Mark Ladwig off USOC/USFSA committees

barbk

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Mark Ladwig, U.S. Figure Skating’s top athlete leader who last year made controversial comments defending a pairs skater suspended for alleged sexual abuse, no longer holds athlete leadership roles within the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee or U.S. Figure Skating.

Ladwig has been replaced as skating’s athlete representative to the USOPC and as chair of the USFS Athletes Advisory Committee, a spokesperson for USFS confirmed to USA TODAY Sports.

...Rachael Flatt, the 2010 U.S. women’s national champion, was elected to replace Ladwig as USFS Athletes Advisory Committee chair.

 

el henry

#WeAllWeGot #WeAllWeNeed
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And one more misleading headline from USA Today and Christine Brennan.;)

Mark chose not to run again and the decision was his and his alone, says the story. He was not "replaced", someone else was elected to fill his position that he vacated.

I have no idea if he was influenced not to run again, but if Christine has facts to that effect, report them.

Anyway, yay Rachel:cheer2:
 

skatfan

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Replacement is a neutral term to me. Rachel succeeds him and filled the post he had - she replaced him.

I’m thrilled that someome as whip smart as Rachel Flatt is our representative.

Do we really think he would have won the job again after those remarks?:rolleyes:
 

greenapple

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The fact that Brennan keeps finding any reason to rehash the whole sad situation is now effectively making her the harasser. How can the girls and their parents move on when she continuously regurgitates it? If the person being "replaced" was anyone other than someone connected to the Coughlin matter, Brennan would not have even covered this.
 

overedge

Mayor of Carrot City
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The fact that Brennan keeps finding any reason to rehash the whole sad situation is now effectively making her the harasser. How can the girls and their parents move on when she continuously regurgitates it? If the person being "replaced" was anyone other than someone connected to the Coughlin matter, Brennan would not have even covered this.

It's not us to up or her to determine when the girls and their parents are ready to move on. USFS hasn't taken any meaningful action to address the circumstances that allowed the abuse to happen, so it's not an issue that has gone away. IMO Brennan is justified in continuing to follow the story.
 

skatingguy

decently
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The fact that Brennan keeps finding any reason to rehash the whole sad situation is now effectively making her the harasser. How can the girls and their parents move on when she continuously regurgitates it? If the person being "replaced" was anyone other than someone connected to the Coughlin matter, Brennan would not have even covered this.
You are wrong, and I can't even begin to describe how many ways you are wrong. I will say that one of the issues we have, whether it's about sexual abuse, or police violence, is that story disappears from the headlines and is rarely followed up on. Keeping the pressure on organizations like the USFS is key to making lasting change. In addition, this need to hit Brennan over the head every time she writes something that paints the sport in a bad light is so incredibly misogynistic.
 

cheremary

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I feel pretty neutral regarding Christine Brennan’s skating coverage in general, but this news item’s connection to the John Coughlin story seems a bit tenuous, since Ladwig had served the maximum number of terms for one position and chose not to continue with the other, which could be due to any number of reasons.

It doesn’t seem like there’s any direct connection between his previous comments regarding Coughlin and his leaving these positions. I don’t blame Amanda Evora for declining comment on Brennan’s questions because she was expecting questions directly related to her position.
 

MacMadame

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It doesn’t seem like there’s any direct connection between his previous comments regarding Coughlin and his leaving these positions.
That seems a bit naive to me. I'm sure he was encouraged to slink away so his comments wouldn't be repeated in the news reports on the elections.

And someone who made comments like that running or not running for a position in USFS is news whether people like it or not. Likewise, comparing a journalist reporting on a story to someone who committed sexual assault with more than one victim is really offensive and just a way to try to shut the story down IMO.
 

Willin

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Great choice to replace him in Rachel Flatt! Smart, kind, and researches a prominent issue in athletes.

As for Mark Ladwig, good riddance. More evidence the small community that makes up elite pairs needs an overhaul. Glad to see he's out no matter if planned or kicked out. Should've happened sooner.
 

gkelly

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That seems a bit naive to me. I'm sure he was encouraged to slink away so his comments wouldn't be repeated in the news reports on the elections.

