Mr. David Dore ISU First Vice-PresidentSubj.: Fake ISU Member Federations
Dear Mr. Dore
The new Olympic season is approaching and, as usual, I am going to open it with articles about the present state of figure skating. The topics will cover «veterans» and «newcomers», positions of the various competitors in the next ISU Championships, and, obviously, athletes and the Skating Federations they represent.
I consider the employment, by some national federations, of «mercenaries” as their representatives in the European Championships, the Four Continents and the Worlds, not only unethical, but even illegal. This practise violates the main ISU principle which is the development of skating in all possible countries.
I believe that the ISU financial aid is supposed to be allocated just for that development, and not for purchasing and training athletes who, because of their weak technical level cannot and will not be able to make it into their national teams — US or Canada — and are ready to participate under any flag. Please correct me if I am wrong.
While you, Mr. Dore, may be well aware of which federations I can name some of them. One is Israel, where all figure skaters are training in the United States.
In Israel itself, in its main skating rink in Metulla and in its new small rink in Ashdod figure skating for children exists, but does not grow. Another one is Azerbaijan, which recently was visited by the ISU President, who personally confirmed that it has neither ice, nor figure skating schools. I could also mention skaters of the Philippines, Puerto-Rico, Greece, Mexico, Cyprus, Morocco, Grenada and other “Absurdistans”. Some of these Federations are not even members of their own National Olympic Committees!
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I would expect the problem of «Fake Federations» to be raised at the next ISU Congress by one of the leading federations, and I would like to ask you, as the ISU First Vice-President as well as the person, who for many years developed Canadian Figure Skating and made a major contribution into advancing this once beautiful sport on the World level, a few questions:
1. Do you think that the ISU, which for over a hundred years served as the best example for many international sports federations, may allow to shame itself by accepting among its Members «Fake Federations» and «Dead souls»*** skaters? Don’t you think that this is a slap into the faces of the real new ISU Members who have their own national skaters but are faced with too many barriers on their way to the top positions?
2. The increase of bad skaters has resulted in a loss of a part of sponsorship funds. These people will bring no fame or honour to their native countries, nor to the federations that hired them or to the figure skating world! Is there any benefit for the ISU in recognizing these well-known “Fake Federations”? Cui prodest? Is the reason of accepting these fake federations a need for some votes at the Congress elections?
3. Will you try, together with all those who care about the ISU reputation, to somehow change the existing bad practice, and, if yes, in which way?
***see www2.hn.psu.edu/faculty/jmanis/gogol/deadsouls.pdf
I thank you in advance for kind your answer.
Sincerely,
Arthur Werner