Cinquanta Was He Good for Skating? Didier Next? | Golden Skate

Cinquanta Was He Good for Skating? Didier Next?

Joined
Jun 21, 2003
Cinquanta

Could we assess Cinquanta's work as ISU president? What rights and wrongs did he do?

I think that the creation of the Grand Prix series and the Grand Prix Finale were a great achievement. I also personally think that doing only 1 SP and 1 LP for every discipline was a good idea.

I also read on wikipedia that he introduced prize money for ISU events which is very good for the skaters! For the whole new IJS scoring system, though there are still lots of problem with the judging (cf the Sonia Bianchetti thread!), I am among those who like it better than 6.0.

For the bad things, he says dumb sh*t like "oh let's get rid of the SP" or "oh I know nothing about ice dance". But to be honest I am not very aware of how he is super awful.

I think that in the early years of Mr. Cinquanta’s presidency he was regarded as a financial whiz who was good for the business end of the sport. He is given credit for negotiating multimillion dollar contracts with U.S. television networks (which is why he could give prize money to skaters), although that was more the result of figure skating’s overall popularity in the 1990s than anything Cinquanta did in particular.

He did consolidate the Grand Prix circuit, but that was somewhat at the expense of the individual events which had done fine on their own, especially Skate Canada since 1973, Skate America since 1979 and the French event, since 1987. (Trivia question: what lady has won the variously-named French event the most? Answer: Surya Bonaly, five times. :) )

On the negative side, Mr. Cinquata was regarded as dictatorial (especially as time went on), power conscious, and “political.” When the ISU constitution required that he step down in 2014 because of age, he simply set the constitution aside and unilaterally extended his term for four more years, saying that no one else could lead the organization in preparation for the 2018 Olympic games. In his attempts to assume control of all figure skating events, he is blamed for killing professional skating competitions in the late 1990s. (IMHO this charge is somewhat exaggerated.)

Mr. C. is also criticized for bringing a speed skating mentality to the ISU. Money generated by the financial success of figure skating was siphoned off to pay for speed skating. For better of worse, rule changes like the IJS make the sport more like a race and puts less emphasis on the performing arts aspect. Even his election as ISU president was something of a coup by the speed skating side to undercut the figure skating side in the “power corridors” of the ISU. Cinquanta’s image as a financial wizard has diminished as figure skating declined in popularity in North America (although to be honest this is due to factors beyond the ISU’s control).

Personally, I don't see anything super awful about him, either. ;) Any CEO is going to face criticism for how he runs the company.
 
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cruzceleste

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Joined
Feb 23, 2014
:happydance:

but now the Didier runs for ISU president as savior of ice dance conspiracy theories look kind of credible.

I will be really thankful if somebody could do some background on him, I know nothing about him and how he works, and it all seems really like a complicated argument for a book.

Would he be better than Speedy for figure skating?
 

dorispulaski

Wicked Yankee Girl
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Jul 26, 2003
Country
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I will be really thankful if somebody could do some background on him, I know nothing about him and how he works, and it all seems really like a complicated argument for a book.

Would he be better than Speedy for figure skating?

The best predictor of future performance is past performance. Would you say he has been good for French figure skating?

For one thing, he has always been willing to lie about things that are easily disapproved.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Didier_Gailhaguet

As the coach of Surya Bonaly, he was complicit with the story that Surya was born in Reunion.
http://www.boston.com/sports/other_sports/articles/2004/04/02/positive_spin/

Quote is from the wiki, but the original source cited is a Boston Globe piece above:

Georges and Suzanne initially told the media that their daughter had been born on the island of Réunion, because, as David Wallechinsky's Complete Book of the Winter Olympics explains, they thought this origin sounded more "exotic". When Surya approached the age of 18 and began researching her birth history, George and Suzanne admitted that Surya's biological mother had been from the island but that Surya herself had not been born there. Didier Gailhaguet, who was Bonaly's first coach of her competitive career, admitted fabricating the story because he thought it would interest the press.[1]
.

