Vaitsekhovskaya on Russian FS Presidential "elections" | Golden Skate

Vaitsekhovskaya on Russian FS Presidential "elections"

Ptichka

Forum translator
Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 28, 2003
http://ptichkafs.livejournal.com/50610.html

Yesterday, a new president was chosen for Federation of Figure Skating of Russia (FFSR). The post will be occupied by the chairman of the ISU technical committee for ice dancing, a director of international relations of the Russian Olympic committee, Olympic champion in figure skating Alexander Gorshkov. Simultaneously, General Director for RFSF was voted in. This seat, new in RFSF structure, will be occupied by the veteran federation president Valentine Piseev.

MEN PAIR SKATING
Elena VAITSEKHOVSKAYA
from Novogorsk

The voting for the top position started with a withdrawal of the chairman of National Russian Duma’s committee of physical education and sport, an Olympic figure skating champion Anton Sikhuralidze. Just a few minutes after the press was asked to leave the conference room, Sikhuralidze came out to speak to the journalists.

“Unfortunately, we only saw the new rules this morning,” he began. “The new rules spell out the federation president’s powers, and, to my great surprise, they are of nothing more than a figurehead. While my goal was to develop the federation, the new rules do not grant such powers to the president. I am a young, energetic and fairly busy man. I don’t have time to carry around the briefcase for the general director. This is why I had to withdraw from this race.”

Following Sikhuralidze, ice dancing champion Oksana Gritschuk fell out of the race. To begin with, the skater was told she only had two minutes to spell out her program. When she went passed this time, she started being “applauded away” (which was erroneously taken by Oksana as a sign of general interest and support). After she stopped speaking, she was informed that she had no right to run for the seat being a private individual.

Correspondingly, Gorshkov was left a sole candidate, voted in unanimously by all 66 members. After that, all of them with one exception voted to make Piseev the general director (essentially, the top person of FFSR). In a word, it all happened exactly as was predicted backstage. All that’s left is bitterness over the lack of abilities of those who seriously wanted to challenge the “old guard”.

Actually, the crashing defeat of Russian Olympians in Vancouver and the subsequent sorting out by the top people of the nation was for the best – it made many people associated with the sport start moving. In that sense, Piseev keeping his powers is not a tragedy or even stagnation = today, FFSR general director is more interested than anyone in making sure rinks are being built, coaches get all the support they need, and skaters regain their former victorious positions.

Tatiana Tarasova is right in pointing out that federation, headed by Piseev, has finally in the last few months, without any ado, gotten around to making many targeted and very necessary decisions. In particular, this is true about creation of new teams.

The conference also talked about some changes that have already been made in the federal program of sport development. For example, over the next two years new rinks should be built in Perm and Samara; those cities regularly supply the national team with skaters, but have absolutely atrocious working conditions.

Selection of Gorshkov for the top post of FFSR led to a minor problem – as a president of a national federation, he has to vacate his post of the chairman of the ISU technical committee of ice dancing. It’s not legitimate, though, to consider this a real problem, as FFSR plans (as was found out way before yesterday) to nominate to Gorshkov’s former post the most knowledgeable, powerful and respected of Russian judges – Alla Shekhovtseva, Piseev’s spouse. In addition to the aforementioned qualities, Shekhovtseva has a good command of English language, and her opinion is deferred to at the elite level.

In short, there was no point in barring the journalists from the final and most important part of the conference. We would’ve even applauded.
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
Thank you, Ptichka.

Does the Russian Federation have such power in the ISU that they can automatically install Ms. Shekhovtseva as head of the ISU ice dance technical committee by fiat? Will there be other nominees from other countries, or is this podition a Russian sinecure?
 

colleen o'neill

Medalist
Joined
Nov 3, 2006
:frown: Me, three. Surely there must be other contenders ? Or do they just hope ( or have a very good idea) that she'll be a shoo-in?
 

wallylutz

Medalist
Joined
Mar 23, 2010
Halina Gordon-Poltorak (Poland) and Robert Joseph Horen (USA), both current members of the ISU's Ice Dance Technical Committee, reportedly are the 2 other candidates for the Chairperson's position, according to 'oubik' at FSU: http://www.fsuniverse.net/forum/showpost.php?p=2782638&postcount=288

Either of them would be far more preferrable from a North American perspective. Gordon-Poltorak is seen as politically friendly towards the North Americans and her long tenure would support the credibility of her candidacy. Horen is fine however, choosing him may be ill perceived by some European countries as too much of a shift as Ice Dance has almost always been eurocentric. It was only a few years ago when a first non-European team actually won the Worlds over countless number of decades. It would seem Mrs. Gordon-Poltorak would be a far more platable compromise to most people if the goal is: "Anyone but Alla Shekhovtseva!" I also expect hell being raised with procedural and legal process of IDTC Chairman election should Russian Fed attempts to parachute Alla Shekhovtseva in lieu of Alexander Gorshkov. My take is, this is far from a done deal and at this point, it's nothing but Russia's own wishful thinking that they could bypass the rules and install Alla Shekhovtseva like a succession of monarchy.
 

KKonas

Medalist
Joined
Oct 31, 2009
Either of them would be far more preferrable from a North American perspective. Gordon-Poltorak is seen as politically friendly towards the North Americans and her long tenure would support the credibility of her candidacy.

Gordon Poltorak is my choice. She speaks excellent English - is knowledgeable and easy to talk to.
 

wallylutz

Medalist
Joined
Mar 23, 2010
Gordon Poltorak is my choice. She speaks excellent English - is knowledgeable and easy to talk to.

