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Post by Deleted on Oct 15, 2012 19:22:27 GMT -8
...here's what I see per the postings. The comparison is about Yeo to Jeff Simon. Not Jeff Simon to Jae Su.
Knowledge is knowledge. Yeo knew "after the event" and consequences were handed down. Jeff knew (and how many other skaters knew?) and consequences should be handed down. Yeo and any skaters who knew stand in the same area of knowledge.
This BIG SECRET was sat on for 18 months. Am I the only one who finds that odd?
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Post by mtnme on Oct 16, 2012 0:03:53 GMT -8
The difference being that in any work environment, the coaches would be considered 'management' and the skaters more akin to 'employees'.
I don't know about anyone else, but I've certainly been in the workforce long enough to know that an employee who appoints themselves to the position of ratting on their co workers usually gets their butts kicked to the curb by management...instead of the perps of the crime.
The bottom line is the skaters AREN'T management. It's the coaches JOB to deal with these issues - and they get PAYED to do it. The skaters on the other hand:
A) Aren't employees of USS (USS opinion otherwise not withstanding). Therefor: B) They don't get paid squat to 'manage' - or anything else for that matter... C) Putting skaters in the position of tattling on their fellow skaters seems like a recipe for disaster that is fraught for abuse D) USS doesn't listen to the skaters anyway. (Which is how this mess all got started in the first place) E) Skaters who raise issues with USS just merely get more grief and abuse rained down upon their heads by USS, coaches...and whoever else wants to pile it on.
...Which is probably why the skaters finally have had enough and proceeded to the drastic step of getting lawyers involved.
You'll notice it took the legal baseball bat upside the head before USS finally sat up and took notice. It's been a long time coming.
As for the funding issues...USS is just plain incompetent. There must not be a single, solitary person affiliated with them who has a degree in sales and marketing. And anyone who does gets canned the minute they go up against the Good Old Boy network.
USS is more than happy to get their funding from the USOC without putting much effort into looking for outside sources...that is until they're desperate (think Colbert). They don't want the sport to grow, and the last thing they want is for the skaters to be successful enough to catch the eye of the public as Apolo did. That's a skater with 'power', and that's the last thing USS wants. They don't want 'fans', we're just a nuisance. The more the sport gains public attention, the less likely USS can continue with their 'business as usual' tactics. There's a reason there is no transparency. I'll bet if the media knew the full extent of how USS runs their show there would be more than arbitration hurled at them, there would be lawsuits and jail sentences.
Everyone seem to be on the same page on this point. USS is broken. They can't be fixed. The entity needs to implode and a new NGB started - one based on some ethics and principles.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 16, 2012 5:07:40 GMT -8
Thoughtful post. The pressure must continue on USS via USOC (who sure has been quiet) to clean house. The conversation continues.
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Post by thetruth on Oct 17, 2012 20:42:30 GMT -8
Many people say how come Simon did this thing even if he had the pressure by Jae Su, and what’s the matter of Korean culture. Yes, it is right because we are in USA. He is the most stubborn coach I have ever seen. One example could explain how hard to deal with the coach like Jae Su. Simon wanted to do both Long Track & Short Track since 2010 Olympics and I talked to Jae Su about it. He said he would consider it next season. So I talked about it again after the 2010-2011 season and he said “NO”. Because Simon had injury last year, I did not talk more. And I asked Jae Su again to allow Simon to do Long Track, March this year. Actually this is not the thing to get approval from coach. This is, totally, the right of athlete.
I met him on 3/28 at the oval to talk. He firmly said “No”. He said he would not let Simon to train Short Track if he does Long Track. In the middle of talking, he was angry at me and suddenly left. He entered into coaches’ office and locked the door. I knocked the door several times but he did not open. I called him but he didn’t take my phone call. I just got back home. I was insulted like this.
However, on 4/2, I sent him an email and begged again to reconsider. I told him that I have no way but to start to talk at the board meeting about this because this is the infringement of athlete’s right. He did not give me a reply at all and later he inserted one sentence into the National Racing Program Agreement that the skaters should stay all day for Short Track practice. It was to block to practice Long Track.
