ISU Congress & elections 2022

[Karen-W]

Back with the Figure Skating branch -

Halina Gordon-Poltorak POL just withdrew as a candidate for Ice Dance Technical Committee Chair, so that means Shawn Rettstatt USA will be elected by acclamation. She's getting a standing ovation from the room.

ETA - Ice Dance Technical Committee Members - 47 Hilary Selby GBR, 45 David Molina FRA, 35 Ingrid Charlotte Wolter GER

 

[Karen-W]

Synchro Tech Committee Chair - Philippe Maitrot FRA (43 votes)
Synchro Tech Committee Members - 46 Petra Tyrbo SWE, 44 Lois Long USA, 39 Nina Bischoff SUI

Yes! Russia was kept off this committee!

 

[On My Own]

Interesting to note that China was shut out of election for every position in which they had a candidate.

Maybe because the CSA is hanging in uncertainty or something? Someone on the Chinese Skating Thread was talking about things that are/were happening. I think they could be good in the Pairs TC, but I don't mind. I just wish Russia and Belarus hadn't got in either.

 

[Karen-W]

Single & Pair Technical Committee Chair - Fabio Bianchetti ITA (by acclamation as he was the only candidate)
Single & Pair Technical Committee Members - 40 Leena Laaksonen FIN, 37 Yukiko Okabe JPN (both elected on 1st ballot), 33 Emilie Billow SWE, 30 Susan Lynch AUS

Proud of the FS branch for not electing any Russians or satellite Russians to any committees!

 

[Karen-W]

Honorary Members -

Jan Djikema NED - Honorary President
Alexander Lakernik RUS - Honorary VP (Figure Skating)
Marie Lundmark FIN - Honorary Member (Figure Skating)
Roland Maillard SUI - Honorary Member (Speed Skating)
Volker Waldeck GER - Honorary Member (Disciplinary Committee)
Beatrice Pfister SUI - Honorary Member (Legal Adviser)

And they announced the next ISU Congress will be June 9-14 in Las Vegas USA! I'm guessing it won't be at the Orleans Hotel though, lol.

 

[MarieM]

Back with the Figure Skating branch -

Halina Gordon-Poltorak POL just withdrew as a candidate for Ice Dance Technical Committee Chair, so that means Shawn Rettstatt USA will be elected by acclamation. She's getting a standing ovation from the room.

ETA - Ice Dance Technical Committee Members - 47 Hilary Selby GBR, 45 David Molina FRA, 35 Ingrid Charlotte Wolter GER

That is interesting. Why did she withdraw?!
But alas, good that she's now out. Shawn Rettstatt IMO is no better.

 

[Andrea82]

That is interesting. Why did she withdraw?!
But alas, good that she's now out. Shawn Rettstatt IMO is no better.

She knew she was going to lose?
Earlier in the day, she stood for the ISU Council and lost out there too (with Elek being succesfull).

 

[Dub16]

Ugh... Alexander Kibalko RUS managed to beat Slobodan Delic SRB for the final Speed Skating Council position. Not impressed ISU delegates. Not impressed. Where's my Mykayla Maroney gif?

Kibalko would have lost against any other candidate than Delic.

 

[allezfred]

Kim 77
St Peter 24
Rakhamo 13
Delic 5
And we have another Speed Skater as President...

The overwhelming vote looks like many on the figure skating side also supported him.

A positive is that it will be difficult for a certain group of fans to claim the ISU has an anti-Asian bias now.

 

[zebobes]

Looking at their presentations, it was striking how much younger and charismatic Kim seemed compared to the other candidates. I also feel like his close ties to Samsung can't but help make ISU members to see $$$.

It will be interesting, because the relationship between Asian countries is quite complicated, and look to be especially complicated in the near future. I can't help but think it's a good thing that this change didn't occur before the Beijing Olympics.

 

[mattiecat13]

Probably a dumb question but where/when will GP rosters be determined? I thought it was during the ISU Congress.

 

[emilieh]

Probably a dumb question but where/when will GP rosters be determined? I thought it was during the ISU Congress.

It used to be around this time, but lately it's been end of June, I believe it's the result of a separate meeting.

 

[Firedancer]

Thank you to everyone who provided play by play this week!

 

[victorskid]

The overwhelming vote looks like many on the figure skating side also supported him.

A positive is that it will be difficult for a certain group of fans to claim the ISU has an anti-Asian bias now.

