Olivia Smart on bullying | Golden Skate

Olivia Smart on bullying

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sisinka

Medalist
Joined
Nov 25, 2006
Olivia Smart (Olympian, top 10 finisher at World Championships with Adria Diaz, currently skating with Tim Dieck) shared video mentioning BULLYING through social media. https://www.instagram.com/reel/DAN-xzXu5kN/?igsh=NmJ3YmJlbnUyZDRn

Here is script of what she said: https://fs-gossips.com/12794/
"...Long story short, I’m addressing something people don’t usually address because one – what’s the point; two – it’s a little scary; and three – I don’t want to look like a bad person. But there are some people online who really have an opinion. You can have your favorite team, you can have your favorite program, you can have your favorite costume – absolutely, that’s what our sport is about. I love my sport, and I continue because of the support and the fans. But there are some apps out there, not calling any names, where the figure skating fans behind the computer like to have their say. And also, during competitions, we’re recommended not to go on social media and not to look at these things, but sometimes we do. So I, of course, opened Twitter sometimes. Oh man, did I open the app to some stuff yesterday, and not just opinion stuff, there were some mean things written on there. Whether you liked the program, whether you liked the skater, whether you liked the costume, verbal abuse on social media should not be tolerated.

And I’m saying that as a grown confident woman; opening the app yesterday and seeing what was written about myself really brought me down. So imagine these kids getting into the sport, going to use social media, and they go online and see these comments. We see your comments, we see everything. We’re of this generation where social media is such a huge thing. We see everything, unfortunately. So to whoever said I should have stuck with that ‘Dancing on Ice’ paycheck. I’m glad I didn’t. I loved what I did on the show. I came back for myself, for my fans, for the rest of my dreams in figure skating. I want them all to know: we see what you say, and it’s bullying and it hurts. And I’m doing this for fun; I’m doing it because I love it. So I know this video is not going to stop what’s going on online, but as long as I can bring awareness to skaters, to younger kids, let it not go too far.

I want to put this out because I love what I do, I love my sport, I love the people in it, and I want it to stay happy and healthy. Thank you to everybody who supports people in my world of figure skating, and I love you.”


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ISU CODE OF ETHICS:
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...QQFnoECBAQAQ&usg=AOvVaw3Mm2dhHAKZo-NiNm9TwJEX

Taken from this document:
“Online abuse” is a type of “psychological abuse”. “Online abuse” encompasses various forms of harmful behavior on digital platforms. It entails the use of violent, aggressive hate speech, directed at an individual or a specific subgroup sharing a common identity."

...Anyone affected by or who has observed an alleged incident of harassment or abuse during the period of an ISU Event or any other ISU activity may either file a Statement of Complaint against the Alleged Offender in accordance with the ISU Disciplinary Rules of Procedure (currently ISU Communication No. 2551) or report the incident in writing or verbally to one of the following persons:
- The ISU Representative for the ISU Event;
- The ISU Event Director / Manager;
- The Chair of the ISU Medical Commission;
- The designated ISU Safeguarding Officer, currently Ms. Cristina Ibarra ([email protected]), who can also provide guidance to any individual regarding whether and how to report to the ISU observed or suspected harassment or abuse, in particular of an athlete;..."
 
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surimi

Good luck in Finland, Sota!
Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 12, 2013
Social media can be a cesspool sometimes. I only have X/Twitter, and don't really post my own tweets anymore, but I've seen some truly horrible stuff there. I reported a post once where someone wished death on Daniel G for training in Russia with Eteri. I hope skaters going through difficult times stay away from social media, or at least stick with their fan groups.
 

Casualsportsfan

Rinkside
Joined
Aug 27, 2024
Country
France
Social media can be a cesspool sometimes. I only have X/Twitter, and don't really post my own tweets anymore, but I've seen some truly horrible stuff there. I reported a post once where someone wished death on Daniel G for training in Russia with Eteri. I hope skaters going through difficult times stay away from social media, or at least stick with their fan groups.

With the rumour of Elon Musk wanting to remove the block account option on Twitter (sorry, I'm refusing that bad rebranding), it might only be getting worse ... and part of what I'm referencing to in my profile about Reddit.