She is also a very friendly and kind person too, always nice to the skaters as opposed to some people who sort of gave you an attitude because of who they are. I sat with a couple of Poles during the FD in Vancouver. There was no Polish Ice Dance team in Vancouver as they didn't qualify any but they came anyway and when I told them Halina Gordon-Poltorak is the referee of the event - they immediately recognized her and showed a lot of appreciation re her as a professional and a person.

The important thing to me though is Ice Dance cannot afford to be run like a corrupted business as it had been. Placing Alla Shekhovtseva on top of IDTC, you might as well put up a sign that reads: "Open for Business". Besides, it's also a quesiton of ethics - avoiding situations of possible conflicts (of interest). It is completey inappropriate for the spouse of the head of a major national federation to occupy such a powerful spot within an organization with direct influence on the IOC, it would open a can full of worms and give the perception of bias even if no wrongdoing has been committed. There is no shortage of very qualified Russian judges who are generally very competent and knowledgeable. Alla Shekhovtseva is far from the only qualified or even the most qualified person from her country. Her sole raison d'etre of being there is not for the good of the sport and mostly, lacking a neutrality that is almost certainly a pre-requisite for this position. It makes you wonder though, Russia seems to be adopting an attitude of Sochi at any cost here. At what point though, is the price too much?
 

KKonas

Medalist
Joined
Oct 31, 2009
She is also a very friendly and kind person too, always nice to the skaters as opposed to some people who sort of gave you an attitude because of who they are. I sat with a couple of Poles during the FD in Vancouver. There was no Polish Ice Dance team in Vancouver as they didn't qualify any but they came anyway and when I told them Halina Gordon-Poltorak is the referee of the event - they immediately recognized her and showed a lot of appreciation re her as a professional and a person.

The important thing to me though is Ice Dance cannot afford to be run like a corrupted business as it had been. Placing Alla Shekhovtseva on top of IDTC, you might as well put up a sign that reads: "Open for Business". Besides, it's also a quesiton of ethics - avoiding situations of possible conflicts (of interest). It is completey inappropriate for the spouse of the head of a major national federation to occupy such a powerful spot within an organization with direct influence on the IOC, it would open a can full of worms and give the perception of bias even if no wrongdoing has been committed. There is no shortage of very qualified Russian judges who are generally very competent and knowledgeable. Alla Shekhovtseva is far from the only qualified or even the most qualified person from her country. Her sole raison d'etre of being there is not for the good of the sport and mostly, lacking a neutrality that is almost certainly a pre-requisite for this position. It makes you wonder though, Russia seems to be adopting an attitude of Sochi at any cost here. At what point though, is the price too much?

Best thing about Gordon-Poltorak is that she doesn't have an agenda. With Alla, there is always an agenda.
 

Ptichka

Forum translator
Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 28, 2003
This is an interview with the director of Saint Petersburg skating federation. She complains that Piseev doesn't like Saint Petersburg in general, and her in particular, and that he's doing everything to make her life miserable.
 

Fashionista

On the Ice
Joined
Nov 23, 2008
This is an interview with the director of Saint Petersburg skating federation. She complains that Piseev doesn't like Saint Petersburg in general, and her in particular, and that he's doing everything to make her life miserable.
She's director of one of St. Pete figure skating schools. The head of St. Pete FS federation is another guy, Oleg Nilov.
 

HalfTriple

Match Penalty
Joined
Jun 8, 2010
It makes you wonder though, Russia seems to be adopting an attitude of Sochi at any cost here.

That's why the next ISU rule changes should include something like no national distinction competitions such as no flag ceremony, no anthem, etc. Why don't we just raise photos of medalists instead of flags that centers this crazy chauvinism in sports?:think:
 
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wallylutz

Medalist
Joined
Mar 23, 2010
ISU IDTC Election results 2010

She is also a very friendly and kind person too, always nice to the skaters as opposed to some people who sort of gave you an attitude because of who they are. I sat with a couple of Poles during the FD in Vancouver. There was no Polish Ice Dance team in Vancouver as they didn't qualify any but they came anyway and when I told them Halina Gordon-Poltorak is the referee of the event - they immediately recognized her and showed a lot of appreciation re her as a professional and a person.

The important thing to me though is Ice Dance cannot afford to be run like a corrupted business as it had been. Placing Alla Shekhovtseva on top of IDTC, you might as well put up a sign that reads: "Open for Business". Besides, it's also a quesiton of ethics - avoiding situations of possible conflicts (of interest). It is completey inappropriate for the spouse of the head of a major national federation to occupy such a powerful spot within an organization with direct influence on the IOC, it would open a can full of worms and give the perception of bias even if no wrongdoing has been committed. There is no shortage of very qualified Russian judges who are generally very competent and knowledgeable. Alla Shekhovtseva is far from the only qualified or even the most qualified person from her country. Her sole raison d'etre of being there is not for the good of the sport and mostly, lacking a neutrality that is almost certainly a pre-requisite for this position. It makes you wonder though, Russia seems to be adopting an attitude of Sochi at any cost here. At what point though, is the price too much?

http://www.isu.org/vsite/vcontent/c...-3572-4771-layout160-129918-news-item,00.html

Chair:

Halina Gordon-Poltorak, Poland


Members:
Robert Joseph Horen, USA

Gilles Vandenbroeck, France

Alla Shekhovtsova, Russia


Thankfully, Mrs. Gordon-Poltorak won the election, as I had hoped. The way RSF spoke of Alla Shekhovtsova's candidacy for the chair position like a done deal, as I suspected, was greatly exaggerated arrogance on their part. It is clear that choosing her would make a lot of members uncomfortable for the sole reason of potential in conflict of interests alone and that's far from the only concern.

Even though the order hasn't changed much in Russia, I remain hopeful that the younger generation of Russian leaders such as Anton Sikharulidze will be able to bring about real changes and reduce corruptions in this sport in their country eventually.
 
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