Chuck Foster Resigns as President of U.S. Figure Skating

**R.D.** · 02-03-2005, 08:34 PM

http://www.usfsa.org/Story.asp?id=28770&type=news

**Mathman** · 02-03-2005, 10:54 PM

I wonder if there is more behind the story that we don't know.

Mathman

**ira4** · 02-03-2005, 11:54 PM

I'm sure there's something that they haven't told us. I only hope that it isn't anything health related.

**Mathman** · 02-04-2005, 12:03 AM

Oh, I hope so ,too. I was thinking more along the lines of some sort of palace coup.

Welcome aboard, Ira2!

Mathman

**Joesitz** · 02-04-2005, 01:04 AM

Wasn't he just assigned to that post?

Joe

**Crizzy** · 02-04-2005, 01:54 AM

Perhaps, the pressure of reviving figure skating has taken a toll on him. I'm being nice here.

Since he's probably one of the few who approved that devil Sky Cam

**jesslily** · 02-04-2005, 08:09 AM

I don't think it's health related. It probably is politics related.

SkateFan4Life · 02-04-2005, 11:08 AM

Figure skating is such a political sport, that I'm sure Chuck's reasons are complex. It has been a tumultuous time in the history of the sport, with the new judging system, etc. I won't even wager an educated guess as to the various factors that played into his decision to resign as President of the USFSA.

**Arsenette** · 02-04-2005, 01:42 PM

Just wish we knew why - heck say "stress upon family" or something to that effect. Not having a reason sounds really really political.

**Sylvia** · 02-05-2005, 11:12 AM

Now we know why... and, yes, it was for political reasons.

Phil Hersh's scoop in today's Chicago Tribune:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports...,3513329.story

Excerpt from the beginning:
<< Speaking out after his sudden resignation as president of the U.S. Figure Skating Association, Chuck Foster blasted International Skating Union President Ottavio Cinquanta and the new judging system implemented in the wake of the Salt Lake City judging scandal.

Foster also lambasted the U.S. federation's executive committee for its resistance to change, citing that as the reason for his Thursday resignation. >>

**Doggygirl** · 02-05-2005, 11:36 AM

I love being a spectator in this sport. It sounds like problems run just as deep in the USFSA as in the ISU. Bleh. So disheartening.

DG

**Joesitz** · 02-05-2005, 02:52 PM

Thanks to the Chicago Trib and Hersch, I got the meaning of the resignation.

I am very fearful of another scandal or big controversy at Worlds this year. I believe it will be the end of TV Figure Skating as we know it. Who wants to watch a sport that's fixed? If the best skater that night can't win, why get worked up about the winner? We the fans, will with a lot of blasting notes, but no one else will, and there goes the TV revenue.

Joe

**Mathman** · 02-05-2005, 06:35 PM

I am finding it hard to feel sympathy for Mr. Foster. He was the first in line to heap abuse on Ron Pfenning and Jon Jackson for making the same criticisms of the ISU that Foster is making now. He spent hundreds of thousands of dollars out of the USFSA budget to pay lawyers to bring trumped-up charges against Pfenning and Jackson, yet now he is now the one crying about the stupidity and wickedness of Cinquanta, the ISU, and the organization that Foster himself headed.

Mathman

**Emilieanne** · 02-07-2005, 01:38 AM

This whole thing is becoming a bigger mess all the time. Perhaps he is right about the USOC insisting that the USFSA go on a managerial diet and slim down. That would not be a bad thing necessarily.

All of this is getting to be such a mess that it is embarrassing for everyone. I wonder what the IOC is going to do about it at their next session in Singapore in early July (if anything). With all the publicity surrounding the Paul Hamm situation in Athens, and all the various skating scandals that have taken place, it seems to me that the IOC will have no choice but to deal head on with officiating incompetence and malfeasance (whether it actually steps up to the plate and deals with this forcefully and decisively once and for all remains to be seen...I have my doubts).

In any case, serious sponsorship money could be on the line if the mess is not cleaned up. Remember what David D'Alessandro of John Hancock Insurance did to the USOC? Because they had an ethics clause of some kind in their sponsorship contract with the USOC, Mr. D'Alessandro was able to (on behalf of John Hancock Insurance) tell the USOC "clean up your mess or no money." John Hancock Insurance's sponsorship of the USOC was worth approximately $10 million! That kind of clause is needed in all sponsorship contracts with the IOC, ISU and all other federations and the CEO of the sponsoring corporations must have the moxie to exercise those clauses without hesitation when necessary. David D'Alessandro did such and the USOC did indeed clean up its mess. Think about it.

**Kuchana** · 02-07-2005, 01:53 AM

Originally Posted by Mathman

I am finding it hard to feel sympathy for Mr. Foster. He was the first in line to heap abuse on Ron Pfenning and Jon Jackson for making the same criticisms of the ISU that Foster is making now. He spent hundreds of thousands of dollars out of the USFSA budget to pay lawyers to bring trumped-up charges against Pfenning and Jackson, yet now he is now the one crying about the stupidity and wickedness of Cinquanta, the ISU, and the organization that Foster himself headed.

Mathman

Change of heart???

Who knows but wow I'm surprised as well. All of these attacks on the ISU from left to right...it's gotta wound up on the positive I hope at least....