Country Club Atmosphere: How the Minnesota Mafia set the stage for USS's current woes

(Out of respect for the wishes of the administration of my team, I have temporarily removed my previous post about the High 5 Team. However, I will press onward in my analysis of American speedskating culture.)

From its beginning in this country, speedskating was a small sport. In the early years of USISA, which broke from the ASU in the 1960's to select teams that would represent the USA in international speedskating competition, a group of officials from Minnesota grabbed power.

Such domination by one association or club is more expected in a small sport like speedskating, as opposed to sports like track and field or swimming, which are made up of large numbers of athletes from all over the country. Not only are the numbers much smaller in speedskating, but there are also limited facilities for training, and these happened to be located in the upper Midwest. This situation, with its lack of numbers and lack of diversity, led to the development of a country club-like atmosphere of exclusivity.

From my friends who were involved in speedskating in the 1970's and 80's, I've heard that the so-called "Minnesota Mafia" would influence team selections in subtle ways. For example, they would schedule resurfacing breaks right before their own skaters raced. This was especially significant in those years, when the trials were held outdoors. Also, the Minnesota officials would change the rules of the competition on the fly. For example, one official rule stated that if a skater fell in one of the selection races, then he or she did not get a re-skate. However, if it turned out that one of their own favorite skaters fell and was otherwise in contention to make the team, they would allow that person to re-skate the race, in some cases multiple times, until they stayed on their feet. I heard of one situation in which Bill Cushman made a decision in the following way:

Cushman: "What did Gene Sandvig say?"

Coach: "Gene says she gets a re-skate."

Cushman: "Then go with what Gene says."

This was the final word, despite the fact that the rule book stated that there would be no re-skates in case of a fall.


Throughout the years, the Minnesota Mafia made things unpleasant for speedskaters all the way from the novice to the elite levels. They had a special dislike for very talented coaches whom they could not control, such as Diane Holum and Peter Mueller. Many skaters retired from the sport before they reached their full potential, due to the tightening of the noose that would inevitably occur once they started winning.

Not only the champion speedskaters were affected. Novice and recreational skaters suffered as well. My friends and I still meet people in unexpected places who say that they left the sport years ago because of their run-ins with the Minnesota Mafia. Just last week, one of my friends ran into someone who said, "I quit speedskating because of Gene Sandvig." I would like to meet this person. We could have a great bonding experience! I would reply, "Really? I quit speedskating because of Bill Cushman!"


In the late 1980's and early 90's, Bonnie Blair and Dan Jansen emerged as speedskating stars, having been brought to that level by Peter Mueller. Though Blair and Jansen ruled the international skating scene and even achieved celebrity status here in the USA, speedskating remained small.

Following the retirements of Blair and Jansen in the mid 1990's, the sport was forced to cut back its expectations. Keeping the sport small suited the Minnesota Mafia just fine; it gave them a chance to groom their own favorites for international competition. Incidences of blackballing, such as what happened to me in 1995, were more common than I thought at the time. This is something I have learned recently, as I've started discussing my speedskating past more openly with other people in this sport. These incidents were allowed to continue because people were afraid to speak out against the Minnesota Mafia.


In the late 1990's, USISA was watching over a chosen group of athletes who were training at the Pettit Center in Wisconsin in preparation for the 2002 Olympics. This group included several decent but not great skaters from the Midway (Minneapolis/St.Paul area) club. I believe that one of the reasons why the problems I brought up in my letter to USISA with coaching and facilities in Salt Lake City were ignored is because USISA already had its chosen team training in Milwaukee and did not care to deal with the potential of new skaters breaking into the 2002 Olympic team from another location.

In fact, USISA cared very little about developing the sport of speedskating in Salt Lake City before the Olympics. Their strategy for Salt Lake began with a problem, and this problem was bringing Stan Klotkowski to SLC to set up development groups. Because USISA had had problems with Stan in previous seasons, they decided to send him out to Utah to get rid of him. That's a great idea - sending a coach with a history of communication problems to set up development programs in an Olympic bid city.

What USISA did not realize at the time was that there already were a few speedskating teams training in the Salt Lake/Ogden area. With an attitude of arrogance he picked up from USISA, Stan walked into the valley and basically said, "You guys are nothing. I run speedskating now. You have no rights here. I will take your kids on my team if they are good."

That is how the conflicts between teams started in Salt Lake City around the time the outdoor oval opened. Things got even worse when SLOC came in and set up their own team- which became the only subsidized team at the oval - and the other teams began to face some of the same problems that the High 5 team is facing now.


Prior to the 2002 Games, the US team lacked depth and strength. Only Chris Witty won medals in Nagano in 1998. Hints of future success seemed to come from the strong and talented group of sprinters coached by Mike Crowe, and from the influx of inline skaters.

At the 2002 Olympics, US Speedskating had more medalists than ever before, going from one person winning two medals in 1998, to several different people being on the podium. The athletes had evolved, but unfortunately, the organization had not. US Speedskating wasn't prepared to deal with the success of its own athletes. They did not want to lose the exclusive country club atmosphere that had been established by the Minnesota Mafia. They did not want to consider a new reality, but instead, they tried to preserve their power. The weaker that US Speedskating became in the face of their athletes, the more irrationally and desperately they behaved. They grasped at straws in a sort of "agony" of control.


This is the environment which Andy Gabel inherited when he was elected president of US Speedskating. The votes of the athlete representatives were instrumental in getting Andy elected, and, in fact, most of the skaters had high hopes for Andy as president. We hoped he would identify with us, since he had just recently retired from his own competitive career. Also, at one time in his career, he had trained with a program outside of US Speedskating, so we thought he would be more open-minded with regards to USS's current outsiders, who probably make up more than half of our world cup team right now.

However, throughout his presidency, Andy has developed a history of making decisions that are not in the skaters' best interest, and has supported policies of discrimination against athletes who train outside USS programs. One example of this was described to me by Derek Parra, about a month ago. Derek is not only a gold and silver medalist from the 2002 Olympics, but he is also a beloved crowd favorite who has done a great deal of good for USS's image. But, because Derek chooses to train with Bart Schouten and Bart has not been a USS coach since 2002, Derek has spent the last few years being denied several benefits that are given to athletes who choose to train with the USS coaches. These benefits include massage and access to physiological testing at The Orthopedic Specialty Hospital.

Derek did not think this was right, so he brought his concerns to Andy. One of Derek's main points was that Bart is the right coach for him; Bart is the coach who brought him to Olympic gold. So, why should he be punished for choosing to train with the coach who will make him skate his best? Andy replied that back when he himself was training with an outside program, he was denied benefits as well.

Does the fact that Andy was denied benefits in the past justify Derek's current situation, or excuse Andy, in his role as USS president, from trying to facilitate the training of every American skater, regardless of training program, so that he or she can compete at their best? What it does accomplish is to make people question Andy's motives and purpose in being president of USS.

The most questionable decision made by Andy Gabel so far as president of USS is the sponsorship deal he signed with Qwest. It was a grave miscalculation and an unbelievable display of arrogance to make this deal behind the backs of his constituency, which includes several Olympic gold medalists and world champions. I feel genuinely badly for the people of Qwest as well, who did not get what they expected out of this deal - which was to see people like Chad, Shani, and Derek wearing their logo.

In a future post, I will continue this discussion with a more in-depth look at the Qwest deal and its consequences.