Sunday, August 5, 2012

Let's see how well they did

They had the answers
William Thompson, former Skate Canada CEO and Debbi Wilkes sure did run their mouths back in the day. I wonder what their successors will be able to imply about them. The above links to the article excerpted below, italics and bold emphasis are mine:
March 17, 2007 VANCOUVER - Not much more than a decade ago, Skate Canada was the undisputed heavyweight champion of Canadian amateur sports.

Figure skating's national governing body was The King, the wealthiest of all the federations in our constellation, the best-run ship, with the most popular sport, garnering killer TV ratings, and producing champions - world champions - with a respectable regularity.

[snip - recital of the boom days when figure skating packed Canada's sports palaces and Canada boasted more stars than in the heavens. Segue to miserable state of things recently.]

"We should be the world leader," said Debbi Wilkes, the former Olympic pairs silver medalist and longtime TV analyst who was one of the first hires by the federation's new CEO, lawyer (and former skater) William Thompson of Kitchener, Ont. Michael Slipchuk, 1992 Canadian men's champion, Thompson's other major hiring as high performance director, completes the theme of ex-skaters running the ship.

[snip]

Like "The New NHL," which the National Hockey League adopted as a working title after the 2004-05 lockout, Skate Canada's [the new Skate Canada]* slogan is based more on hope than evidence, at the moment. It is no sure thing that results are going to improve immediately - or at all - but Canadian skating has a lot brighter-looking face on it. Pam Coburn, whom Thompson replaced as CEO, is destined to wear the federation's recent failings as her legacy, though some were surely beyond her control.

"In Canada, we had two issues," said Barton. "One was the perception of the sport. The other was ... if the wrong person is in the wrong job, either because they don't have the expertise or the knowledge or vision, then even though they're trying hard, it's not going to work. That, combined with what happened in 2002, was like a double avalanche. One avalanche is bad enough.

[snip Barton's claim that denying Sale & Pelletier the gold almost single-handedly turned North American figure skating fans against the sport. ]

And even as the sport was alienating its traditional fans world-wide, Skate Canada was exacerbating the problem domestically, blundering through an era of horrible decision-making, flawed programs and an alarming drop-off in skating results.

"Well, in fairness to Skate Canada, some of our problems were external,"** says Thompson. "I don't think you can overstate the impact of Salt Lake City and the scandal.***

[snip contributing factors - overexposure, lack of athlete development]

Wilkes intends to push the athletes out into the public.

Skate Canada has some kids with great potential, like Joannie Rochette and Vancouver's Mira Leung in women's singles, Christopher Mabee and 16-year-old Patrick Chan in men's, the pair of Jessica Dube and Bryce Davison, the young dance couple, Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir. But some aren't ready yet, and it will take international results to get their names out in public.

"I think we had a lot of success for a long time, we always seemed to have a champion there," said Slipchuk, who spent most of his skating career in the shadow of the incandescent Browning. "We had Brian, we had Kurt, we had Rob and Tracy, Kurt, Elvis, Jamie and David, Herb (Eisler's nickname) and Isabelle - we always seemed to have someone up there, and maybe you get a little complacent.

"The champion up top maybe takes your focus off the fact that you're struggling below. We talked about women's skating being a problem for a long time because we only had the one woman qualifying for the worlds and she was in the 10th-to-15th area. What we forgot was that in the other disciplines, aside from that world champion, our other skaters were also in that same area. And once those (champion) athletes moved on, it showed how much work we needed to do on our depth, and that we needed to give people more opportunity to get on that world stage."

[snip]

"The decisions that were made these last four years were devastating to the business of skating. And our business is judged profitable not on millions in the bank,**** but on world championships," Barton said.

So the sport has some retrenching to do, in Canada. In the boardroom, on the ice, and in the stands.

[Barton carries on some more about Salt Lake and how they lost traditional skating fans who were angry, angry, angry over what happened with Jamie and David]

[But]

"But it's funny what's happened in the United States****, because they were the most angry, they were the most against the new system, and yet they are the ones who have embraced it the quickest and responded the most. And they've had incredible success." The 2007 U.S. nationals in Spokane, Wash., drew an eye-popping 154,893 fans. For Vancouver in 2008, Skate Canada is thinking small, but hoping big.


Who persuaded Ted Barton to shut up after this and where can I send flowers?

How do you walk away from an Olympics with Olympic and World champions, boast two champions in two disciplines by 2012, and be broke ass because nobody wants to sponsor you? The USFSA doesn't have this problem but isn't running their mouths about it. Yet I can google and get enough pontificating from hot air maven Debbi Wilkes to put out a monthly Word from Wilkes newsletter. How did Skate Canada manage, thanks to Detroit and thanks to Colorado, to get (I can't really say "produce") two champions and still go broke? Sponsors that stuck around all through the years Thompson, Barton and Wilkes are bitch slapping ran for the exits after one half-cycle of doing business with Thompson and Wilkes. BMO's sponsorship arm continues to shell out the money so it's not belt-tightening.