All too familiar from what I saw elsewhere. Give somebody a keyboard, a screen and a mouse and weird things might happen. (The post about Grassl : until he got suspended for the no show, he did pretty fine getting coached by Tuberitdze, so not personally blaming him. If some others are unable to do that, they should just DC.)
 

demarinis5

Gold for the Winter Prince!
Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 23, 2004
Twitter now known as X can be a cesspool. People hide behind the guise of "free speech" to bully, demoralize and harass people
who have a different opinion than theirs. It can be a real pile on. Don't get me started on the misinformation that is
posted on X. We now have "his/her/our truth" instead of the real factual truth.
 

el henry

Go have some cake. And come back with jollity.
Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 3, 2014
Country
United-States
I am glad to see skaters posting on this subject.

Too often, unwarranted personal attacks are hidden behind
"They're professional athletes they should be able to withstand criticism":rolleyes:
"I'm only stating facts" :rolleyes:
"MY skater was attacked so I get to attack others":rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

All of those excuses are just so much baloney of course, but good to see people in the actual community calling it out.

(and I am talking about personal attacks: looks, personality, weight, not criticism of costumes or jumps or performance skills. I don't think it is useful when those are overboard either, but at least there's an argument that it is relevant).
 

sisinka

Medalist
Joined
Nov 25, 2006
I took this part from my post from another Thread:

--------

More skaters are mentioning negative and abusive comments during their skating career:

- Karina Safina - "...When you enter the international level, there are many couch critics who do not understand anything about figure skating, but try to stung you. There are also good messages from fans. These people write very sincere wishes and wish good luck. You have to read everything, because when they write to you, and you open a message, you don’t know in advance what is written there.

...They often write that I did not deserve something, that someone gave us more points. But I don’t pay attention to it. We skated well that season, and there will always be haters. The main thing is what your coach, your federation, your parents and yourself think about you, and the rest doesn’t count."
(https://fs-gossips.com/9345/ )

- Elizaveta Khudaiberdieva - "...I underwent medication, in-patient, and psychological treatment. It so happened that acknowledging my problem and going into remission coincided with a lot of hate on the internet. It was only thanks to the support of my family and loved ones that this did not break me and did not prompt me to give everything up overnight. It is indeed difficult to live and work with this...." (https://fs-gossips.com/12680/ )

- Valeriy Angelopol (ice dancer, after the break up with dance partner) - "...People texted me, like: don’t come to the university, we are waiting for you in a crowd – and things like that. Don’t leave the house, we know where you live. And when several thousand people write such things to you, you really catch paranoia..." (https://fs-gossips.com/11603/ )

- Kaetlyn Osmond - "...She said she struggled with her weight, which negatively impacted her mental health. “I went from being in Olympic shape to not — very quickly. I was still putting myself out in shows, performing every night, and I was getting immediate feedback on social media on that side of it. It was a big struggle that way." (https://globalnews.ca/news/6303130/kaetlyn-osmond-figure-skating-sports-mental-health/ )

- Júlía Sylvía Gunnarsdóttir (single skater) - "...And I also wanted to thank @ted.barton.75 and @markhanretty for your wonderful comments. I will keep them in mind and move on strongly!!

...But I feel it is also very important to talk about all of these negative comments being said in the livestreams especially on body image and skill on jumps. I’m 18 now and can handle such things, it comes with experience but please remember that this discipline in figure skating is from age 13 as well and that kids shouldn’t have to endure such horrid comments.."
(https://www.instagram.com/p/Cw8k3JmI-1I/?igsh=MXRuNGR0M3F6MzVpOQ== )

- Selmasiri Bella Larsen (single skater) - "...However, i had to read some really inacceptable comments (among other things about my body), and that was unfortunately enough to make me really unhappy and uncomfortable. This is just a reminder, that kids down to 13 competes at these competitions, and kids should never have to read such horrible stuff about themselves. I am 18, i can deal with it, but kids down to 13 are not supposed to read comments like “maybe she should eat a little less”. Another thing: It is completely wrong to compare an adults body to a childs. I am 172 cm tall. Of course i look different than anyone shorter than that. So please, never comment on other peoples bodies. And think before you type." (https://www.instagram.com/p/Cw50TSjM1xj/?igsh=MXVseWNrcWhhY2kzZw== )

Both Júlía and Selmasiri competed at JGP last season.
Thank you FS Universe Forum's poster Sylvia for Júlía's comment, which I didn't know about previously.

