Who Is the King of Skating Dads?

[crzesk8dad]

You're the King of Pap.

You make me blush....

[Coco]

That doesn't mean Papa Kwan wasn't responsible for some bad decisions, but like many skating parents, they didn't do it out of maliciousness or serious attention-seeking. Papa Kwan has been accused of the greed angle for quite some time (especially with the Riedel skate situation which I believe was out of naivete over the impact of switching boot brands), but until I see some patterned behavior with concrete evidence (like Frank Carroll stating that money was the reason- which he publicly gave other reasons like Kwan and him butting heads or having differences in training but not money) then I'm not so quick to say that Papa Kwan was necessarily greedy.

I don't think having 2 girls in skating for 10+ years leads to naivete about switching boots, especially with someone as sharp as Mr. Kwan appears to be.

For me, that debacle is very similar to the decisions to skate for COI with injuries, particularly in 2005. I attribute both to a very inhumane view of personal service contracts, for lack of a better description.

Oversimplifying things, if you have a contract for a tangible good, like buying 100 cattle, and there is some kind of breach, a court can FORCE the parties to go through with the contract. But with personal service contracts, like a contract between a festival and a singer, if the singer can't go through with it, no court can FORCE the singer to perform. The damages are handled in another way ($$).

So after it became apparent that Michelle's contracts with the skate boot company, and COI, were damaging to her health, a typical person would have gotten her out of those obligations ASAP. But - and I'm assuming Danny has a lot to do with all of Michelle's big decisions - they just kept going, and at great cost, imo. I don't think it's greed. I think it's a misguided notion of honor.

And neither here nor there, but I remember being struck by one of the messages Michelle posted at MKForum. It was her xmas greeting, I think, sometime after 2003, and she mentioned she had to run as her dad was waiting for her at the gym. Very interesting that in her very brief unscripted message, she mentioned her dad waiting at the gym. I think psychologists could get a lot from that.

Back to Jill Trenary, in response to orbitz' question, I'm quite certain he said it to her. It was during the actual broadcast, when she was greeting / getting a hug from him after the ladies' FS was completely over. He wasn't calling her fat THEN, he seemed to be saying that for someone who'd been fat as a child, she'd certainly grown up to accomplish something impressive. It's like wrapping a compliment around a little jab. My grandparents did it all the time. Maybe it was a generational thing.

[Squibble]

Kwan is the King!
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But what's this?
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has taken from !
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has declared Poppa Henie Emperor!

Poppa Henie is the Emperor of Skating Dads!

[TygerTyger]

Interesting that there has been no talk of Papa Chait.

[Yazmeen]

Wow! What was he going to do?

Probably nothing to actually harm his daughter's rival, just another display of what was supposedly an explosive temper. From what I was told, his daughter quit skating because she reached her limit with daddy's temper and interference.

I still remember poor Michael at his first Olympic practice, wearing his father's Olympic jacket from the 1960's, which daddy had dangled as his "reward" for making the team ( and which was at least one size too small) looking deer in the headlights nervous...

I know many skating fans picked on Michael for what they considered showing off with his kids (sometimes interpreted as "look, I'm not gay..."); however, I really think he did it because he was just so happy and proud to be a dad and really wanted his kids to have a different parenting experience than he did.

[canbelto]

I believe there deserves to be a shout-out to Papa Gordeeva, who unlike most Soviet parents did not have his child plucked away by the System. Papa Gordeeva in fact was an active part of his daughter's training, and well, uh ... when your daughter breaks her leg and is in tears on the way home from the hospital, you think the silent treatment is the right choice?

It did seem to make Katia one tough cookie though, so maybe it worked after all.

[Iluvid]

How about when John and Rena have their little skater. I can't imagine John not being involved.

[Ziggy]

You people suck!

Pappa Weiss was by far the biggest psycho skating dad ever.

I shudder at the very thought of him.

Interesting that there has been no talk of Papa Chait.

And that is number 2. Or well number one really if you consider eville politicking.

[reckless]

Interesting that there has been no talk of Papa Chait.

You beat me to it. How can a discussion of skating fathers not include Boris Chait? If the reports of his threatening coaches about the 2002 ice dance petition are true, he would go to the top of the list.