Jackie Wong: the polymath who is a "life saver" for figure skating

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Jackie Wong: the polymath who is a "life saver" for figure skating

On Wednesday night, Jackie Wong plans to go to bed in his Manhattan apartment at 9 p.m. Wong will set his alarm for 1 a.m. Thursday to be up and alert in time for his volunteer labor of love, as he covers the men's short program at the Junior Grand Prix Final in Nagoya, Japan.

He will work on that and other Grand Prix Final events until about 9 a.m. Thursday, then nap for an hour before moving on to the client services job for which he is paid. He will be back to skating, with the senior ladies short program at the Golden Spin of Zagreb, at about 4:30 p.m.

His Friday schedule will be a little less taxing, with the same bedtime but a 3 a.m. wakeup. Saturday will allow him to focus only on figure skating.

Wong's willingness to burn the candle at both ends -- and his technical and historical knowledge of the sport -- have helped make him the most unequivocally appreciated reporter in the world of figure skating.

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U.S., Canada figure skate federation presidents should step away from judging

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U.S., Canada figure skate federation presidents should step away from judging

The late Sydney J. Harris, an esteemed syndicated columnist, would frequently write stories under the rubric, “Things I Learned On My Way To Looking Up Other Things.”

I’m borrowing Mr. Harris’ catchphrase for this column, which grew out of things I was reminded of while reporting a story about the ethical questions surrounding Skate Canada’s welcome gift to skaters, judges and officials at the Canadian leg of the figure skating Grand Prix series last month in Regina, Saskatchewan.

What I learned is no secret, but it raises more ethical questions about the governance and judging of figure skating.

This case involves the indefensible decision to allow presidents of national figure skating federations to be international judges, in apparent contradiction of the conflict-of-interest language in the International Skating Union’s code of ethics.

The president of U.S. Figure Skating, Samuel Auxier, and of Skate Canada, Leanna Caron, each is an active international judge.  It makes them unique among current leaders of the national federations that consistently have medal-contending athletes.

That is akin to having the general manager of a football or baseball team act as a game official.

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Did Skate Canada lose virtue with gift pushing star skater's brand?

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Did Skate Canada lose virtue with gift pushing star skater's brand?

It is customary for skaters, judges and other officials to receive a welcome gift from the organizers of Grand Prix figure skating competitions.

But a gift provided at Skate Canada, the International Skating Union Grand Prix series event last month in Regina, Saskatchewan, has raised ethical questions.

The gift, presented by the Canadian figure skating federation, was a pair of crystal earrings from the Regina-based company that manufactures and markets a jewelry line created by ice dancer Tessa Virtue, who, with partner Scott Moir, is reigning world champion and a favorite to win the Olympic gold medal next February in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

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From U.S. figure skating, no explanation of how it could abrogate world meet selection rules

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From U.S. figure skating, no explanation of how it could abrogate world meet selection rules

When the World Junior Synchronized Skating Championships begin Friday in Mississauga, Ont., one of the two U.S. teams that should be competing will be sitting at home.

Why?  Because U.S. Figure Skating came up with some kind of justification, which it has not revealed, for abrogating its own rules.  Those rules may have been poorly written, but they left no doubt about one of the teams that belongs at the junior worlds, as I first pointed out in a story posted Feb. 17.

The rules say that in the case of both senior and junior synchro world championship selections, the teams “must include the current U.S. champion.”  (The emphasis is mine.)

The team left out, the Chicago Jazz, was the current U.S. champion when the selections were made.

Based on that, the Jazz filed a grievance with USFS.

I learned last week the grievance was denied and, since then, I have been trying without success via multiple emails to get an official USFS response about the situation.

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On the defensive, IOC president plays alternative facts trump card

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On the defensive, IOC president plays alternative facts trump card

Funny what you will find while looking for something else.

I was searching the International Olympic Committee’s web site to check a reported fact about how much the IOC charges cities to bid for the Olympic Games when I came across the headlines pictured above on a story posted the day after the Sept. 15, 2015 deadline for 2024 Summer Games bids to be submitted.

Eighteen months later, that headline looks like an IOC version of something Trump advisor Kellyanne Conway would have explained away as “alternative facts.”

A rejection in a public referendum (Hamburg), fiscal priorities (Rome) and the threat of a referendum (Budapest) have reduced the competition to just two world-class cities (Los Angeles and Paris) and made a mockery of the IOC’s self-congratulatory headlines.

In an interview last week with the German magazine Stuttgarter Nachrichten, IOC President Thomas Bach blamed the dropouts on the “anti-establishment movements we have in many European countries.”

Or, alt facts.

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