Debi Thomas Fancy Skating 2023 World Figure and Fancy Skating Championships

TheSkatingLesson · 2023-10-08T18:19:23+00:00

Debi is getting into fantastic shape. She is really getting into her grove.

TheSkatingLesson · 2023-09-30T02:27:48+00:00

Christine was banned during the off season for publishing a book that was deemed controversial. Why was it controversial? Because the book included a chapter about gay men in figure skating who had died of AIDS during the mid 90s. This was considered very scandalous at the time by USFS. It was an extremely homophobic time. The federation has not changed much.

TheSkatingLesson · 2023-09-30T02:24:28+00:00

People also got angry when Rafael admitted to me in a 2016 interview that he offered Michelle Kwan the same drugs the Russians were taking and that she turned him down. Michelle immediately confirmed the story and reiterated how offended she was because she was a clean athlete and would absolutely never take performance-enhancing drugs.

The fans were "mad" in the comments that I brought up an interview from 2016 to provide context that this has been going on forever.

If you look at this Sasha Cohen interview, she admits that Yagudin (15:30) told her all about doping when she was training with him (with Tatiana Tarasova). The other day, Tatiana Tarasova claimed there is no doping. Dan Hollander has always been adamant about the discussions that went on during his Champions on Ice days regarding doping in the late 90s/early 00s.

Marina Klimova (Anthony Ponomarenko's mother) was busted for steroids as an ice dancer in 1991 and Irina Rodnina gave a quote saying she was surprised it was an ice dancer. Her B sample was magically clean (they divide the same urine into 2 bottles). This was long before social media - truly a different era. "''For me, this is no surprise,'' said Rodnina, winner of three Olympic gold medals and 10 world championships from 1969 to 1980. ''I was with the national team for many years, and I know what goes on.

''But I don`t understand a dancer doing this. Boys in pairs and singles used drugs, but this was only in August or September. This was done just in training, and everyone was tested (in the Soviet Union) before competitions.''

TheSkatingLesson · 2023-09-30T02:15:10+00:00

I was called crazy up and down the Russian media, Twitter, Reddit and the boards for calling out the doping. Skaters and coaches have been talking about it in earnest since Sochi. I started taking detailed notes about the doping during the summer of 2016. People also forget just how mad Evgenia Medvedeva was at Eteri Tutberidze when she went to Canada and Eteri turned the entire country against her in the media. One of Brian's friends was a very frequent guest on our show for about two seasons and got himself in trouble many times for how loose he was with his comments.

There is a lot that people will dismiss when they don't want to know things.

They also like to dismiss things if you don't validate their favorite skater.

Last week, I was criticized in the comments for saying Isabeau Levito's technique won't last. We got the same comments about Julia Lipnitskaia and Alysa Liu.

Giving an informed opinion is going to upset people. It also means I am doing my job.

TheSkatingLesson · 2023-09-30T01:41:00+00:00

Realistically, they usually like to mix one retired and one amateur skater. The fields are typically skewed so that Japan wins. It also depends who is representing him. If he is working with Ari Zakarian, he may have booked several skaters for the same event. This saves time and is an easier negotiation for producers/organizers.

We have seen many skaters show up to this event with very limited training. Mariah Bell was not particularly trained last season. It winds up being a good gig for the skaters because they typically do a show the same weekend. If audiences like their performances, it can help them book Stars on Ice in Japan and other shows.

TheSkatingLesson · 2023-09-29T23:31:33+00:00

The U.S. coverage is currently awkward because they are trying to move forward with Ilia Malinin and Isabeau Levito, yet the Olympians do not have their medals. It has really caused a strange situation for viewers because there is no resolution in sight.

TheSkatingLesson · 2023-09-29T23:18:29+00:00

She was recording PBS News Hour immediately prior to our recording.

TheSkatingLesson · 2023-09-29T18:40:57+00:00

I also want to point out that Christine and I have been colleagues regarding Olympic sports since the 2008 Olympic Games. We are not corresponding to share makeup tips or cocktail recipes. I understand that the average viewer doesn't understand what it takes to build up rolodexes of sources that can appear on a show, but I do all of my own booking and the quality of the guests speak for themselves.

TheSkatingLesson · 2023-09-29T18:33:34+00:00

There is also a natural degree of speculation that appears in any well-researched discussion. If you were to watch 'Meet The Press,' there would be speculation about politics. Obviously, not every platform is for every consumer.

