More Board Meeting "Uglies:"
For a very interesting and well-rounded perspective on the USSPEEDSKATING Board Meeting, please check out Andrew Love's blog post on "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly." But I'm going to share with you my experience of the one committee meeting that I was able to attend: The Sports Science and Medicine committee.
I wanted to attend this session because I could make a quick trip downtown on my lunch break from work. Also, there was a story that I wanted to make sure was covered, and it was. That was my story of being denied access to a trainer when I was injured 2 weeks before the Fall World Cups, for which I had qualified.
The first thing that shocked me at this meeting was that Mike Crowe took a seat right next to me at the table. But once the debate over physical therapy got started, it quickly became apparent that no amount of pretending could cover up the bad blood and resentment of the previous season.
TOSH trainer Kim Nelson presented a summary of TOSH's work for USSPEEDSKATING that year. TOSH, The Orthopedic Specialty Hospital, sponsors USS by providing their services free of charge. In the beginning of the season, the TOSH trainers were given a list of 20 skaters for whom they were responsible. The problem arose when some of these athletes, who had been training with the USS National Teams, failed to qualify for World Cup competition, while athletes who trained outside USS qualified instead.
As a result, USSPEEDSKATING had to enforce the contract they signed with TOSH, making the trainers turn away injured athletes, such as myself, who had qualified for World Cups, but who did not train with USS programs.
How does one solve such a situation, without over-burdening the trainers, who cannot reasonably handle more than 10 athletes each? Do you drop the athletes who failed to qualify for international competition and replace them with those who did? Most people would argue that this is cruel. After all, the athletes who failed to make World Cups are probably those who are injured or overtrained, and would have the greatest need to see a trainer! But that's actually what happened to me when I was overtrained under Tom Cushman's Allround program during the 2003-04 season. Not only did I not get to see the trainers, but the coach stopped communicating with me entirely, not even sending me an email asking how I was doing, while on the World Cup circuit with the rest of his team.
But how can you deny treatment to an athlete who has qualified to represent this country in an international competition? When I told my story in the meeting, I argued, "You should be most concerned with those athletes whom you're actually going to be sending to the starting line."
And Crowe kept on repeating, "No, it's those 20 names that were chosen by the Board in the beginning of the season -- that's who gets the treatment." If you could be there to see how adamantly he was arguing this point; this excuse of his for why an athlete like me should not have access to a trainer, then you will understand why I can't stand Mike Crowe and believe he does not care about supporting those American athletes who skate the fastest, but only about his "Chosen Ones."
I also talked about the reason why some athletes choose to train with programs other than those offered by USSPEEDSKATING, even though they qualify for the National Team. I said, "It's all about your skating performance, and being able to choose the coach and training program that works for you. For me, this was literally the difference between being on the podium in the B Group (under High 5 Team coach Boris Leikin), and not making any World Cups at all (with Tom Cushman's USS Allround program)."
Catherine Raney brought up an excellent point, saying, "If TOSH is sponsoring USS by providing its services, shouldn't they be able to choose whom they want to treat? Do they get to see this list of 20 names, and to approve it?"
Craig Wing, who oversees the TOSH deal with USS, said that TOSH loves to have athletes like Chris Witty and Derek Parra (skaters who don't train with USS and who are denied treatment) coming into their clinic, because their other patients love to see these athletes and interact with them. Mr. Wing thinks it is a shame to have to deny such athletes access to trainers, just because USSPEEDSKATING says they have to.
"Frankly, the situation this year SUCKED," said Craig Wing.
He and Crowe planned to meet after the committee meeting to come to some sort of resolution to bring before the Executive Board, but I just wanted to say, "Don't you realize that Crowe is your problem???"
I wonder how this situation got resolved. Some people, like Athlete Rep Chris Needham, believe that this problelm will not present itself at least for a few years, because the total number of athletes in contention for spots in international competition will be smaller than it was this year. I guess we'll have to wait and see what happens.
