ISU statement on Mariah Bell and Eun soo Lim

[Firedancer]

The team Raf instagram account has posted the ISU statement on their Instagram story.

 

[Aussie Willy]

The ISU as the ones running the event have the overarching responsibility for how this is handled and any media issued from it.

But the media are being totally negligent and irresponsible. They need to be held to account.

Such a shame. I certainly hope that the mental wellbeing of the skaters is treated as priority and they are being looked after. This does fall under Member Protection and any processes related to that should be in place now.

 

[chameleonster]

Personally, before we jump on Eunsoo demanding apologies, I still want to hear more about what's going on at home. If she's being antagonized to the point where a routine accident comes off as malicious and intentional, that's a big problem.

I'm waiting to see the results from the mediation after the free before I make any strong judgments either way.

 

[VALuvsMKwan]

And why aren't the media calling out KYN and her mother with responsibility for the agency's lies?

 

[Jarrett]

Of course she can apologise. There are plenty of newspapers present at worlds. If she is unhappy with how her agency is working on her behalf, the easiest thing would be to give an interview explaining that the injury was her fault because whoever’s music is playing has the right of way and she wasn’t paying attention, and adding a public apology to Mariah for negative publicity, it would stop all this mess. Saying that she can’t do anything is not true. She was old enough to sign with an agency, so she must be old enough to take responsibility for the agency’s actions.

I doubt she is the one actually signed to the agency she is 16.... I'm sure her parents signed any legal contract on her behalf.

 

[her grace]

I’ve been a fan of Lim for (a few) years and think she is a wonderful talent. I’ve been a fan of Bell for (more) years and am thrilled with her progress. This is such a sad and needless story. Collisions happen in skating. This shouldn’t be a big deal. ATS was really irresponsible and malicious here. It’s terrible that this story is overshadowing both ladies’ amazing SPs.

And oh the irony when Lim skates her LP to Bell’s hand-me-down Chicago program in the LP.

 

[hanca]

I doubt she is the one actually signed to the agency she is 16.... I'm sure her parents signed any legal contract for her.

The point remains the same though. She can’t take the benefits from being signed with the agency, but refusing to take responsibility for the negatives if the agency messes up.

 

[Jarrett]

I’ve been a fan of Lim for (a few) years and think she is a wonderful talent. I’ve been a fan of Bell for (more) years and am thrilled with her progress. This is such a sad and needless story. Collisions happen in skating. This shouldn’t be a big deal. ATS was really irresponsible and malicious here. It’s terrible that this story is overshadowing both ladies’ amazing SPs.

And oh the irony when Lim skates her LP to Bell’s hand-me-down Chicago program in the LP.

Yeah Mariah was the first person to skate to Chicago and have heart choreography. Right....

 

[overedge]

Ummm ... the headlines are insane, using words like "slashed with her blade".

... Also a lot of "Nancy and Tonya", who were National Champions and World medalists.

This is "NOBODY having an accident with NOBODY". Neither is going to medal.

Um, both are national medalists IIRC. And what is happening is not okay regardless of how famous the skaters are or aren't.

 

[her grace]

Yeah Mariah was the first person to skate to Chicago and have heart choreography. Right....

Same coaching team and recyled choreography—I call that a hand-me-down. YMMV.

 

[Jarrett]

The point remains the same though. She can’t take the benefits from being signed with the agency, but refusing to take responsibility for the negatives if the agency messes up.

Your point was not that or at least that is not what you typed. I'm sure for both skaters their priority is the free program not press releases. And for we know she hasn't refused anything. Jumping to conclusions after other jumping to conclusions doesn't seem like the right choice here.

 

[Deleted member 53443]

To say that the collision was Lim's fault is just wrong. She is clearly as close to the boards as she can be, which is all you can ask for. Bell was skating very fast and could not intentionally clip anyone even if she wanted to. These things happen without the fault of anyone. I don't know how many close calls I have seen at freestyle when things speed up.If there is a problem between the two, that incident is not it. I f-g hate social media so much, it's a cancer in society that gives us nothing but hate and fake celebrity BS. If you can't say it to my face, I'm not listening.

