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Post by been there on Jun 3, 2013 7:37:30 GMT -8
Lori This is a copy of the last e-mail I sent to Andrew Zimbalist. I sent it to him this morning and I didn’t know about the missing money. I have no idea if there is a connection but he is in Russia right now and he says he is too busy to participate with your forum. All I know for sure are the reasons why I wanted him to participate in the discussions. This e-mail explains why I wanted him to participate in this forum.
Dear Dr. Zimbalist
Thanks for getting back to me. I have a better idea with how to proceed. What I was trying to do with you is peel off the layers of the onion to the grievance issues. You could provide information to the big picture for the readers in the forum.
In Eric Goldscheider’s article “Getting Torched?” you explain how one of the causes to the current economic recession in Europe is Greece hosting the Olympic Games. Also at the same time, I was reading articles regarding the Cypriot bank crisis. Those banks bought the bad investments from the Greek banks. Also, Russians happen to vacation in Cyprus. Russians are the largest depositors in Cypriot banks. Somehow the Russian depositors were told to get their assets out of the Cypriot banks before their bank accounts became frozen. The action amplified the effect of the Cypriot bank crisis.
I started thinking where would a Russian get enough cash to deposit in a Cypriot bank. Personally, I don’t have enough cash to put in an off-shore bank. My simplistic answer was that a Russian could get enough cash from selling military hardware, crude oil, or vodka. Due to your article, I added to my list, hosting the Sochi Games. Then Mike Plant was selected by the USOC to organize USS. For me, timing is everything.
The USS team happened to be in Sochi for a meet and on their Facebook page they posted a picture of the team jumping up on a black rock beach. My first thought of the picture was no wonder the Russians would rather be on the island of Cyprus in February. I happen to enjoy the black sand beaches of Hawaii and I started to compare travel packages to Hawaii and Sochi. I question the sanity of anyone wanting to go to Sochi. When there is Hawaii at a cheaper price. You are an economist; it is second nature to calculate opportunity costs.
I know, people have told me how special the Olympics are. Walking across a black sand beach with a hangover and executing a perfect face plant in the nice warm Pacific Ocean is special too. It has a way of taking the edge off. I have been told that the Olympics are a big party too.
The most logical place for customers to come from for the Sochi Games is Europe. That continent is in a recession with an unemployment rate greater than 12%. Except for Germany, the European governments have austerity programs too. Now for the Sochi Games, not as many customers from Europe as planned. From the world’s southern hemisphere countries, there is only a sprinkle of interest in the Winter Olympics. So who will occupy those overpriced hotel rooms in Sochi? My theory is that Mike Plant was brought in by the USOC to sell tickets and not improve the conditions for the skaters.
Your article in the Boston Globe supports the need for better funding of the athletes. After you return from Russia, if you change your mind regarding the current affairs at USS, you have my e-mail address. I didn’t know you were in Russia, but now you know why I think you are the correct guy to tell the story. I happened to be reading about the Cypriot bank crisis and connected the dots.
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Post by Buddy on Jun 3, 2013 10:41:57 GMT -8
This is getting better all the time - now we have international intrigue and finance added to the mix of exorcists and voo-doo economists. If US Speedskating can't somehow market all this into an FX or AMC prime time drama and maybe wrap a book, movie and reality TV show deal into the mix too, then it will be another opportunity lost.
Funny thing, when I saw those kids on the beach, I also thought - the Russians are looking to sell Sochi as a tourist destination and they are using these athletes to do it - I hope they are at least getting union scale for models/actors for their role.
You're an observant and thinking person Been There, please stay on the case and keep posting. You never know when someone may come up with the right idea and contacts to get things on the right track. The chances are better with you on board.
I guess the more I think about it, Mike Plant IS kind of like a USS combination exorcist and voo-doo economist with a touch of Putin. Will he be able to expel the demons and keep them out, fix the financial problems, and turn Sochi into a success? We'll see. In the meantime, while you're getting Dr. Zimbalist on the case, I'm going to see if I can get Elmore Leonard interested in a book or script about all this.
