U.S. Figure Skating reprimands, fines Rachael Flatt

[Joesitz (RIP)]

The most Nobel prize winning school, I believe is City University of New York which are because of the Professors/Instructors, but inclusive dates do not go back as far as Ivy League. I have a BA from Hunter College of the CUNY. Finding the psychology of Rogers in the Communications discipline was a gift. It made me the skeptic that I am.

I also was in S.Africa on two Missions and visiting Capetown on my own. Beautiful!

 

[ManyCairns]

Marie Curie, physics and chemistry (Yes, I yahooed it. Good question.)

 

[SerpentineSteps]

The most Nobel prize winning school, I believe is City University of New York which are because of the Professors/Instructors, but inclusive dates do not go back as far as Ivy League. I have a BA from Hunter College of the CUNY. Finding the psychology of Rogers in the Communications discipline was a gift. It made me the skeptic that I am.

I also was in S.Africa on two Missions and visiting Capetown on my own. Beautiful!

I'm not really sure how this fits into Rachael Flatt, but, just out of curiosity, where did you get this data?

CUNY has 12 nobel laureates according to its own website, and I'm pretty sure my alma mater has upwards of 90.

EDIT: Yep, I was right. Columbia or Cambridge depending on how you count. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nobel_laureates_by_university_affiliation

 

[Ptichka]

I don't know but a good question. Perhaps the Russian who was a leading nuclear scientist and also a voice for freedom and peace.

That would be Sakharov, whose widow, btw, died this week. No, he only had the "peace" Nobel.

 

[Mathman]

The reason that Sakharov did not also win a Nobel Prize in Physics was that his most innovative theoretical work (on proton decay and what is now called supersymmetry) cannot be verified experimentally by existing apparatuses. People were hoping the CERN Large Hadron Collider that came on line in 2008 would shed some light on these ideas, but so far – zilch. It won’t get up to full power until 2014.

 

[Olympia]

Mandela had an interesting life, to say the least. (I just looked him up.)

As an undergraduate he attended the University College of Fort Hare, the first university in South Africa for Africans, as was expected of all Thembo royalty at the time. They kicked him out for leading student protests. Later he studied law at the University of Witwaters, and began practicing law in 1949.

By the way, Mandela’s sport in college was boxing.

While in prison he studied law by correspondence from the University of London. Eventually he also earned a degree from the University of South Africa.

I see that one of the Nobel Peace laureates from pace-setting Columbia University was that peaceful fellow Teddy Roosevelt in 1906. This was for helping to negotiate the peace treaty that ended the Russia-Japanese War. Roosevelt was the first American to win a Nobel Prize in any field.

Trivia question. Who is the only person to win Nobel prizes in two different sciences?

Not only did Marie win twice, but her daughter Irene also won, for physics, I think. We were talking about this the other day in the cafe thread about the Japanese nuclear cleanup, which Doris has been explaining brilliantly throughout.

I think Linus Pauling won two Nobels for even more diverse things: chemistry and peace.

Did Teddy Roosevelt go to Columbia? I thought he was a Harvard man. In any case, he is the only person to win both the Nobel Peace Prize and the Congressional Medal of Honor. The latter was awarded to him posthumously just a few years ago, after about a century of lobbying by fans and family, for the charge up San Juan Hill during the Spanish-American War. I have to say I have a fondness for the guy, despite his rather aggressive side. He was an American original, brave and honest and optimistic, full of energy, and a bundle of contradictions: hunter and naturalist, extrovert and bookworm, conservative and progressive.

I love trivia questions like these because they make me think about the people involved. Curie, Teddy Roosevelt, and Mandela: you could read about them all day and not get bored by any of the three. Mandela astounds me most of all. In jail thirty years, and he came out less bitter than he was when he went in, and more creative and energetic as well. It simply boggles the mind.

As for illustrious Stanford students, I think Herbert Hoover was in its first class, and his wife Lou Hoover was a couple of classes after him. Hoover is another of my heroes. I don't think he was a good president at all, but look up his life before 1929. During and after World War I, he supervised food aid that saved literally tens of thousands of lives, especially in Europe. He was one of the greatest philanthropists of his time, and an organizational genius. During the war, he even negotiated with Germany to get into Belgium to feed the people there. After the war, he fed everyone from Belgians to Lithuanians to Poles. He probably saved more people in the twentieth century than anyone other than Jonas Salk.

 

[MrScroogeMcDuck]

Joe, as a UC graduate, I'd have to respectfully disagree. Many of us on the west coast believe UC Berkeley is a much better school =P Stanford just costs more.

Yeah, a bear would think that.