That was why I attended at the board meeting first time ever in Simon’s skating life and started to voice out with other complaint against USS management. My fighting began like this.
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Post by thetruth on Oct 18, 2012 9:14:13 GMT -8
And I sent the letter below to Tom Frank before the board meeting. And no one was talking about this. They did not listen. They didn't care.
“USS mission is to be one of the premier speedskating organizations in the world through excellence in leadership, development and performance.” But I feel the USS management is not doing well for this mission.
1. Athlete treatment by USS becomes out of commonsense. 2. The working attitude of USS administration staff is passive or negative. 3. USS administrative performance is not as good as they can do.
1. Athlete treatment
After the 2010 Olympics;
1) USS did not host World Cup ST in 2010/2011 season, and will not host it in 2012/2013 season.
2) USS short track team skipped 2 - 3 World ST competitions last and this year. US team is the only team that skipped the World Cup ST last season among ST teams of 8 major nations. USS excuses that this is because US Championship schedule but not actually.
3) US national team didn't get the fund for residency in two years since 2010 Vancouver Olympics, except little amount for some of them.
Fortunately, the performance of skaters was not bad due to the excellent coaching staffs and skaters who did hard work. However, those things above have demoralized the skaters and I see something bad thing may be happened, if things would be going on like this. I heard the rumor that some skaters will quit skating if the fund is not provided continuously.
My son, Simon Cho was injured last year and went to the hospital for medical treatment. Later he got the bill which may be the deductible. And USS finance manager refused to pay for it. Then I realized that USS does not provide the fully covered health insurance and does not cover the deductible. I was shocked. Coach and some officer said they will try to resolve this. Later Simon got the warning letter from the hospital that they would pass it to the collection company if we do not pay. This might not have been resolved yet.
The skaters are treated like this.
I will not mention here how much the skaters of other countries are rewarded for their performance especially at the Olympics and how they are supported by NGO. But I have to say that there is no country, as far as I know, that the national team athletes pay for their own living expense for training and medical bill.
It is nonsense that the national team athletes pay for their own expense and medical bill for their hard training. I wonder who/how much have ever thought that how the skaters feel about it and how much they feel shamefulness in front of the skaters of other countries at the competition. If they know all of these, they may laugh at US.
USS always excuses the fund problem. It is true that it is due to the short of fund caused by economic recession. And US government does not support the fund for amateur sports like other countries. We all understand this.
However, I have a doubt how much they did their effort to reduce the expense of administration and staff and to make more income rather than squeezing the expense for skaters.
Let’s compare the number of administrative staffs before 2010 Olympics and now. I do not know exactly but I heard lot more increased. If this is true, it is like increasing supporting troops by reducing combat troops. The skaters have been sacrificed but the non-skaters have been spending more than before. It is like while combat soldier is eating one meal a day, supporting soldier is eating 3 meals a day.
If we have not enough funds to support the skaters, we should go back to Colorado Springs. Regarding this, they point two problems.
- Many skaters are going to the college in Salt Lake City - There is no safety facility (boardless fence) in Colorado Springs
Actually not many skaters are going to the college. I do not know who they are. It is not skaters who do not want to move back to Colorado Springs. It is the office staffs who do not want. Talking about safety issue is just like saying to the starving person not to have meat and egg because it contains high cholesterol. Making the skaters hungry, putting safety on priority one doesn’t make sense much. We used to be there, anyway. At least, skaters and coaches need to be moved to Colorado Springs, leaving the USS office in Salt Lake City. Otherwise, USS should support the residency of skaters in any way.
2. USS working attitude
Around the time of 2010 Vancouver Olympics, I saw USS was struggling with financial difficulty and I tried to make an idea how we should do.
Fundamentally, financial difficulty is due to the unpopularity of this sport in USA. If we don’t have fans, the mass media doesn’t care. If mass media doesn’t care, the sponsor doesn’t care. So getting more fans should be our long term goal. But we cannot say we have tried our effort enough in this point.
To get fans, this sport should be exposed to the public. Until now we just have waited for the fans without trying to approach ourselves to them, having held the ST events in same places every year. We need to have world event in larger cities where we can expose this sport to more people. This was my idea. This idea has two main purposes.
