By DAVE SKRETTA
MILAN (AP) — Kristi Yamaguchi thought she had done enough to win the gold medal at the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France.
Even the dress she was wearing that night was accented with gold.
But it wasn’t until Yamaguchi heard her scores while sitting in the kiss-and-cry area just off the ice inside Halle Olympique, longtime coach Christy Ness by her side, that everything became real. First came solid technical marks in the old 6.0 scoring system, then came huge artistic scores of almost 5.9 across the board, catapulting Yamaguchi out of her seat to wave at the fans.
“It was just such an incredible moment,” she recalled.
Showcasing such moments — the unscripted exuberance and unbridled joy — is a big reason why the kiss-and-cry exists. So are those cute, endearing moments, like when Yamaguchi accidentally sat back down on a big stuffed teddy bear.
Then there is the opposite end of the competitive spectrum, moments that put on display skaters at their lowest. That was what Ilia Malinin endured on Friday night, when his disastrous free skate ruined his chances for gold. The world watched as the heavy favorite to triumph at the Milan Cortina Games sat through several agonizing minutes of dejection.
It raises the question: As more emphasis is placed on the mental health of athletes, should the sport of figure skating continue such a voyeuristic practice of having scores revealed to them — the good, yes, but especially the bad — in such a nakedly public way?
“I guess it’s just always been part of the sport. I wouldn’t know it without it,” Yamaguchi told The Associated Press. “You are always going to have that element of tension while you’re waiting for the scores to come up. TV is all about getting good TV moments, so why not create a place where you showcase the emotions of the athletes in the moment?”
Showcasing the best and worst
It makes sense for those moments of sheer happiness.
At the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, Canadian ice dancers Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir shared a moment of serene joy as they learned they had won on home soil. Over the years, French skater Kevin Aymoz has become famous for his kiss-and-cry celebrations, including one where he broke down in tears upon taking over first place at the 2023 world championships in Japan.
“It’s thrilling,” Aymoz said, “when you see those scores come up.”
Yet there have been just as many cringe-worthy moments in figure skating, too.
At the 2014 Sochi Games, Yuna Kim of South Korea looked positively deflated the moment she learned her bid for back-to-back titles had ended with a silver medal. Four years later, at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games, Gabrielle Daleman could only bury her face in her hands after the Canadian’s disappointing free skate, her painful reaction beamed to a global audience.
She no doubt would have preferred sitting backstage when her scores were read.
The subject of the kiss-and-cry is not such a debate at the senior level, where athletes are essentially professionals. They understand that the drama created by the moment is good for the sport, and good for their own brands. It humanizes them to fans watching in the stands or at home, creating a sort of emotional bond that can pay long-term dividends.
Safeguarding athletes
But what about junior- and novice-level skaters, including those not even teenagers yet, who may get to revel in the soaring highs of hearing a good score but must also suffer through the soul-crushing lows of hearing a poor one?
After all, the International Skating Union pointed to mental health as one of the primary reasons following the 2022 Beijing Games for increasing the age limit for senior-level skaters from 15 to 17 in time for the Milan Cortina Games.
“In our Congress in 2018 this was a topic, a heated discussion, pros and cons — ‘Do we want the best skaters or do we want to pay more attention to the well-being of an athlete?’” ISU president Jae-youl Kim said. “Then at our last Congress in ’24, we invited Gracie Gold, and we devoted a whole session to safeguarding young athletes.”
Gold, the former two-time U.S. champion, has been an outspoken proponent for the mental health of skaters. She laid out her own struggles in her 2024 memoir, “Outofshapeworthlessloser: A Memoir of Figure Skating, F(asterisk)cking Up, and Figuring It Out.”
Yet the ISU has rarely discussed the propriety of the kiss-and-cry, so ingrained is it in the sport of figure skating.
Instead, it seems to have doubled-down on the drama.
High-pressure ‘hot seat’
During last year’s world championships, the ISU introduced a “hot seat,” where the current leader must sit in sight of the crowd until someone beats them. For the Olympics, there is not only a hot seat but a “podium box” where second and third must sit.
“It’s a high-pressure environment,” acknowledged Amber Glenn, who helped the U.S. win team gold earlier in the Winter Games, and who will compete in the individual event next week. “I think we are getting to the point where we are kind of trying to find a balance of what is good for the sport and what is good for the athlete.”
In the meantime, the kiss-and-cry will remain centerstage for some of the most emotional moments of the Olympics.
“It is the good and bad,” Yamaguchi said. “I think everyone has just accepted that’s part of the sport.”
___
AP Olympic coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics