Changing Faces

A big fan of figure skating, when the sport is in season, I seldom miss an event watching it on TV. Since I watched it in the early '90s, I've seen change. By that, I don't mean the change in the scoring system, but the faces on the podium. At one point, the Russians dominated in almost every category in the international competitions, such as the Grand Prix and the World Championship; then, winners from America, Canada, France, and the other European countries alternately took the medals. When we marched into the Twenty-first Century, skaters from Japan and China emerged. The Chinese pairs and the Japanese women and men respectively got on the podium. Even South Korea is catching up. Besides, on the American team there're Chinese and Japanese Americans. I consider the change of faces in the sport a version of globalization. When it comes to globalization, many people tend to think of economy. If we look outside that box, we'll see different versions of globalization.

As I said on Facebook, I can draw parallels between skating and writing. Like writers, skaters need to pay attention to detail. They also have to heed transition, flow, and other things. It takes lots of skills and practices in both skating and writing.