1. Making profit, not losing money. 2. Promote ST in USA.
I understand that we lose money by hosting world ST competition. This is because we don’t get many spectators in those cities we used to have. That’s why we skipped the world cup ST competitions last year and will skip next year. By hosting World ST Competition in LA, New York, DC, or Seattle, we will not lose money. And LA is the best city to do this first. Some people agreed with my idea.
In LA, there are many minority communities with high population, such as Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Russian, and European. Speedskating is popular in their own countries, so they know this sport very well and interested in watching the race. It is easy to advertise the event in their communities without spending much money and we will get a lot of spectators. Also it is easy to get the sponsors from their communities. And the question is why we stick to the same places we used to do. I think this is because USS;
- has no new idea - wants easy work - is not responsible and conservative - does not know the minority communities or countries
When I visited LA two years ago, I met the president of Korean-American Sports Association to ask him if he can help when we host the World ST Competition in LA. That organization has a lot of experience of sports events. They hold Korean-Americans’ sports event once a year in major cities in USA. The budget of event is around $3M. He was very interested in and he even said they could spend their fund first for this event, if USS has not enough fund, because income from the event follows after the expense. And he required the material and financial record of the event USS had before, in order to figure out what they should do.
After then, I met Mark Greenwald one and half years ago to suggest this idea. And I was very disappointed of his attitude in the meeting as an executive director. He mentioned that the main difficulty to do this is the ice rink rental cost. That is his attitude to approach the new business. In the business, key point is net income, not the expense, not the revenue. As long as we can make net income, we do it no matter how much it costs or the revenue will be. That was a meeting he should have listened to my idea. But he did not give me a chance to talk. He was keep talking nothing to do with the topic. We talked around 30 min and I just could talk less than 5 min. During our conversation, he made the question why speed skating is not popular like ski. That’s not the question he could ask to me, that’s the question we got to ask to him. And it is his job to make a solution for that question. Nothing I got from him against my idea in that meeting. I expected he would talk about this at the board meeting or committee later but nothing happened until now.
So, I made up my mind to talk about this again at this coming board meeting and submitted the proposal to USS with 6 others. One of others was “open the broken financial statements on our web site, so that everybody can see if our fund is properly being spent”. And Breanna Bissell who is an event manager cut those two proposals saying “this is not proper agenda to be talked at the board meeting” and “I will submit them to the committee and related manager.”
I don’t know if it is right that the agenda is cut in her hand.
This is what we communicated after then.
Bissell: the only safe place to host them at this point is in Salt Lake City due to that being the only location in the United States that has a boardless pad system. As the new Event Manager, that is my goal but first and foremost is the athlete's safety that we cannot compromise.
Cho: I understand we can build temporary rink. I have a question if USS checked if the fence of each Pro hockey rink is removable. We may check Staple Center in LA downtown.
Bissell: The boardless pad system that the skaters use here in Salt Lake City is not portable. We would need to purchase a new pad system and the cost is about $200k.
Cho: I do not understand Pad in SLC is not removable.
Bissell: The pad system we have here in Salt Lake City was not intended to be moved. That is our goal to purchase another boardless pad system that can be moved.
Cho: Is this your own idea? I asked several people and they said it can be moved out.
Bissell: I will be giving a presentation on the Thursday before the board meeting about the changes that I would like to make to events. You may ask your question about the pads there if you like.
I understand boardless is not mandatory requirement of ISU rule. If we look at the video of World Cup 6 of this season, there is a fence. It is just recommendation of ISU.
No rink – No pad – Ours is not intended to be moved out – Will present at the board meeting.
This is what she excused and attitude whenever I gave the question. In this manner, I am negative that the event would be successful even though we host it in LA. I even doubt if they have an intention to do it.
I am not saying that is the essential thing we should do. However, at least, we need to review it and get opinion from other people. If there is real difficulty or problem to do it, I am not intending to insist it anymore.
Besides this;
- It took almost a year for Coach Yeo, Joon Hyung to make the contract with USS. - I heard coach Byun is not being paid yet even if he started his work over 6 month ago. - Many parents had complained about Kim, Dong Sung, but USS did nothing on it. After the Washington Post’s article, they started to move.