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Post by chesapeakemom on Jun 4, 2013 16:13:20 GMT -8
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Post by mtnme on Jun 4, 2013 20:09:00 GMT -8
Well gee, why should they have to testify under oath when they can just 'pinky swear' to it? *rolls eyes*
And being dragged all the way to Europe to testify for a hearing that so clearly smacks of just putting on a thinly veiled charade of justice being served is just a complete waste of time and money. (Someone 'woodworker' at USS must have wanted a freebie trip...) Bet the skaters had to come up with the dough to fly out to testify from their own pockets.
What a complete joke. None of this nonsense would have stood up in a real court of law, and apparently that's exactly what it's going to take to get at the truth. An honest to God, knock down, drag out lawsuit. Under Oath. With adversarial attorney's and a judge. A full on jury and plenty of media too.
And ten bucks says USS insiders are still part of the ISU disciplinary hearing. It sounds to me that Simon has resigned himself to the fact that he isn't going to get a fair hearing in this kangaroo court. Whether he's guilty or not and of exactly what isn't the issue, the issue is that the deck has been stacked and he's trying to defend himself against a bunch of 'ghosts'. This is a police tactic, by the way.
"We have evidence of you doing X,Y,Z" (all in the attempt to elicit a false confession.) "I didn't do X,Y,Z, so you couldn't possibly have proof of diddly squat". "Well, we have people who will testify that you did X,Y,Z" "Who?" "We can't say". ...and so it goes...
...excludes key witnesses, ...sought interview statements and other evidence gathered by the USS investigators, but a USS attorney declined to provide the information, ...That information is privileged,...
Simon has apparently decided to save himself the expense of airfare for a hearing that for him is obviously just going to be a complete waste of time. In a REAL court of law, you have the right to face your accusers, and attorneys must disclose any exculpatory evidence. You have the right to call your own witnesses, instead of them being excluded from the hearing. Apparently Cho will be entitled to none of these. Nor will the evidence USS 'says' they have be available to be put to any rigorous cross examination.
We say we have evidence, but you can't see it though. Just trust us...*wink*wink*
As the saying goes, it's hard to prove a negative.
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Post by been there on Jun 7, 2013 7:58:59 GMT -8
Basically I agree with mtnme regarding Simon Cho’s ISU hearing. If it looks like a kangaroo, acts like a kangaroo, and smells like a kangaroo. Then it probably is a kangaroo. On the other hand, if I was a member of the court. I would be asking why should I adjust my tea and tee times for the Americans that created the problem. Besides, getting those Americans over to Europe helps the local economy one hotel room at a time. Maybe, significant others of the court have investments in a local hotel REIT too.
If the participants are expected to finance their trip, then I find it interesting that no one wants to pay for Jeff Simon’s plane ticket. If I was Jeff, I would be as mad as a “gasp”. Justice is being limited to only those who can pay to play. His word solves the most important grievance and Simon Cho, APTE, SLI, and USS don’t want to pay for the plane ticket. So is the court a kangaroo or is the White & Case report as good as it gets? Maybe all those parties want the White & Case report to be as good as it gets. If Jeff Simon’s testimony improved my odds of winning, I would pay the airfare. Where is the Calcutta on him? Why does it appear that nobody wants to win? Maybe there is nothing worth winning. Paying for Jeff Simon’s plane ticket is chutzpah by the party seeking justice.
Speed skaters are trained to win and some take it to the extreme of tampering with competitors’ equipment or executing hand checks during a race. It is only a penalty when it is reported and that is the athlete’s risk, possibly a coach’s too. Trust me on this and I have never speed skated in my life. Give me a blade bender, an empty locker room and ten seconds that is all it would take me to make an elite skater waggle. Or give me three strokes and a concrete floor. Coaches instruct their skaters to never leave their equipment unattended for a reason. Cheaters are a constant with anything human and our society may call their actions victimless crimes.