Get somebody in there with actual relevant background (corporate lawyering and figure skating isn't relevant background, figure skating and shoving your face on camera at every opportunity isn't relevant background either). Of course the problem there is that takes money, and Skate Canada hasn't any money, so maybe they're doomed to spin in a circle of economic futility.

______________________

*Maybe the slogan should have been "The new Skate Canada, we suck differently than old Skate Canada."

**In Thompson's era, problems are internal.

***I think you can overstate Salt Lake City and the "scandal."

****Phew.

*****Competence?

46 comments:

  1. SC can spin all it wants about business as usual, but no way in hell does a company get rid of its CEO without this being a sign of major problems and/or shifting going on. I'm positive there are more 'business as usual' announcements soon to come from these people.

    Regardless of what's happening right now at SC, I so much wish for Tessa and Scott to be free of the horribly incompetent advise and management afforded them by their idiot federation.

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  2. They underestimated the damage the Diane Sawyer story on Skate Canada's "Tough campaign" on ABCNews, did just before the Vancouver Olympics. It got about 23 Million viewers. Hockey night in Canada only gets about 1 Million viewers. They ignored the problem and hoped it went away, which of course, a story that big doesn't.

    The quote about a person being in the wrong job because they don't have the expertise or knowledge....that is a hangmans noose if I ever saw one. Barb MacDonald and Debbie Wilkes push that saying to new extremes of hypocrisy.

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    1. What was the upshot of the Diane Sawyer story? I didn't see it.

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  3. I know that kicking out a CEO is big but I can't help thinking they were going to let all the issues ride until London. Thompson's blunder there was to go public with Skate Canada's self-importance, incivility and incompetence. It's all fine to bleat on in the sports pages about your cracked ideas of the business of running a figure skating federation. It's okay to not have sponsors as long as you've got a rationale. It's another to tell an entire city, in public, at an event previewing the upcoming championship that city is hosting, that its reputation is going to suffer if they don't cough up a light show, and then go on to act like you're doing them a favor holding up your end of the partnership, and to use "you". Like "you people." "Your businesses." To basically tell this city, that has always been loyal to the sport of figure skating, that it wasn't the city, but the light show that won the bid for the championships, and otherwise there's plenty of places for Thompson to take his loser ways instead. You are saying this to a city that faces getting hit with a tax increase, a city that is experiencing a bout of civil unrest.

    He's always been like this but it was kept within the "family" of unctuous Canadian sports "journalists" and figure skating fans. He went out and exposed himself, and if I were to bet, I think that's why he's gone. I wish it meant internal changes but I think he just alienated people with his antics in London and with the World Championships coming up they didn't want him around.

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  4. and all that is need to save RIM, is to change the colour of the BlackBerry phone case, because that is really why people are buying iPhones instead.

    When organizations really fail, it is never one thing, it is a number of things happneing over a period of time.

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    1. What do some of the retired skating greats like Orser, Stojko, Sale/Pelletier, Browning, Liz Manley, Shae Lynn Bourne, Jen Robinson, Jeff Buttle think about the SC sponsorship situation?

      Why doesn’t SC reach out to them to assist in wooing new sponsors . The retired skaters have great name recognition and I would think they would be willing to “give back”, if asked for help. Have they been asked and declined?

      For example, Stojko did extremely well in getting lots of corporate sponsors when he competed. Orser and Browning are beloved figures

      Browning still has a high profile, as recent as Battle of the Blades and he is a friend of Michael Slipchuk. Plus, doesn’t Browning have a glamourous wife who is a celebrity in her own right? Between the two of them, they must move in circles where there would be opportunities to rub shoulders with corporate types/potential SC sponsors.

      Divorce notwithstanding, Sale and Pelletier are still Canada’s weethearts and Buttle and Robinson are the classic boy& girl next door. Do the SC people not see this? Or, are the retired skaters somehow not wholesome enough for the image SC is trying to project as discussed on this blog? Or just too savvy now to put up with any nonsense?

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  5. "I think you can overstate Salt Lake City and the 'scandal.'"

    I've mentioned this same feeling just a couple times on the popular figure skating boards but it seems it's impossible to hold this view and not have the discussion turn into mocking and bullying.

    I'm a passionate figure-skating fan and for me, the changes brought about by the Salt Lake City scandal have all been good. In the few years previous to that season, I had all but stopped watching my favorite sport, most especially ice-dancing. I was sick of the political scoring and entrenched placements. Some wonderful skating was continually scored lower simply because it wasn't "their turn" or they were from the wrong country. The new scoring system may have its problems that need fixing or tweaking, but it is still SO much better than what we had before. These changes are what brought me back to the sport.