There must be many other cases, like those, that I do not know because of lack of information.
3. USS performance (What USS did, is doing, and will do?)
I’d like ask you to compare the headcount in the USS office before 2010 Olympics and now. If it has increased significantly, question is why even though they say everything is due to financial difficulty. And what they all are doing and what they did. At the spring board meeting, Mark Greenwald will boast followings;
1 We got BMW sponsor 2 We got Under Armor sponsor 3 We changed USS logo 4 We changed USS web site
Except 1, nothing special. Getting a sponsor of sports Goods Company is not difficult. Logo and web site change does not cost much and those are not essential at this moment or not difficult work. BMW is the only big thing they did, but I understand it even was done by help of USOC.
We need to think what they are doing and will be doing in the manner and attitude I mentioned above. Please be aware that this is not only my idea but others.
Athlete Agreement
Let me tell additionally about this.
I heard that this was made by the sponsor issue with Apolo and Shani. I do not know details but the main reason that this agreement was made is to restrict the athlete’s personal sponsorship.
We understand it but the problem is that it is not fair agreement.
Benefits Provided by USS are under the sentence described with “May and Subject to”.
“Athlete may receive the following support services and training from USS. Benefits actually received may vary by level and category of Athlete and will be subject to the bylaws, policies, procedures, availability of funds, selections and qualifications set by USS, its Executive Director, coaches, support staff and Board of Directors.”
And Responsibility of Athlete is under the sentence described with “Shall”.
“Athlete shall comply with the following, unless otherwise excused in writing by the Executive Director or their designee.”
This means athletes have to keep this agreement and USS does not have to. It does not matter if USS does something or not, but does matter for athletes. This is not an agreement. This is just document of athletes’ obligation.
Also most of things described under the Benefits Provided by USS are what USS should provide naturally even without this agreement, except (c) High Performance Custom Skate Boot Assistance. And skaters have never been provided this or discounted, even though we have Equipment Technician who makes skate boots.
In other countries, there is no agreement. They just sign on the by-law. If they violate it, they may be punished, such as kicked out of training camp, dropped from national team. And that’s it. We saw this when the Chinese skaters made the trouble with coaches last year and Korean skaters did manipulation of point at the Olympic trial. There is no agreement between NGO and athlete, because this is not a professional sport. Default clause on the athlete agreement is also not fair. When athlete defaults, they should pay $5,000 - $20,000 and all legal fee. When USS defaults, they just pay interest only. Actually USS has nothing to be default, because of “May” in the sentence of their obligation.
As long as athletes keep this agreement, nothing will be happened. However, this kind of agreement makes the athletes upset. I am not a legal person but things in the Responsibility of Athlete are the ones that could be involved in the code of conduct, I think.
Because I do not know deep inside of USS, I may be misunderstood something. However, it is clear that USS does not support skaters enough. USS is the organization for skaters, not for the staffs, eventually. But I see USS administrative staff is demoralizing skaters. Main mission of USS, development and performance of speed skating, is on the side.
We have Sport Psychology Consultant. What she can do while USS administration is demoralizing and discouraging skaters with those kinds of things I mentioned above?
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Post by thetruth on Oct 18, 2012 9:38:14 GMT -8
Also, I communicated with Shot Track Manager and Committee regarding the issue to do long Track, as below. Black one was my original question, red one was the answer, blue one was my question back for the answer. And I didn't get answer after that.
Thank you for your answer. I added question and opinion on your answer in blue. 1. Simon wants to do both Short Track and Long Track from this year. And he can't follow many things on the ST National Racing Program Rules and Agreement due to the time, schedule, and coaching conflict. What he can do? The mission of our program is to win in Short Track. Long Track takes away from that mission. We have welcomed Shani Davis as a training partner because it benefits the Short Track program to have him training with the team. Having Shani for the Summer fits into our mission of winning in Short Track because it makes our Short Track athletes stronger and it makes Shani stronger in his commitment to win Long Track Gold Medals. Both are very positive things for our program.
And will Simon be welcomed as a training partner like Shani, even if he does not sign?
