Statement from USFS regarding Dave Lease

[CoyoteChris]

Parenting is a challenging job. I think that Tonto Jr won the gold ring.

saying parenting is a challenging job is like saying the Titanic is alittle sunk. It is hugely difficult to do right and then there is no guarantee of success. It takes a whole lot of love and dedication and self sacrafice, mental stress, and sadly now, cubic dollars. And it never stops, especially if your kids have grandkids. My hat is off to anyone who can do it right.

 

[TontoK]

For @CoyoteChris LOL AKC sounds a little like Taekwando. Of course, in the long run I don't regret the TKD activity, and I hope you don't regret your experiences with dogs... but there's always somebody out to make a buck.

 

[Mathman]

... there's always somebody out to make a buck.

True. In fact "somebody" is everybody. I guess dog breeders and handlers and taekwondo black belts have to make a living, too.

 

[4everchan]

True. In fact "somebody" is everybody. I guess dog breeders and handlers and taekwondo black belts have to make a living, too.

At some point, I had a student whose mom owned a great clothing store... she'd pay me and the next day, I'd be shopping in her store
It became very practical because she knew my size and taste and I'd get a lot of presents too

 

[moonvine]

Additional resources are the recent, Future of Figure Skating Podcast; Anything GOES; The Blades of Our Lives; Polina Edmund's BLEAV podcast, renamed The Iron Butterfly; Ashley/Adam's The Runthrough; The Ice Lab podcast on Spotify & Apple by Trennt Michaud & Michael Marinaro (27 episodes from 2021 - 2022). Plus, many other event review and interview shows, including This Week in Skating (TWIS).

The Manleywoman SkateCast - figure skating interviews : The Manleywoman SkateCast

The first ice skating podcast ... podcasting since 2007! Interviews with famous and influential people in the sport of figure skating.

manleywoman.com

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

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I believe Elizabeth Manley is now involved with Santee on Skates with David Santee. He also has an impressive list of interviewees.

 

[skatingfan4ever]

I don't know what else Dave said during his LOI "review" (thankfully, at this point), but what matters is how the skaters who actually skated in it felt about it.

For example, Andrew Torgashev wrote on his IG stories that night or the next day, these sentences, as white text on a black background:

Thank you to all of my friends that were here for this show.
This has been the most meaningful performance of my time on ice.
Thank you so much to all that watched.
The love and support that was felt tonight cannot be expressed in words.
Just thank you to all.

Let that sink in. Andrew calls it "the most meaningful performance of my time on ice." He has some nice medals from his skating career so far, and he's not done competing yet. He fought so hard to come back to competition after his earlier injuries. But ultimately it's not the medals and the titles that matter. It's being there for your friends, with your friends, supporting each other, doing something you all love. That is what makes your time on ice meaningful.

Andrew's words were powerful and I wanted to share them here, to bring some light to this thread. I have no doubt the other skaters felt similarly; I just happen to follow Andrew on IG.

 

[gopatrick]

Browsed over many well said posts, just adding a thought on the other side of topic: I wish USFS could respond this proactively on the Safesport cases.

 

[Joekaz]

Dave is entitled to his opinions. If you don't like what he says, either comment to him on his show or don't watch it. Banning him from anything is ridiculous. Skating fans need to grow up a little. The world is not rainbows and unicorns.

 

[manleywoman]

For those who may be unaware, Allison Manley's manleywoman podcast, which predates and inspired the creation of TSL, is available on her redesigned website. Allison pioneered the podcast interview in figure skating, starting in 2007. Her mission was to talk with past skating greats and recently retired skaters, including those who remained active as coaches and choreographers. She compiled a fascinating, entertaining, and informative archive.