    IMO, it's all the moaning and grumbling from some TV commentators and people in high positions, like Thompson, that has led people to believe a scandal and subsequent changes in scoring, were the cause of a drop in the sport's popularity and that it "alienated" the fans. Of course fans, and the public, were disgusted at what happened in 2002 but the new scoring system has gone a long way in alleviating the effects of a "scandal." I'm so fed up with this constant referencing of the scandal/new scoring system as the reason for inept management and marketing of the sport. It's been ten years, it's time to get over it and stop using this excuse as a crutch.

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    1. Well of course they bleated on about how it alienated everybody (I believe that on the flip side, SC's antics were just as alienating as the event they protested) but then contradict themselves by noting how the USFSA rebounded. Gee, all that anger and alienation rapidly transformed into new enthusiasm and financial support. That fact makes all of Barton's whinging about Salt Lake absolutely meaningless. There is no reason whatsoever the United States should be a stronger federation than Skate Canada. The USFSA was never the wealthiest or most powerful sports federation in the States, and yet they managed to thrive in changing times. I simply don't understand the emphasis this article put on scapegoating Salt Lake in view of the paragraph that points out it was not a liability for US figure skating.

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  6. This is a Quality of Leadership issue.

    Strong leadership always takes responsibility for when things go badly and developes a plan to correct the situtation.

    Weak leaders always blame something or somebody else. We should have known the Skate Canada leadership was weak, from the day they started to play the blame game.

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    1. What truly blew my mind about Thompson's London blunder was the event was just about a year away and yet he said all of this shit in PUBLIC. This is the sort of thing you negotiate as part of the preparations. There are always stumbling blocks and glitches. You don't get up there and smack the host city around like a pompous tool, showing just what Skate Canada is getting for its money paying someone who possesses Thompson's impressive ratio of ineptitude versus bloated self-regard. His London performance alone demonstrated why so few want to do business with Skate Canada. I was truly astonished he felt completely comfortable running off his mouth the way he did.

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    2. The decision to hold an event as big as Worlds in a relatively small city like London is controversial in and of itself. Does Skate Canada really think skating fans are so dumb as to think that Worlds will be held in a city that is just like that other place called London, you know, where the Queen lives?
      There’s an entire thread at FSU about the hotel situation in London. It ain’t pretty – people are complaining about jacked up hotel prices, scarcity of rooms, reservations just being cancelled and handed over to Skate Canada, etc. etc. There seems to be the expectation that people can just get rooms out of town and commute. So, in other words,SC seemss to think that it is perfectly fine to inconvenience your customer base and still have them cheerfully fork over hardearned cash for tickets. Overpriced tickets, at that, compared to the cost of tickets in Nice, in the “budget friendly” south of France, as the blogger calls it. That kind of customer service thinking is just monumentally dumb.
      But I will say this. Having made the decision to hold a pre-Olympic Worlds in London in March, the very next year after the event was held on the French Riviera , it is inappropriate to criticize/dump on the host city in public.

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    3. Not only that, the event where Thompson made his remarks was intended to celebrate and promote Worlds in London, generate some excitement. Instead he was bitchy and full of complaints. And furthermore, after London pulled together this event, the privilege for which is is paying, Debbi Wilkes couldn't even prepare her figure skaters to promote the city properly. That reporter was killing himself trying to get Tessa and Scott to cough up some hang outs, favorite shopping destinations - hey, doesn't London have a river where crew sports train? It's a pretty city. They acted like it was any other interview, trying to dodge and say as little as possible - they behaved as if the reporter was trying to uncover information about THEM (Which makes me wonder, actually, why Tessa loves business as much as she says she does in her most recent interview with P.J., as she seems a little vague on the basics).

      Your points about accomodations in London in itself are worthwhile, but also rebound to Thompson's remarks about other places they could have had worlds in Canada. Such as Moncton, I believe he said. I really want to know how removed the Directors are from their customer base to talk out their back ends with such blithe disregard for the concerns of the public. What are they paid? How accountable are they? They are marketing towards people with enough disposable income to travel to and attend a figure skating event, so, people who are at least somewhat comfortable, yet they can't relate.

      What actually are their responsibilities and what goals are they expected to meet. None of them appear to be able to correlate their plans and schemes for Skate Canada with how these will work in the real world, whether the real world of social media or the real world of skaters and the public commuting for a championship event. Why not? Some of the correlations are pretty basic, very goes-without-saying, yet the directors appear to live at a complete remove.

      Don't you think that if any potential sponsors pay any attention to Skate Canada at all, that Thompson's remarks to London were an eye opener? He didn't hesitate to throw dirt on London and whine, in public. How might he treat a sponsor in private?

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    4. << Which makes me wonder, actually, why Tessa loves business as much as she says she does in her most recent interview with P.J., as she seems a little vague on the basics >>

      In light of the way V/M have handled (or mishandled) their own management and PR, this was interesting. From where I sit, it looks like she loves the positive financial aspects for herself, while being determined to keep herself (and Scott) as detached as possible from the public. I hope to God she never gives the same business advice she apparently has received.

