Washington — Mutiny is afoot in the skating world. An independent group of skating officials has been planning for nine months to create a World Skating Federation that would wrestle control away from the International Skating Union, plagued with scandal and controversy for the past several years.
The group announced today that it is forming an athlete-centred international sports organization to "protect the integrity of figure skating." It will set its sights on obtaining television contracts, preparing a suit against the International Skating Union and obtaining the recognition of the International Olympic Committee.
The principles of the group include highly regarded skating officials who have fallen afoul of ISU leadership, including:
— Skating referee Ron Pfenning, who just resigned his post as a member of the technical committee for figure skating, and who had been the referee on the panel for the scandel-ridden pairs event at the Salt Lake City Olympics
— U.S. figure skating judge Jon Jackson, a lawyer who witnessed the outburst of Marie-Reine Le Gougne that she was pressured to vote for Russian skaters over Canadians Jamie Sale and David Pelletier
— Sally Stapleford, a former chairperson of the ISU technical committee who lost her post at ISU elections last June after Le Gougne admitted her wrongdoing to her
— Katsuichiro Hisanaga, the president of the Japanese Skating Federation who sent a 14-page letter of protest to ISU president Ottavio Cinquanta over improperly rules governing a new judging system had been adopted.And the plan has already been endorsed by skaters such as Olympic gold medalists Jamie Sale and David Pelletier, Olympic silver medalist Paul Wylie of the United States, who had been involved in the testing of a new ISU judging system
— Olympic gold medalist Kristi Yamaguchi, Christopher Dean, the British Olympic ice dancing champion and Olympic men's champion Alexei Yagudin.
The group has hired a high-power lawyer, Mel Weiss, experienced at issuing class action suits, to help it face any legal battles in gaining control. The costs of setting up the federation could range from $350,000 to $1-million.
“An environment has been created where there are no ethical constraints on corruption,” Ron Pfenning said Tuesday.
The World Skating Federation would separate itself from the speedskating arm of the ISU, retain the old 6.0 judging scale, introduce zone representation, allow technical committees to promote or demote judges and referees, offer a world championship with $1.5-million (US) in prize money, have not one person by a committee of people appoint referees, pay judges and referees, Jackson said last night that the ISU has a large amount of money generated by figure skating that rightly belongs to the sport.
"It's going to take more than asking Cinquanta to get him to give it to us," he said.
He added that International Olympic Committee rules require that sport federations follow its own rules and regulations, but "we don't have that situation," he said. "We have a governing body that is not even following its own rules and regulations."
The key to the group will be athlete involvement. There will be a zero tolerance policy for official corruption, and accountability will be paramount.
“There is no vision in this sport at this moment,” said Dick Button, a two-time Olympic champion and one of the sport's leading producers and commentators. “The ISU has put a clean shirt over dirty laundry.”
While there were no Canadians at the head table at the news conferences Tuesday, there was support voiced in a video presentation by Olympic pairs champions Jamie Sale and David Pelletier and former world champion Kurt Browning.
“The idea the WSF had is putting the focus back on the skaters, and that's what it's all about,” Sale said on the video.
Pfenning said there have been Canadians involved in planning stages of the new group.
Cinquanta, in Washington for the world championships, would not comment. ISU special events coordinator Peter Krick said Tuesday that no comment would be made until after the world championships.
With files from Associated Press
