International Fallout from U.S. Figure Skating’s President’s Remarks

French federation president sends ISU letter expressing concerns over Auxier’s words; U.S. Figure Skating now going back on earlier remarks.

On January 19, at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Kansas City, federation president Sam Auxier held a press conference. When USA Today reporter Christine Brennan asked him about whether he thinks Russia should be allowed to compete in next year’s Winter Olympics, he caused a stir by saying he doesn’t think they should be.

A week later, the federation disowned the remark, saying it was his opinion alone. This would require us to believe a sports federation president speaking at a press conference for that sport would make such a remark and not include such clarification.  From the start it seemed more likely the federation feared the consequences of such words.

They may have been right to worry. Today, USA Today published a pair of letters sent to the president of the International Skating Union. One was from Didier Gailhaguet, the infamous president of France’s skating federation. He made general remarks about the wrongness of singling out any one country. But he also accused the U.S. federation of proposing a Russian ban to eliminate competition for their skaters. With the other letter, U.S. Figure Skating repeated that Auxier’s words were not their official stance, and they are proposing nothing.

It is true Auxier wasn’t really proposing anything. He did not even call upon the ISU or IOC to do anything, as he might have done. Gailhaguet’s letter implies he’s guilty of an aggression he did not act with. That could cost America’s federation and skaters both, if people believed in it. With that in mind, U.S. Figure Skating really couldn’t let Gailhaguet’s accusation stand.

Gailhaguet is no man to talk about ethics either. His penalty for trying to rig the judging of the pairs and ice dance events at the 2002 Olympics, the one of the worst scandals figure skating has suffered through, was over too soon. Allegations of his bullying some of France’s skaters and unfairly favoring others abound. It is very likely that his motivations in sending this letter was to weaken U.S. Figure Skating and American skaters.

The simple truth is, the IOC is very unlikely to ban Russia from Pyeongchang. The Paralympics may do it, as they did in 2016. However, the IOC will likely hand it over to the federations again. The ISU is also unlikely to ban anyone when, despite the current investigation into Adelina Sotnikova, skating is still seen as a sport that doesn’t lend itself to doping.

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So all these remarks were likely to do is put the scores of American skaters at risk, if any disfavor against U.S. Figure Skating crept into the judging. Under those circumstances, while it is sad to see U.S. skating officials lie and flee from a stance, it is also all too understandable.