Favorite Skating Conspiracy Theories

[starrynight]

@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.


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.

A lot of it is how it is interpreted. I remember fans saying that Seasons having 30+ music cut changes by October 2013 meant that Marina was sabotaging them and was incompetent. However, when it was written that Moulin Rouge had roughly the same number of edits, it is interpreted as an immense amount of loving care was taken by the coaches in cutting the music/program.

So it's all a matter of interpretation. I'm sure we'd be hearing very different things if the results at the 2018 Olympics were different.

I'm actually honestly deeply surprised that the North Korean cheer squad is the only P/C conspiracy I've read. Maybe it is written in French somewhere I can't read. I would have thought the costume coming undone would have been perfect conspiracy material.

 

[Orm Irian]

I'm actually honestly deeply surprised that the North Korean cheer squad is the only P/C conspiracy I've read. Maybe it is written in French somewhere I can't read. I would have thought the costume coming undone would have been perfect conspiracy material.

Oh, the same poster who launched the North Korean cheer squad idiocy also tried to turn the costume malfunction into an incoherent conspiracy theory involving Marie-France and Patrice (and therefore by implication V/M and Skate Canada), P/C's sports psychologist/mental coach, and goodness knows who else (thread manufacturers maybe? ) about three seconds after it happened over on GS, but it didn't take.

 

[Ananas Astra]

The entire Carolina-Stéphane-relationship was also quite funny.

 

[Icetigger]

Oh, the same poster who launched the North Korean cheer squad idiocy also tried to turn the costume malfunction into an incoherent conspiracy theory involving Marie-France and Patrice (and therefore by implication V/M and Skate Canada), P/C's sports psychologist/mental coach, and goodness knows who else (thread manufacturers maybe? ) about three seconds after it happened over on GS, but it didn't take.

I don't think that's true. Just because on here the poster merely maintained that the professional responsibility for ensuring an adequate costume repair/sewing in of Gabriella in to the costume for the SD at the Olympics lay with the coaching team. That's actually true I would expect with regard to job descriptions and skate fed-coaching team contracts, and general practice within figure skating.

Holding people to account for what their professional responsibilities are is not the same as launching a conspiracy theory.

 

[Alilou]

I don't think that's true. Just because on here the poster merely maintained that the professional responsibility for ensuring an adequate costume repair/sewing in of Gabriella in to the costume for the SD at the Olympics lay with the coaching team. That's actually true I would expect with regard to job descriptions and skate fed-coaching team contracts, and general practice within figure skating.

Holding people to account for what their professional responsibilities are is not the same as launching a conspiracy theory.

Yeah but I love the way it was always MF's fault, but Romain, who is as much their coach as MF, was never held to account. Just sayin' . . . . .

 

[lala]

The entire Carolina-Stéphane-relationship was also quite funny.

I believe Stephane was looking for his way...

 

[starrynight]

The entire Carolina-Stéphane-relationship was also quite funny.

Was that a conspiracy theory or something true? (Sorry if that's a silly question)

 

[Icetigger]

Yeah but I love the way it was always MF's fault, but Romain, who is as much their coach as MF, was never held to account. Just sayin' . . . . .

A fair point: between the whole coaching team, there should have been the knowledge that at an Olympics something like that is sewn, so it can't possibly under any circumstances come undone, which means that it should be sewn at least three times over, even at the risk of it not looking great. They could also have had a tie sown in to it, and just knotted it for the olympics. It sounded like it was sewn once. At the same time, if the responsibility for sewing the halter neck shut and checking that it was sewn properly was given to two particular people as decided by that team, then the responsibility does fall on them more than those to whom it was not assigned. I don't know who was assigned the sewing, and who was assigned the checking. Maybe other people do though.

 

[Orm Irian]

I don't think that's true. Just because on here the poster merely maintained that the professional responsibility for ensuring an adequate costume repair/sewing in of Gabriella in to the costume for the SD at the Olympics lay with the coaching team. That's actually true I would expect with regard to job descriptions and skate fed-coaching team contracts, and general practice within figure skating.

Holding people to account for what their professional responsibilities are is not the same as launching a conspiracy theory.

I was right there watching him spout that rubbish in post after post, and he was doing his darnedest* to imply active sabotage. Particularly on the part of the mental coach (whose name I can't remember), since she was the one who was known to have actually sewed Gabi's costume shut, but also Marie-France and Patrice (and no, Romain didn't come in for any direct condemnation, though there was certainly some deliberate splash damage along the lines that he was negligent or weak for letting them get away with it). It wasn't even particularly subtle.