- Nathan Chen - https://www.scmp.com/sport/china/ar...ans-attack-us-gold-medallist-nathan-chen-over

- Ilia Malinin was receiving negative comments since he landed quad axel at practise in May 2022. It was mentioned here -
https://www.goldenskate.com/forum/threads/quadgod-ilia-malinin-wants-to-show-more-than-jumps.92382/, there were negative public comments on different kinds of social media.

In past I remember Tessa Virtue & Scott Moir and Meryl Davis & Charlie White's fans (some of them) were fighting in aggressive way against one or another couple. I remember Miki Ando and Shizuka Arakawa being criticised by some fans in an inappropriate way when they won big competitions.

In past more skaters were publicly pushed to retire by people on the Internet, which I find absolutely non acceptable.

---------------

Eliska Brezinova (Czech skater, Olympian, multiple time Grand Prix / European / World Championships participant) was repeatedly criticised and pushed to retire to "allowed younger girls to compete at big competitions". This is bullying. Source - some people on Facebook.

In past ice dancer Ekaterina Bobrova & Dmitri Soloviev (Olympians, European Champions, World medalists) were also pushed to retire repeatedly...or to "at least" withdraw from competitions.

Sergei Voronov was also pushed to retire (he stayed and won his Europeans medals...).

Mikhail Kolyada (Olympian, European and World medalist) experienced bullying on Internet, in his case not only by anonymous users, but also by well-known people (after not good skate at Olympic Team Short Program).
 

Kittosuni

Medalist
Joined
Nov 2, 2012
Twitter now known as X can be a cesspool. People hide behind the guise of "free speech" to bully, demoralize and harass people
who have a different opinion than theirs. It can be a real pile on. Don't get me started on the misinformation that is
posted on X. We now have "his/her/our truth" instead of the real factual truth.

What's really sad is even in this forum alone, we can see skaters endlessly getting bullied just by their country of origin, sexuality, and even body type.

These are just some of the the skaters who gets bullied all the time in this forum:

Diana Davis
Meagan Duhamel
 

Anna K.

Medalist
Joined
Feb 22, 2014
Country
Latvia
Twitter now known as X can be a cesspool. People hide behind the guise of "free speech" to bully, demoralize and harass people
who have a different opinion than theirs. It can be a real pile on. Don't get me started on the misinformation that is
posted on X. We now have "his/her/our truth" instead of the real factual truth.
At least Elon Musk knows what he wants. He has decided that hate speech will be his bread and butter from now on. So users can react accordingly: they either join the bashfest or move to another platform.

The problem with some online places is that they don't know what they want though. One day the admins feel like: "God, bashing is awesome! We got 500 comments in just 2 hours simply because two morons couldn't stop arguing about who will keep the last word when calling the other one moron. The search engines think that our post is sensational! What can we do to make this paradise last?" Then the other day they go: "Oh, no! People open our comment pages, see there only swearwords and don't sign up. We need to do something to look nice and inviting." In many cases, they decide nothing, just practice double standards that disappoint both rude and nice ones. This imao is much worse.
 

surimi

Good luck in Finland, Sota!
Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 12, 2013
At least Elon Musk knows what he wants. He has decided that hate speech will be his bread and butter from now on. So users can react accordingly: they either join the bashfest or move to another platform.
Or how about a third choice: stay to follow skaters who have an account there, and delete as 'not interested'/'mute account' whenever one's timeline starts offering one rude and otherwise inappropriate posts. That is what I am currently doing, and what I plan to keep doing as long as my favorite skaters have active X/Twitter accounts.
 

Anna K.

Medalist
Joined
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Country
Latvia
Or how about a third choice: stay to follow skaters who have an account there, and delete as 'not interested'/'mute account' whenever one's timeline starts offering one rude and otherwise inappropriate posts. That is what I am currently doing, and what I plan to keep doing as long as my favorite skaters have active X/Twitter accounts.
Poor old Elon, he'll have some hard time trying to figure out how to smuggle his content to you.
 

