Favorite Skating Conspiracy Theories

[lala]

I seem to remember a story about someone (bizarrely, my memory wants to say Mishin) claiming, back during the Yagudin-Plushenko rivalry years, that Yagudin's sports psychologist had...I dunno, cursed Plushenko, or hypnotised him, or something else, and that's why he started losing to Yagudin at one point.

Sports psychology doesn't quite work like that...

The full story..

In 2001 Plushenko beat Yagudin everywhere Yagudin had no chance. Tat and Alexei thought he needs sportpsychologist and they asked doctor Zagainov who was a well-known( Bure, Bubka, Kasparov worked with him) but infamous sportpsychologist in Russia. He had some dirty things before ( and after, too ! he got married a young woman athlete who committed suicide and died during the marriage. There was a police investigation against Zagainov)) He woked with Yagudin. According to him -he wrote a book- he used Yagudin's hate to beat Plushenko in the therapy. And came SLC OG in 2002 after 2001 Plush was the favorite. Zagainov was with Yagudin in K&C and he stood next to the fence when Plush skated his SP. Zagainov's eyes were the last things what he could see before the quad combo. Plushenko didn't think that was the reason why he failed the quad and lost ( he wrote that was his first OG, they arrived too early in SLC, he lived in the Olimpic village he enjoyed it so much he didn't concentrated to the competition, etc). But Mishin thought it! He thinks that in these days! In 2012 Ksenia Makarova worked with Zagainov Mishin protested against Zagainov's traveling with the Russian national team to the competition.. Mishin is an engineer but he believes in such thing and many more Russians, too. Interesting detail after the competition Plush was sick he had very high fever, he lost weight ( 4 kg) but the team doctor didn't find any reason. Probably he had nervous exhaustion or something like this.

 

[lala]

So what was the reason?

Look at these videos and you will know.. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCI-0t5jV2pLn1kftyOluqYA
Or just read the descriptions under the video. Their skating( SPs, Lps) 1999-2001 on Rus Nat. (Yag didn't compete at Rus Nat 2002 and Kulik was the nat champ in 1998.)

 

[Mad for Skating]

3. 2014 Olympic Team event - not sure, either it was Tutberidze who plotted to cut Adelina from the team or it was Morozov who plotted to add IK to the team (hence cutting Adelina off). There are 2 versions.

From what I remember, the Fed wanted to put both ice dance teams (Ilinykh/Katsalapov and Bobrova/Soloviev) in the team event so neither one was too exhausted for the individual event, which meant they would have to cut one of the girls. Tutberidze admitted to calling the fed and told them not to cut Yulia, so they cut Adelina instead.

 

[Ohyes]

-V/M have three kids and got married in 2009 in secret
- The shibs parents are millionaires and own the rink they skate at
- If russia had won the gold in mens ice hockey yuna would have won the ladies event in sochi

 

[Willin]

@Ohyes I thought the second one was true? Not the owning the rink part, but the being millionaires part... (Then again being a millionaire doesn't mean as much as it used to)

 

[misskarne]

Oh, I remember one:

That Tom Zakrasjek went back and timed (with a stopwatch) the time between when Jeremy Abbott's name was called and when he took position at the 2014 Nats FS, trying to get him disqualified. And then Max Aaron was named to the Worlds team supposedly as some kind of trade-off.

This was always particularly nonsensical because I am sure that at no time under the IJS, but especially not as late as 2014, was it ever a disqualification if you weren't in place on time. I thought they just started the music.

 

[missing]

Oh, I remember one:

That Tom Zakrasjek went back and timed (with a stopwatch) the time between when Jeremy Abbott's name was called and when he took position at the 2014 Nats FS, trying to get him disqualified. And then Max Aaron was named to the Worlds team supposedly as some kind of trade-off.

This was always particularly nonsensical because I am sure that at no time under the IJS, but especially not as late as 2014, was it ever a disqualification if you weren't in place on time. I thought they just started the music.

I was at that Nationals and I remember the crowd yelling for Jeremy to start skating. He took an exceptionally long time, and presumably there must have been some kind of penalty or else we wouldn't have been so agitated.

 

[Daena]

- The shibs parents are millionaires and own the rink they skate at

Oh, yes, how could I forget. Favorite conspiracy theory of Sochi cycle.
Charlie White's father was ultra-rich multi-millionaire and he personally bribed everyone in ISU.
After Charlie retired his father's fortune moved to Shibutani parents apparently

 

[Daena]

BTW, currently some people say Christina Carreira is Isabella Tobias-level rich, and that's why Ponomarenko skates with her.
Others says they've heard that Ponomarenkos pay for everything because Christina's family is opposite of wealthy.
I mean Russian forums, of course.

 

[misskarne]

I was at that Nationals and I remember the crowd yelling for Jeremy to start skating. He took an exceptionally long time, and presumably there must have been some kind of penalty or else we wouldn't have been so agitated.