For a very interesting and well-rounded perspective on the USSPEEDSKATING Board Meeting, please check out Andrew Love's blog post on "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly." But I'm going to share with you my experience of the one committee meeting that I was able to attend: The Sports Science and Medicine committee.
I wanted to attend this session because I could make a quick trip downtown on my lunch break from work. Also, there was a story that I wanted to make sure was covered, and it was. That was my story of being denied access to a trainer when I was injured 2 weeks before the Fall World Cups, for which I had qualified.
The first thing that shocked me at this meeting was that Mike Crowe took a seat right next to me at the table. But once the debate over physical therapy got started, it quickly became apparent that no amount of pretending could cover up the bad blood and resentment of the previous season.
TOSH trainer Kim Nelson presented a summary of TOSH's work for USSPEEDSKATING that year. TOSH, The Orthopedic Specialty Hospital, sponsors USS by providing their services free of charge. In the beginning of the season, the TOSH trainers were given a list of 20 skaters for whom they were responsible. The problem arose when some of these athletes, who had been training with the USS National Teams, failed to qualify for World Cup competition, while athletes who trained outside USS qualified instead.
As a result, USSPEEDSKATING had to enforce the contract they signed with TOSH, making the trainers turn away injured athletes, such as myself, who had qualified for World Cups, but who did not train with USS programs.
How does one solve such a situation, without over-burdening the trainers, who cannot reasonably handle more than 10 athletes each? Do you drop the athletes who failed to qualify for international competition and replace them with those who did? Most people would argue that this is cruel. After all, the athletes who failed to make World Cups are probably those who are injured or overtrained, and would have the greatest need to see a trainer! But that's actually what happened to me when I was overtrained under Tom Cushman's Allround program during the 2003-04 season. Not only did I not get to see the trainers, but the coach stopped communicating with me entirely, not even sending me an email asking how I was doing, while on the World Cup circuit with the rest of his team.
But how can you deny treatment to an athlete who has qualified to represent this country in an international competition? When I told my story in the meeting, I argued, "You should be most concerned with those athletes whom you're actually going to be sending to the starting line."
And Crowe kept on repeating, "No, it's those 20 names that were chosen by the Board in the beginning of the season -- that's who gets the treatment." If you could be there to see how adamantly he was arguing this point; this excuse of his for why an athlete like me should not have access to a trainer, then you will understand why I can't stand Mike Crowe and believe he does not care about supporting those American athletes who skate the fastest, but only about his "Chosen Ones."
I also talked about the reason why some athletes choose to train with programs other than those offered by USSPEEDSKATING, even though they qualify for the National Team. I said, "It's all about your skating performance, and being able to choose the coach and training program that works for you. For me, this was literally the difference between being on the podium in the B Group (under High 5 Team coach Boris Leikin), and not making any World Cups at all (with Tom Cushman's USS Allround program)."
Catherine Raney brought up an excellent point, saying, "If TOSH is sponsoring USS by providing its services, shouldn't they be able to choose whom they want to treat? Do they get to see this list of 20 names, and to approve it?"
Craig Wing, who oversees the TOSH deal with USS, said that TOSH loves to have athletes like Chris Witty and Derek Parra (skaters who don't train with USS and who are denied treatment) coming into their clinic, because their other patients love to see these athletes and interact with them. Mr. Wing thinks it is a shame to have to deny such athletes access to trainers, just because USSPEEDSKATING says they have to.
"Frankly, the situation this year SUCKED," said Craig Wing.
He and Crowe planned to meet after the committee meeting to come to some sort of resolution to bring before the Executive Board, but I just wanted to say, "Don't you realize that Crowe is your problem???"
I wonder how this situation got resolved. Some people, like Athlete Rep Chris Needham, believe that this problelm will not present itself at least for a few years, because the total number of athletes in contention for spots in international competition will be smaller than it was this year. I guess we'll have to wait and see what happens.
posted by Eva at 7:03 PM
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