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    5. I actually don't have *that* much sympathy for London. Yes, it's a pretty city with, among other things, a world class university and teaching hospital. But it is not a convention center with the infrastructure to host an event like Worlds. Looks to me that there was a lot of hubris at the political/municipal to push for an event that will probably inconvenience a lot of the locals (traffic, parking, etc.) I saw a story where one of the organizers (or maybe it was someone with Tourism London) said yes, this was an event bigger than the city but that people would "just have to understand" that it was a regional event and the city had great partners, yada, yada.

      So it wasn't just SC, it was people driving the event locally who thought it was no problem to expect people to travel from around the world and then commute into London from hotels in other cities (as far away as Sarnia) on a daily basis for a week. In southwestern Ontario. In March, when there is never a chance of a blizzard, crowded highways or icy roads. It's all about worldwide TV exposure for London. Fans and spectators can just suck up the hassles.

      So to me, it looks like SC and the London folks behind the bid are made for each other.

      I get that the people there are proud of Tessa and Scott. But there are lots of small towns who are very proud of their skating heroes - Sayabec (Pelletier), Caroline (Browning), Ile Dupas (Rochette) but those folks have the common sense not to bid on an event that is too big for their facilities (like Worlds or Nationals) and just expect everyone else to live with the inconvenience, all so the city/town can have its grandiose moment.

      None of this excuses Thompson's public bitching, of course. The mistake was in not turfing London's bid on day one. Once you make that mistake, you have to grin and bear it, at least in public. I'd be interested to know who at SC was all rah! rah! for holding this event in London. If it was Thompson, then he bears the consequences. If it was someone else's idea and he got stuck with implementing a clunker, then I have a bit of sympathy for him (only a bit).

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    6. Oh, I've read London's mayor is a clown (apologies if not the case) who basically bends over for anyone, as he did for Thompson, and my sympathies aren't so much with London as my interests are with Skate Canada's mismanagement and absolutely egregious ability to alienate. For me, the stunner is that this crowd patted their predecessors on the head while tsk tsking, while pontificating in the press for anyone with credentials, presenting themselves as the clean sweep, the smart new team that would restore Skate Canada's prestige and put it back on sound financial footing, all because they had a solid grasp of the obvious basics their predecessors had neglected. So out of Vancouver 2010 comes three Olympic medalists - Scott/Tessa and Joanne Rochette. Joanne immediately goes down low and I believe her coach retires, and Scott/Tessa are a credit to themselves and to Canton, Michigan, as far as winning. Chan emerges the following year as a product of his parents and Colorado. But hey, they have Canadian passports so Skate Canada gets bragging rights. And how does SC convert this podium success? How does it walk its endless, unending talk? Why, its sponsors - some of whom had stuck around when SC's supposedly inept prior administration was bungling things up - fled. Ran away. And nobody was answering Skate Canada's invitations to come and replace them, if SC even ever got off their asses to LOOK for replacements, instead of taking the lazy way (which is them all over) and seeking excuses instead. I wouldn't put the last one past them for a second.

      So, if you'll bear with me, one wonders why the sponsors went away and why title sponsors (the ones who by far invest the most money and commitment) don't want to work with SC. It's not the economy or flagging interest in skating. The USFSA has the same two problems and has sponsors. The hapless prior regime this current SC crowd likes to condescend to managed to hang onto sponsors. But Bill, Debbi and Mike et al, the sponsors couldn't get out of there fast enough, after a big success (the Olympics). A success d'estime if not one that led to $$. So why?

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    7. Bill Thompson's behavior at the London pr rollout sheds some light. The rumors are that SC treated sponsors as if the sponsors were lucky to be sponsoring SC. I believe that. Thompson took it several steps beyond that in London. London may have overreached. If the mayor is a bozo, I can well believe there's stuff that needs further discussion, but that discussion doesn't happen in the media at an event meant to promote the fucking city. I don't believe a damn light show is the most critical element to the success of a London worlds, especially in view of all of the other challenges you outline. But Bill walked right out on that plank and made it about the light show. Let's disregard whether the city can manage an international competition - transportation, lodging, restaurants, parking, weather, etc. Let's zoom in on the light show and make a perfect idiot of yourself.