There's the late-start penalty of course, but it wasn't that close that it would have made a difference. I think they just started playing the music. Of course then you'd be behind...I wonder what the rule was then. *wanders off to find out*

I've found handbooks that suggest the -1 for every five seconds was introduced in 2014/2015, but having much more difficulty finding out what it was before then.

 

[Willin]

@misskarne @missing The rule did exist then. In synchro it had just changed to 30 seconds that season. Idk if the change was new for singles that season or if it was still 60 seconds. As much as I love Jeremy, one wonders if they gave him a pass on the 30/60 second rule because of his reputation... After all, US Nationals is known for giving passes on certain things (edge calls, URs, PCS) to skaters they favor.
I also remember there weren't arena clocks for synchro competitions, so the judges could probably see if the skater was overtime but the crowd couldn't. Idk if this was true for singles at the time.

BTW, currently some people say Christina Carreira is Isabella Tobias-level rich, and that's why Ponomarenko skates with her.
Others says they've heard that Ponomarenkos pay for everything because Christina's family is opposite of wealthy.
I mean Russian forums, of course.

I'd LOVE to hear Russian forum conspiracy theories! And Japanese forum conspiracy theories. I would bet that crazy subset of Hanyu fans has some great ones...

 

[VGThuy]

Don't forget all those videos showing various Japanese skaters, including Fumie Suguri, purposefully getting in Yuna Kim's way. Maybe they did, who knows.

 

[Ohyes]

Don't forget all those videos showing various Japanese skaters, including Fumie Suguri, purposefully getting in Yuna Kim's way. Maybe they did, who knows.

Not fumie suguri realted but there is a rumor that Micki ando had beef with yuna or they just didn't get along at one point.

 

[mia mar]

-V/M have three kids and got married in 2009 in secret
- The shibs parents are millionaires and own the rink they skate at
- If russia had won the gold in mens ice hockey yuna would have won the ladies event in sochi

where do they keep the triplets??? v/m that is

 

[canbelto]

where do they keep the triplets??? v/m that is

Back when they lived in Detroit the claim was that "toddler Moir"(there was only one back then) lived in Ildterton with Scott's relatives but when they weren't training there were "many" pictures of "toddler Moir" with Scott and Tessa. Then Tessa and Scott moved from Marina's camp and supposedly had baby #2 in 2014. The claim was then that they just lived openly in Ilderton, CA and rapidly had another baby in 2015. (Why two Olympian athletes training for a third Olympics would forego birth control and have three babies in such rapid succession is something the sekret source never explained). Then when they moved to Montreal it was assumed that the babies were farmed out to relatives again. It's just assumed that the babies are out there somewhere, maybe with Scott's relatives, maybe not.

 

[NinjaTurtles]

Is there a citation for that? I find it hard to believe that they choreographed or constructed a footwork sequence that wasn't designed for level 4 and that Tessa/Scott just went with it knowing their strong personalities and how they sought outside help before. Or were they saying Marina was giving them harder steps that they couldn't do cleanly so they'd never achieve level 4? In that reality show, Marina seemed to not know much about the tech part.

http://virtuemoirxx.tumblr.com/post/173921768532

 

[Willin]

@NinjaTurtles Oh god some of the replies to that post coming up with some conspiracy theory about Scott being abusive to Tessa and Tessa thinking he's going to slap her. Further solidifying my own confusion about what the heck ice dance fans are thinking (or not thinking) half the time.

Is there a citation for that? I find it hard to believe that they choreographed or constructed a footwork sequence that wasn't designed for level 4 and that Tessa/Scott just went with it knowing their strong personalities and how they sought outside help before. Or were they saying Marina was giving them harder steps that they couldn't do cleanly so they'd never achieve level 4? In that reality show, Marina seemed to not know much about the tech part.

I don't have a citation for Tessa and Scott saying that, but I can say there were plenty of V/M fans complaining about V/M's losses. Everything from USFSA rigging the judging panel to some sort of collusion between the USA and Russia's judges to ensure D/W and a Russian lady would win (thus dragging Yuna fans into this whole mess). This was the time when I came to hate crazy V/M fans so much.

But, by far, the biggest conspiracy theory the craziest V/M fans spread like wildfire in 2014 was that Marina intentionally sabotaged V/M. The theory was that Marina hated V/M, loved D/W, and had been conspiring against V/M. According to them, this made Marina give V/M worse music than D/W every season between 2010-2014, give them less difficult choreography, and butter up the judges in favor of D/W.
So, I never heard Tessa or Scott ever complain about their programs, but rather I saw their fans go nutsos spreading this conspiracy theory via social media. It wasn't paid much heed by the skaters or skating fans I knew, but to the casual viewers on social media (at least the Canadian ones) it made sense.

