Boston – Ashley Wagner and Ben August know what it is like to get out of the ice The World Artistic Skating Championship And they feel they have conquered sport. And how it feels when sport notoriously volatizes bites.
Then, when the International Skating Union launched its ambitious plan “Vision 2030”, which is designed to grow and expand the sport through a better fans participation, it made sense that they would call Wagner, three times champion of the United States and former world silver medalist, and August, who won an Olympic silver medal with the Ice Dance partner Tanith Belbin.
If someone was going to interview the athletes in this week’s world championship at such an emotionally raw, in the minute after their programs have completed, it should be someone who has passed it for themselves.
“I would have loved this when I was an athlete, having the interviews after skating in the kiss and shouting, when emotions are so fresh,” Wagner said. “That is something that is being taken to this production. We have never seen anything like that.”
Look closely and you can notice many things Never seen in this week’s worlds: Dasher LED boards of avant -garde that surround the track, large tickets for athletes and the most energetic music, such as the shaking version of “I am sending Boston” of the punk band Celta Dropkick Murphys that remains at full volume inside TD Garden.
The idea is simple: the ISU wants to make artistic skating feel great again.
Or at least, great for more people.
Those who love intricate and nuanced sport, turns and jumps, bright landings and bitter falls, tend to follow him throughout the year. But there are so many fans who tune in once every four years, during the winter Olympic Games, when, as a fleeting star, athletes go to public consciousness and then strive as soon as it ends.
“The skaters are the reason why this sport comes out,” explained the president of ISU, Jae Youl KimWho gave the Associated Press a tour behind the scene of the World Championship configuration Thursday, shortly before the start of the male program.
“We are very proud of our athletes and we want to make sure to shine a brighter and stronger focus of our skaters.”
That is why these brilliant Dasher Led boards are showing the social networks label of each athlete, and why each one is introduced individually for the first time, something athletics and other Olympic sports have adopted over the years.
The ISU wants to create a show for the more than 14,000 fans in the Arena, along with the millions they observe worldwide.
“There is much more to come. I mean, we can also make a rain of ideas here about possible marketing and sponsorship activations,” said Wieland Lüders, who manages the world championships for ISU. “Each skater has its own partners, potentially, so there are many more thoughts. But for now, we are at first. This is the basic concept.”
In the future, the Vision 2030 Plan hopes to improve the presentation of television, simplify the complex rules of sport, increase sponsorship and expand income sources. It will also promote skating through base initiatives, will reinvent the calendar of the season and explore new technologies that could help bring the sport to the modern era.
The athletes not only benefit from the increase in exposure, and the possible blessing for their pockets, but also of the house updates that are part of Vision 2030. In Boston, an expansive room is out of the limits for all except competitors, and back in its hotel, there is a full calm room with a rotary cast of therapy dogs.
Kim visited it this week. No one paid attention to the president of the ISU because everyone wanted to see Penny, the dog.
If the calm room is intended for Destresss, the new hot seat in the sand will probably do the opposite.
Like the counterreloj in Olympic cycling, where the leader feels uncomfortable on a throne until someone else takes the lead, the ISU has created the same in the world championship. But instead of an area behind the stage, where leaders have waited for decades, the hot seat is right next to the kiss and piglet area in the heart of the sand.
Athletes who leave ice after their performance cannot avoid looking at who is in the lead.
“We want fans to see how that person is reacting when he or she approaches to take the throne, or how they are reacting when he can’t do it,” Lüders said. “They could have interactions between them, some embraced or five, something like this. So we hope to have more commitment between the two skaters.”
Ultimately, also more commitment to fans.
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AP Sports: https://apnews.com/sports