Actually, the announcement of his election on Twitter was met with a whole lot of disgust from the Fanyus - my blocked list on Twitter grew by leaps & bounds. Some posts might have even been worth reporting, if Twitter's process wasn't quite so annoying.

Their disgust is against the ISU as a whole and it's all about one skater...

 

[victorskid]

The press release from the ISU on Day 5 complete with photos: https://www.isu.org/isu-news/news/1...2-phuket-tha-day-5-elections?templateParam=15

 

[victorskid]

Skate Canada announcement regarding the election of the new V-P Figure Skating: https://skatecanada.ca/2022/06/canadian-benoit-lavoie-elected-as-isu-vice-president-figure-skating/

 

[zebobes]

Actually, the announcement of his election on Twitter was met with a whole lot of disgust from the Fanyus - my blocked list on Twitter grew by leaps & bounds. Some posts might have even been worth reporting, if Twitter's process wasn't quite so annoying.

Their disgust is against the ISU as a whole and it's all about one skater...

Like I said, the relationship between different Asian countries is complicated. Admittedly, not all Fanyus are Japanese... but if we remember the Yuna/Mao fanwars, the fact that one was Korean and the other Japanese definitely added to the tension of it all.

 

[On My Own]

A positive is that it will be difficult for a certain group of fans to claim the ISU has an anti-Asian bias now.

You're uninitiated.

Admittedly, not all Fanyus are Japanese...

A giant chunk is Chinese, who have been doing these three things at the same time:

1. accusing Shoma Uno of being "anti-national" because he said Nathan Chen deserved to win the Olympics;
2. harassing Chinese skaters because they "used" Hanyu, and using their results these past few seasons as part of the harassment;
3. using anti-Chinese American language about Nathan himself.

So I don't think it's to do with Asia's complicated relationship when it comes to this group. They're just hateful fanatics.

Actually, the announcement of his election on Twitter was met with a whole lot of disgust from the Fanyus - my blocked list on Twitter grew by leaps & bounds. Some posts might have even been worth reporting, if Twitter's process wasn't quite so annoying.

I didn't see any, but maybe it means by block list is complete!

 

[VGThuy]

I remember finding out just how much of Yuzuru's fandom or at least the ones who are out there attacking his competitors online, to the point of vandalizing their Instagram accounts, were from China.

 

[sap5]

Back with the Figure Skating branch -

Halina Gordon-Poltorak POL just withdrew as a candidate for Ice Dance Technical Committee Chair, so that means Shawn Rettstatt USA will be elected by acclamation. She's getting a standing ovation from the room.

ETA - Ice Dance Technical Committee Members - 47 Hilary Selby GBR, 45 David Molina FRA, 35 Ingrid Charlotte Wolter GER

This is a sad state of affairs.

 

[On My Own]

I remember finding out just how much of Yuzuru's fandom or at least the ones who are out there attacking his competitors online, to the point of vandalizing their Instagram accounts, were from China.

I'm actually kind of scared of what they will say about Cha if he ever beats Hanyu or "uses Hanyu for fame" (which amounts to someone posting pictures containing Hanyu on their sns). I expect every disgusting anti Korean comment and invocation of the Korea/Japan history as part of it.

 

[clairecloutier]

This is a sad state of affairs.

Which part of it?

I don't know much about the ice dance committee.

I would be interested in knowing who among them pushed the decision to drop the compulsory from the senior RD.

 

[Karen-W]

RFSF post in IG regarding the ISU elections -

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Relevant quote from Alexander Kogan from machine translation - "Unfortunately, this Congress has proved to be very politicized. However, we remain hopeful that the situation will change."

Awww. Too bad, so sad. Cry me a river, buddy. Meanwhile, how many ice rinks in Ukraine have been destroyed? How many lives have been lost?

 

[binbinwinwin]

Looking at their presentations, it was striking how much younger and charismatic Kim seemed compared to the other candidates. I also feel like his close ties to Samsung can't but help make ISU members to see $$$.

It will be interesting, because the relationship between Asian countries is quite complicated, and look to be especially complicated in the near future. I can't help but think it's a good thing that this change didn't occur before the Beijing Olympics.

People seem to think he's going to be business-savvy but he was born into wealth, his family founded one of the largest newspapers in South Korea (which his brother is currently the president of), his path was set out for him before he even married into the Samsung family. He came from the speed skating branch but he is not a speed skater. I find even some Koreans are apprehensive about this because he was head of the KSU when Viktor Ahn left due to poor conditions and bullying and several abuse scandals reported by female speed skaters, they felt like those were the worst years of the KSU under him. He was also questioned in the 2016 Presidential Scandal for corruption so his reputation isn't that great. What I've seen them ask of him is for SK to get a Challenger or GP and better rink and training conditions for figure skaters.