Said poster also tried to stir rumours, post-Olympics, that Romain would be leaving Gadbois and taking P/C with him, and regularly hinted during the off-season that Gabi and Guillaume should leave Gadbois for their own good. That's four examples from one person. I've been around a lot of different fandoms for a long time now, and given a bit of time to observe, I can spot the signs of someone trying to parlay a tiny bit of access into fandom-controlling BNF status for themselves. This kind of rapidly-shifting promotion of self-generated conspiracy theories in response to unexpected/upsetting events, that exploits moments of high emotion, puts the theorist at the centre of everyone's attention and makes other people feel dependent on them for 'inside' information (usually minimal) and reassurance that everything will be okay, and ensures that they're willing to defer to the theorist to maintain access and a safe-seeming environment, is absolutely par for the course for that type of behaviour. You can call that my own personal conspiracy theorising if you like, or just me being a suspicious type, but mostly it's hard-earned experience of fandoms and the people who're willing to ruin them purely to gratify their own egos speaking. I'd rather not see another fandom I mostly enjoy being part of get poisoned that way.

Now let's get back to the fun and frivolous-type conspiracy theories, shall we?

*pun not actually intended, but hey, it works.

 

[Icetigger]

I was right there watching him spout that rubbish in post after post, and he was doing his darnedest* to imply active sabotage. Particularly on the part of the mental coach (whose name I can't remember), since she was the one who was known to have actually sewed Gabi's costume shut, but also Marie-France and Patrice (and no, Romain didn't come in for any direct condemnation, though there was certainly some deliberate splash damage along the lines that he was negligent or weak for letting them get away with it). It wasn't even particularly subtle.

Said poster also tried to stir rumours, post-Olympics, that Romain would be leaving Gadbois and taking P/C with him, and regularly hinted during the off-season that Gabi and Guillaume should leave Gadbois for their own good. That's four examples from one person. I've been around a lot of different fandoms for a long time now, and given a bit of time to observe, I can spot the signs of someone trying to parlay a tiny bit of access into fandom-controlling BNF status for themselves. This kind of rapidly-shifting promotion of self-generated conspiracy theories in response to unexpected/upsetting events, that exploits moments of high emotion, puts the theorist at the centre of everyone's attention and makes other people feel dependent on them for 'inside' information (usually minimal) and reassurance that everything will be okay, and ensures that they're willing to defer to the theorist to maintain access and a safe-seeming environment, is absolutely par for the course for that type of behaviour. You can call that my own personal conspiracy theorising if you like, or just me being a suspicious type, but mostly it's hard-earned experience of fandoms and the people who're willing to ruin them purely to gratify their own egos speaking. I'd rather not see another fandom I mostly enjoy being part of get poisoned that way.

Now let's get back to the fun and frivolous-type conspiracy theories, shall we?

*pun not actually intended, but hey, it works.

So it was allegedly Steffany Hanlen who did the sewing. Thanks for that. The rest is all your own personal issues, and a waste of your time typing cos I ain't interested. All the best!

 

[Ananas Astra]

Was that a conspiracy theory or something true? (Sorry if that's a silly question)

They were "dating" at some point, but there is a theory that Carolina was more something like an alibi-gf for Stéphane since there are rumors that he prefers the less fair gender

 

[Finnice]

They were "dating" at some point, but there is a theory that Carolina was more something like an alibi-gf for Stéphane since there are rumors that he prefers the less fair gender

They did date when both were very young. Not everyone knows their orientation right away.

 

[Mad for Skating]

They were "dating" at some point, but there is a theory that Carolina was more something like an alibi-gf for Stéphane since there are rumors that he prefers the less fair gender

Well unless he publicly says something, it’s none of our business. Lots of skaters are assumed gay when they aren’t. And if he is, good for him!

 

[Andora]

A lot of it is how it is interpreted. I remember fans saying that Seasons having 30+ music cut changes by October 2013 meant that Marina was sabotaging them and was incompetent. However, when it was written that Moulin Rouge had roughly the same number of edits, it is interpreted as an immense amount of loving care was taken by the coaches in cutting the music/program.

So it's all a matter of interpretation. I'm sure we'd be hearing very different things if the results at the 2018 Olympics were different.