      So for me it's more about - this is how this guy treats a civic partner, in PUBLIC. In public at an event meant to drum up excitement! He's basically saying the whole thing has loser written all over it but if they can cough up the light show it may be salvaged yet. "It would help." He was sabotaging his own event, and the host city, with everything he said about the light show. And then consider how a Homesense, a bank, a food brand, a cosmetic company, would regard Thompson's performance in London, or being treated as Thompson treated London. Or, if SC dares to dream, an airline, an international hotel chain. These entities aren't any more saintly than London but they'd partner with SC for the same reason. Self-interest. Image. Positive associations. Thompson pissed all over that in London. A business isn't going to want to risk its brand with a SC association while these are the people running it. Put their name on the title? The whole point of that investment is receive a benefit-by-association, not get insulted and have your brand tarnished. But that's what SC had in Thompson. A guy who would spit in an eager beaver, over its head city's face on its big day. A guy whose every syllable suggests he thinks a worlds has very little appeal so you fucking better get the LED out.

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    8. One final thought - if, as you point out, London is over-extended putting on Worlds in the first place, why the hell was Thompson pressuring them about a light show? Why would he want London's time and attention diverted to the logistics and financing of that? Why wouldn't he focus on things more basic to a successful Worlds - the things you list in your comments?

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  7. What did that mean, that Debbi Wilkes intended to push the athletes out into the public?

    It sounds so nice, but looking back over her tenure I'm not seeing anything to like. Putting herself between the skaters and the public with her ridiculous interview format on Skatebuzz? Managing sham public relationships? The e-mailed Above the Crowd (which imho is a joke)?

    For years I've seen complaints about the lack of sharing on the part of SC when it comes to making the skaters accessible via photos or videos. Their idea of "pushing the athletes into the public" is sure bizarre.

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    1. It completely came off as if she used the excuse of "pushing the skaters out there" to push HERSELF out there. We don't get them without the Barb and Debbi filter. She asks the questions and puts the answers in their mouths and turns to us to mime the reaction we're supposed to have. Her opportunism was in your face. Basically she comes off as if the skaters are hothouse flowers who need her to hold their hand through an on camera experience and we're morons who need her cues to absorb the elementary pablum the skaters are prompted to spew. Worse, it comes off as if the skaters are there mostly to cue her, so she can say what she has to say. She's got it backwards, and it's intentional.

      It couldn't be more obvious that her real job WAS that Skatebuzz crap. She ignored how a more successful fed did things in the marketing and pr arena - the USFSA and ice network. Which, btw, is something I find kind of curious. Motor mouth Barton himself acknowledges that the USFSA is doing a terrific job keeping figure skating a thriving concern in the US. The US is right there. How about modeling what the US does so successfully? How about looking at the way they promote their skaters, the way they're structured internally, the way they staff important positions? No, instead you go, oh boy, they sure are having success down there! and turn around and do exactly what you want, which is implementing a bunch of untested, moronic and half-baked assumptions you were unqualified to make in the first place. It's just unbelieveable. They have a successful model in the country where their own champions train, and they ignore the model and build their own. And that's because IMO they had a corrupted agenda. They didn't want to follow the USA model because that model doesn't involve promoting the fed's directors, which in hindsight was obviously priority one for Bill, Debbi and Barb.

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  8. I was giving Skate Canada a pass - assuming they had not posted the news of Thompson's departure on their facebook sites or twitter account due to a long weekend. I see that besides the necessary announcement on the official Skate Canada website, this news is still non-existent anywhere else. Excuse me, but is this not very important news about this organization? How does something of this magnitude get reported on a website but not also on their official social media sites? It made an appearance on twitter only because other people reported it, but not Skate Canada itself.
    This does not look good.

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  9. No opinions on PJ Kwong's new interview with them?

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    1. I was trying to decide if I have a post about it, and I don't think so. My .02 is it came off vintage control freak Tessa, the person who says the most while actually saying the least, who can't stand having an unmodified statement out there without putting it in a frame, and sometimes *I* find it irritating. For example, when Scott said "we crashed" after the Olympics, who doesn't get that, on its own? Tessa starts explaining how understandable it is to crash and I just wanted to go man, shut up, I know why two Olympic athletes would crash. And alright already about your injury, which isn't an injury but a condition. All I extracted, really, from her, was something I thought I perceived in 2010-2011 through the summer - which was she was raring to go, full of power (look at the muscle she put on her shoulders, back and arms). She said she thought "if I did that when I was injured what can I do now!" and that made sense, but basically she seemed a little amped and it had the effect of stomping over Scott's apparent mellower candor, but he seems alright with it. I didn't particularly take offense when he said he realizes his real blessings are his family and he has two beautiful new neices, and spends as much time as he can with them. His family is Tessa and his kid, so that's not a lie, and that's how it will read to his own family if this interview is excavated in years to come. Still I find it bizarre and kind of sad that the child will not have been acknowledged once for the record as part of Scott and Tessa's life in preparation for Sochi. Looking back, that's a historical period in sport, Scott and Tessa are part of it - Olympic athletes - they tell their "story" frequently, and there won't be a thing about - hey, there I am! In all the public record of the child's parents.

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    2. OC, when was the child born? I wonder if maybe she miscarried? Then it would make sense why its never mentioned.

