Philip Hersh: Can rule changes make skating popular again?

Philip Hersh spent 28 years as Olympic sports writer for the Chicago Tribune and has gone on to write about the Olympics and figure skating for Ice Network and NBC Olympics. He has covered 21 Olympics, 13 winter and 8 summer, as well as 38 US figure skating championships, 21 world championships, and many other competitions in Olympic sports. Recently, Phil has been writing about the changes that the ISU has been proposing for the coming seasons, and the opposition from federations and many athletes to those changes.

In this episode, we get into how this is, and is not, the same as past times that the ISU has made a lot of changes. And we also talked a little bit about what we're both looking forward to with the coming 26-27 season.

YouTube:

Transcript: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1i14A8fcqcufgnzNQh5-t8IX7B6RJxFc-APFC_sul9Q0/edit?tab=t.0

You can read Phil's reporting at www.globetrottingbyphiliphersh.com.

You can reach me at fsfuturepodcast at gmail.com or on Instagram at FutureFS Podcast. You can also support my work by making a contribution at ko-fi.com/future of figure skating. Remember to subscribe to the future of figure skating on YouTube and your podcast platform of choice and share it with your friends.

Links:

Phil’s articles on rule changes:

August: https://www.globetrottingbyphiliphersh.com/home/2026/8/27/save-the-dates-skating-fans-but-which-dates-will-they-be

January 2026: https://www.globetrottingbyphiliphersh.com/home/2026/1/16/figure-skating-officials-weigh-major-changes-in-rules-schedule

My article on proposed changes and athlete reactions:

https://anythinggoe.com/bigchangesfromisu/

Coverage of Summer Sizzler:

https://anythinggoe.com/sizzler26/