This is a lie for no good reason at all. It is safe to assume, I think, that he and the truth are not close friends.

Then he was a key figure in the 2002 Olympic pairs/ice dance vote swapping scandal.

Again, the quote is from Didier's wiki
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Didier_Gailhaguet

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/other_sports/1959181.stm

Gailhaguet was a central figure in the 2002 Olympic Winter Games figure skating scandal, in which French judge Marie-Reine Le Gougne said that she had judged wrongly in the pairs competition under pressure from Gailhaguet, who was at that time the president of the French federation. Witnesses of Le Gougne's statement were Sally-Anne Stapleford (Great Britain), Britta Lindgren (Sweden), Walburga Grimm (Germany) and Jon Jackson (USA). Gailhaguet's chauffeur in Salt Lake City additionally testified to having overheard evidence of his involvement on the scandal. Le Gougne later rescinded her statement and said she had been pressured to make it.

Didier Gailhaguet was excluded for any International Skating Union event for 3 years, beginning 30 April 2002, and has been excluded as an ISU council member. He resigned as president of the French Ice Sports Federation on 12 May 2004, but was re-elected to that position in December 2007

So clearly, he does not draw the line at using his power not just to facilitate, but indeed to compel cheating.

He has also forced skaters to change coaches whimsically and behaved in a capricious manner that IMO did not benefit the development of French skating. I hope French forum members can supply more accurate details.
 

daphenaxa

Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 17, 2015
I will be really thankful if somebody could do some background on him, I know nothing about him and how he works, and it all seems really like a complicated argument for a book.

Would he be better than Speedy for figure skating?

Background

Didier Gailhaguet was born in 1953. He is a two time French National champion (74-75) and finished 13th at the 1972 Olympics. He left competitive skating in 75. He married Annick Dumont and they developed the training centre in Champigny (a Parisian Suburb) from where came a lot of the French champions like Surya Bonaly, Eric Millot, Stannick Jeannette, Frederic Dambier...
As Surya Bonaly's coach he already created a few scandals like he lied about where she was born because he thought that would attract media attention.

In 1992 he becomes the director of the French teams in figure skating and ice dancing. He creates camps (like summer camps) where the official team goes and trains together. He also wants to improve the detection, the formation and the monitoring of new talents.

He becomes the head of the French Ice sports federation for the first time in 1998. He is elected at a catastrophic time because the federation is in a state of bankruptcy (55million frcs deficit) and a he has to put up a plan to reimburse the debts. Under pressure of the international hockey federation he has to create an independent French hockey association.

SLC scandal
So all this is vague, there was never any real evidence of anything. Just a he said, she said thingy. But according to the most accepted version, Gailhaguet agreed of a pact with the Russian Fed that was to back up the Russian pair Bereznhaya/Sikharulidze to win gold again the Canadians and then the Russians would back up the French ice dance team Anissina/Peizerat.
In the pairs, the French judge effectively put the Russians in 1st and she was immediately suspected of cheating because she was the only western judge to put them in front. (LOL this always made me laught because that already tells a lot about the state of mind in FS, so because you are a western judge you should put the western couples in front!).

Then allegedly the French judge admitted in front of the ISU technical committee president that she suffered pressure from Gailhaguet to put the Russians in front. She allegedly again repeated that in front of the judging committee and also said it was part of a deal to get the French dancers the gold. However in a signed declaration she wrote that she never took part in such a deal and that she put the Russians first because she felt they deserved to win.

In an article that just came out recently in France, she repeats that version. She even adds that Gailhaguet came to meet her at the airport in SLC to tell her about the deal and how she had to vote but she told him to f* off. (In this interview she kept calling him a thug).
In the end, the Russians kept their gold because there was no proof of their or their federation implication in a deal, the Canadians were awarded another gold and both the French judge and Gailhaguet were suspended for 3 years and banned from Torino Olympics. Didier has to step out from the presidency of the French fed.