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    3. "Tessa starts explaining how understandable it is to crash and I just wanted to go man, shut up, I know why two Olympic athletes would crash. And alright already about your injury, which isn't an injury but a condition. "

      Listening to Tessa made me realize why Scott has been the main spokesman for the team all these years. He's so much more articulate and witty and real. Tessa's so much of a Stepford wife it's like I'm listening to Debbi Wilkes or something. Why does Tessa assume the audience is full of idiots?

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    4. She didn't used to be. She used to be charming. If I take her at her word, and that's a risk, she is good at isolating herself. That would mean, too, that she doesn't get feedback about her current manner of speaking in interviews. If she did, she'd probably be praised for being so composed, articulate and well mannered. "Off-putting" probably doesn't come up.

      It's odd because she seems to adore everything about Scott's persona, dark and light and all the shades in between, and she never seems to recoil when he's more outspoken than she is. So, in fairness, she could also not have the most amount of faith in her ability to extemporize in interviews, while Scott doesn't care (and is also smart, even when taken for goofy, he's smart). She might not have that faith in herself ESPECIALLY compared to Scott, who is so good at being spontaneous. So rather than feel lame next to the guy she thinks is brilliantly entertaining off-the-cuff, she resorts instead to what she believes is clarity. But when it comes to clarity, she sets the bar way way too low, and that's why it seems so canned. That's SC though, they do that. She also speaks a little rapidly but articulates every syllable, and that can come across a bit pedantic and condescending - or unnatural. She could be policing her interview style just because she doesn't want to be "fail" in her own eyes next to Scott. Explaining something might be more of a security blanket, but the stuff she feels the need to explain gets tiresome - it IS patronizing, and it certainly doesn't help that what she used to explain things in the past have been lies.

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    5. I don't think the miscarriage theory makes sense. It would have to be quite late in the pregnancy considering the weight she was showing in the fall, and that isn't something (no matter what stage) that you just get over. If you do manage to get back to work sooner rather than later, you sure as hell don't look happy, which they did.

      But I wanted to comment on it because of a related question. What the hell was she doing skating with lifts and everything while she was pregnant? I know, as per referenced in a previous post, that many Olympic level athtlese do train while pregnant. I come from a very prone to miscarry family, thankfully not myself, but probably just because I've never been pregnant.

      I'm not saying it's never OK - women have to make their own choices, have to keep living their lives to some degree, and across sports there will be a whole range of risks, and what can be done to minimize risks, and how timing plays out. But if as this blog maintains that this baby was hoped and planned far in advance...they couldn't plan to just take the season off?? They couldn't skip the ice shows? Did they do those just for the public's benefit so we couldn't possibly think they're pregnant? I thought this all along, even was long time in accepting the pregnancy thing because I couldn't work out the timing acceptably, but it really hit home in the CSOI "up" number, when she's all like "no! no! no lifing and whirling me around"....did the irony ever occur to them?

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    6. I've read a lot about it, and if Tessa had a healthy pregnancy, and all indicators are she did, she could have done the lifts and everything else very late into the third trimester. Margaret Court, a tennis champion of a bygone era, played until her eighth month. I don't know why lifts would be considered risky. Look at "Let it Snow". Tessa is as wide as a house and thick as a brick in her gray sweater and skirt. All the lifts are slow and careful. The "Up" number is fairy tale. Women can do a whole lot more than that while pregnant. Lifts are technical. Tessa is probably the best female I've ever seen in lifts, as far as her ability to control her body and know where she is in space. Balance and security is everything. Show lifts aren't risky. Some of the showiest lifts (like head bangers) are the least risky. Lock in one position and rotate - very safe. Tessa and Scott, while doing shows, did modified versions of their competitive lifts at a reduced tempo. As gung ho as they are to compete and skate, I don't believe for a second they took the slightest risk. Tessa's handicap since 2007 has been her shins, and she compensated to where she could win Olympics and Worlds. Unshackle her from that limitation and what she and Scott did in shows during her pregnancy was as safe as could be. Scott is about as secure on his feet as a skater can be. The primary thing while pregnant is to compensate for limited extension/stretch through the torso (which Tessa is able to do with her hips and chest - she did the same at 4CC's in the short program).

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    7. ^ these are all good points. I singled out lifts because there's farther to fall, but considering how incredible TS are, I guess their lifts aren't more risky than being on the ice at all, and her being on ice is more like walking for most women.

      It's just hard to wrap my head around - women in my family basically can't move a muscle without potentially causing a problem, and I've seen how devestating miscarriages are when that baby is so badly wanted. Obviously my risk assessment is skewed because of this. It's great most women can just continue living their lives, definitely the best thing for a child to have an active and happy mother. Truth is, I really wish the people I love would just adopt from here on!!

      Anyways, that was OT. Thankfully from what we can observe from afar, we have every reason to expect baby TS is here and healthy. Though possibly needing some therapy later.

