Do It Yourself when your Federation Fails You:
Nichole Dirkse's emailed reports from the Short Track World Championships provided Michigan speedskating fans what USSPEEDSKATING Public and Media Relations Director Melissa Scott could not. So writes my first speedskating coach, Mark Jastrzembski, of the West Michigan Speedskating Club:
"Many thought Nichole was someone from USSPEEDSKATING sending back reports. That is supposed to be Melissa Scott's job but I could tell from Melissa's tardy and scattered reports that she was not even at the competition."
OK, so my sources who were actually at the competition tell me that Melissa WAS actually there! in that case, can someone tell me WHY she was there, if her reports on the meet itself were so crappy? That makes things even worse! It means she got a free ride to Minneapolis to party with the Minnesota Mafia and NOT promote the World Championships of short track. How typical! What the hell are you people thinking?
Once again, people who "got themselves there" did a better job than USS. Nichole Dirkse is a new skater from Michigan who, as Mark Jastrzembski was quick to point out, is already making a significant contribution to Michigan Speedskating with her insightful reports on the Short Track Worlds. In fact, it seems she has done a better job of observing and reporting on the competition than some of the people who are paid by USSPEEDSKATING to do so!
As I am still on the WMSC emailing list, I was able to read Nichole's reports myself. I'm impressed that she covered the World Championships with the enthusiasm of a true short track speedskating fan, honoring the achievements of skaters from all over the world, rather than taking the narrow, "USA! Rah, rah, rah!!! (Fake)-boom-bah!" approach so typical of the USSPEEDSKATING spin doctors.
So, where was Melissa? I must admit, I haven't read any of her reports on the short track competition, since I took myself off the USSPEEDSKATING mailing list after her post-Olympic spin started making me dizzy. But I'd trust Mark Jastrzembski with my life, so why shouldn't I trust him on his assessment of Melissa's reports? OK, so she was at the competition, but she sure didn't do her job while she was there. "Present?" Yes. "Tardy and scattered?" Also true, though an incorrect conclusion was drawn from an interpretation of her reports.
If it's true that USSPEEDSKATING's public relations department dropped the ball on this competition, then what we have here is another missed opportunity. After the Olympics, this World Championship short track competition was the second most important meet of the season for the short trackers. Don't give me any pathetic excuses about Americans not liking speedskating! Even we Americans can get into short track, with its high-speed crashes and controversy! And we just had the World Championships on American soil, and the USSPEEDSKATING reports that came out of it sound like the PR director wasn't even there.
Who is surprised by this latest example of incompetence? After all, USSPEEDSKATING is the federation represented by Olympians who are afraid to race, program directors who lack direction, coaches who learn nothing from their own unethical experiments, and now, apparently, public relations directors who don't relate anything.
But I'm comforted by the fact that at least when USSPEEDSKATING sends Katie Marquard to a competition, she is there for a reason: To make sure that Bart Schouten doesn't get a pair of warmup pants because his skaters didn't sign the contract!!! Where would we be without our WARMUP PANTS NAZI? "No pants for YOU!!!"
But I digress.
All I really wanted to say is that skaters and speedskating fans like Nichole Dirkse represent the kind of future for speedskating that a "terrorist" like myself dreams of. (Please don't blacklist her just because she's Protocol-approved!)
...and now with the failure of USSPEEDSKATING to properly promote and publicize the World Short Track Championships, this federation's glaring incompetence is becoming more and more evident. I think now that even those skaters and fans who would rather "focus on the soul of speedskating" are coming to realize that if they don't DO SOMETHING, then the "SOUL" of this sport will be swallowed up by the Evil Dead!
If you care about this sport, its soul, and its future, you can no longer put your fingers in your ears and sing, "La-la-la-la-la, we are a pure sport! We do what's best for the athletes!"
(Can you say, "BRAINWASHING"???)
I prefer to say this: "I WILL NOT DELIVER THE CHILDREN INSPIRED TO SPEEDSKATE BY THE 2006 OLYMPICS INTO THE HANDS OF THE MINNESOTA MAFIA."
If you truly want to change this sport, this spring, at the board meeting in Salt Lake City; if you don't want a federation run by "yes" men (and women) who don't do the jobs they are supposed to do; if you want them to STOP sending women to the Olympics for the purpose of going out to dinner with the program director and to START sending women to the Olympics FOR THE PURPOSE OF COMPETING; if you want to see this sport thrive in a welcoming atmosphere instead of choked off by country club elitism that really protects the mediocrity of a chosen few; then you must go directly to the source of the problem:
If you want the Minnesota Mafia thugs out of your way, then you must get rid of Katie Marquard.