I believe Simon could do some amazing things in Long Track, but if he tries to do both at the same time he is going to end up hurting himself in both Short Track and Long Track. Winning an Olympic Gold Medal is something that requires 100% focus and 100% specific determination. It's not something you can do if you're trying to do too many things at once. He's capable of winning Gold Medals in both Short Track and Long Track, but trying to do them both in the same season and at the same Olympics is not a smart move. If you have evidence to the contrary, please forward that along Until now no skater has changed from Long track to Short Track completely, because Short Track needs more technical skill, IMO. But some skaters changed from Short Track to Long Track or did both, and one of the reason was ST takes point system and it is disadvantageous for them. What could be the evidence? Medal in Olympics or World Cup? Or just participating in World Cup in both ST & LT? If you mean medal in Olympics, I cannot provide the evidence because no one tried it at the same time. Some skaters did both but not qulified for Olympics, however this cannot be the evidence of failure because ST National Racing Program has closed the door for those skaters. Also we cannot conclude firmly that the skaters who did not succeed was because they did both. It could be because they have that much ability. We've seen some skaters who did very well after the 1- 2 years break without practicing. Jonathan GarciaI raced 1000m LT with the record 1:10.xx just after trying LT very short period and won at the ST AmCup final. I don't agree 100% focus and 100% specific is surely required for Olympic medal. It depends on the skater's talent to some extent. 100% focus does not guarantee the gold and less than 100% does not garantee failure. Challenge means trying what no one has ever done before. How we can conclude it will be failed without trying. And coaches can conclude it without listining to the skater who will do and knows himself very well? I am sure someone will do succeed someday after many failure of others. Simon just wants to be the first one who did it. And USS blocks rather than supporting it. 2. If this rules and agreement mandatory to take the National Racing Program, I understand it forces to choose one of any ST or LT, not both. And you don't think it denies athletes the opportunity to participate (both) in games described under the Athletes' Right (Section 9.1) of USOC bylaw? Simon's right to compete as outlined in the USOC bylaws will never be denied. Our team rules are simply saying that if he wants to train in the Short Track National Racing Program, he has to commit to dedicating himself to winning in Short Track and to following the direction of the program. I will get advice from someone else about this later. 3.Long Track National Racing Program does require just to sign on the Letter of Committment; "Skaters invited to join the National Racing Program must sign and return to US Speedskating a letter of commitment, prepared by the Long Track High Performance Managing Director, by the date indicated on the letter of commitment." However, ShortTrack National Racing Program requires to sign on the ST National Racing Program Rules and Agreement, as well as Letter of Intent; " All skaters must complete the National Racing Program Letter of Intent and sign the Short Track National Racing Program Rules and Agreement ....." This looks like losing fairness to each skaters. What do think of it? No one will deny Simon's right to compete in any competitions he has earned a spot in regardless of where he is training, but if Simon chooses to train with our team, he needs to follow the rules. Long Track has different rules because they are a different program in a different sport. No one is denying that SImon has the right to try to compete in both. He has that right. We are simply telling him that we believe it is a bad idea because it would hurt his performance, and that it would also take away from the mission of our program. Both skaters of ST and LT are under the same NGB. This is not the matter of technique. It does not make sense skaters under the same NGB have different pressure with same kind of obligation. If doing both would hurt, why do you think LT program does not against it and why only ST does? And why now, not before? 4. When ST National Racing Program Rules and Agreement made? I don't know exactly when they were made, but I know that I skated in USS programs from 1997-2006 and I had to sign one of these agreements every year as a condition of my participation. You might have signed Letter of Intent or Code of Conduct only, not this separate rules and agreement.
5. If skater who wants to do both ST & LT is not acceptable to participate in that program in anyway, is it acceptable to participate in foreign national team program in order to do both? Simon is free to train with another program if he chooses. If he wants to compete for a foreign country, that is an ISU and IOC decision, not a USS decision. With less than 2 years to go until Sochi, that is not a very likely possibility. I don't mean representing other country. I am just mean training only.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 18, 2012 14:21:26 GMT -8
A lot of information here! But the one thing that immediately jumped out at me was the pros / cons about movable pad systems.