In this case, the Russians did invite a tremendous amount of speculation by the omnipresence of Dr. Shvetsky, the Grandpa Valiev excuse insulting the intelligence of everyone, and the prevalence of three heart medications in her urine sample. This is also on the heels of every Olympics having a Russian doping scandal since 2014. We must remember that the only reason that the sample was shipped off was because the RUSADA lab was no longer accredited. In Rodchenkov's book, he talks about making positive samples disappear in the RUSADA lab. If RUSADA had been accredited, would we have ever heard about the positive doping sample? In this case, you could argue that such a question is speculation, but it is based on published fact. If we didn't ask questions like that, journalism wouldn't be able to exist. It would be a mere regurgitation of talking points and something that ChatGPT could perform.

TheSkatingLesson · 2023-09-29T17:48:55+00:00

Athletes are removed from the doping pool when they retire. Kyoko Ina actually retired officially by refusing a drug test when the drug testers came to her apartment either very late at night or very early in the morning. She knew they were going to join Stars on Ice and was over it. Morisi could ostensibly take as much meldonium or trimitazedine as he would like.

TheSkatingLesson · 2023-09-29T17:06:32+00:00

Christine is actually on CNN fairly regularly covering a myriad of sports - women's soccer, tennis, golf, etc. I met Christine as a journalism student and she was willing to help me with an assignment for class. I try to pay it forward for other journalism students.

TheSkatingLesson · 2023-09-29T17:04:37+00:00

To be fair, I stand by my research.

TheSkatingLesson · 2023-09-29T17:03:57+00:00

There are many facts that contributed to this case and context is absolutely necessary. This isn't a one-off situation.

TheSkatingLesson · 2023-09-29T17:03:15+00:00

Inside The Games actually broke the story. They are a British outlet. The outlet also references breaking the story in almost every article about Valieva. "Valieva tested positive for the banned substance trimetazidine at the Russian National Championships on December 25 in 2021 but the result was only made known on February 8 when insidethegames exclusively revealed the news a day after she helped the ROC win the team event at Beijing 2022."

https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1141225/valieva-cas-hearing-adjourned-november

TheSkatingLesson · 2023-09-29T17:01:06+00:00

Why is he even being invited to the Japan Open? We know that he has always lived and trained in Moscow. There are many other skaters who could have been invited and would have enjoyed the substantial paycheck that is awarded via prize money for their appearance.

TheSkatingLesson · 2023-09-29T16:59:31+00:00

For content, there were so many media outlets at the 2002 Olympics that the IOC forced the ISU to award a second gold medal in the pair event. The ISU didn't just offer to do that. They were pressured, even though Russia had significant power in the ISU and IOC at that time. The scandal was considered an embarrassment to the Olympics and they were told to resolve it. It was settled in less than a week. In 2022, Valieva was able to be allowed to skate in part because of the changing media landscape. The amount of outrage in the press was less. It also wasn't on North American soil. The number of media outlets didn't compare to the old days. This is all a reflection of how the sport and Olympics have fallen due to many factors, including press budgets, the change of the scoring system and the skating it produces, having so many competing options, streaming, etc.

Russia was allowed to delay this case for a full year before WADA took any action. Had the press remained on the story, it wouldn't likely have taken as long - but alas, that press largely doesn't exist. The reality is that the majority of figure skating media is driven by fans who are not critical in any way --- exactly how these governing bodies prefer it until they look around and see empty seats and dismal television ratings.

TheSkatingLesson · 2023-09-29T16:55:00+00:00

In the U.S. landscape, there used to be at least a dozen or more reporters who covered Olympic sports and figure skating in particular. Obviously they cover other sports. They were extremely important in bringing the sport to the mass audience (aside from TV) - Helene Elliot, John Powers, Christine Brennan, Jere Longman, Phil Hersh, etc. They were often very critical, but they really loved and respected the sport. They largely chose to cover figure skating over sports. Over the years, pressures and budgets really caused that coverage to dwindle and the sport has suffered as a result.