As what to do with the skate tampering incident, I compare the information to what has been done in other sports. Recently the NFL had a bounty affair with the New Orleans Saints. The saintly coaches paid their players bounties to injure opposing players during the game. How is the act of intentionally trying to injure a competitor performed in the locker room, any different than if it was done on the track or on the football field? I think the NFL suspended the players up to eight games and the head coach a year. Applying NFL style penalties to Simon Cho’s version of the skate tampering incident, Simon has paid his debt to speed skating society. Jae Su Chun’s time is up in October. To sell this made for television drama; Mike Plant needs Jae Su back in the coaches’ box. With all the coaches in the coaches’ box only one camera is needed. “Quid, me vexari?”
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Post by intntl on Jun 7, 2013 10:51:24 GMT -8
Quote from above: If the participants are expected to finance their trip, then I find it interesting that no one wants to pay for Jeff Simon’s plane ticket.
Feel free to donate to the current fundraising effort to help Jeff out.
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Post by Guest What on Jun 7, 2013 12:49:05 GMT -8
Hello, Been There. For what it's worth, my understanding is that those who have been summoned to Frankfurt are not expected to pay their own way.
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Post by thetruth on Jun 7, 2013 15:41:42 GMT -8
Time has come.
You will get know everything after a week, no matter how the ISU decides.
Silence is over.
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Post by mtnme on Jun 7, 2013 21:40:16 GMT -8
The Truth,
Thank you. I look forward to hearing about what you have to say and Simon's side of the story.
To: Guest what. Thank you for that insight. It's nice to know that the skaters weren't expected to come up with that expense out of pocket.
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Post by Laura (Lori) on Jun 7, 2013 21:44:51 GMT -8
I look forward to seeing what happens in Frankfurt, and the opinions of TheTruth and others when all is said and done - however, I'm of the same opinion as others upthread. With nobody under oath, this seems to be 'all show and no dough'. 'Hoping for the truth, but 'thinking all we're gonna get out of this hearing is a dog-and-pony show that will rival that of our U.S. government be nothing but a complete waste of precious time for those who travel across the Pond.
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Post by lilyover80 on Jun 11, 2013 9:37:35 GMT -8
I look forward to seeing what happens in Frankfurt, and the opinions of TheTruth and others when all is said and done - however, I'm of the same opinion as others upthread. With nobody under oath, this seems to be 'all show and no dough'. 'Hoping for the truth, but 'thinking all we're gonna get out of this hearing is a dog-and-pony show that will rival that of our U.S. government be nothing but a complete waste of precious time for those who travel across the Pond. I'll be checking this thread too for any news forthcoming!
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Post by Laura (Lori) on Jun 12, 2013 20:59:04 GMT -8
This article says that Simon DID go to Germany - however, Olivier Jean did not. Today (Thursday in Frankfurt) is the day... U.S. Olympic Skater's Sabotage Gets Day In 'Court'by Howard Berkes / NPR / June 12, 2013 Months of claims and counterclaims come to a head in a hotel conference room in Frankfurt, Germany, Thursday, when the International Skating Union considers the deliberate sabotage of a speed skate involving an American Olympic medalist and, allegedly, his former coach.
The ISU's disciplinary commission is scheduled to hear testimony behind closed doors from Simon Cho, a Vancouver Olympic bronze medalist in short track speedskating, former American short track coach Jae Su Chun, and at least two witnesses.Read it all: www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/06/12/191098751/u-s-olympic-skaters-sabotage-gets-day-in-court
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Post by thetruth on Jun 13, 2013 7:33:54 GMT -8
Simon Cho attended the ISU hearing. Just finished. We changed our decision with some reason. The result will be came out in few weeks. That's what we were told.
