Ladies 2004 worlds/ man on ice

[berthesghost]

security in Dortmund was nonexistent. The roughest part for the audience to watch was the long long minutes it took for security to respond to the intruder. He and Kwan seemed to be on the ice together for a long time and it's a horrifying indictment to U-Hall that she actually had to take herself out of the situation while security scrambled around like the keystone cops. Guys who literally looked like the maintenance staff where slipping and sliding around on the ice trying to catch this fool who just kept skating away from them. The first few seconds where you didn't know he was just a fool, and she had no idea he was there was horrifying to watch. IIRC Raphael had to call her off as once she saw the guy she seemed a little lost on what to do, and U-Hall was no help whatsoever.

[luna_skater]

What to prevent this from happening again? Anyone sitting in the front row can just jump over onto the ice at any time. Are there security guards on skates at the competition venues now?

There were when Worlds were in Calgary in 2006. A few people (Rob Davison was one of them) were stationed in the front row right beside the skaters entrance to the ice, with skates on, for the entire competition, ready to jump on the ice if anyone tried anything crazy.

[VIETgrlTerifa]

Has every Worlds since the incident have had some form of rink security?

[lurvylurker]

In Washington DC in 2003 (before the Dortmund incident) there were security guards stationed at the boards at the bottom of each aisle. Not wearing skates, but each at least 6 foot tall and muscled to match. I spoke to a couple of them, and they confirmed they were actually active military personnel. Even the ice cream vendors in the concourse were active military. There was stringent bag searching and size requirements, and metal detectors at the entrances, which made for lo-o-ng lines trying to enter the arena, and once inside, if you left your bag at you seat while you left even for just a moment, they would confiscate it as a potential bomb threat. To be fair, this was just a week after the Iraq invasion, so all of DC was at a VERY high level of security.

In Calgary in 2006, as mentioned, there were some (less obvious) security with skates on ready to go if needed.

In Goteburg in 2008, there were at least four sitting in the "moat" (the approx 12 foot wide expanse of ice between the seats and the ring boards that European venues seem to all have) wearing skates. They were dressed as emergency response/medics, but I'm sure they were also security trained.

I didn't see any near the boards in LA in 2009, even though I looked for them (it's become kid of a game to play "spot the security guys" for me). Did anyone else see any security at the boards? (I did see the usual ones at the skaters' entrances and exits, the restricted areas, concourse, etc...just didn't see any at the boards.)

In Torino in 2010, they were again stationed in the "moat", but this time none of them were actually wearing their skates - I only saw them carrying them over their shoulders.

So it seems to me that it's really up to the LOC and/or the venue to decide how much of a security presence they want to have, and how they will be equipped.

[Triple Butz]

She was in pain, she had a rough qualifying, she got a time deduction in the short, was out of reach for the title by the time she skated, and was interrupted by a streaker.

Gotta have anger. Lucky she was skating to Tosca and not... Lyra Angelica. Otherwise it would have been the bitchiest Swan interpretation ever.

Huh?