What news reports on the elections?

These kinds of elections don't seem to be something that mainstream media report on as a matter of course. Maybe if something newsworthy happened there, but which athletes got elected or reelected to athlete committees doesn't seem to be something that draws attention outside the official reports of the sport or the USOPC on a regular basis.
 

MacMadame

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These kinds of elections don't seem to be something that mainstream media report on as a matter of course.
It depends on what you mean by "mainstream media." This absolutely is sports news. It's news because of what Ladwig said. And I have seen other reports on elections in USFS that were far more banal reported on by sports journalists who report on figure skating.
 

Artistic Skaters

Drawing Figures
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Christine Brennan has a long history of reporting information regarding committee and internal political issues within the federation. How quickly people have forgotten the WSF years. :lol:

It's slow news days in figure skating and this is an item with Ladwig, Evora and Flatt all rolled into one. I'm not surprised at all someone reported about it.
 

caseyedwards

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Omg Ladwig defended someone never found guilty of ANYTHING!! Omg omg

like how many times does she want to make headlines off of coughlins corpse?
 
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5Ali3

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Ladwig was elected in April 2018 and became AAC chair in May 2018. When he ran and was elected, he only intended to do two years. Full disclosure: I didn't personally hear him say that until some time during the late summer-early fall of 2018. Ladwig is still on AAC and on other committees as an athlete rep.
 

Artistic Skaters

Drawing Figures
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Omg Ladwig defended someone never found guilty of ANYTHING!! Omg omg
Everyone has their own opinion regarding the comments made by Ladwig, but that is a different issue than whether or not these things have been covered by journalists over the years. I'm kind of surprised by the comments saying they aren't covered, because I'm pretty sure we could go back and find many articles, not just for figure skating, but gymnastics and lots of other sports as well.
 

aftershocks

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There's not a huge amount of administrative news about figure skating that's routinely covered in the mainstream national news media historically. There are local news outlets that increasingly do feature articles or broadcast television news clips about local rinks, skaters, coaches and officials. Or when a particular city is hosting U.S. Nationals, the local media for that venue increase their coverage.

Figure skating should be more deeply and widely covered IMHO, as there are a multitude of interesting stories and personalities, as well as crucial issues involving the sport that go begging for better and more effective coverage. In general, figure skating is thought of by the main stream news media as an 'Olympic' sport, and so stories tend to be ratcheted up in local and national newspapers every four-year Olympic cycle. Or when there is some 'sensational' scandal to report on in connection with figure skating, Brennan is always 'Christy on the Spot.'

Too bad Brennan wasn't paying a lot of close investigative attention to the surfacing reports of sexual harassment and abuse in the sport of figure skating in the 1990s. Had she been a persistent nose hound digging deeper back then, maybe she could have lit a fuse under USFS to pay more attention instead of them looking the other way and burying their heads in the sand. The 1990s was a time when paying close attention to the hidden problems might have led to better guidelines, communication, awareness, and prevention of some of the ongoing abuse situations that festered and only got worse through the years. Perhaps Brennan was too busy doing research for her follow-up book on the skating scene in those years after her first success writing about events and personalities in the era of the Michelle Kwan and Tara Lipinski rivalry.

I believe Brennan is a good journalist, likely with what she feels are good intentions for the most part. But without fail, her stylistic approach to reporting always borders on sensationalist and gotcha. Even in her general commentary about the sport, I've found her to be prone to highlighting issues in a way that often paints things exaggeratedly and OTT, rather than thoughtfully and informatively. Of course, it's important to highlight matters that are urgent and sensitive. But her approach IMO often confuses issues and raises more questions than her style of reporting has ever provided substantial answers or beneficial understanding. I recall Brennan asking the former U.S. figure skating president a question about issues surrounding the Russian drug scandal, but her question was tangential to what that press conference was about, in addition to her approach being one of pushing buttons in a way that put the person being questioned on the spot, with 'gotcha' effect.

I realize that this approach is utilized by a number of journalists in order to have enough fodder to write about or to elicit responses that they can then build an attention-grabbing story around. But it's not my favorite style of journalism and its long-term effects I do not think are helpful or productive.
 

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