Sorry everyone. I need to think some more things what I should do for the time being. May need to keep silence little bit longer. It is not my intention though. Please understand that.
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Post by thetruth on Jun 14, 2013 18:52:04 GMT -8
I am back home from the hearing As I told, still it is not the time to tell everything. However, I will tell little bit that I can do now. I pointed out around 15 items how much the final report of investigators is absurd. Half of them are as below. 1. Disregarded a teammate’s witness account that she had been accompanying Simon Cho on the entire journey from Warsaw to Salt Lake City. 2. Many redundant and unilateral analysis in the report that are unfavorable to Simon 3. Ignored the statements and witnesses of Team Canada 4. Ignored the statements of U.S. skaters who were at the competition 5. All disputed statements were analyzed unreasonably favorable to Jae Su 6. While the report agrees with it, Jae Su’s order to the skaters to be obnoxious, disruptive, and destructive in the locker room was ignored in the analysis 7. Misguidedly highlighted the rivalry of Simon and Olivier 8. Did not give Simon a chance to counter the allegations I will explain some of them. Misguidedly highlighted rivalry of Simon and Olivier JeanReport misguidedly highlighted that Olivier Jean was Simon’s strongest rival, in order to find a clue of motivation for Simon that he might have done tampering on his own. “The skate’s owner, Canadian athlete Olivier Jean, was at the time one of Simon Cho’s top rivals in the 500 meter race. In 2012, Mr. Jean would succeed Mr. Cho as World Champion in the 500‐meter event. See espn.go.com/olympics/speedskating/story/_/id/7669024/olivier‐jean‐canadatakes‐500‐meters‐worldshort‐track‐speedskating‐gold (last visited December 30, 2012). (Report page 14) This statement of Olivier’s performance in 2012 is not relevant to the 2011 incident. Investigators recklessly highlighted rivalry just by Jae Su’s comment. If it is reasonable analogy, it is fine, but they did it just because the performance of Olivier was good in the next season of this incident, citing some news article. However, the point that the investigators missed is that the incident was in the previous year before Olivier won the world title. Consider the circumstance at the point of incident, not at the time of the future. In 2011, Olivier took second place next to Simon in 500m at the World Championship, but his overall ranking in the 500m that same season was 27th, while Simon was 1st overall. There were many other rivals and competitors that season. So it is not very reasonable to say “rival”, looking at the result of future (next year) of this incident, leading to imagine the terror to the rival. In 2012/2013, out of six World Cups, Olivier took 3rd and 5th place once respectively, advanced to the quarter final once, and was eliminated three times in the earlier rounds. These performances placed him 13th overall in the 500m World Cup classification. How can we explain this? Olivier is 7 years older than Simon. In terms of age, Olivier should have had a deeper rivalry than Simon. Also there are many other young competitors who are quickly rising. The rivalry issue between Simon and Olivier was redundant in the report. Many redundant and unilateral analysis in the report that are unfavorable to Simon“in the words of one observer who was present, said “absolutely nothing about tampering with skates.” A skater on the breakaway side also commented that there was nothing in Coach Chun’s words that he interpreted as asking the U.S. skaters to tamper with anyone’s skates.” (Report p11) No one should have heard Jae Su talking about skate tampering except for Jeff. If someone else had heard it, the allegation that Jae Su directed Simon should be irrefutable. Not heard, not seen cannot be a evidence or factor. The report also unilaterally analyzed what Simon stated; “According to Mr. Cho, when Coach Chun asked a third time and said that he would take full responsibility for any consequences of the action, Mr. Cho said that he would do it.” (Report p13) It seems to us unlikely that such a blanket guarantee could or would have been given. (Report p21) Simon just simply reiterated Jae Su’s word when questioned by the investigators. He stated how much Jae Su pressed him with that statement. Simon has never said he believed it. The report negatively implies that Jae Su wouldn’t say this. As we analyze how Jae Su spoke and behaved in the locker room, it is very possible that he could and would say this. Jae Su suggested that the “Language” could be the reason that Simon misunderstood his words. He said Simon is not perfect in Korean and he is not perfect in English. This is why Simon must have misinterpreted his words. Simon is more comfortable in English than Korea, but it is absolutely absurd that he could have misunderstood Jae Su. Simon has no problem of communicating in Korean. He speaks Korean at home. He can also read Korean. He was meditated for Korean coaches so many times. Simon stated specifically that Jae Su directed him by saying “… nar gun-di-ryuh”. (Report p13) “Nar” means blade, “gun-di-ryuh” means “touch” in English and it is a jargon which means damage, harm, or hurt. Simon knows the meaning of this jargon. The language misinterpretation is just an excuse. Sorry again that I can't tell more story, I will come again in right time.
