Christy Ness interviewed on Edmunds' podcast

[Sylvia]

Coaches: Observing & Learning (ft. Christy Ness)
May 10, 2022
I sit down with legendary coach Christy Ness, who coached Kristi Yamaguchi to Olympic Gold! We discuss her start in skating coaching, coaching young Kristi to the top, parents and their significance to the team, her advice to young coaches, dealing with politics in the sport, dealing with media in the sport, her thoughts on current skating with the potential age change, missing quality in today's skating, and what she's up to now! Link to listen:

Bleav in Figure Skating: Coaches: Observing & Learning (ft. Christy Ness)

I sit down with legendary coach Christy Ness, who coached Kristi Yamaguchi to Olympic Gold! We discuss her start in skating coaching, coaching young Kristi to the top, parents and their significance to the team, her advice to young coaches, dealing with politics in the sport, dealing with media...

bleav.com

 

[Foolhardy Ham Lint]

Not that I have had a chance to listen as yet, but I am intrigued to know what happened with her coaching relationship with Susan Humphreys.

 

[olympic]

She always seemed like an awesome coach.

I wonder why she wasn't more involved in the development of more US women after Kristi. I know she coached Bebe Liang briefly and I believe she was at her best during that period of time

 

[Frau Muller]

Excellent interview. Honest, spot-on answers…even when treading dangerous ground…e.g., on the reason for Russian women’s physiques allowing quick turns: “I don’t know. Maybe they didn’t eat at McDonalds!”

 

[olympic]

Excellent interview. Honest, spot-on answers…even when treading dangerous ground…e.g., on the reason for Russian women’s physiques allowing quick turns: “I don’t know. Maybe they didn’t eat at McDonalds!”

IDK. What was the context? Let's not forget there is an active, legitimate doping scandal involving RUS star Valieva that would probably explain more of RUS women success than 'not eating at McDonald's'

 

[Frau Muller]

IDK. What was the context? Let's not forget there is an active, legitimate doping scandal involving RUS star Valieva that would probably explain more of RUS women success than 'not eating at McDonald's'

She said that she didn’t know…hence, it could be ANYTHING, such as “Maybe they dont go to Macdonald's!” ROTFL!

 

[olympic]

She said that she didn’t know…hence, it could be ANYTHING, such as “Maybe they dont go to Macdonald's!” ROTFL!

Well, considering that the RUS doping scandal was front page news even outside of FS circles, and that she was / is very much part of the FS community, she probably should know.

 

[soogar]

I think that it is interesting how both Christy Ness and Linda Leaver aren't really buying Polina's theory that Valieva's ability is entirely due to drugs. Christy Ness even pointed out that the drug was for endurance. Both of these women have coached top skaters and have knowledge of what a human body can do.

 

[skatfan]

I think that it is interesting how both Christy Ness and Linda Leaver aren't really buying Polina's theory that Valieva's ability is entirely due to drugs. Christy Ness even pointed out that the drug was for endurance. Both of these women have coached top skaters and have knowledge of what a human body can do.

But they are not experts on what these drugs can do to improve the training of an athlete. It's just their opinions. Fine. I believe the doping experts more than I do coaches with no doping knowledge.

 

[soogar]

But they are not experts on what these drugs can do to improve the training of an athlete. It's just their opinions. Fine. I believe the doping experts more than I do coaches with no doping knowledge.

They are coaches who know the human body and are aware of the kind of training and early specialization of the Russians. Kristy Yamaguchi was doing a 3 lutz- 3 toe combination in a time where no one else was even doing that. Tonya and Midori did triple axels. This was during the 90's when the equipment was a lot heavier. The technical merit dramatically increased from 1988 to 1992. Women have been doing 3-3s and triple axels for almost 30 years. Now there is a scoring system that rewards risk and the skaters are jumping at a younger age. There were different notions as to how much load a young body could handle back then as well.

When Brian Orser was posting videos of 7 year old Stephen Gogolov doing quad lutzes, no one accused him of doping Stephen.

Regarding doping experts, they don't really even know what Valieva's drugs really do for her. They banned Meldonium simply because they saw that Russians were listing it on their forms and decided that it must be performance enhancing. There are no studies that directly support improved performance from meldonium.

 

[Sylvia]

When Brian Orser was posting videos of 7 year old Stephen Gogolov doing quad lutzes

Actually, it was the Cricket Club's Facebook page that first posted a practice clip of a 10-year-old Stephen Gogolev landing a 4S in May 2015.

 

[MacMadame]

When Brian Orser was posting videos of 7 year old Stephen Gogolov doing quad lutzes, no one accused him of doping Stephen.

And no one was accusing the Russian Women skaters either. Until one of them was caught doping.

 

[tony]

And no one was accusing the Russian Women skaters either. Until one of them was caught doping.

I don't really think that's true, especially in the last two Olympic cycles. There have been rumblings all over the place-- remember the suspicions (and accusations) over Shcherbakova at Nationals two seasons ago and her recovery between the two programs?

 

[Maximillian]

I believe the doping experts more than I do coaches with no doping knowledge.

But what have the doping experts been saying about the drug Valieva took? I seriously don't know, I'm not trying to be a dick. Last I looked the benefits for a young athlete were questionable.

 

[Sylvia]

But what have the doping experts been saying about the drug Valieva took?

From an earlier thread: https://www.fsuniverse.net/forum/th...-from-the-hearing.109428/page-10#post-6207949

 

[MacMadame]

I don't really think that's true, especially in the last two Olympic cycles. There have been rumblings all over the place-- remember the suspicions (and accusations) over Shcherbakova at Nationals two seasons ago and her recovery between the two programs?

No, I don't remember that. I do think there have been rumblings within the sport but not so much among the fandom. The conventional wisdom has always been that figure skaters don't dope because there is nothing they can take that will really help them.