Wall Street Journal: For Many Girls, Figure Skating Loses Its Edge to Hockey

[Yehudi]

https://www.wsj.com/articles/for-many-girls-figure-skating-loses-its-edge-to-hockey-11551802166

Some rink operators and coaches say more girls are choosing ice hockey over figure skating. At the Detroit Skating Club in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., a typical after-school practice session now has about 15 skaters on the ice compared with 26 five years ago, says Jerod Swallow, managing director. “We’re losing a lot of young ladies to hockey,” he says. The draw of team sports and scholarship potential is part of it. “Not every young lady wants to be an ice princess.”

ETA: might be behind a paywall

 

[sk9tingfan]

Title IX.......

 

[shuilee]

Not surprised. Gymnastics is still very popular because you can get free 4-year college scholarship even if you don't make it to Olympics. Parents are much more willing to invest in daughters that participate in sports with NCAA scholarships available, like women's hockey, gymnastics, etc.

But OTOH, is there really interest from universities to start up Team Figure Skating like Team College Gymnastics (which has grown to become hugely popular with 10,000+ audience attending meets each week).

 

[Debbie S]

But OTOH, is there really interest from universities to start up Team Figure Skating like Team College Gymnastics (which has grown to become hugely popular with 10,000+ audience attending meets each week).

Many schools have figure skating clubs which field teams. They each compete in several comps each year (usually 3) and the top 3 teams/schools in the standings in each section qualify for an intercollegiate Nationals which is usually in April. Collegiate skating is growing fast, but it is not a varsity sport, only a club sport, so there are no scholarships available. Teams have to fundraise to pay for their ice time, coaching and competition expenses. There are several schools at which synchro skating is a varsity sport, but synchro is mostly a club sport, too. Unfortunately, with all the cutbacks in higher ed funding, I don't see college athletic programs expanding their portfolio of non-revenue-producing varsity sports anytime soon.

 

[Seerek]

Yes, it's true. For example, I think only partial scholarships are available at this point for Alpine/Cross Country-Ski (the only regular individual winter sport under the NCAA umbrella, IIRC).