I'm actually honestly deeply surprised that the North Korean cheer squad is the only P/C conspiracy I've read. Maybe it is written in French somewhere I can't read. I would have thought the costume coming undone would have been perfect conspiracy material.

Moulin Rouge had 30 edits?

I don't know how anyone could look at Seasons, each version performed during the season, and not think Marina was at least not focused on V&M, if not outright losing her touch. The program was... not the best work out of Canton that year. Or any year. Even when they skated it with conviction - which only happened twice, and Scott himself admitted they suffered from inconsistent skating all year - it just didn't have any real Olympic punch to it. Or regular season punch.

I don't know if it was a conspiracy, though? Marina's a savvy lady - two Olympic gold medalists under one coach is a better pitch for future students than one team with two. You can go further down the rabbit hole and try to involve USFSA politiking her (not unreasonable, but not necessarily true) or that Meryl was dating Fedor and so went the better work (I doubt Marina is so silly...), but... it's not necessary. V&M should have left, they didn't, they suffered the consequences that year.

 

[allezfred]

I don't know how anyone could look at Seasons, each version performed during the season, and not think Marina was at least not focused on V&M, if not outright losing her touch.

Marina has a touch - unfortunately it's for producing really generic ice dance programmes.

 

[VGThuy]

I actually thought Seasons was a much more inspired idea with Marina trying to give V/M something different. There seemed to be more thought behind it than just taking a warhorse like Scheherazade and editing a skating program out of it. It was Russian romantic classical music for Sochi. The problem was that Marina’s actual choreography was limited and the end product wasn’t as good as what they all probably envisioned. I mean why do you think the Shibs started doing their programs their damn selves? I mean everyone at High Performance Camp thought the program was great at the time, haha.

The reason I don't buy the whole Marina sabotaging V/M thing is that for that conspiracy to be true, you have to have real infantilized view of Tessa and Scott, and they come off as seriously stupid in that scenario and I know they're not stupid. Nobody stopped them for re-choreographing steps if they had to to make it easier to get level 4 for them. In fact, I believe they did. The problem is that Marina and her team were not the best team to handle their complexes and technical blocks that they developed and we all know Igor was the tech master behind that team. She'd later hire Massimo Scali to help her with that. Maybe they needed a coach who devoted their entire attention to them, but they knew Marina was sharing time with D/W and felt it worked for them before it could work for them again. That's a different issue from Marina sabotaging them.

They didn't get the attention they felt they needed because Marina was dividing her time between V/M and D/W and D/W were able to keep their tech in check and were in top shape while V/M seemed super self-conscious that whole time. I do admit that judges didn't help when their SD should have scored higher than it did but that's not something within the coach's total control as I'll talk about later. And also, regarding tech, V/M and D/W had the same base value in TES in the FD and even received the same score on one of their step sequences. They even received 10.00s in PCS, it's just D/W received more.

The SD they got a lower level by 1 point in BV but lost another point in GOE to D/W (don't forget that V/M got a level 2 call in the team event SD in Pyeongchang as well). PCS was also another story. So it was just the judges deciding they liked D/W's execution and performances/programs more. That's actually the same story with P/C v. V/M except this time P/C did themselves in with the top in the SD.

IMO, Seasons was not the best vehicle, but it wasn't a result of intentional sabotage but Marina being clueless. She still sort of is but she lucked out after 2014 with a team that just took matters into their own hands and had Scali to assist.

 

[canbelto]

Another V/M conspiracy theory from the sekret baby source is that Scott Moir's family (nicknamed 'Moirville') are a sort of huge group entourage that picks fake girlfriends for Scott and invents a persona for him and that the reason they have to keep hiding their three kids in the basement is that it would ruin "Moirville's" creation of Scott as a beer-chugging, hockey-loving macho guy.

 

[ballettmaus]

I don't think that's true. Just because on here the poster merely maintained that the professional responsibility for ensuring an adequate costume repair/sewing in of Gabriella in to the costume for the SD at the Olympics lay with the coaching team. That's actually true I would expect with regard to job descriptions and skate fed-coaching team contracts, and general practice within figure skating.

Holding people to account for what their professional responsibilities are is not the same as launching a conspiracy theory.

Gabriella herself said she doesn't blame anyone. If the skater says that no one is to blame and that it was just bad luck but a poster goes on about it how someone didn't do their job properly then they are spreading/creating a conspiracy theory. P/C moved on. The poster should have as well.