Nichole Dirkse's emailed reports from the Short Track World Championships provided Michigan speedskating fans what USSPEEDSKATING Public and Media Relations Director Melissa Scott could not. So writes my first speedskating coach, Mark Jastrzembski, of the West Michigan Speedskating Club:
"Many thought Nichole was someone from USSPEEDSKATING sending back reports. That is supposed to be Melissa Scott's job but I could tell from Melissa's tardy and scattered reports that she was not even at the competition."
OK, so my sources who were actually at the competition tell me that Melissa WAS actually there! in that case, can someone tell me WHY she was there, if her reports on the meet itself were so crappy? That makes things even worse! It means she got a free ride to Minneapolis to party with the Minnesota Mafia and NOT promote the World Championships of short track. How typical! What the hell are you people thinking?
Once again, people who "got themselves there" did a better job than USS. Nichole Dirkse is a new skater from Michigan who, as Mark Jastrzembski was quick to point out, is already making a significant contribution to Michigan Speedskating with her insightful reports on the Short Track Worlds. In fact, it seems she has done a better job of observing and reporting on the competition than some of the people who are paid by USSPEEDSKATING to do so!
As I am still on the WMSC emailing list, I was able to read Nichole's reports myself. I'm impressed that she covered the World Championships with the enthusiasm of a true short track speedskating fan, honoring the achievements of skaters from all over the world, rather than taking the narrow, "USA! Rah, rah, rah!!! (Fake)-boom-bah!" approach so typical of the USSPEEDSKATING spin doctors.
So, where was Melissa? I must admit, I haven't read any of her reports on the short track competition, since I took myself off the USSPEEDSKATING mailing list after her post-Olympic spin started making me dizzy. But I'd trust Mark Jastrzembski with my life, so why shouldn't I trust him on his assessment of Melissa's reports? OK, so she was at the competition, but she sure didn't do her job while she was there. "Present?" Yes. "Tardy and scattered?" Also true, though an incorrect conclusion was drawn from an interpretation of her reports.
If it's true that USSPEEDSKATING's public relations department dropped the ball on this competition, then what we have here is another missed opportunity. After the Olympics, this World Championship short track competition was the second most important meet of the season for the short trackers. Don't give me any pathetic excuses about Americans not liking speedskating! Even we Americans can get into short track, with its high-speed crashes and controversy! And we just had the World Championships on American soil, and the USSPEEDSKATING reports that came out of it sound like the PR director wasn't even there.
Who is surprised by this latest example of incompetence? After all, USSPEEDSKATING is the federation represented by Olympians who are afraid to race, program directors who lack direction, coaches who learn nothing from their own unethical experiments, and now, apparently, public relations directors who don't relate anything.
But I'm comforted by the fact that at least when USSPEEDSKATING sends Katie Marquard to a competition, she is there for a reason: To make sure that Bart Schouten doesn't get a pair of warmup pants because his skaters didn't sign the contract!!! Where would we be without our WARMUP PANTS NAZI? "No pants for YOU!!!"
But I digress.
All I really wanted to say is that skaters and speedskating fans like Nichole Dirkse represent the kind of future for speedskating that a "terrorist" like myself dreams of. (Please don't blacklist her just because she's Protocol-approved!)
...and now with the failure of USSPEEDSKATING to properly promote and publicize the World Short Track Championships, this federation's glaring incompetence is becoming more and more evident. I think now that even those skaters and fans who would rather "focus on the soul of speedskating" are coming to realize that if they don't DO SOMETHING, then the "SOUL" of this sport will be swallowed up by the Evil Dead!
If you care about this sport, its soul, and its future, you can no longer put your fingers in your ears and sing, "La-la-la-la-la, we are a pure sport! We do what's best for the athletes!"
(Can you say, "BRAINWASHING"???)
I prefer to say this: "I WILL NOT DELIVER THE CHILDREN INSPIRED TO SPEEDSKATE BY THE 2006 OLYMPICS INTO THE HANDS OF THE MINNESOTA MAFIA."
If you truly want to change this sport, this spring, at the board meeting in Salt Lake City; if you don't want a federation run by "yes" men (and women) who don't do the jobs they are supposed to do; if you want them to STOP sending women to the Olympics for the purpose of going out to dinner with the program director and to START sending women to the Olympics FOR THE PURPOSE OF COMPETING; if you want to see this sport thrive in a welcoming atmosphere instead of choked off by country club elitism that really protects the mediocrity of a chosen few; then you must go directly to the source of the problem:
If you want the Minnesota Mafia thugs out of your way, then you must get rid of Katie Marquard.
posted by Eva at 5:43 PM
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