Every arena in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is a multi-functional arena. One night we watch professional basketball, the next night we watch professional hockey. The next night it might be George Strait or the Fab Five from the Olympics. So YES, most of today's modern sports arena facilities have the ability to restructure their event center to the needs of anyone who wishes to lease it!
USS and its event dircetor(s) need to be mentored on "how to develop a fan base." Event directors need to be someone with insight and vision and who is willing to think out of the box.
Let's say a WC was held in the DFW area at the American Airlines Center. You bring the US skaters in a week early to train and do "how-to-clinics" at the local hockey rinks in this area that are used by the H S students and the independent hockey leagues.
You provide discounted tickets to those mentioned above for them and their families to attend the WC on Saturday.
From there, you hit up the area sports community (i.e. the Dallas Cowboys, the Mavs, the Stars) and sell ad space on the movable pads. I believe the GMs of each one of these organizations would be glad to be an Olympic sponsor.
But YOU HAVE TO GET OUT OF YOUR OFFICE, VISIT WITH THE PEOPLE AND ASK! All they can say is YES or NO. So you have lost nothing but may have gained EVERYTHING.
I could go on-and-on, but you get the idea. There are many fans out there with great ideas, but we too have learned it is a waste of time to deliver the message!
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Post by mtnme on Oct 20, 2012 13:18:43 GMT -8
So much amazing information here!
In Eva Rodansky's book 'Winter of Discontent', she mentioned how Chris Witty got a VERY good sponsor in Nike. USS went behind her back and snagged her sponsorship away to support all of USS, leaving her personally out in the cold for money. This is why they have these athlete agreements (binding enslavement really) because USS views any sponsor a skater gets individually, especially a 'big dog' sponsor like Nike, USS perceives as taking money out of THEIR pockets. The problem is that money never trickles down to the skaters, so a sponsor that support USS is just feeding the beast...not the skaters themselves. Like I said, USS doesn't want any more Apolo's and Shani's. These skaters had way too much power over them, and USS wants to hammer the skaters down whenever possible. You can't fight back when you're broke!
In addition, everyone knows that most of the budget goes to long track. Short track is treated by USS as their b@stard children. Pretty amazing when you consider that EVERY skater on the short track team came home with a medal from the Olympics. Long track didn't fare so well..
I'll bet dollars to donuts that USS admin. costs have gone up and more staff put on. This is the way of political entities. Just look at your school systems in any given state. The school boards and administration grows out of control, ever more money is pumped into the school system, and the kids don't even have BOOKS! Teachers end up spending their salary to buy school supplies for the kids they teach. Administrations are like cancers, they just keep growing out of control, sucking the life out of the hosts body until somebody goes in their with a knife and cuts the cancer out. And then nukes it for good measure. End USS, it's just a waste of money - money that rarely trickles down to the athletes who SHOULD be an NGB's only reason for existance.
And thank you so much 'the truth' for posting all you and Simon have gone through. Not only is USS incompetent , they're dishonest as well.
Safety first my @ss. Anyone who went to Marquette for Olympic trials knows this is pure and utter BS. They had unmovable CONCRETE backer boards, no moveable pads system ( which wouldn't work against the concrete anyway) and we all went to that competition and saw several days of 'blood baths'. Not to mention that the competition was held in the middle of boon fart nowhere. I could have flown to Europe for what it costs to get to this little berg in the midwest. No transportation from the airport, and had to hide in the dark recesses of the back of the pilots van that took them to their hotels to get to town. No transit system to speak of. We had to either walk several miles to where we were going or take a taxi...if we could get one. Ridiculous. And this is how you woo fans and grow a sport? Once again, I call BS!
Gasp, your ideas are amazing and ones that other cities are thinking about as well. Why is it a fan can come up with solutions that don't even occur to USS who are supposed to know this. Idiots all.
Reno is still wanting to hold the Olympics, and they want to do it on the Los Angeles model. Instead of busting the budgets of the host cities, they want to use existing venues and refurbish them. Lawler events center has been looked at for the short track and figure skating venue. This, like the one you spoke of in Texas, is the same sort of multi use facility - and everything you spoke of is do-able.
Reno took a pole. What would you citizens like to see here in the city?
