Repercussions of Papadakis' book & Cizeron's response

[MacMadame]

An Estonian team skating official, from what I remember.

Ah, I knew it was skating official.

 

[overedge]

The reliance on volunteers by most skating federations is a huge issue that really needs more attention.

I recognize that many skating clubs, and regional skating associations, don't have the resources to have paid staff. On the other hand, volunteers are busy administering their club or organization. They may not have the time or the capacity to get the training they should probably have re safe sport, protecting athletes, etc. IME they often even don't get training in other functions like HR (legislation, best practices, etc), which is important for clubs that are employing coaches, as employees or contractors.

I don't know the answer to this problem. But it's a potentially very dangerous situation for athletes, when responsibility for these important areas at the club level is largely assigned to unpaid, overworked, and possibly untrained volunteers.

 

[Sylvia]

Relevant excerpt from @uandmfan's gifted Globe and Mail article (1/22/26) link:

Seven years into retirement, Virtue and Moir still share an Olympic bond

Superstar figure skating duo cherish their 2018 gold medals and the way they captivated a global audience

www.theglobeandmail.com

Robyn Doolittle: I want to ask you guys about Gabriella Papadakis’s book, Pour ne pas disparaître (So as Not to Disappear).

She was critical of her former partner, Guillaume Cizeron – whom she won the Beijing 2022 Olympics Games with – calling him controlling and demanding, which he denies. NBC recently removed her from a commentator role at the Milan Olympics after concerns about her ability to be neutral, as Cizeron will be competing with his new partner, Laurence Fournier Beaudry. Gabriella also said in the book that in 2018 she was rooting for you two to make a mistake while competing against you. What was your reaction?

Scott Moir: I haven’t seen all of the quotes myself, but I think that’s her going back into her mind in 2018 as a young athlete. I don’t think that’s the way they finished their career. It feels like the book is a very honest exploration of her feelings in many ways. I can say, as someone who watched a lot of Gabby-Guillaume tape, there must be some leftover emotional resentment just from that breaking up. I can’t imagine ever skating with somebody else, and so to see Guillaume skating with someone else, I’m sure that it’s very difficult. People don’t really understand how intense that relationship is.

Tessa Virtue: It makes me think about the perils of competition and pressure and stress and the vulnerability that comes with putting your art form out there. There’s so much to it when you’re in competition. I don’t believe you’d find an athlete out there that didn’t have similar thoughts now and then.

 

[Bigbird]

Relevant excerpt from @uandmfan's gifted Globe and Mail article (1/22/26) link:

Seven years into retirement, Virtue and Moir still share an Olympic bond

Superstar figure skating duo cherish their 2018 gold medals and the way they captivated a global audience

www.theglobeandmail.com

Robyn Doolittle: I want to ask you guys about Gabriella Papadakis’s book, Pour ne pas disparaître (So as Not to Disappear).

She was critical of her former partner, Guillaume Cizeron – whom she won the Beijing 2022 Olympics Games with – calling him controlling and demanding, which he denies. NBC recently removed her from a commentator role at the Milan Olympics after concerns about her ability to be neutral, as Cizeron will be competing with his new partner, Laurence Fournier Beaudry. Gabriella also said in the book that in 2018 she was rooting for you two to make a mistake while competing against you. What was your reaction?

Scott Moir: I haven’t seen all of the quotes myself, but I think that’s her going back into her mind in 2018 as a young athlete. I don’t think that’s the way they finished their career. It feels like the book is a very honest exploration of her feelings in many ways. I can say, as someone who watched a lot of Gabby-Guillaume tape, there must be some leftover emotional resentment just from that breaking up. I can’t imagine ever skating with somebody else, and so to see Guillaume skating with someone else, I’m sure that it’s very difficult. People don’t really understand how intense that relationship is.

Tessa Virtue: It makes me think about the perils of competition and pressure and stress and the vulnerability that comes with putting your art form out there. There’s so much to it when you’re in competition. I don’t believe you’d find an athlete out there that didn’t have similar thoughts now and then.