 

[allezfred]

Fans moving on - now there's a novel idea!

 

[canbelto]

Well ... in case y'all are curious. According to the sekret source Tessa is pregnant yet again ...

 

[AngieNikodinovLove (ANL)]

Well ... in case y'all are curious. According to the sekret source Tessa is pregnant yet again ...

Virtue?

I didnt know she already had a kid.

 

[canbelto]

Virtue?

I didnt know she already had a kid.

There's a rather crazy blogger that's well known among figure skating fans that says that they in fact already have three secret kids.

 

[WillyElliot]

How about Skate America 1997 when NoQuadTodd intentionally dislocated his shoulder because he saw 15 y/o Plushenko landing quads in the warm-up?

 

[Rina RUS]

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.

Yes, this is not just an idea created by fans. Evgeni believed in it. It is said Mishin made him think so. As for Mishin... well, I just trust Lala who says Mishin still believes in it.
(https://www.fsuniverse.net/forum/th...onspiracy-theories.104616/page-3#post-5451820)

a video
Plushenko: Psychologists say, that it was a special hypnosis. I even know what kind of hypnosis it was. I trust in that. I trust in that, because I was perfectly prepared, but doing my quad in the short program, I just did 3 rotations and a half - and opened. Such a thing... There was no problem, I just opened without a reason. Well, I don't know, maybe it is true. Well, I trust in that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZBohNmzKTE&t=3m27s

That is not all. It seems Yagudin never said, that they wanted to do it to Evgeni on purpose, but after this story with Zagainov Yagudin had to tell, that Mishin tried to make him miss his jump more than once. (Mishin isn't a hypnotist, of course, but he was much older than Yagudin, he was his former coach.)
Mishin used to stand in that corner where Yagudin had to do his quad. Yagudin says Mishin came to Yagudin's training before a competition even if Evgeni didn't have a training at the same time. We can't check this info, but I don't think, that Yagudin can lie about Salt Lake City (where many people could see them): at the Olympics Mishin was standing in that corner again, when Yagudin had to skate. Yagudin writes he landed the jump and smiled to Mishin.
Yagudin says Tarasova never tried to stand in that part of a rink where Evgeni was going to jump.
(Yagudin says the real war started after Nice, where Plushenko became the 4th. Yagudin says after Nice Mishin wanted not only to outcompete him, but to terminate. Here Lala's "full story" begins: "In 2001 Plushenko beat Yagudin everywhere...". )

 

[Rina RUS]

I was on a gossip site once that has a figure skating section. They mentioned one piece of gossip that they said was banned from figure skating forums that they said explained why Alexei Yagudin never won Russian Nationals, and I always wondered if it was true, but it seemed to out there.

This is not just an idea created by fans either.
Yagudin and Tarasova still believe Russian figure skating federation supported Plushenko. Yagudin and Tarasova noticed, that Yagudin could win an international competition only against the voice of a Russian judge (if there was a Russian judge, this Russian judge always gave Plushenko a better mark, so Yagudin could win only thanks to other judges). I didn't try to check it, but I think lying about scores would be silly.
As for Russian Nationals... I don't care. I think Yagudin's skate could become worse indeed, if he thought he couldn't win anyway.
Yagudin remembers, that the president of Russian figure skating federation said to him something like: "If you go to Tarasova, you'll never win a single competition anymore!" Yet it seems Yagudin doesn't really remember every word. Maybe he is sincere, but doesn't remember those words literally. So I'm not sure, that the president threatened him. Maybe.

As for that president (Piseev), Yagudin didn't like his work: "Everything is ruined. Roughly speaking, they milked us and did nothing."

 

[coppertop1]

I saw a comment on YT that someone sabotaged Gabby Daleman's skates and that's why she fell apart.

 

[barbarafan]

I saw a comment on YT that someone sabotaged Gabby Daleman's skates and that's why she fell apart.

Is there any truth to that?

 

[Maximillian]

When I'm looking for truth and accuracy I always turn first to YouTube comments...

 

[coppertop1]

Is there any truth to that?

Really? Meltdowns happen all the time even to the best skaters. Saying they were sabotaged feels insulting because it's not allowing them to have bad days.

Another gem: Mirai Nagasu wasn't chosen to go to the Olypmics because the USFSA was racist.

 

[The Accordion]

on second thought, nevermind.