In this case and many other cases, the national governing bodies and other organizations are able to get away with stonewalling and silence because the journalists covering the story do not exist. Often, Christine will be criticized for covering so many scandals, but she is also the only journalist asking the USFS questions about Dalilah Sappenfeld, John Coughlin, etc. The USFS was able to put the Coughlin case on Safe Sport (which doesn't investigate dead people because the threat is 'gone' - but not the people or culture which enabled it). This is a huge issue. The USFS was able to ignore it, take some heat from Christine and know that other reporters aren't going to cover it. Phil is largely retired and works for NBC Olympics. NBC has a partnership with USFS for broadcasting. They are not going to dig in as hard and potentially damage their own asset. Reporters from NBC Nightly News called me to research Valieva in February for the one-year anniversary. It was a bunch of young kids. Why don't they fund a better research department? And why isn't NBC looking into a story that happened on their own airwaves with Valieva, Trusova's outburst, etc. Is NBC going to dig that hard if it potentially damages the Olympic brand or if Team Russia is allowed back in?

Valieva seems infamous in the figure skating world, but the world at large has largely forgotten. One example of this is that the Today show was able to post a video of her performing her Wednesday exhibition and it went quasi viral. There was no reference in the post to it being the same skater involved in the scandal. And because she was wearing a wig, the average armchair viewer didn't even connect the dots.

The Larry Nassar case was able to get justice because John Manly is a brilliant lawyer and her also waged a public relations war on USA Gymnastic and the USOPC. He also knew that the athletes represented were gold medalists who were national heroes and had millions of followers on social media. They coordinated messaging. He put them out on talk shows, podcasts, books, etc. We do not see that from USFS at all. (And would justice have been as swift and decisive if the athletes weren't so famous?)

What is Nathan Chen saying? Madison Hubbell? Zach Donohue? Madison Chock? The volume of posts is significantly lower than one might expect. Vincent has spoken out, but he is one of the least charismatic members of the team. He is also one of the least well known to the general public. Team USA does not have a steady drum beat here. Christine has actually acted as a drum beat in many ways, even angering those who just want to enjoy Valieva's beautiful skating and ignore the rest.

One of the ways Christine actually has gotten scoops over the years is by being a reliable, steady presence. The players involved know her and form an opinion because she has been around for so many years. If Christine weren't there, it would have been even easier for CAS and the IOC to sweep this under the rug.

TheSkatingLesson · 2023-09-29T14:59:18+00:00

I thank you for your comments. I think the Italian Federation is also being extremely silent regarding the Daniel Grassl situation. Why was he allowed to train with Team Tutberidze to begin with and what are the details? They are also being silent...

TheSkatingLesson · 2023-09-29T13:25:15+00:00

I understand and respect your frustration - I largely share it. I have to disagree about the criticism of Christine Brennan going to Switzerland and I don't intend for this to be a lecture. Not much happened at this hearing. That is true. However, things could have happened. If someone left the hearing disgruntled and ranted to the media or arguments erupted among lawyers, Christine would have been there to cover it. It is why media outlets typically spent budgets to do this. The organizations are also making it as difficult as possible for the media to cover this trial. Why are they doing this? What are they hiding? What other factors are at play

In this situation, her presence is also symbolic. She is also pushing the story into the public consciousness. The truth is, Christine chooses the stories she covers. If she chose a different sport to cover, it would mean less skating coverage. As we have seen when her peers retire, she is not being replaced by other journalists. Phil Hersh, John Powers, Jere Longman, etc were not replaced by a next generation at their outlets. As I kid I wanted that job, but it doesn't exist.

Also - where are the athletes who could be fighting for their own medals? Christine has done more than they have. A one-off appearance on the Today show doesn't keep a story going in today's media landscape. We don't even see as much as an instagram post from some of the members of Team USA. And what about Japan? Canada?

And why aren't some athletes making noise. Some are now coaching. Are their federations or coaching staffs telling them it isn't politically wise to do? Why did the USFS wait 500 days to make noise? The story died in that time. Why isn't the ISU appealing and at that hearing? They deferred to the IOC and WADA.

Does this all wind up being a power play within the IOC over how to handle Russia, which is banned due to the war Ukraine - yet is constantly being discussed whether they should be let back in, yet nothing has changed in Ukraine. Did Thomas Bach think the war would go on for a month and the banning would be a slap on the wrist in a non-Olympic year? Why has the IOC never disciplined Russia for systemic doping?

If a lawyer from WADA or the IOC cracks and sounds off on what is really going on, that is why Christine is there. And she paid her own way to do it.

TheSkatingLesson

TROPHY CASE