Why figure skating is the best Olympic sport

Why I like Olympic figure skating, despite the ridiculous costumes, scoring issues, and overall level of ludicrousness:

There is only one medal awarded every four years.

This seems like an Olympic given, right? But it's not.

Let me illustrate:

There are 838 skiiing events. 383 track events at the summer games. 176 types of speed skating and 865 types of team sports, and team sports are not compelling Olympic sports, let's just be honest. We love the idea of a solitary, world-class athelete sweating it out alone for years to win the elusive gold.

And yet, in a lot of Olympic sports, gold isn't all that elusive. You get more than one try. You can make mistakes.

Olympic figure skating, if it were structured like swimming, would give gold medals for:

most spectacular triple axel

best long program

best short program

best pairs lift

fastest spin

and so on and so forth.

So Michael Phelps? He's good and all. But his jillion gold medals are all for the same thing. Turns out the guy is a really fast swimmer.

In figure skating, Olympic medals do not rain down democratically every four years.

One medal. No second chances. Every single Olympic gold medalist - every single one - is a famous name that all skaters will recognize - dating back to the 20s and 30s. Even most non-skaters recognize some: Peggy Fleming. Dorothy Hamill. Scott Hamilton. Who won the silver medal any of those years? (*crickets*) The one winner of Olympic gold has a long, lucrative professional career awaiting him. Silver medalists get nothing.

The only thing standing between skating immortality and being an also-ran is a one quarter-inch wide blade of steel balanced on ice.

Tell me, how is that not compelling?