Greece and Puerto Rico out of ISU

Nirti · Apr 9, 2015

CaroLiza_fan said:
Just a quick comment to let you know that the link isn't working. You need to move the "[/url]" to before the bracket and the question mark to get it to work, i.e.

Oops! I've corrected it.

CaroLiza_fan said:
By the way, I had already brought up the suggestion of skaters from countries whose Federations had been suspended competing along the same lines as "Independent Olympic Athletes" in my first post in this thread. But nobody bit!

Oh yes, you already talked about it ^^
But I think it couldn't work, because of dual citizenships. How to proove that Isabella Schuster is greek as she first skated for Germany? The same for Georgia Glastris with USA... With this logic, any athlete with roots from a country without figure skating could ask for this, by example Elladj Balde with Guinea or Chafik Besseghier with Algeria...

Maybe it could work if there is an ice rink with a skating club in a country without recognized federation, but I'm not sure if there is still any club in Greece... The only cases I see are Macedonia (clubs in Skopje with skaters who take part at the European Criterium) and Turkmenistan (turkmen skaters where scheduled at a competition in Dubai last year if I good remember), but it concerns very young skaters.

Sylvia · Apr 10, 2015

Mathman said:
At the ISU Council meeting at Worlds, Greece and Puerto Rico were suspended from ISU membership. The case of Puerto Rico seems straightforward -- this program has not produced any skaters who can participate in international events and seems to have collapsed altogether. But for Greece apparently the ice sports federation got in trouble with its own national Olympic committee and minister of sports. (I think the HISF is mainly about hockey anyway.)

Does anyone know anything about this situation?

GF2445 said:
Also, Romania got in some trouble too!

Someone who appears to have knowledge of the ice sports situation in Greece has posted on FSU (post #18 and following): http://www.fsuniverse.net/forum/ind...-and-puerto-rico-federations-suspended.95320/
(The thread includes some hearsay info about Romania, too.)

ETA:

Nirti said:
Puerto Rico's skating federation lost the agreement of his Olympic Committee some months ago and the federation was dissolved. It was announced in their website - who doesn't longer exist.

Thanks for this info. I never saw an announcement on the PRFSF website before it disappeared but I wasn't checking it regularly.

kallirroe · Jun 14, 2015

I am trully shocked reading about this !! I had the opportunity to watch the performance of greek skaters here in athens and i was trully amazed by tge really good level of all those female of course children . Especially there were 3-5 girls age 8-9 years old who were landind double jumps and had good centred spins , goid footwork with edges and good flexibility. All thay in an ice rink 1/3 of an olympic one.... i just wish things with our economy go better which i trully doubt , because those girls will be landing triples at the age of 12 -13 and will be eligible for juniors. Such a disapointment for my country. Only we care for football and basketball. No funding for anything....

Kitt · Jun 14, 2015

I was just in Puerto Rico and asked one of the natives if they wanted to be the 51st state and he replied that Puerto Ricans enjoyed their own identity, especially so they could have their own Olympic team. I didn't get a chance to ask him what sports they excelled in.

Layback11 · Jun 14, 2015

Icey said:
That would work. Never knew there was such a status in the Olympics, which is so country centric, but glad to learn there is.

Yeah, I remember that all the Indian athletes at the Sochi Olympics were competing as "Independent Olympians" because India was temporarily out of the IOC for electing corrupt officials or something.

kallirroe · Jun 15, 2015

So all the figure skaters that isu has deleted tgeir country could possibly compete at europeans , worls and grand prix as independent or do they have to compete with another country ? Or is only that at the olympics?

CaroLiza_fan · Jun 15, 2015

kallirroe said:
So all the figure skaters that isu has deleted tgeir country could possibly compete at europeans , worls and grand prix as independent or do they have to compete with another country ? Or is only that at the olympics?

That is what we have been trying to work out since this news first broke back in April (here is the post where I first brought up this issue). But, nobody seems to know if it is theoretically possible under the ISU rules.

As I and other members have pointed out, it definitely happens at the Olympics. So I don't see why it shouldn't be possible in ISU sanctioned competitions.

For the sakes of the skaters, I hope it is possible. It would be a travesty if they were left high and dry because of red tape.

(Although, as I have also already pointed out, Isabella SCHUSTER-VELISSARIOU is fortunate in that she is eligible to compete for Germany, if she is willing to take the embargo).

CaroLiza_fan

TontoK · Jun 16, 2015

One of my heros in high school was Jesse Vassallo, a fellow swimmer. He broke numerous world records, won a few world championships, and missed his shot at Olympic gold when the US boycotted the Moscow Games.

He was born in PR and lived there during the early years of his life. Eventually moved to California to train. He wanted to represent PR in the 1976 Games, but was denied because he had not resided on the island for a year. He then made the US Team and became a star.

My recollection is that PR then tried to lure him back to swim on their team, but he declined. Essentially he said that PR had a chance to let him swim for them when he was developing, but showed no interest then so they weren't getting him now.

He overcame injury to make a comeback in 1984, so he did get to swim in the Olympics, but sadly didn't win a medal. His peak performance would have been 1980.

ice coverage · Jun 16, 2015

TontoK said:
One of my heros in high school was Jesse Vassallo, a fellow swimmer. He broke numerous world records, won a few world championships, and missed his shot at Olympic gold when the US boycotted the Moscow Games.

He was born in PR and lived there during the early years of his life. Eventually moved to California to train. He wanted to represent PR in the 1976 Games, but was denied because he had not resided on the island for a year. He then made the US Team and became a star.

My recollection is that PR then tried to lure him back to swim on their team, but he declined. Essentially he said that PR had a chance to let him swim for them when he was developing, but showed no interest then so they weren't getting him now.

He overcame injury to make a comeback in 1984, so he did get to swim in the Olympics, but sadly didn't win a medal. His peak performance would have been 1980.

Off topic / small world:

My father had some business dealings in P.R. with Jesse Vassallo's father -- during Jesse's earlier years as a prominent swimmer. Thank you for the pleasant surprise of your recap of his career. I knew that Jesse was world-class, but back then, I hadn't grasped many of the details.

(Another case of GS members offering such a diversity of knowledge and experience

. And of GS as a resource for learning about things outside of skating too -- sometimes when you least expect it :yes:.)

Greece and Puerto Rico out of ISU

Nirti

Sylvia

kallirroe

Kitt

Layback11

kallirroe

CaroLiza_fan

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TontoK

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