Jenny and Dave interview past USFS pres. Chuck Foster

[Mathman]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=RMSp_QCQoZk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXt48cOThng

Fascinating insights into U.S. figure skating. Chuck Foster skated pairs with Maribel Owen in the 1950s, then began a lifelong career as a judge. (Linda Fratianne was robbed. ). He served briefly as USFS president, but resigned in disgust before his term was over, calling it a dysfunctional organization rendered ungovernable by infighting and bickering.

At the beginning of part 2 he absolutely lays the blame for the demise of figure skating in the U.S. at the door of the IJS, believing that what we have today simply has no appeal to audiences. But "you can't put the toothpaste back in the tube," so the future looks grim any way you look at it.

If you don't want to watch the whole interview, skip to the very end for a great story about Tatianna Tarasova.

(By the way, Jennifer Kirk seems to have put a lot of effort into voice training. She used to have a high squeaky voice, but now it is quite nice. )

[dorispulaski]

Several interesting points. People seem to think that "The Whack" was the beginning of the popularity of skating, but Chuck mentioned that the 1988 Ladies Olympics programs were drawing something like 45% of the TV audience for Katarina vs. Debi, battle of the Carmens.

Another: Chuck hates Cinquanta and loves Bianchetti. It should be mentioned that Cinquanta & Bianchetti were the contenders for president of the ISU when Cinquant was first elected, and they don't like each other.
So it's not surprising that Chuck sees things the way Sonia does.

It's interesting that Chuck thinks Didier Gaillehaguet will succeed Cinquanta rather than David Dore.

[Mathman]

I think David Dore is too old. (So is Cinquanta, but they passed a special resolution extending is term of office two more years.)

Another point of interest is that Foster flat out denied that there is any favoritism in the the USFS for one skater over another. (Examples were Michelle and Tara and Weir and Lysacek), or that there is ever any collusion or buzz at nationals about who the federations wants to push.

A funny mention of how the USFS got scolded by the USOC because U.S. judges didn't score U.S. skaters high enough at the Olympics, making the USOC look bad.

One strange thing. The question came up about whether Michelle Kwan was paid by USFS to skate at 2002 Skate America. Foster was the president of USFS at the time, but he did not know whether Michelle was paid or not. He said, if you want to know about that, Phil Hersh did an article about it a while ago -- you can go ask Phil. (Um...)

[dorispulaski]

I don't think he was entirely candid on those two items. wink wink

ANd He blamed the entire downfall of skating on Cinquanta & the IJS.

[KKonas]

I think David Dore is too old. (So is Cinquanta, but they passed a special resolution extending is term of office two more years.)

Another point of interest is that Foster flat out denied that there is any favoritism in the the USFS for one skater over another. (Examples were Michelle and Tara and Weir and Lysacek), or that there is ever any collusion or buzz at nationals about who the federations wants to push.

A funny mention of how the USFS got scolded by the USOC because U.S. judges didn't score U.S. skaters high enough at the Olympics, making the USOC look bad.


One strange thing. The question came up about whether Michelle Kwan was paid by USFS to skate at 2002 Skate America. Foster was the president of USFS at the time, but he did not know whether Michelle was paid or not. He said, if you want to know about that, Phil Hersh did an article about it a while ago -- you can go ask Phil. (Um...)

Foster wasn't president of USFS until 2003, so he probably had no info on whether Kwan was paid or not for 2002 Skate America. Phyllis Howard was still President.

[KKonas]

Interesting comment from Foster saying that Didier would be next President of the ISU. Didier has had his troubles with the French Fed as well as the ISU. He can be quite brutally honest and has a wry sense of humor, but is an interesting personality nonetheless. It seems he is still has a lot of power within the ISU, so maybe Foster is right.

[Mathman]

I had heard that one of the reasons the ISU council went along with the extraordinary and unconstitutional move of extending Cinquanta's term of office was that the only viable candidate to take over was Gailhaguet.

[Mathman]

Foster wasn't president of USFS until 2003, so he probably had no info on whether Kwan was paid or not for 2002 Skate America. Phyllis Howard was still President.

I don't know. It seems like the new president of a organization would look over last year's budget when he took office.