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  10. I don't remember anyone in the US being "the most angry" about the new scoring system. Everyone had some period of adjustment.

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    1. Funny - me neither! And I remember just as many fans rolling their eyes over Sale & Pelletier getting a second gold as in any kind of distress that they lost to the Russians in the first place. Me, I think Skate Canada won gold in hypocrisy in that situation at the time, and since.

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    2. The way this article comes off is very whiny and babyish. Usually organizations have some modicum of maturity or "we won't stoop to that level by commenting." It's surprising.

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    3. They spoke like that from the beginning, Thompson, Debbi and Slipchuk, and never let up til the post-Vancouver debacle. They were backhanded, condescending and oversharing a lot of wtf ideas. It raised a warning flag from the first.

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  11. "<< Which makes me wonder, actually, why Tessa loves business as much as she says she does in her most recent interview with P.J., as she seems a little vague on the basics >>

    In light of the way V/M have handled (or mishandled) their own management and PR, this was interesting. From where I sit, it looks like she loves the positive financial aspects for herself, while being determined to keep herself (and Scott) as detached as possible from the public. I hope to God she never gives the same business advice she apparently has received."

    I'd agree if their PR actually succeeded at giving them financial benefits while keeping them detached from the public. If they had great PR, they could easily be making tons more money, and interact way less with fans, but still have fabulous standing with sponsors and fans. There would be no Facebook sham, no contradicting interviews, etc. They have some of the worst PR management I've ever seen.

    If Tessa finds this interesting and exciting, she must be way, way dumber than I ever thought.

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  12. Tessa does not look third trimester in Let It Snow.

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    1. ^^ Nevertheless, she does look pregnant.
      So then, what explanation would you give for the absence of a traditional-looking third trimester?
      Or what is your explanation for Tessa's different body look in general at that time?

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    2. I don't agree that she looks pregnant. She looks possibly heavier, but it could be a bulky sweater. I think Sasha Cohen looks just as "pregnant" after gaining weight and not doing competitive skating anymore. I'm not saying Tessa was never pregnant. I don't know. From the looks of that performance alone, I would say no.

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    3. Anon 10:09

      IMO, the problem with non-pregnancy speculations for the weight-gain is that we're left to believe a disciplined, perfectionist elite athlete basically let herself gain quite a bit of weight. Even if I could believe that for 1-2 months Tessa simply pigged out, why then didn't she do what the majority of women do when they realize they're putting on too many excess pounds? Which is *run* to take care of it, ASAP! Most especially an athlete of Tessa's caliber. Instead, there's significant weight gain over a period of many months.

      I'm not buying the idea that she "just gained weight." It doesn't make any sense.

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    4. We only have quite the long distance, low resolution video of Let It Snow, and she's huge. When the third trimester actually concluded is muddy by then, but I believe she was pregant substantially before Gold Medal Celebration and ACGM and showing by HPC (though she hid it by Calgary Stampede)

      I think Tessa and Scott didn't show for Canadians because the jig was up. I also think people are overlooking Tessa's body type. If ever there was a body type built to hide a pregnancy, it's hers. She's got extremely wide, square shoulders and those shoulders frame a torso like a whippet's. A long torso that is extremely narrow in the ribs and waist - she turns to the side and you can well believe the visible background is part of her slender, arched torso until you realize no, it's background and that cartoon-slender arc IS her torso. She also has a round rear end. With a ribcage that narrow and a torso that's not as short (nor a waist as high) as some figure skaters, she can wrap a belt a few inches below her boobs a la a waist and keep what's going on below hidden. So can the size of her rear end help the cause. Just look at her in profile during the pregnancy and trace the acreage front to rear, instead of looking for a stereotypical projection in front (which not all women get, btw. Some carry more square and boxy looking. Tessa certainly went a long way to present that silhouette the whole time). That's a weight gain? What did she do - swallow another human? (Oh - wait) Who gains that much that fast and still glows and skates with power, with thick, shining hair, glowing skin and clear eyes? Piling on pounds that fast is unhealthy. It makes you sick. Who then dumps the weight in six weeks and is all - hey, I think I'll compete at Worlds - and nearly does it?

      The size of that rear makes her look balanced but really LOOK at it. Compare her actual contours now - they are very specific and unusual - to her contours then. She went from a girl who has a torso like a grayhound - narrower - to a girl who had a torso like a fit, rectangular labrador. She and Scott are both small people. Tessa has more of a "cavity" visually, to carry a kid while finessing her waistline than most women, and that's before factoring in the supersonic abs of an ice dancer and the exceptionally square, straight shoulders. For most women, as long as their hips are inside their shoulders, they don't look heavy.

      Furthermore, why was the Hershey Center book signing basically faked, as it seems obvious it was? Why wasn't she just there, live, signing books posing for fans in that weekend? Why is Debbi there instead to present it as a virtual event, calling attention to it while standing in front of a paltry "line" of SC stooges and insisting they'll be at nationals?

