New York Times article on World's

[Osmond4gold]

Thanks for answering. I thought it was a good article. What is FIFA?

The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (or otherwise known as the world soccer federation) which is now facing an internal crises due to questions of integrity, possible bribery & money laundering, and the fixing of the host country bidding process, for the World Cup. Several members including the President have been suspended as an investigation continues Let's just say, it appears like a of culture entitlement and questionable business ethics have existed, or ....a perfect home for Didier.

The sport of skating is suspect enough, given the subjectivity of a judged sport, and is still in a recovery mode, since 2002. Why lower the bar further, by making this sports' most notorious offender, its' President...:eeking:!

 

[skylark]

You have to consider that the majority of those folks are on deadline by the time the press conferences happen. There is no time for pleasantries. In Boston, the night sessions didn't end until nearly 11 p.m. If you're a reporter for the Boston Globe or one of the television stations , you basically have a small window of about 1 hour (arguably less) to write your story, get it edited and get it over for publication the next day and/or on the website and/or for the newscast.

I do think there is time to write good stories, but they take a TON of time. The NY Times same author who wrote this piece also wrote this story (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/13/s...ciplined-approach-yields-joy-on-ice.html?_r=0) about how Jason Brown's Riverdance evolved from concept to performance. This is a story that you are not going to get during any sort of post-competition interview. The author had to spend probably a week in Colorado Springs following Jason and doing interviews with everyone involved.

Of course not every feature has to be that long and in-depth. I think Phil Hersh actually did a decent job getting some good post-competition features for Ice Network, like this one on Ashley Wagner: http://web.icenetwork.com/news/2016/04/03/170277946

Thanks for this perspective. I loved the story about Jason's Riverdance and how it evolved. Maybe time to read it again.

Phil's story about Ashley was really great. All her quotes were from Sat. night's press conference, and he did good work providing the history that makes this World Silver Medal all the sweeter for Ashley and all of her fans, and gives a much fuller perspective about all that went into these two performances. Context, baby!

It's actually funny that right up until Saturday night, all the commentators and so forth were either discounting Ashley, actively or without mentioning her except in passing, or at best lukewarm. It still pains me, but of course Ashley does love proving people wrong about her. All the negative press and the questions like, how come you're still competing, did hurt her. She's tough, but underneath there's a sensitive core.

It's really amazing that she has had the guts to persevere. Ashley's a stellar example to every skater, except perhaps the ones who achieve the heights early on.

 

[glorybox6]

As bad as Didier is, these things sound neat: "He wants to double the sport’s development budget, reach out to nontraditional skating nations and urban youths by using temporary rinks, eliminate anonymity for judges during competitions and introduce new competition formats."

Yes, all of these actually sound good to me, if he can deliver on them.

Fingers crossed "new competition formats" also means the ISU working to create at least a couple more events like the Medal Winners Open. A sort of "masters" level of competition similar to the old-school pro events. I think it would encourage eligible skaters to know they could have some more competitive opportunities in the sport awaiting them after the pressure cooker environment of the Olympics and Worlds. Pro opportunities are so limited these days, when they used to be the reward for a long, hard and expensive career. Sometimes I wonder.. besides pride, what's the reward now? That has got to affect the skating, not to mention the types of skaters who are able to $urvive this grueling sport we all love.

 

[KKonas]

Met Clarey some years back during SLC Olympic Games. He was based in Europe (France, mostly) at the time. He doesn't usually cover figure skating but since he has lived in France for a time, he does know Didier, so I am not surprised that he chose to talk to him, especially now that Didier is running for ISU President. Re same questions from press - it's true and most of the national press has little knowledge of the sport and only cover it in major events. Phil Hersh does actually like the sport as does Christine Brennan and they do often ask good questions. Had to laugh at Brennan's admission on TSL FD interview that most of the daily press would go out to dinner during the FD competition. I think I mentioned it on GS somewhere. Maybe she reads GS and made note of my comment.