#2 on the list. Short track speedskating. Now this is a town that presently doesn't even have an ice rink...other than the seasonal outdoor rink downtown. But they WANT the sport in their community. Don't tell me there is no interest in the USA, there is. USS just doesn't have a clue on how to market or advertise, and more importantly, doesn't care.
...I know I'm behind on my 'rants' on the blog- but I feel another blog post coming on... My internet access is spotty at the moment...so I'll have to type 'em all into word, and paste 'em in when I have access.
More to come on this subject... Thanks Jay, for giving us lots of food for thought!
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Post by floridafan on Oct 20, 2012 14:01:08 GMT -8
your reference re. schools hit home... our system is "top-heavy" and we do not have the basic supplies available... miserable...
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Post by thetruth on Oct 20, 2012 17:39:35 GMT -8
Everybody may be curious what the disciplinary action against Simon will be.
Almost 2 weeks passed since they announced the Summary Report of investigation. Still full report didn't come out. I wonder how come they could make summary report which is based on detail report that is not ready yet.
It is my opinion that it is very ridiculous USS negotiated and judged the punishment for the coaches , saying "no evidence", "no pattern", without detail report, cancelling the arbitration.
And I predict but will say later.
They have no intention to investigate for the conflict of Simon, Jae Su, and Jeff. Obviously they do not want to make it clear. If they decide based on Simon did the tampering alone, before the detail report opening, just like Jae Su. it doe not make sense.
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Post by thetruth on Oct 22, 2012 9:28:19 GMT -8
I Congratulate, JR, on gold and amazing WR. And I tell one sad story.
The next day Simon had a press conference (10/5) that he admitted the tampering, his $4,000 worth skating equipment, clothes was kicked out of his locker room by a skater. One skater found his stuff out of locker room and noticed to Simon. Simon didn't get any phone call, or notice of this from USS. USS said investigation will be on going and still nothing decided yet, and this happened. They acted so quick without conclusion.
Later, he heard that USS Sports consultant, Bryce, ordered this to one skater to do this.
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Post by Laura (Lori) on Oct 26, 2012 16:35:24 GMT -8
This article also mentions USS spokesperson Tamara Castellano, who quoted USS bylaws - which require USS membership for any participation in any official club activity, including training and competition. "He's not allowed to coach. Period," Castellano says. "He would absolutely not be able to be officially hired by them."Suspended Speedskating Coach Still In Demand As Sabotage Probe Expandsby Howard Berkes / October 26, 2012 4:41 PM The suspension of Jae Su Chun, the former head coach of the U.S. Short Track Speedskating Team, hasn't stopped some skating clubs from wanting to hire the embattled coach, even as an investigation expands into the most serious allegation against him.www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012/10/26/163728119/suspended-speedskating-coach-still-in-demand-as-sabotage-probe-expands
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Post by sk8er on Oct 26, 2012 18:06:20 GMT -8
What is with the people at the Dominion Skating Club? Have they all been infected with "moral malfunction" from living close to Washington? It reminds me of a tee shirt from the Bradshaw High School cross country team...."Trample the living, Hurdle the dead."
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Post by thetruth on Oct 27, 2012 0:58:29 GMT -8
This is the picture of skaters at the "USA Science & Engineering Festival" hosted by Lockheed Martin in Washington DC, at the end of April, 2012. They looks very happy, aren't they? However, there was a sad story behind those happy smiles. Lockheed Martin invited 4 skaters to this festival in Washington DC, giving $1000.00 for a USS sponsor appearance. Both Linda Jager and Jack Mortell pushed that Simon should be asked to participate because not only that he was an Olympic Medalist and World Champion but because of the personal connections in that area to him as well. DC is Simon's hometown. There was actually much arguing by Linda and Jack in a meeting but the Director of Marketing, Tamara Castellano, prevailed with the Executive Directors blessings to direct this opportunity to other skaters. Why? I don't have a clue. I just concluded that they just don't like Simon. Is it OK if Boeing Co in Seattle invites skaters and USS does not select JR Celski? Later, those two staffs with trainer, Clay, who also had argued with USS managing staffs regarding other matter, were fired after a month. Mark announced it's to save the fund. Can we believe it?
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Nov 2, 2012 19:50:14 GMT -8
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