After her first episode with Kurt Browning, the list of interviewees spans the gamut from Oleg Vasiliev; Susie Wynne; Philip Mills; David Santee; Frank Carroll; John Nicks; Richard Dwyer; Ron Ludington; Chris Howarth; Jozef Sabovcik; Charlie Tickner; Tai Babilonia; Debi Thomas; Slavka Kohout; Jennifer Kirk; Tom Dickson (choreographer & former skater -- fascinating & insightful); Rory Flack; Ryan Jahnke; Barbara Ann Scott; JoJo Starbuck; Yuka Sato; Randy Gardner; Timothy Goebel; Lucinda Ruh; Frances Dafoe; Carol Heiss Jenkins; Caryn Kadavy; Rohene Ward; John Misha Petkevich; Donald Jackson; Dick Button (an interview Manley had tried to obtain for years); Sjoukje Dijkstra; to Ryan Bradley; et al!!! Manley's last four interviews in 2014 were with Brian Orser; Renee Roca; Tamara Moskvina; and former U.S. men's skater, Parker Pennington.

Manley then took an extended break. She launched her new website in 2021 and added a number of new interviews, including with Elizabeth Manley; and Debbi Wilkes. The final interview posted in 2022 was with Jackie Wong. Among the earlier interviews was a sit-down with P.J. Kwong, who was inspired by Allison Manley to start her own podcast. Kwong's interview archive, some of which are on YT, are well worth listening to and learning from. I will include a link below to Manley's website and to Kwong's YT conversation with skating historian and creator of the Skateguard Blog, Ryan Stevens.

I recall that when Kirk and Lease started The Skating Lesson in 2012, they mentioned having gained inspiration from Allison Manley's podcast, yet typically the mention was framed in a negative way by directing a putdown at Manley's interviewing style.

Additional resources are the recent, Future of Figure Skating Podcast; Anything GOES; The Blades of Our Lives; Polina Edmund's BLEAV podcast, renamed The Iron Butterfly; Ashley/Adam's The Runthrough; The Ice Lab podcast on Spotify & Apple by Trennt Michaud & Michael Marinaro (27 episodes from 2021 - 2022). Plus, many other event review and interview shows, including This Week in Skating (TWIS).

The Manleywoman SkateCast - figure skating interviews : The Manleywoman SkateCast

The first ice skating podcast ... podcasting since 2007! Interviews with famous and influential people in the sport of figure skating.

manleywoman.com

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

www.youtube.com

Hi. Manleywoman here. A friend forwarded this comment to me so I wanted to say thank you for the kind words. Yes, I was the first skating podcast (it's literally the only time in my life I've been an early adopter to anything LOL!). I appreciate you sharing my website. I hope people continue to enjoy the interviews.

 

[Mathman]

Dave is entitled to his opinions.

Leese has his opinions. I have mine.

 

[Minz]

Dave is entitled to his opinions. If you don't like what he says, either comment to him on his show or don't watch it. Banning him from anything is ridiculous. Skating fans need to grow up a little. The world is not rainbows and unicorns.

We are talking about children who just died in a plane crash, not debating over which ice cream flavor is better.

If you are going to try and make yourself a well-known presence in the skating world, then you are going to be held to a standard.

And by all means, not calling children who just died in a plane crash untalented isn’t exactly a very high standard.

No one is saying the world isn’t a rough place, but it helps to have some decency.

 

[formersk8ter]

The world is not rainbows and unicorns.

Sometimes the world IS rainbows.

 

[Joekaz]

Leese has his opinions. I have mine.

Absolutely. As we all do.

 

[Joekaz]

We are talking about children who just died in a plane crash, not debating over which ice cream flavor is better.

If you are going to try and make yourself a well-known presence in the skating world, then you are going to be held to a standard.

And by all means, not calling children who just died in a plane crash untalented isn’t exactly a very high standard.

No one is saying the world isn’t a rough place, but it helps to have some decency.

Then don't watch him. Criticize him. But don't ban him from anything.

 

[Joekaz]

Sometimes the world IS rainbows.

But I have never seen one with a unicorn. Lol

 

[CoyoteChris]

For @CoyoteChris LOL AKC sounds a little like Taekwando. Of course, in the long run I don't regret the TKD activity, and I hope you don't regret your experiences with dogs... but there's always somebody out to make a buck.

