- Joined
- Jun 21, 2003
Cinquanta
I think that in the early years of Mr. Cinquanta’s presidency he was regarded as a financial whiz who was good for the business end of the sport. He is given credit for negotiating multimillion dollar contracts with U.S. television networks (which is why he could give prize money to skaters), although that was more the result of figure skating’s overall popularity in the 1990s than anything Cinquanta did in particular.
He did consolidate the Grand Prix circuit, but that was somewhat at the expense of the individual events which had done fine on their own, especially Skate Canada since 1973, Skate America since 1979 and the French event, since 1987. (Trivia question: what lady has won the variously-named French event the most? Answer: Surya Bonaly, five times. )
On the negative side, Mr. Cinquata was regarded as dictatorial (especially as time went on), power conscious, and “political.” When the ISU constitution required that he step down in 2014 because of age, he simply set the constitution aside and unilaterally extended his term for four more years, saying that no one else could lead the organization in preparation for the 2018 Olympic games. In his attempts to assume control of all figure skating events, he is blamed for killing professional skating competitions in the late 1990s. (IMHO this charge is somewhat exaggerated.)
Mr. C. is also criticized for bringing a speed skating mentality to the ISU. Money generated by the financial success of figure skating was siphoned off to pay for speed skating. For better of worse, rule changes like the IJS make the sport more like a race and puts less emphasis on the performing arts aspect. Even his election as ISU president was something of a coup by the speed skating side to undercut the figure skating side in the “power corridors” of the ISU. Cinquanta’s image as a financial wizard has diminished as figure skating declined in popularity in North America (although to be honest this is due to factors beyond the ISU’s control).
Personally, I don't see anything super awful about him, either. Any CEO is going to face criticism for how he runs the company.
Could we assess Cinquanta's work as ISU president? What rights and wrongs did he do?
I think that the creation of the Grand Prix series and the Grand Prix Finale were a great achievement. I also personally think that doing only 1 SP and 1 LP for every discipline was a good idea.
I also read on wikipedia that he introduced prize money for ISU events which is very good for the skaters! For the whole new IJS scoring system, though there are still lots of problem with the judging (cf the Sonia Bianchetti thread!), I am among those who like it better than 6.0.
For the bad things, he says dumb sh*t like "oh let's get rid of the SP" or "oh I know nothing about ice dance". But to be honest I am not very aware of how he is super awful.
I think that in the early years of Mr. Cinquanta’s presidency he was regarded as a financial whiz who was good for the business end of the sport. He is given credit for negotiating multimillion dollar contracts with U.S. television networks (which is why he could give prize money to skaters), although that was more the result of figure skating’s overall popularity in the 1990s than anything Cinquanta did in particular.
He did consolidate the Grand Prix circuit, but that was somewhat at the expense of the individual events which had done fine on their own, especially Skate Canada since 1973, Skate America since 1979 and the French event, since 1987. (Trivia question: what lady has won the variously-named French event the most? Answer: Surya Bonaly, five times. )
On the negative side, Mr. Cinquata was regarded as dictatorial (especially as time went on), power conscious, and “political.” When the ISU constitution required that he step down in 2014 because of age, he simply set the constitution aside and unilaterally extended his term for four more years, saying that no one else could lead the organization in preparation for the 2018 Olympic games. In his attempts to assume control of all figure skating events, he is blamed for killing professional skating competitions in the late 1990s. (IMHO this charge is somewhat exaggerated.)
Mr. C. is also criticized for bringing a speed skating mentality to the ISU. Money generated by the financial success of figure skating was siphoned off to pay for speed skating. For better of worse, rule changes like the IJS make the sport more like a race and puts less emphasis on the performing arts aspect. Even his election as ISU president was something of a coup by the speed skating side to undercut the figure skating side in the “power corridors” of the ISU. Cinquanta’s image as a financial wizard has diminished as figure skating declined in popularity in North America (although to be honest this is due to factors beyond the ISU’s control).
Personally, I don't see anything super awful about him, either. Any CEO is going to face criticism for how he runs the company.
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