Vaitsekhovskaya on Russian FS Presidential "elections"

[ImaginaryPogue]

.... Ummm, do you genuinely believe that your example and wallylutz' comments are at all analagous?

[HalfTriple]

.... Ummm, do you genuinely believe that your example and wallylutz' comments are at all analagous?

Not as close as yours... but archaeologically related and philosophically cohesive.

[Mathman]

Cohesive philosophy -- I'm all for it!

[wallylutz]

She is also a very friendly and kind person too, always nice to the skaters as opposed to some people who sort of gave you an attitude because of who they are. I sat with a couple of Poles during the FD in Vancouver. There was no Polish Ice Dance team in Vancouver as they didn't qualify any but they came anyway and when I told them Halina Gordon-Poltorak is the referee of the event - they immediately recognized her and showed a lot of appreciation re her as a professional and a person.

The important thing to me though is Ice Dance cannot afford to be run like a corrupted business as it had been. Placing Alla Shekhovtseva on top of IDTC, you might as well put up a sign that reads: "Open for Business". Besides, it's also a quesiton of ethics - avoiding situations of possible conflicts (of interest). It is completey inappropriate for the spouse of the head of a major national federation to occupy such a powerful spot within an organization with direct influence on the IOC, it would open a can full of worms and give the perception of bias even if no wrongdoing has been committed. There is no shortage of very qualified Russian judges who are generally very competent and knowledgeable. Alla Shekhovtseva is far from the only qualified or even the most qualified person from her country. Her sole raison d'etre of being there is not for the good of the sport and mostly, lacking a neutrality that is almost certainly a pre-requisite for this position. It makes you wonder though, Russia seems to be adopting an attitude of Sochi at any cost here. At what point though, is the price too much?

http://www.isu.org/vsite/vcontent/co...s-item,00.html

Chair:

Halina Gordon-Poltorak, Poland


Members:
Robert Joseph Horen, USA

Gilles Vandenbroeck, France

Alla Shekhovtsova, Russia

Thankfully, Mrs. Gordon-Poltorak won the election, as I had hoped. The way RSF spoke of Alla Shekhovtsova's candidacy for the chair position like a done deal, as I suspected, was greatly exaggerated arrogance on their part. It is clear that choosing her would make a lot of members uncomfortable for the sole reason of potential in conflict of interests alone and that's far from the only concern.

Even though the order hasn't changed much in Russia, I remain hopeful that the younger generation of Russian leaders such as Anton Sikharulidze will be able to bring about real changes and reduce corruptions in this sport in their country eventually.