Come back, Vancouver and Sochi

In 2007 Didier Gailhaguet is reelected. His project is to create a "national training center" after the modele of what is done in French rugby for example. But this was really criticised by a lot of coaches in France.
What happens is that when a kid begins to get good results, he is usually pressured to leave his coach and move to these national training centers, namely Paris and Champigny. There, not much happens actually. There is ice time problems, coaches problems, the kids stagnate for the most part. If they don't want to leave their coaches, they are not assigned JGPs or other competitions and their fundings are also cut short. But it is not only young skaters it is everyone. Brian Joubert (!) wasn't assigned GPs one year under the excuse he was injured and then he said he was really surprised to learn he was injured lol. Gailhaguet cut fundings for Lyon (Muriel Zazoui's rink) because he wanted Papadakis-Cizeron to go abroad. He forced Pechalat-Bourzat to go to Schpilband etc.

In 2010 he also creates another controversy in France when he says after Brian Joubert melt down at the Olympics that he is a "petit con" which means a little a**hole. He also criticised him really harshly saying that he was fiddling with his preparation. That he begun training only two months before the games, that he wasn't able to work enough and that he had been foolish not to go train abroad with the bests.

In Sochi he was vividly criticised because once again like in Torino and Vancouver there was no medal for the French figure skating. Worse there is no medal at all for any ice sport.
The short track and speed skaters were always very critical of Gailhaguet's politic and very vocal on the fact that there was no money and no support at all for them from the federation. All the resources are allocated to figure skating. They had no coach and no staff in Sochi. The fed even forgot to enrol one of the skater so he couldn't participate! One skater said "there is nobody in the world that I hate more than the people of the federation, they just want to kill the sport". I think that the French speed skater who achieved the better result (4th at whatever race) trains with the National Dutch team because he has more support there than in France.

Now

In June 2014 Gailhaguet was reelected once again as president. He was running against Olympic champ Gwendal Peizerat who was supported by ex skaters Philippe Candeloro and Stannick Jeannette. But Gailhaguet won comfortably.

One thing the French federation is also known for is not releasing their athletes. For example, Jerome Blanchard, a pair skater, went and stayed in Russia. He was in Oleg Vasiliev groups and skated with Mukhortova after her split with Trankov for example. He never got a release from the fed so basically he could never skate.
Now Bruno Massot who wants to skate for Germany with Savchenko is hoping for a release but the French fed said they "would never grant him a release". Apparently Chafik Besseghier also wanted a release but didn't get it. So in a nutshell, they prefer destroying their skater's career than releasing them to other feds.
 

dorispulaski

Wicked Yankee Girl
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They also have refused to release Tiffany Zahorski, so it is not only stars that they won't release.

The only guy I remember being able to negotiate this mess was the guy who transferred to skate for Italy, Samuel Contesti. who married an Italian.
 

Mattieu

Medalist
Joined
Dec 22, 2010
They also have refused to release Tiffany Zahorski, so it is not only stars that they won't release.

The only guy I remember being able to negotiate this mess was the guy who transferred to skate for Italy, Samuel Contesti. who married an Italian.

Also they refused release Jeremie Flemin who was Swiss National Champion, but is now back on IcePartnerSearch.
Estelle Elizabeth who skated with Romain Legac is waiting release skate for Hungary.
There seems a zero release policy. :(

Marien de la Asuncion was released to skate Japan and Neil Brown CZE.
Rumor has it that they were only released to make M. Zazoui look like she only coach foreign couples so DG could persuade the French sports ministry that they should stop her salary as the salary was for coaching French teams. So the contract of M. Zazoui was stopped 2 years early. The battle between the FFSG & Lyon continues...
 

LRK

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Nov 13, 2012
If DG ever comes to power, I suspect we will all be mourning the Glory Days of Saint Speedy...
 