Of course you shouldnt regret TKD....and activites that people do with their kids are for the most part very positive for the family and the health of the child. I wont bore you with my childhood nightmares of growing up but I never regretted not having children for myself. And I really do appreciate parents where there are actually two people who decide to have a child and both work toward making that child the best citizen they can. As for the dogs, I love them but they are my wife (wives?) dogs and they put out the big bucks with their money and since we have separate money, I dont say a thing and they dont say a thing when I take a $4,000 trip to Figure skating worlds or a $7,000 cruise or buy a new motorcycle.
I do know one sad story about an aquaintenance I have known for years. He and his wife put all their savings into their son to do hockey for many years, hoping for a college scholorship, which is very hard to get. He left hockey behind, became an EMT, and dates his cousin.

 

[CoyoteChris]

True. In fact "somebody" is everybody. I guess dog breeders and handlers and taekwondo black belts have to make a living, too.

Or not. Good dog breeders dont make hardly anything if you consider all the time work and worry they put in to what they do. Its a labor of love. Puppy mills make money.... Dog handlers in the world of show dogs do make money but they make it cause the whole business of confirmation is politics and if you want your dog to win a dog show, you hire a known handler cause your dog wont win without a known handler in a major show. Sad but true. More crooked than the IOC and the ISU acually. The AKC has gone form a bunch of people who care about dogs and events to becoming a corporation concerned with making bucks.
And that is sad......
Nothing wrong with making bucks. College math profs and police communications specialists have to make bucks to live and save. And hopefully do some people good in the process. And help society in general. But we dont lay in bed at night thinking about how we can milk the system to make more bucks....I still hope most coaches dont lie to students about their ability like some skating professor Harold Hill, Gold metal class of ought 5.

 

[BlissfulSynergy]

Hi. Manleywoman here. A friend forwarded this comment to me so I wanted to say thank you for the kind words. Yes, I was the first skating podcast (it's literally the only time in my life I've been an early adopter to anything LOL!). I appreciate you sharing my website. I hope people continue to enjoy the interviews.

It's so good to hear from you, Manleywoman! Thank you so much for all your wonderful contributions to the sport. Your interview archive is invaluable. I hope many more skating fans discover your website to learn and be entertained by a skating history treasure trove.

 

[Mathman]

Then don't watch him. Criticize him. But don't ban him from anything.

Has anyone banned Leese from anything?

The statement from USFS that is under discussion on this thread says, "We refuse to let this vile narrative (as opined by Leese) go unchallenged." This is the opinion of the US Skating Association. Skaters, coaches, parents, skating officials -- they all have their opinions on the content of Leese's message.

If someone says a cruel thing, others will say, "That was a cruel thing that you said." This is reality, not unicorns.

 

[BlissfulSynergy]

But I have never seen one with a unicorn. Lol

OT: I guess that means you're not an imaginative dreamer.

Bottom line, Dave Lease has hurt a lot of people with malicious gossip and overly negative swipes; he has also won a measure of respect and cautious acceptance from those who see and admire his knowledge and passion for the sport. I appreciate Lease's thoughtful coverage of the World Figure and Fancy Skating Championships, and the sharing of his skating lessons with Paul Wylie, et al. (which has helped me to understand in a deeper way the technical side of skating and why the sport is so difficult to master).

At the same time, I do not forgive Lease's constant negativity toward particular skaters over the years, and the way he has reveled in spreading malicious and harmful gossip. I still remember many of his worst, uncalled for slams and nastiness. Yes, he has often been enabled and weaponized by fans and by others in the skating community. But it has been up to Lease himself to learn from the error of his ways and he simply hasn't.

Maybe Lease will manage to claw his way back, but hopefully not soon, and not until he has figured out how to control his worst tendencies, and to use his knowledge and passion in more beneficial ways. It's good to critique things that need to change, but not in a perpetually bitter and vindictive tone. The Legacy on Ice memorial event was not a normal, casual event for TSL to use as fodder to nitpick. Above all, Lease should make an honest effort to stop hurting people with careless gossip and snarky slights.

In the end, as someone posted here previously, Lease is the author of his own demise. Karma has a way of clapping back when a person's own choices, words, and actions continually cross the line.