 

[WeakAnkles]

I don't get why he is even still in the sport let only running for ISU president. The 2002 judging scandal did more to hurt the sport than Tonya Harding and she was banned for life.
Isn't this the guy who made Massot or the German Fed pay 70K euro to release Massot?

Just wanted to say I love your screen name!

Now if only we could get a Not-So-Hot-Hips and a FlatFeet, we'd really be covered!

 

[TMC]

The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (or otherwise known as the world soccer federation) which is now facing an internal crises due to questions of integrity, possible bribery & money laundering, and the fixing of the host country bidding process, for the World Cup. Several members including the President have been suspended as an investigation continues Let's just say, it appears like a of culture entitlement and questionable business ethics have existed, or ....a perfect home for Didier.

The sport of skating is suspect enough, given the subjectivity of a judged sport, and is still in a recovery mode, since 2002. Why lower the bar further, by making this sports' most notorious offender, its' President...:eeking:!

Possible bribery - They are/were so flush with bribes that a top FIFA official kept an apartment in Trump Tower exclusively for the use of his cats
Here's a hilarious video explaining some of how truly awful FIFA is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qr6ar3xJL_Q (there's a Tonya Harding joke there, too!)
Football is my 2nd passion after figure skating, and I am loving seeing FIFA finally (hopefully) get its compeuppance

 

[Osmond4gold]

Possible bribery - They are/were so flush with bribes that a top FIFA official kept an apartment in Trump Tower exclusively for the use of his cats
Here's a hilarious video explaining some of how truly awful FIFA is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qr6ar3xJL_Q (there's a Tonya Harding joke there, too!)
Football is my 2nd passion after figure skating, and I am loving seeing FIFA finally (hopefully) get its compeuppance

continued.

Well played TMC, well played! A soccer dad here so thanks for the clip! Didier needs to up his game just a bit to get into the FIFA club. BTW, did you see the follow up to your video. Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bcpZMX_Iqs

 

[humbaba]

Gosh that part about Didier was scary!!!!!! What does he want to do to the sport?!?! I WANT to see girls with frilly skirts skating to Rachmaninov.... The sport surely doesn't need him as ISU president

Too many girls do wear the same thing and skate to the same music. Its also the same with men. What if a girl wanted to wear pants or shorts and skate to muse or taylor swift outside an exhibition.

In order to make it more modern you may lose some long time fans. Expression and musicality from skaters could be so much more vast!

It doesn't have to be either/or. The vision of what a skater should be can be expanded without discarding what we already have. I'm in favor of a big tent approach where there is room for many different types of skaters, including the girls in chignons and little skirts.

A change I would like to see is the elimination of the rule that all female ice dancers must wear a costume with a skirt. It's the perfect time to ditch that rule, with hip hop being one of the options for the second pattern next season. I want to see all the ice dancers in hotpants--even the guys.

 

[sarama]

It doesn't have to be either/or. The vision of what a skater should be can be expanded without discarding what we already have. I'm in favor of a big tent approach where there is room for many different types of skaters, including the girls in chignons and little skirts.

A change I would like to see is the elimination of the rule that all female ice dancers must wear a costume with a skirt. It's the perfect time to ditch that rule, with hip hop being one of the options for the second pattern next season. I want to see all the ice dancers in hotpants--even the guys.

Just to clarify: I like seeing programs performed to every kind of music (for example my favourites in the ladies were Mao's FS to Madama Butterfly and Mirai's 'Demons' SP), and the rules DO allow it! If skaters don't do it enough it's their choice and I don't think they should be forced to perform to something they don't want to just to get to a broader audience...The last thing I want for this sport is to become basically a talent show (and the green room of leaders is already a step in that direction)

 

[TMC]

continued.
BTW, did you see the follow up to your video. Enjoy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bcpZMX_Iqs

I'm a huge Oliver fan, I watch him on HBO and then rewatch my fave segments online