 

[canbelto]

I thought the conspiracy was that the U.S. and Russia had a deal that the judges would give the gold to D/W in exchange for a Russian winning the ladies singles competition, and Skate Canada would console itself with a Patrick Chan win which went by the wayside when Chan melted down in the long program. Thus V/M were left out of the loop in this multi-country conspiracy? Or am I thinking of the wrong conspiracy theory???

 

[VGThuy]

I thought the conspiracy was that the U.S. and Russia had a deal that the judges would give the gold to D/W in exchange for a Russian winning the ladies singles competition, and Skate Canada would console itself with a Patrick Chan win which went by the wayside when Chan melted down in the long program. Thus V/M were left out of the loop in this multi-country conspiracy? Or am I thinking of the wrong conspiracy theory???

I think it was something like that, but I thought it was the team event and not the ladies event. I think the Russian ladies just ended up happening the way that it did. I did note that L'Equipe was notably silent for the 2018 Olympics...

 

[Barbara Manatee]

It was a twofer, to give Russia the gold in the team event and pairs. Which yeah, they really needed a fix in.

 

[Deleted member 74551]

Was it Dick Button who said the USFSA weren’t nearly competent enough to pull anything of that sort off? I often didn’t agree with D/W’s PCS but it had zip to do with Russia needing help with the team event of all things.

I love V/M’s skating but they don’t half attract some nutty conspiracy theorists. Hopefully the kids will be allowed out of the basement now they’re done

 

[VGThuy]

Are we sure those kids are Tessa’s and not her sister’s?

 

[morqet]

Marina sabotaged V/M in favour of D/W because Fedor had split up with Tessa & moved on to Meryl.

 

[5Ali3]

I don't know why I opened this thread, but as long as I'm here...

This was always particularly nonsensical because I am sure that at no time under the IJS, but especially not as late as 2014, was it ever a disqualification if you weren't in place on time. I thought they just started the music.

No, in 2014, the skater had one minute to take their starting position or they would be withdrawn. The referee could "for good cause" modify the "strict interpretation" of the rule, but that meant something like a broken lace, not smelling the roses or whatever Abbott was doing that night.

I also remember there weren't arena clocks for synchro competitions, so the judges could probably see if the skater was overtime but the crowd couldn't. Idk if this was true for singles at the time.

There are at least two clocks in the arena at Nationals showing the countdown time: it's displayed on the Jumbotron and also on a large screen that's rinkside, in one of the corners of the rink at a height where the skaters can see the countdown. That time is based on the accounting software. The referee is also timing with a stopwatch. If the referee was at 1:01, they could check with the accountant's time. If the times are different, give the benefit of the doubt to the skater.

Abbott made it just under 60 or just at 60 seconds, if I recall correctly. He later apologized for giving the referee a heart attack.

(I will neither confirm nor deny any of the other conspiracies in this thread. )

 

[Simone411]

I just remembered that I uploaded a video about a couple of years ago where Elvis, Todd, Michelle and Tara were being interviewed. This was three months before the 1998 Olympics. I don't know for sure whether the interview was a fluff piece right before a competition. It could have also been before a skating show or exhibition of some sort. If anyone recognizes or remembers the interview/fluff, please let me know. For some reason or another, I only taped that interview. So this is the reason I would like to know.

In the interview, the question was asked whether Michelle and Tara felt like they were rivals. They both said they didn't feel like rivals, and Tara even went as far to say that she didn't know what the outcome would be at the Olympics because other skaters from around the world would be competing also.

1998 Pre Olympics Interview.

 

[StasiyaGalustyanLove]

I remember three of these from back in the daze.

First, when Stephan Lambiel was in a romance with Caroline Costner, they had many cat fights over when one did a better competition and I heard Caroline was very jealous that so many other ladies found her man to be the kind of person they would want to "break off a piece of this." And that is why they broke up despite still holding flame's for each other.

Two, last year Adam Rippon and his very large family made gift baskets with items including expensive French croissants, designer fragrance perfumes, floral arrangements, and C and C Music Factory albums to each person on the committee to decide whom competed on the olympic team and started a fake email account and instasnap page pretending to be Ross Miner and his coach's and said horrible things about President of USA skating as well as Scott Browning, Dick Button and Frank Carroll. Thus Ross has no chance to compete at Korea even if he would of won and there is now a big cover up sponsored by the Japanese, they donated money to Adam for his trick because they didnt' want Ross to maybe beat one of their men for a medal. It is all a big lightening rod, wow!

 

[meggonzo]

I remember three of these from back in the daze.

I am disappointed you promised three conspiracies and only wrote about two!

 

[Sparks]

I am disappointed you promised three conspiracies and only wrote about two!

But, Scott Browning!

 

[Lara111]

@Ohyes I thought the second one was true? Not the owning the rink part, but the being millionaires part... (Then again being a millionaire doesn't mean as much as it used to)

They actually do own the rink...

 

[VGThuy]

Do they completely own it or do they have a share/stake in it?