition seemed bland, and I refused to go out of my way to watch the men, but a women's field that was narrowed to seven finalists was involved in a spirited bid for the three available spots on the U.S. Olympic team.

Actually, only two of those spots were legitimately up for grabs, as longtime focal point Michelle Kwan -- who eventually won her sixth U.S. championship, but her first without a coach by her side -- all but had one secured before setting foot on the Staples Center ice.

Sasha Cohen and Sarah Hughes earned the remaining two berths, at the expense, in my mind, of the slightly older Angela Nikodinov, whose performance wasn't flawless yet had a character her teenage rivals seemed to lack. It made me wonder if she might be a victim of a built-in age bias in a sport that is constantly looking to renew itself with fresher faces.

Regardless, with a strong U.S. team intact and the opening ceremonies at Salt Lake City only 25 days away, those who enjoy skating can count on being inundated with stories on the performers. Indifference has been replaced by resolve, as a number of news organizations are committing an endless parade of reporters to a sport that not so long ago was devoid of such scrutiny.

Skating -- unlike the macho Toughman or mixed martial arts events that beg for attention while having only splintered appeal -- has gone big time in recent years. There's no disputing its hold on females in particular and its growth across any number of cross sections of America.

This burgeoning fan base has made the sport fashionable and led to a peculiar excess -- the habit of showering the ice with flowers and goodies after a skater's routine. Such rabid behavior, however, is a little less welcomed than it once was and it's said it will be frowned upon in Salt Lake City.

That's a pity, say the dozen or so guys who are holding out in opposition to figure skating's revised pedigree. Without the delay of debris and custodians swarming the ice to collect it, telecasts will become more seamless and a fella sitting at home won't even have a split second to commandeer the remote from a loved one.

To those poor souls goes this reminder, courtesy of Bobby Knight: Sometimes you just have to accept your fate and sit back and enjoy it.