StitchMonkey

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Jul 31, 2014
Didn't France also only send one ice dance team to worlds this year even though they had two spots and at least two qualified teams?
 

bartlebooth

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Feb 19, 2010
Didn't France also only send one ice dance team to worlds this year even though they had two spots and at least two qualified teams?

Yep. And they sent only 2 men at 2013 Worlds even if they had 3 available spots.
Oh, and when Anaïs Ventard won French Championships beating Maé-Bérénice Meité, Gailhaguet threw a hissy fit threatening not to send any lady at 2013 Euros.
 

Mattieu

Medalist
Joined
Dec 22, 2010
Didn't France also only send one ice dance team to worlds this year even though they had two spots and at least two qualified teams?

And only 1 team to Euros when there were 2 spots ;)

I thought the UK got it's knuckles rapped some years ago for not using all it's junior spots, yet the FFSG gets away without using all it's spots.

Hail the all powerful, despite being batshit crazy DG ....
 

cruzceleste

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Joined
Feb 23, 2014
Wow, thanky daphenaxa for the detailed background, and everyone for the informative post.

Sad for the skaters of France, and sudenly Speedy is looking good. Hope we never have to put with this guy in ISU, seem like power in his hands is no good for him.
 

silverfoxes

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Joined
Feb 16, 2014
Now Bruno Massot who wants to skate for Germany with Savchenko is hoping for a release but the French fed said they "would never grant him a release". Apparently Chafik Besseghier also wanted a release but didn't get it. So in a nutshell, they prefer destroying their skater's career than releasing them to other feds.

I saw a short interview with Aliona a couple days ago, & apparently they have to wait until July to find out if he will be released. In the meantime he is really struggling financially as they aren't allowed to do shows. What do you want to bet they tell him "no" in July?
 

cruzceleste

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Feb 23, 2014
I saw a short interview with Aliona a couple days ago, & apparently they have to wait until July to find out if he will be released. In the meantime he is really struggling financially as they aren't allowed to do shows. What do you want to bet they tell him "no" in July?

Why aren´t they allow to do shows?
 

daphenaxa

Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 17, 2015
Why aren´t they allow to do shows?

Apparently to do shows you do need your fed approval (if you wish to remain an eligible skater for competition) and French federation doesn't want to give Massot approval to do shows if he skates with Alyona.
 

uhh

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Nov 19, 2013
Everyone complains about Didier, and he can be terrible - yet for years he was saying P/C needed to leave Zazoui, and eventually they did & became world champs, but everyone acts like he still did them wrong ... they were an inconsistent mess under her, even at the lower junior level & no one acknowledges what he saw.
 

daphenaxa

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Mar 17, 2015
Everyone complains about Didier, and he can be terrible - yet for years he was saying P/C needed to leave Zazoui, and eventually they did & became world champs, but everyone acts like he still did them wrong ... they were an inconsistent mess under her, even at the lower junior level & no one acknowledges what he saw.

Yeah well they were training mainly with Haguenauer. And they left France to follow Haguenauer to Montreal. So really there is no genious vision here from Didier.
Also they were wolrd junior silver medalists at worlds and did well in their first senor year while still under Zazoui so well...
 

Mattieu

Medalist
Joined
Dec 22, 2010
DG cut P/C funding when they were with Zazoui, so he is incredibly lucky they had enough money to continue.
Didier can take no credit for them at all. He almost destroyed them.
 

LRK

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Joined
Nov 13, 2012
Everyone complains about Didier, and he can be terrible - yet for years he was saying P/C needed to leave Zazoui, and eventually they did & became world champs, but everyone acts like he still did them wrong ... they were an inconsistent mess under her, even at the lower junior level & no one acknowledges what he saw.

Well, I don't follow ice dance, so... but assuming he was right? Even a broken clock is right twice a day... I hardly think being right once in a blue moon makes up for all the times he's wrong. And imposing his will like some kind of dictator hardly is right, whether he may be right or wrong in any given issue.
 
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