I find it very interesting why figure skating is so big now. It is on most of the channels on television and it seams like it was nowhere before. A friend of my daughter always looked at figure skating this OS 2006. She practiced for hours tying to do the jumps and turns for weeks and she was only 18 months old.

Why is it is so big now?
Looking for the answer I started to read a warm and charming book “100 year of figure skating” by Steve Milton. In the book I find many fact in why it’s so big. In the book there is many facts that gives inspiration for the answer I am looking for. It’s an old story but it is ONE of the reason for why figure skating is so big today. In 1994 the world was chocked with the scandal of attack on figure skate star Nancy Kerrigan. It was more than bad luck; it was an attack not only on here but also on the sportsmanship of the sport. The person behind the attack was partly an ice-cold competitor named Tonya Harding. The scandal was big news in media and the pretty sport become nasty and dangerous. These dangerous facts draw a lot of new viewers. Even if the attack was ugly it was so dramatically that ended up as a TV movie “The inside story.” Al this media attention made it interesting for sponsors to put money into figure skating now when they had the numbers of viewers that was needed for big TV channels. The format of the sport goes really good in the television. Today’s the skills of the figure skaters really good. The evolution of the sport comes from the fact that the line is bet win professionals and armatures are disappearing. This was the answer I found. In many ways the sport have become ONE with al the parts that makes it a sport and art.

In many ways the same thing is happing in every business field there is a “Tonya Harding success factor” case that can be turn around to a success model. Here are some learning points:

• Media loves the “good and bad” roles that have been played even since the Greek theatre.
• There was concrete persons behind the stories (people can identify with them).
• Numbers of people interested in the sport was enough to attract big sponsor money (build momentum to attract big brands).
• The format was develop to fit the television (to feed a story it most feed the media).
• Looking at the world around you and adjust so you work with the force and not have it against your brand/company.
• Don’t be a good brand only to sell your story, be a part of the world.

It was a tragedy but it also opened up the sport to a bigger audience. I hope my friend’s daughter ONE day will figure skating in an OS, but not with Tonya Harding.