Mathematician

Ecclesiastes 7:1-2 / KJV
Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 8, 2023
I've recently started changing my opinion about online harassment. At least when it comes to public figures. I dont think having so many anonymous eyes on you is natural at all. I dont think the human heart was made for that. It can be extremely damaging and difficult to cope with. So many very stupid and weak people take our their insecurities on these athletes like a punching bag. Its horrible. I used to be quite cold about this imagining there are bigger things to worry about. But in the case of public figures I dont think there are any mechanisms designed in us to deal with so many anonymous eyes and persecutors. They must be very strong minded. You have to brute strength will power it or just withdraw entirely. If I were them I 100% choose the latter doing everything possible to block all social media from my life.

I wish there was a hard line we could all agree on where harassment versus free speech could be discerned. As for Elon frankly I find him insufferable and his whole conservative free speech pandering is an obvious farce, he doesnt care about any of the moral realities one way or the other. Those guys all have ulterior motives. I will still side with free speech ultimately but its hard to watch the weak minded harass these poor athletes who just want to do what they love and give the viewers something special. Clearly there is no way to make the internet a good place. Its no use considering any objective solution. I just hope each athlete can find what helps their heart individually and stay away from the negative people.

Recently I have been feeling sorry about the invention of the internet in general. These sorts of things destroy the mind's development for generations growing up with it. Kids dont learn sympathy and social intelligence cause they dont interact with faces they just read words over text in all their developmental years. Its actually weird. Really concerning and unsettling. It causes these sorts of weak bitter online trolls with no heart and empty souls who work to take down people who are actually trying do something special in life. Bullying is quite real for these public figures and its a very pathetic reality. Again I just hope the athletes find what helps protect their hearts.
 

sisinka

Medalist
Joined
Nov 25, 2006
What's really sad is even in this forum alone, we can see skaters endlessly getting bullied just by their country of origin, sexuality, and even body type.

These are just some of the the skaters who gets bullied all the time in this forum:

Diana Davis
Meagan Duhamel

I don't follow all topics closely, but...
We as members can report posts which are not OK with rules.

Could you give some examples of those two ladies where posts were bullying and nobody reported it?

FORUM GUIDELINES:

The following is Prohibited:
— Bashing of skaters and/or coaches
— Body-shaming
— Discrimination
....

...Warnings are given when posts and/or behavior are considered unacceptable and/or inappropriate. A warning can consist of one or more points and can have an indefinite expiration date. If a user reaches four or more points (before any warnings expire), they will be temporarily banned...



Diana like almost every Russian lady, no matter which country they represent, is harshly criticised AND BULLIED in COMMENT SECTION under articles of some Russian web sites. Moderating of these comment sections is visibly not working well. There are also nice and supportive comments (and not only for Russians), but unfortunately bullying is there.
 

gsk8

Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
Country
United-States
What's really sad is even in this forum alone, we can see skaters endlessly getting bullied just by their country of origin, sexuality, and even body type.
The moderators are volunteers so we have a feature in place to "report a post" that is against the guidelines. The post is looked at as a team and resolved in 24-248 hours. If it's not reported, we probably won't notice it.
Could you give some examples of those two ladies where posts were bullying and nobody reported it?
This thread is not the place for that :)
 

sisinka

Medalist
Joined
Nov 25, 2006
I had the opportunity to talk to a lawyer in recent days. I asked her about cyber bullying (in meaning of bullying private posts).

She told me that it is possible to announce the person who bullies you. But cyber bulling is not a priority, as they do have a lot of physical abuse cases and other types of cases (where time plays bigger role than in case of cyber bullying). So it usually takes many months until the case starts to be investigated.

Police can identify the person who bullies you while investigating.

In case of agreement that cyber bulling really happened, the punishment (in Czech Republic) is only the recommendation for the person not to write bullying posts again. Which also goes with recommendations for the victim to block any person who is writing bad things.

In case of bullying or untrue posts in journals or magazines, the situation is different and punishment bigger, as it is taken like public shaming.
 

GS Forum Staff

Medalist
Joined
Jan 11, 2008
Here are some sites that provide discussion boards regarding bullying for those who would like to engage:

 
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