the man who supposedly caused the SLC scandal is elected head of FFSU

[neeks.on.ice.]

http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/torino2006/figure_skating/news?slug=ap-gailhaguetreturns&prov=ap&type=lgns

i'm kind of suprised they elected him again because the scandal was so well known. he was sort of in disgrace, now he is heading french figure skating....it's kind of weird. but i thought it was interesting

[lolgirl2345]

That's weird, but I'm sure everyone's going to watch his move. I hope this doesn't affect Brian's skating

[sonador16]

:rolleyes: Gailhaguet and Speedy are BFFers. Among other things, one year when the French fed didn't have any money, they "mysteriously" and "luckily" got awarded both GPF AND Worlds...big surprise, right? And Cinquanta totally covered up everything and blocked all investigations of Skategate so as to protect Gailhaguet.

I mean...Gailhaguet's DRIVER at SLC testified and played RECORDINGS of Gailhaguet talking about fixing votes to judges...and still, all that he got was a ban from attending Torino. Big whoop.

That Didier Gailhaguet can even show his face in the skating world, let alone be president of the federation of the reigning men's world champ is a HUGE indictment against the ISU. Kick Speedy out and elect Sonia, I say.

And they should DEFINITELY kick DG out of the French fed and OMG...THEY SHOULD ELECT STAN INSTEAD!!!!!! HE'D ROCKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!

STAN FOR FRENCH FED PREZZIE!!!!!!!!

[rosepetal]

I find it quite disgraceful, really, that such people are allowed back into skating world. If there's one thing I hate in sports (as some of you may have gathered) is favouritism - so many eligible people are put down in big competitions just because they aren't "famous enough" or have some sort of star quality about them. If we didn't pay attention to the little people, we wouldn't have found the stars we have today! Will there ever be a skating competition where medals aren't tainted?

[flyingspiral15]

WHAT THE FAWIEUASOIFN;IWEHFONSCV.NS?!???!?

Ok he should've been banned from the sport, not put on a 3-year exclusion! That is just a slap in the face to Sale and Pelletier, what's this guy gonna do, create another Olympics controversy in 2010? Honestly I've read about this guy a million times and he's known for starting sh*t left and right.

I'm sorry but that is just way too disrespectful to re-elect him back. I'll never forget that time where they handed out 2 gold medals at the Olympics...

[loveskating]

Um, that article is dated February 10, 2006, isn't it?

[rosepetal]

Um, that article is dated February 10, 2006, isn't it?

Good point, although it says it was updated on December 20, 2007 at the bottom. I don't know which parts were updated, though.

[loveskating]

How fantastical -- the French don't care what Americans like yourselves think, or do what the USA tells them to do! I'm really shocked. Gasp! The sky will surely fall!

Who could have imagined that a bad runout on a second 2 axel would amount to such shatterings of the universe, or at a minimum, the misplacement of the winter solstice.
:rolleyes:

Some claim that Lavoie and Stapleford caused the SLC scandal.

[neeks.on.ice.]

Um, that article is dated February 10, 2006, isn't it?

that's odd. i dont know, it showed up in my inbox as a news alert about skating, so something must have been changed. ....it doesnt really matter, does it?

edit^^^huh? it's not just the americans who were upset by SLC...the scandal was pretty widespread in the coverage it got.

[olympicsk8er]

OMG! how could they do that? as many of you guys said, it's a disgrace...he's a disgrace to skating.

[loveskating]

that's odd. i dont know, it showed up in my inbox as a news alert about skating, so something must have been changed. ....it doesnt really matter, does it?

edit^^^huh? it's not just the americans who were upset by SLC...the scandal was pretty widespread in the coverage it got.

No? I guess the Russian people and the French people were also very upset but not in the way you might think; as for everyone else, most people probably either thought it was another geopolitical mess and did not want to be a proxy for one side or the other or they just sided with whatever political block they already liked and did not give a hoot about the actual skating.

Personally, I was very upset, because the way I saw it, quite a to-do was made over a bad runout on a second 2 axel, and so I have never again since anticipated any major skating event with ease or joy, like I used to, more like dread, and I'd love to be able to shut off the commentary without shutting off the music.

P.S. As to the "other" judging scandals, the one about the judge's feet was most amazing, since I find that I constantly wiggle my feet, and unless someone can make a pattern of my feet wiggling up to the standard of Morse Code, I refuse to believe that the wiggle of my feet means anything at all.

[neeks.on.ice.]

No? I guess the Russian people and the French people were also very upset but not in the way you might think; as for everyone else, most people probably either thought it was another geopolitical mess and did not want to be a proxy for one side or the other or they just sided with whatever political block they already liked and did not give a hoot about the actual skating.

Personally, I was very upset, because the way I saw it, quite a to-do was made over a bad runout on a second 2 axel, and so I have never again since anticipated any major skating event with ease or joy, like I used to, more like dread, and I'd love to be able to shut off the commentary without shutting off the music.

P.S. As to the "other" judging scandals, the one about the judge's feet was most amazing, since I find that I constantly wiggle my feet, and unless someone can make a pattern of my feet wiggling up to the standard of Morse Code, I refuse to believe that the wiggle of my feet means anything at all.

..i don't understand what you mean about the "big deal made over the bad turn out on a double axel". that scandal was about this man attempting to fix the judging so that one team would win. what exactly are you talking about????

[Lanie]

It's not like S&P deserved a gold medal for skating cleanly, considering their program was simple and, quite frankly, geared to the North American public. And I say this as an American...and a skater.

Who cares. It's over and done. It wasn't just this guy and Marie LeGougne, Sally Stapleford of NISA and some other folks were involved with pushing votes for the Canadians. It just got "OH POOR JAMIE AND DAVE" thanks to Scott and Sandra's screeching...and it's not like they're impartial at all.

FFSG is quite...interesting in the way they run things, from what I have heard. Not a good interesting either!

[loveskating]

..i don't understand what you mean about the "big deal made over the bad turn out on a double axel". that scandal was about this man attempting to fix the judging so that one team would win. what exactly are you talking about????

I agree with Lanie: at this point, its water under the bridge...why do you all care what the French Federation does? I'm sure they don't give a flying hoot what you do!

Anyway, no proof materialized that any of this happened at all, other than a very, very parsed "affidavit" the French judge signed under hours of great pressure, and then recanted, and she recants to this day.

The ultimate proof is in the skating itself, and always was: the terrible "mistake" the media in the US ran again and again on television to justify the fit they were having was Anton Sikharalidze's bad runout on Bareshnaya and Sik's SECOND two axel, which was a very minor error, particularly in a long program. Otherwise, both Yelena and Jamie were forward each on one throw landing and Sale and Peltier had a tiny bauble on their SBS spins, so it wasn't as if they made no mistakes either.

As far as I'm concerned, there was ample basis to give B&S the gold, although it was very close.

And the Russian judge in ice dance did not favor the French, so that theory was proved absolutely absurd -- and this is what DG was accused of, trading a vote from the Russian judge in ice dance for the French judge's vote for Russia in pairs...as if Anissina and Piezerat needed that to win.