Repercussions of Papadakis' book & Cizeron's response

[Tinycities]

https://x.com/MaarineG11/status/2012964589822980419

One of the things that has really shocked me is the theme of IAM coaches mocking & trashing other teams and encouraging their skaters to do the same. (Also mentioned in the thread @clairecloutier posted). I thought that when IAM really started getting more successful in 2014/15/16, there was a lot of messaging about the importance of a healthy training environment. Did things change as the centre got bigger, or was it always just a front?

I found it very difficult to enjoy watching Euros this week. So much around this sport is toxic and there is evidently no appetite at all from the governing body to tackle it.

All the other segments shared were fairly horrifying, but this one in particular just made me depressed about the state of the sport.

IAM was advertised as a refuge, and this just comes across just like what it was meant to replace, and at some points worse. Implying that there is no other option is fairly insidious, it comes across like an abuse tactic

 

[Aussie Willy]

https://x.com/MaarineG11/status/2012964589822980419

One of the things that has really shocked me is the theme of IAM coaches mocking & trashing other teams and encouraging their skaters to do the same. (Also mentioned in the thread @clairecloutier posted). I thought that when IAM really started getting more successful in 2014/15/16, there was a lot of messaging about the importance of a healthy training environment. Did things change as the centre got bigger, or was it always just a front?

I found it very difficult to enjoy watching Euros this week. So much around this sport is toxic and there is evidently no appetite at all from the governing body to tackle it.

Quite a few years ago I was told by someone very close to IAM (parent of a skater) that they set a very good standard when it came to standards of behaviour and sportsmanship.

However that was what I was told back then.

 

[MacMadame]

https://x.com/MaarineG11/status/2012964589822980419

One of the things that has really shocked me

One of the things that absolutely didn't surprise me in the slightest was when Gabby put forth an idea and it was ignored and then 20 minutes later, Guilliame put it forth and suddenly it was the best idea ever.

Raise your hand if that has ever happened to you in the workplace:

 

[dancefan17]

Have been reading the comments and was not sure whether to post. Decided to add my two cents. In full disclosure, I have not read the book. I am terribly sad over the entire situation for Gabi and believe her truth reflects what she experienced in her personal life and professional/skating career. There are situations that many of us can probably relate to, whether it be trying to manage a skating career and make the best possible decisions to achieve goals (and we know it takes a village, which is well provided within training centers like IAM) or in our business/professional lives. Who doesn’t feel like they haven’t been heard at one time or another? Who hasn’t had conflict that is really hard to navigate and arrive at a positive outcome? Who hasn’t felt overwhelmed or felt that their options were limited to make things better? And who hasn’t felt that there are others around them that for some reason are able to navigate the challenges better? From the comments, it sounds like she could not find a way to reset the environment, was miserable, felt she was diminished and chose a different path that would be more positive for her. All those are great steps. But I am not going to take sides as there are many stories of success and happiness as there are of Gabi’s negative experience. Teams at IAM do largely support each other and the environment. FB and C seem to genuinely be happy/thrilled skating together and it isn’t because FB defers- on the contrary I see enormous strength in her.

With that, I wish healing and positive energy around Gabi and a wonderful future. She seems to thrive on creative innovation (skating, singing- what a beautiful voice- and writing as examples) and I sincerely hope she continues to pursue the experiences and people who appreciate her and lift her up.

 

[Nmsis]

One of the things that has really shocked me is the theme of IAM coaches mocking & trashing other teams and encouraging their skaters to do the same.

It is saddening indeed but I don't think that's one bit surprising.

Over the years, I've heard of those "kill the opposition" / cooptation-based aristocratic mentalities in ice dance which comes from the origins of ice dance (russian mentality and european aristocratic mentality), widely spread among coaches and judges. Gabriella talks about it in her book.

For example in France, I listened to interviews of Haguenauer and he has always shown the utmost contempt about all things Arribert (about Zoé and Pierre-Loup occasionally beating Elodie and B E N O I T around 2006 ; on Candeloro's podcast a couple of years ago, about her saying in a minor local journal that she had a little center with little means trying to maintain high level ice dance in France, compared to the expensive and extensive factory that is Montréal; he didn't even name her, he said "on a dit", like in "someone has said" and he was speaking to rectify the "misinformation" that Montréal was expensive). Arribert gave an interview in 2011 where she was fuming against that killer mentality and negativity that Zazoui had about other centers, refusing simple competition to even exist.
Zazoui was pretty much handed a monopoly by Gailhaguet around 1998, probably in exchange for political support. He killed her professionally in 2014 when Haguenauer left for Montréal, followed by Gabriella and Guillaume. She had the same discourse than IAM. She had "the one and only" school.

I may be wrong but I think Zazoui was pretty much standard european ice dance mentality of the 70s-80s and that she doesn't hold a candel to the ferocity of the russians. And I think there are enough european and russian ice-dance coaches who settled in Northern America to have spread that culture.

(I'm curious about the Brits actually, since they are the inventors of the discipline and that the french ice-dance program was born from Roger Kennerson's teaching)

But by the most interesting return of karma, for the last 12 (when Gailhaguet killed Lyon) to 6 years (when Gailhaguet left the stage), it's the dancers whose schools/teachers (Danièle Marotel, Catherine Glaise, others ...) were evicted from high level by the Zazoui school and Gailhaguet that have been building the golden generation I'm talking about. For nearly 30 years, one could believe that french ice dance was Lyon, Zazoui, Haguenauer. The coming years will show it was always a very partial POV. There is no better karma than the longtime despised ones finally biting the butt of the snobs.