How did Cinquanta ascend to the rank of President?

I suppose google might come up with an answer if not the answer, but could someone explain something likely everyone knows but me. I am brave to ask, so please no eyerolling. (Hey, I saw that Olympia, )h Sochi 2 years away should we expect any changes in leadership?

Why is Cinquanta head of ISU if figureskating is a more dominant sport than speedskating, which not many care about? It seems he gets blamed for a great deal, and likely deservedly so, but why is a former speedskater the head of the ISU? And does it not seem, um, counterproductive if not downright stupid to have a speedskater involved in heading a sport that is struggling, and has gone through huge changes in the last decade? Is there tenure? I never knew and finally will ask, since I am here to learn. Forgive this Q you GS diehards know all about in detail. Seriously, thanks in advance.

Cinquanta keeps getting reelected since 1994. Why ISU members vote for him, I can't say. Didier Gaillhuguet of France ran against him last time, AFAIR, and he would not be a great choice either, IMO.

Thanks Doris. Lots looked but no one answered, and google wasn't too helpful. I wonder why they feel they must put speed skating and ice skating together? I think they should be separate organizations, as other than blades and ice, they are not remotely connected. I mean, hockey has ice and blades, why not put them under ISU? Since it is off season and edge is slow, I might as well ask these things as you guys are so knowledgeable. As for voting, I can only imagine it is probably corrupt. Forgive me Speedy if I am wrong, but it makes no sense to me at all.:think:

I have forgotten the details, but it has to do with ISU politics in the period 1992-1994, when Cinquanta was first elected. The outgoing president, Olaf Paulsen, was a bitter foe of Sonia Bianchetti, who many people thought was the natural candidate for the post. Bianchetti was backed by the friends of the precious president, Jacque Favart.

There was a conspiracy to get Bianchetti removed from her position on the ISU council. Bianchetti's foes (Poulsen, general secretary Beat Hasler, and vice president for figure skating Lawrence Demmey) jumped up and nominated Cinquanta to a position on the council on the speed skating side before the figure skating side could put up Bianchetti. Since each country can have at most one representative on the council, this left Bianchetti out and cleared the way for Cinquanta to become the next president.

Cinquanta was very popular at first because this was right at the time that figure skating was booming in the U.S. and Cinquanta got credit for negotiating a huge 20 million dollar contract with ABC television. Cinquanta was an accountant in real life and people in the sport admired his business acumen. Flush with money, the ISU was able to offer big cash prizes to eligible skaters so they wouldn't have to go pro to make money. This killed professional competitive skating, but temporarily increased the power of the ISU.

"precious president"

Did you mean "previous president", Math?

(It's a great typo )

I don't think it is a dumb question skatluvr. And mathman's good answer made me wonder if skating would have been much different in the past years had Bianchetti become head of the ISU.

Cinquanta gets alot of credit when most skating fans acknowledge it was the "whack" that led to the skating boom of the 90's and the big US TV money that followed.

apparently Cinquanta spread the money around. when the whack was way over and the money was gone, skating became a niche sport again. perhaps he was a good steward of the money but as for the reason it was all of a sudden big interest sport, I'd guess the whack and skaters like Kwan, Cohen, Lipinski and Hughes who were always in the medals.

Chuckled there as well, but did not assume it was a typo

Actually, though, I think that ISU president Jacques Favart was "precious" to Sonia Bianchetti -- an honest bloke in between the reigns of crooks and scoundrels.

In the whole history of the ISU only once did an incumbent president not gain re-election (Ulrich Salchow was replaced by Gerit Van Laer in 1937). Favart died in office as had his immediate predecessor, Ernst Labin.

In 1998 Cinquanta pushed through a resolution that if no one else is put on the ballot, then the incumbent is declared elected "by acclamation" to avoid the embarrassment of write-in or blank protest ballots. Cinquanta was re-elected by acclamation in 1998, 2002, 2008, and 2010.

According to the ISU Constitution, Cinquanta is not eligible to run in 2014 because of age requirements (he will be 75 -- constitutionally he must retire). Not to worry, at the 2012 ISU Congress they decided to extend his current term until 2016, without the annoyance of holding an election at all).

Oh, wow. Have the FS federations around the world ever lobbied to be separate? It is the one way they could get rid of him. What, may I ask, is the rationale for having FS and SS together? Did thid begin when they were small Olumpic scports long ago with just elite folk running the show? What is the effect on FS of having a speed skater at the helm who admittedly has said he does not know much about figureskating. Yes he said that so, WHY? are the two sports under this ISU?

It seems CoP needs much tweaking. Does speed skating hold more credence as a sport thsan FS does amony the Olympic powers that be? Since FS is the marquee sport still of Winter Olympics and will always be, it seems that they'd want to make decisions that were best for FS without a thought to speed skating. I guess the history together going way back might be the answer? Hisstory for history's sake? LOL, MM. I wish the US Congress could pull that with the incumbent and invest the billions in the campaign funding into the really deconstructing health care and doing it the way we all know (most of us anyway) would be right.