 

[hanca]

To say that the collision was Lim's fault is just wrong. She is clearly as close to the boards as she can be, which is all you can ask for. Bell was skating very fast and could not intentionally clip anyone even if she wanted to. These things happen without the fault of anyone. I don't know how many close calls I have seen at freestyle when things speed up.If there is a problem between the two, that incident is not it. I f-g hate social media so much, it's a cancer in society that gives us nothing but hate and fake celebrity BS. If you can't say it to my face, I'm not listening.

I am sorry you don’t want to hear it, but it is her fault! She might have been very close to the boards, but she wasn’t paying attention. Her job is to stay out of the way of skaters who do a run through. Maybe she couldn’t move to the right because the boards were there on her right side, but she still could move to the left, or speed up and move faster forward or stop and let Bell go in front of her. She didn’t do it because she wasn’t paying attention. Which is fine if she doesn’t care about being injured, but it seems that she does care so she should have been paying attention. The rules at any rink all over the world are simple - whose music is on has the right of way. All the others have a duty to move out of that skater’s way. Lim didn’t move. Her fault.

 

[arakwafan2006]

Mae Berenice weighs in

https://twitter.com/mbmeite/status/1108771733081915392?s=21

 

[NinjaTurtles]

this story was in the lead on NBC Nightly News just now. :-(

Kelly Rippon tweeted the clip. It includes a better quality video of the incident.

 

[love skating]

It angers me that it was on all of the major news outlets AFTER the fact that the ISU found there to be no intentional harm. At that point it should have been non news. Now it just stokes the sensationalism fire and will surely make more people - including non skating fans now brand Mariah as the new Tonya. The local news had Mirai Nagasu on (she's one of the news interns there), she said it looked accidental to her and that these things happen.

I feel so bad for Mariah. And I feel bad for Eunsoo too. As for people who claim to be "fans" who leave death threats, mean messages, etc. on people's personal social media - they are simply the worst of the worst...makes me sick to my stomach. I wish we could ban these people off the internet!

 

[forthewin]

For God's sake, Bell came from the behind in high speed and Lim was at the board and don't have eyes in her back. If you want to avoid contact, the only way is Bell move inside a bit. How on earth can someone spin this into Lim's fault?

 

[hanca]

For God's sake, Bell came from the behind in high speed and Lim was at the board and don't have eyes in her back. If you want to avoid contact, the only way is Bell move inside a bit. How on earth can someone spin this into Lim's fault?

Lim doesn’t have eyes at the back of her head, but the rules of any rink say that she has to move out of the way of skater who does run-through. So if Lim doesn’t have eyes at the back of her head, perhaps she should ensure that she will not be back from the skater who is doing the run through. This way she would be able to see the skater and move. It is her responsibility to keep track of that person, to make sure she can move. She didn’t. What exactly is so hard to understand?

 

[Deleted member 53443]

For God's sake, Bell came from the behind in high speed and Lim was at the board and don't have eyes in her back. If you want to avoid contact, the only way is Bell move inside a bit. How on earth can someone spin this into Lim's fault?

Answer: They don't know how an ice session works in real time.

 

[UGG]

For God's sake, Bell came from the behind in high speed and Lim was at the board and don't have eyes in her back. If you want to avoid contact, the only way is Bell move inside a bit. How on earth can someone spin this into Lim's fault?

Mariah has the right of way and Lim should have paid attention and moved. It’s Mariah’s run through, she shouldn’t have to worry about where other skaters are. They should respect the right of way. She had a right to complete her choreography the way it was intended during HER run through. I cannot imagine what Lim’s agency would have tried to spin of a skater was in her way during her run through. Oh wait yes I can,

 

[Skittl1321]

For God's sake, Bell came from the behind in high speed and Lim was at the board and don't have eyes in her back. If you want to avoid contact, the only way is Bell move inside a bit. How on earth can someone spin this into Lim's fault?

As someone not in program, it's Lim's responsibility to know where the skater in the program is.

It was clearly an accident, but caused by Lim not paying attention.