Class acts. That is why they will always be the GOATS. They hit the nail on the head, the lack of sensitivity coming from both the IAM camp as well as Guillame Cizeron. Thank you very, very much! If there were any real empathy from that camp there would have been silence when it mattered and advocacy for those who needed it. Do we really believe this was some random, fortuitous pairing of FB/C? LOL.

 

[kedrin]

I skate with and am an officer for my local speedskating club. It is affiliated with US Speedskating, which meant that I had to join US Speedskating and complete the safe sport training in order to skate with my club. The problem with relying on volunteers isn't so much finding the time it takes to complete the training, but rather that it is hard to enforce the requirement for people who are not employees. Also, if the subject of a complaint is also a volunteer, an organization may hesitate to sanction someone they rely on to get things done.

 

[Andrea82]

An Estonian team skating official, from what I remember.

yes, the reports indicated she told the Estonian judge present at Golden Spin. The judge told her she would inform the Federation.
When Mazingue went to the press, the Estonian Fed was contacted and was reported saying "The Estonian ice sports federation explains today that not having been contacted directly by Solène, but “by a third person, it “does not have a complete vision of the affair and has not contacted other sports organizations without her authorization.”

 

[gkelly]

Definitely the fact that skating training is so decentralized makes it hard for there to be oversight of what happens between skaters and coaches, or between coaches.

There are bodies that can offer training and accept complaints, but they can't have eyes and ears in all rinks at all times, let alone during travel to competitions etc.

The reliance on volunteers by most skating federations is a huge issue that really needs more attention.

Who do you think could take responsibility if they were in a paid position?

I recognize that many skating clubs, and regional skating associations, don't have the resources to have paid staff. On the other hand, volunteers are busy administering their club or organization. They may not have the time or the capacity to get the training they should probably have re safe sport, protecting athletes, etc. IME they often even don't get training in other functions like HR (legislation, best practices, etc), which is important for clubs that are employing coaches, as employees or contractors.

In my experience (in the US), it is very rare for skating clubs to have paid staff. The exceptions would largely be the handful of clubs that own their own rinks, and possibly clubs that hire coaches directly rather than just authorizing coaches to coach on club-administered ice.

And some clubs don't offer club sessions at all -- the training takes place on ice time administered by the rinks.

Club officials may or may not frequently attend skating sessions at their rinks. If they are parents of active skaters, especially younger ones, or if they are active adult skaters themselves, then probably yes, but not all sessions that club members skate on each week. If their current connection to skating is otherwise, they might not set foot in the rink on a regular basis.

The coaches might be rink employees or they might be independent contractors. (Or both, depending when they're coaching private vs. group lessons.) And rink management tends not to know much about figure skating, beyond any grou lessons they might organize. They just rent out the ice, to individual skaters or to clubs or teams.

Clubs are responsible for what happens on ice time that they control -- club-contracted practice sessions (which may be few or nonexistent), test sessions, competitions, special events they choose to host. They can be asked to step in if club members have complaints about other members, etc. But they can't police what happens at all rinks on a daily basis. It's much too decentralized. Much less what happens away from the rink.

The national federation can do the same, especially for issues involving more than one club. And for international issues, the ISU could have authority for issues between members of different federations.

These are also volunteer organizations, but they do have paid staff. What could increasing the number paid staff responsible for athlete safety involve that would actually be effective?

I don't know the answer to this problem. But it's a potentially very dangerous situation for athletes, when responsibility for these important areas at the club level is largely assigned to unpaid, overworked, and possibly untrained volunteers.

Again -- what would be the alternative?

I skate with and am an officer for my local speedskating club. It is affiliated with US Speedskating, which meant that I had to join US Speedskating and complete the safe sport training in order to skate with my club. The problem with relying on volunteers isn't so much finding the time it takes to complete the training, but rather that it is hard to enforce the requirement for people who are not employees. Also, if the subject of a complaint is also a volunteer, an organization may hesitate to sanction someone they rely on to get things done.

That too.