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    5. We didn't see Tessa as much as we thought we saw Tessa, we didn't see Tessa when we thought we saw Tessa, she was huge in Let it Snow, but squared off, and that is intentional and don't forget we only have the low resolution, long distance video. What do you think she had on under her sweater and skirt besides baby? You think she didn't arrange contour intentionally like a million performers and athletes have done before her? If you look as early as September High Performance camp, she's showing. At Calgary, she's got a camisole underneath and when the shirt flips up to show her abs they look precisely like the bare abs of a recently pregant young relative of mine at the same (roughly) stage of pregnancy). She just had a LOT of room to play with line and contour because that's how she's built. Don't think pregnancy, think scale. look how the ratio of her head to her body altered during that time compared to before and now. The squared size of her frame from her boobs to her hips. The size of her rear. Her pounds of hair, her full face, her glowing skin, energy and glowing eyes. People who let themselves go don't look like Tessa, and don't SKATE like Tessa. I believe Tessa was pregant well before ACGM and Gold Medal celebration, donned the camisole at Calgary to hide her midsection from people who knew what they'd be looking at, and was showing by HPc, and she made high performance out of hiding it with strategic clothing choices, and basically lying about when she was somewhere (a la Hershy)

      Google Hunter Tylo, a soap actress who won a lawsuit against Aaron Spelling in the 1990s, claiming he wrongly fired her due to pregnancy. At the culmination of the trial, she revealed she was in HER third trimester of another pregnancy, something the opposing attys, the media and the tabloids had never suspected despite interviewing her every day and filming her. She hid it to make a point about her firing during the prior pregnancy, and had no problem doing so.

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    6. "Her pounds of hair, her full face, her glowing skin, energy and glowing eyes. People who let themselves go don't look like Tessa, and don't SKATE like Tessa."

      I've seen some speculations regarding the possibility of weight gain due to medications, such as steroids, for her shin/pain problems. But the above description--which was true of Tessa during that time--also cannot be true of someone who is heavily medicated. When I compare pictures of her post first surgery and post second surgery (I do believe there was a second surgery in the early Fall of 2010), the difference is remarkable. The first time she looked extremely fragile and she was obviously still dealing with pain. The second time around she was up and walking comfortably in just a couple weeks and throughout the recovery period (all through that Fall), she looked like you describe. She practically glowed. I somehow doubt it was due to steroids.

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  13. "The primary thing while pregnant is to compensate for limited extension/stretch through the torso (which Tessa is able to do with her hips and chest - she did the same at 4CC's in the short program)."

    A woman in her 8th or 9th month of pregnancy could never compensate for limited extension/stretch through the torso by using her hips. At that stage, the pregnant woman's body relaxes and loosens the hip joints, cartilage, and muscles to prepare for delivery. Doing a backbend like Tessa does in Let it Snow (as part of the UoC lift) could cause serious injury. It's not a matter of technique or fitness. That particular lift requires her to use her lower abs and hips in a way that I can't imagine any OB okaying, for anyone. Either Tessa wasn't pregnant, or she didn't care about her baby's health and her own.

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    1. I've watched many friends go through pregnancies and across the board, the ones who were already very active were told they could continue doing what they were doing as long as they were comfortable and careful. None of their OB's were ok with them taking up anything new, but if it was something the body was already used to doing, it wasn't a problem. For ex., running or skating in the 8th-9th months of pregnancy. No jumps, of course, but it's understood the athlete and the OB know what "careful" means in each particular case.

      I've seen it, so I'm having a hard time believing that if Tessa and Scott were being very careful anything they did would have been a danger. We all know they would not take risks with anyone's health; therefore, whatever we saw them do in a public performance was certainly safe for Tessa (and baby if there was one).

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    2. That's simply not true. Look at her in the low lift in the short dance. I'm not saying that she achieved the same arc and stretch with her chest and hips. I'm saying she compensated and fooled the eye. In the short dance lift, the business parts of her reproductive system are pressed securely against Scott's body. She opens up her chest, pretty much above the rib cage, and arches her neck. Her shoulders are open.

      Her pelvis is closed for business. "Hips" might not be specific enough - I'm talking about engaging where her leg meets her torso. IOW, she's doing a work-around in the short, something that would have been impossible to do throughout the long.

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    3. If you look at 4CC's she's not using her lower abs as she would at full extension, and as she does now.

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    4. So IOW, you're wrong, it's possible to do the short dance low lift and work around full extension of the pelvis because she's clearly doing exactly that.

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  14. I suppose that Tessa could have had one of those "I didn't know I was pregnant!" pregnancies. She was certainly heavier and fuller looking in late 2010.

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/quack99/5048436001/sizes/l/in/photostream/

    Who knows. I won't 100% believe it unless they trot out a child in the future.

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