 

[clairecloutier]

People seem to think he's going to be business-savvy but he was born into wealth, his family founded one of the largest newspapers in South Korea (which his brother is currently the president of), his path was set out for him before he even married into the Samsung family. He came from the speed skating branch but he is not a speed skater. I find even some Koreans are apprehensive about this because he was head of the KSU when Viktor Ahn left due to poor conditions and bullying and several abuse scandals reported by female speed skaters, they felt like those were the worst years of the KSU under him. He was also questioned in the 2016 Presidential Scandal for corruption so his reputation isn't that great. What I've seen them ask of him is for SK to get a Challenger or GP and better rink and training conditions for figure skaters.

Hmmm. I did kind of like his manifesto. But if all this is true, I wonder why he would have gotten so much more support than St. Peter or Rahkamo. Maybe the figure skating votes got divided between those two candidates??

 

[On My Own]

Hmmm. I did kind of like his manifesto. But if all this is true, I wonder why he would have gotten so much more support than St. Peter or Rahkamo. Maybe the figure skating votes got divided between those two candidates??

It's possible they didn't know any of it/decided to ignore it in favour of any wealth they feel he might bring.

 

[Karen-W]

Hmmm. I did kind of like his manifesto. But if all this is true, I wonder why he would have gotten so much more support than St. Peter or Rahkamo. Maybe the figure skating votes got divided between those two candidates??

Even if Patricia St Peter had received all the votes that Rahkamo and Delic received, it still would have only given her 42 votes to Kim's 77. There were 67 FS votes and 52 SS votes, so he still got more than 1/3 of the FS delegations' votes. Even assuming that all of the Asian, African & Latin American feds plus Australia & New Zealand (maybe due to geographic proximity?) voted for him, that's only 21 additional votes, so he must have had a few European feds voting for him. And I don't think all those feds necessarily voted for him just because he wasn't European or North American. What I want to know is why we think him being ISU President will bring in more sponsorship dollars/connections when his presence on the ISU Council since 2016 hasn't already done that?

 

[binbinwinwin]

Hmmm. I did kind of like his manifesto. But if all this is true, I wonder why he would have gotten so much more support than St. Peter or Rahkamo. Maybe the figure skating votes got divided between those two candidates??

I guess like you they just read the manifesto, there's only so many hours a day. English sources seems to exclude his own family background and only included the Samsung part, which is admittedly more recognizable than "Dong-A Ilbo." Either way he works at Samsung now and did most of his schooling in the US (Stanford Business School). I'm sure he knows a lot on how to present himself well but I don't think the nitty gritty of the Viktor Ahn scandal and the abuse scandals in speed skating were that well known overseas. He comes off as a great businessman or high level executive at a first look but he's really not self made.

 

[Coco]

People are still pretty traditional on the whole, and I think when faced with a relatively even choice between a man and a woman, they will vote for the man.

 

[Willin]

Synchro Tech Committee Chair - Philippe Maitrot FRA (43 votes)
Synchro Tech Committee Members - 46 Petra Tyrbo SWE, 44 Lois Long USA, 39 Nina Bischoff SUI

Yes! Russia was kept off this committee!

Unlike in singles, in synchro the most powerful federations are often ones that don't necessarily have the best teams - Croatia, for instance, is a huge name in the synchro political game. Come to think of it, other than Finland, a lot of the top placing synchro countries don't seem to have a lot of political power in the sport - perhaps because it's a lot more friendly competition than figure skating and therefore countries aren't as hungry to get political power in the ISU.

I think in synchro there's also a lot of power given to the federations most interested in promoting and developing the sport as opposed to federations that seek out power - for instance, Swedish teams are known for innovating elements. US teams are known for skater development pipelines and recruiting international coaching teams to better the sport. France and Switzerland host major international competitions.

Because a lot of people in synchro want the sport to be about innovation and friendly/fun competition there's an extremely low tolerance for corruption or sketchy dealings. So when the Russian team won worlds in a very, very sketchy situation a few years ago, they fell out of political favor. They still did well in competitions because their teams are genuinely very good, but I think it killed any political influence they did have - although they did get favors from sketchy judging starting around the time of the Sochi games like all the Russian singles skaters, perhaps in anticipation of it becoming an Olympic sport.