 

[MrScroogeMcDuck]

IIRC, Rachael decided on Stanford over Ivy League Princeton.

Smart woman.

 

[Binthere]

Looove the way this thread has so many random tangents into the realms of "which school is better" etc. ALL of which are actually indirect (direct?) COMPLIMENTS to Rachael for her being such a smart cookie.

On the issue of her reprimand and fines, I think the actions may be appropriate, but the way in which these issues were all imflamed and publicized were NOT.

 

[blue dog]

Looove the way this thread has so many random tangents into the realms of "which school is better" etc. ALL of which are actually indirect (direct?) COMPLIMENTS to Rachael for her being such a smart cookie.

I agree. Remember when there were more skaters who didn't finish high school than those who did? I think those days are long-gone.

 

[Binthere]

I agree. Remember when there were more skaters who didn't finish high school than those who did? I think those days are long-gone.

I get the distinct sense that this is more the case in the US (completing school) than it is in other countries. Athletes from China and Russia especially, do not seem to be pursuing much in the way of education, at least not in a "higher education" sort of way. The full time nature of sports commitment makes this easy to understand, but it sure seems a risk putting all of ones eggs into a single basket, when injuries, unpredictable events, and just plain bad luck can leave one in their mid 20s, with little to nothing else to turn to in life without an education.

 

[Tinymavy15]

I get the distinct sense that this is more the case in the US (completing school) than it is in other countries. Athletes from China and Russia especially, do not seem to be pursuing much in the way of education, at least not in a "higher education" sort of way. The full time nature of sports commitment makes this easy to understand, but it sure seems a risk putting all of ones eggs into a single basket, when injuries, unpredictable events, and just plain bad luck can leave one in their mid 20s, with little to nothing else to turn to in life without an education.

True. And most kids want a "normal life" outside skating and for most mid-upper class teens that means college. Many don't want to sacrafice a "college experience" especially after many sacrifice a "normal" high school life.", i.e. no parties, no staying out late etc.

 

[silverpond]

This is a bit strange, in my view. It is not unusual for athletes, skaters and otherwise, to compete when they're injured. Look at Rafael Nadal, how he's played major tennis tournaments with taped knees and other strained muscles. Figure skating is a sport that involves lots of falls, and some of those falls unfortunately cause injuries. Assuming that the skater can still compete in relative comfort and not further aggravate the injury, what's the problem with competing under that situation?

I'm just hazarding a guess, but I think the USFSA is none too pleased that the US women failed to medal in Vancouver and no longer dominate the sport or at least win medals in every major international competition. The US has been blessed with so many wondeful women skaters, and we are used to seeing three women compete for the USA at Worlds and the Olympics.

Had Rachel withdrawn from the competition, would another US skater have won a medal or at least placed in the top ten?

 

[R.D.]

Had Rachel withdrawn from the competition, would another US skater have won a medal or at least placed in the top ten?

Mirai Nagasu would likely be top 10 material, but apart from her no one else comes to mind...

 

[silverlake22]

Mirai Nagasu would likely be top 10 material, but apart from her no one else comes to mind...

Agnes and Christina could have probably both placed in the top 10 too. I mean Elene G was 10th and it's not even like she skated that great so I think Mirai, Agnes, or Christina, and maybe even Ashley or Vanessa, could have placed 10th or higher at Worlds so long as they skated decently.

 

[fanniewaters]

What everyone seems to be overlooking here is that even if Rachael had let USFS know when she found out, which was the Friday before the competition, it would have been essentially impossible for Mirai or any alternate to also get a VISA in time. Apologies if I have been proven wrong by the fact that USFS managed to obtain rapid visas for all the alternates too. Something that is not cheap, so I would tend to doubt it.

 

[Spun Silver]

I thought there was a week's lapse between the diagnosis and the event. And there is an assumption (whether right or wrong, I don't know) that Russia would have expedited the visa.

ETA: This is from Hersh's original story:

I asked Carroll Monday by telephone if Nagasu would have been ready to skate had she been told she was going April 22 -- the day Flatt said learned she had a stress fracture in the right leg. That was three days before Flatt left for Moscow and a week before the women's event began at worlds.

http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com...chael-flatt-injuury-world-figure-skating.html

 

[Ptichka]

Expedited does not mean automatic. I agree that the only way Mirai could've gone to Moscow was if USFSA got visas for alternates "just in case" (I simply do not know whether it did or not).

 

[Bluebonnet]

What if Rachael has had reported the injury as soon as she has found out it, which was a week before the Worlds, but not intended to withdraw, would that be alright to USFSA? I don't think USFSA could force her to withdraw, couldn't they?

 

[ImaginaryPogue]

I don't think so.