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Post by mtnme on Jun 15, 2013 10:12:08 GMT -8
Thank you The Truth for your post. As we've all seemed to agree on, this is just a kangaroo court, and the ISU is just as guilty of manipulating evidence and facts to suit their favored outcome as USS is. Your comment about the supposed rivalry with Olivier Jean and Simon are exceptionally telling. Certainly Charles Hamlin is usually his greater competition for the 500 meter than Oliver would have been...as I'm sure there were also several other skaters that were equally a threat. But hey, the powers that be have certainly never let FACTS get in the way of their wanted outcomes. Who is the ISU and USS trying to kid here? Let's look at sabotage from a strictly mechanics basis. If you're out to mess with someone's equipment, it's going to be a catch as catch can scenario. Anyone could walk in at any moment. Is it likely that Simon took the time to look through every single Canadian skaters equipment until he stumbled onto Olivier's? I think not. If you're in a high pressure situation to do some quick, subterfuge damage, you're going to grab the first piece of equipment that happens to be available. I'm sure Simon didn't have time to 'research' whose equipment he was messing with. I have no doubt he just grabbed the first pair of skates available, did the deed, and ran. Honestly, just how stupid do these people think we are? Isn't that always the way of it? How many of you have found yourself in a similar situation when you go to your boss, team leader, person of authority, supposed to have it all together grand pubba, whatever, and found that the person in charge is really and truly, dumber than a box of rocks. These IOC, ISU, USOC, USS people may be in charge, swagger around with the power and authority of the Almighty, but they have proven time and time again that collectively they sure as h3ll aren't exactly the brightest crayons in the box. I think what I really find offensive is the assumption that everyone else is even dumber. Not. The phrase "Don't p33 on my leg and tell me it's raining" immediately comes to mind. What's that line from M.A.S.H.? I'm paraphrasing here, but if I recall - when Hawkeye Pierce is writing to his dad about his C.O. Colonel Blake he explains that 'it's like going to the helm of the sinking Titanic only to find it's being run by Daffy Duck' ...or something along those lines. I also find the overt and purposeful omission of key witnesses also highly suspect. Once again, manipulating the evidence to exact the desired outcome...and that outcome is apparently going to be Cho turning on the spit as the sacrificial lamb. Simon could have the last laugh though. Write a tell all book and SELL your story, although that too is fraught with peril. Eva did, but as you'll notice, her book got yanked off the market. In the grievance filed by the APTE contingency, one of the charges was USS threatening legal proceeding against a former skater. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the 'skater' who was threatened with a lawsuit by USS was Eva, and her book yanked from access to avoid it. What was really wonderful about Eva's book were the well researched bibliographies at the end of every chapter. I did a cursory google search on many of the books sited. Do you know that any book that was critical of the IOC, ISU, USOC or other NGB's are now near impossible to find in the U.S.? Interesting - and a bit fishy, eh? So much for free speech. The theme of the new 'merika' is sue the pants off of anyone who threatens to expose us...and get away with it. The passion for truth is silenced by answers which have the weight of undisputed authority. ~ Paul Tillich
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