North American Championships

The North American figure skating championships was held between the US and Canada every two years. The CFSA or Skate Canada as it is now known - cancelled our (Canada) participation in 1973 due to judging problems and other reasons as mentioned below. Karen Magnussen was the last Canadian female skater to win the North American champion title in 1971. Canada replaced this event with Skate Canada which became an international championship and not just a competition with the US.

Here is some history on the North American Figure Skating championships:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Figure_Skating_Championships

Why isn't Africa in Europeans? It's got to be a shorter trip from Johannesberg to Europe than to Korean.

That would make Hawaii a go...

hockeyfan228 said:

Why isn't Africa in Europeans? It's got to be a shorter trip from Johannesberg to Europe than to Korean.

That would make Hawaii a go...

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yeah :agree:

Ladskater said:

The CFSA or Skate Canada as it is now known - cancelled our (Canada) participation in 1973 due to judging problems and other reasons as mentioned below....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Figure_Skating_Championships

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Very interesting. It sounds like there is a long history of bad blood between the two organizations (which still hasn't been completely worked out).

About the judging, my first thought was that this was a scandal way worse than the Salt Lake City tempest-in-a-teacup. Evidently it was well known and accepted as "business as usual" (back then in the 1970s) that the judges would just vote for the skaters from their country regardless of the performances. So they finally decided, why bother to have a contest at all?

(However, I just checked the results. It didn't say which country had a majority of judges on the panels, but in terms of "home cooking," in men's the home town guy won 13 times and the other guy 11, and in ladies it was 14 to 10. That's not bad.)

You would think that someone would hit on the idea of inviting judges from neutral countries. (Nah, that would just open up more opportunities for bribery and deal making -- "I'll give your guy the North American Cahmpionship in exchange for your support for my guy at worlds." A misguided patriot is better than an outright crook.)

Also interesting was the point about the top skaters not wanting to go because it was too close to Worlds. Same problem as Four Continents. (This problem does not seem adversely to affect Europeans, though).

If there are any collusions among the judges anywhere in the world, I do think they are based soley on close races. To think a judge would give a second tier skater a first place over a top skater would be ludicrous.

I think it is your opinion and only an opinion that it was evident at that time some 35 years ago. 'Business as usual' with those great Canadian male jumpers in the 70s? Impossible! Show me the score of the American judge who marked down that Canadian after he executed the first 3z in competition.

Sorry, but the SLC was the worst scandal ever and to prove it happened before then, is all speculation. Talk about Balkov, maybe, or Pete Rose.

Joe

Joe, I don't see how you can say that. According to the article, the Canadian Association refused to come to come to the U.S. (in part) because of crooked judging. This is not just unfounded rumor and speculation, it is the decision that the Canadian Federation actually announced publicly.

That is (provided that the article is accurate), the Canadian Federation came right out and "cited" biased judging as a reason for "abruptly cancelling" a 50-year tradition..

The competition was discontinued when the Canadian federation abruptly cancelled its participation in the 1973 event, which was to have been held in Rochester, New York. The CFSA cited problems with the judging (which tended to favor the skaters of whichever country had a majority of judges on the panel)...

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It's like in the early part of the century when the German, Russian, and Swedish champions refused to skate in each others' countries because judging bias was so rampant.

In contrast, the Salt Lake City thing was not as bad, for the simple reason that the malefactors got caught. This is a good thing. It is far worse for the problems just to continue to fester, with everyone turning a deliberate blind eye to what is going on.

In Sonia Bianchetti's book she calls the Salt Lake City scandal just the "tip of the iceberg." She cites crooked judging (and her fight against it, which ultimately failed when the ISU kicked her out) throughout her 40 years of service to the sport. She describes how, in her very first judging assignment, she was approached by representatives of her National Federation to throw the contest.

In 1978 the whole Russian Federation was forbdden to participate in the judging of any figure skating contest for a year because it had become so blatant that even the ISU was embarrassed.

Are you saying that this was OK -- or worse, that it didn't happen -- just because it wasn't on the front pages of newspapers?