A skater in program should never have to adjust their pattern, though, not wanting to be injured, they generally will, or shout a warning, if they anticipate a collision.

 

[Deleted member 53443]

Lim doesn’t have eyes at the back of her head, but the rules of any rink say that she has to move out of the way of skater who does run-through. So if Lim doesn’t have eyes at the back of her head, perhaps she should ensure that she will not be back from the skater who is doing the run through. This way she would be able to see the skater and move. It is her responsibility to keep track of that person, to make sure she can move. She didn’t. What exactly is so hard to understand?

Lim is doing exactly what she should do. She knows that Bell is making a sweep to gear up for the Axel, a pretty standard pattern, so she stays to the board. Basically she is doing what every skater would do. What ensues is just bad luck. Nobody in a training session skates around "watchingwatchingwatching" the program skater as you suggest Lim should do. You know the patterns, stay out of the way, go to the boards. Sometimes shit happens.

 

[hanca]

Mariah has the right of way and Lim should have paid attention and moved.

Absolutely. The excuse that Lim didn’t see her won’t work, because it was her responsibility to see her and move. If I decided to go to the centre of the rink and start spinning and a person doing run through would crash into me, no one would care that I couldn’t see her because I was spinning. Everyone would say that I shouldn’t have been there because the other person had a right of way.

 

[natsulian]

I think this is the first time I've wanted to stop watching a Worlds competition. The level of over-the-top dramatization of an accident that usually occurs is mind boggling and horrid. I'm still speechless.

Vanessa James took to Instagram to defend Mariah in her comments section. Hopefully the skaters are not being attacked for defending Mariah publicly.

Mariah please stay strong. Eunsoo please heal fast. Let this whole entire fiasco leave in the coming days. Please.

 

[UGG]

Lim is doing exactly what she should do. She knows that Bell is making a sweep to gear up for the Axel, a pretty standard pattern, so she stays to the board. Basically she is doing what every skater would do. What ensues is just bad luck. Nobody in a training session skates around "watchingwatchingwatching" the program skater as you suggest Lim should do. You know the patterns, stay out of the way, go to the boards. Sometimes shit happens.

If her agents are going to falsely accuse other skaters of kicking and stabbing, perhaps she should pay attention to where she is on the ice during run throughs for the sake of other skaters mental health. I cannot imagine how Mariah feels right now.

 

[forthewin]

I'm seriously done with this discussion. American fans here are doing the exact same thing as the Korean fans. They don't reason, they just blindly blame. And they thought they are the righteous branch.

 

[hanca]

Lim is doing exactly what she should do. She knows that Bell is making a sweep to gear up for the Axel, a pretty standard pattern, so she stays to the board. Basically she is doing what every skater would do. What ensues is just bad luck. Nobody in a training session skates around "watchingwatchingwatching" the program skater as you suggest Lim should do. You know the patterns, stay out of the way, go to the boards. Sometimes shit happens.

Well, as you said, Lim knows the pattern, and yet she didn’t stay out of way. How do you explain that? In my view, she didn’t do what she was supposed to do. If you step into the motorway, you will be killed. No one will care whether you saw the car approaching or not. Lim was supposed to move and she didn’t. The fact whether she saw Bell or not is irrelevant. She was supposed to keep an eye for her. The fact that she didn’t look and therefore didn’t see, that’s her problem. But that doesn’t take her responsibility away.

 

[hanca]

I'm seriously done with this discussion. American fans here are doing the exact same thing as the Korean fans. They don't reason, they just blindly blame. And they thought they are the righteous branch.

I am not american, I am not a Bell’s fan, in fact, I don’t really care about her skating, but I do believe that Lim ignored the rules and as a result she got injured. Her fault.

 

[hanca]

Repeated post

 

[giselle23]

Sexist view? That is where you went with this?

One quick search and I found: Yuzuru Hanyu: Denis Ten Intentionally Caused Practice Kerfuffle.

The NBC Sports website is not the international news (and tabloid) media. I doubt if anyone outside if figure skating knew about that “kerfuffle.”