Speech Transcript from the SkateFAIR ProtestMarch 28, 2003
SkateFAIR Public Relations team spokesperson, NAOMI PAISS, kicked off the 3/28/03 protest in front of the MCI Center with a short speech that concluded as follows:
SkateFAIR is an autonomous and independent skating fans organization started on the Internet spontaneously a couple of months ago. This past Tuesday, we were just as surprised as everybody else to find out about a press conference down the street where some very great people announced the founding of the World Skating Foundation [loud and sustained cheering by the crowd of protestors]. I think there are a lot of fans who've been waiting for something like that to happen for a looong time [applause, cheers]. Now, you're going to hear from Sally-Anne Stapleford [crowd cheers]. Sally was the Technical Chair of the International Skating Union until she had the courage to speak out against corruption. She's a judge, she's someone who really knows a lot about what's going on with skating, and with great pleasure, I give the microphone to her
[crowd cheers and begins chanting "Sally, Sally, Sally!"].
Sally-Anne STAPLEFORD:
I must say it is a great honor for me to be invited by SkateFAIR to address the wonderful fans of our sport. And again, this is the first I've ever been involved in any kind of demonstration [crowd laughs, along with some shouts of "me too, me too!"].
I'll tell you a little bit more about myself. I was a former British champion, and I'm a two-time Olympian, so I do know what it's like to skate from the ice and my performance to be judged by the judges. And in this day and age, the judges should stand up behind their marks and also be judged [crowd cheers]. I mean, in this day and age, we have to have complete transparency; nothing less than complete openness is acceptable. And you're all doing such a fantastic job, and I feel as passionate, or maybe more passionate, than you do because, as you know, I and many others -- Britta Lindgren and Sonia Bianchetti and Ron Pfenning over there [crowd cheers] -- we've worked very very hard to see honesty and competency and the highest integrity in judging. And we've tried so hard over the years to make judges accountable and judges answerable for their marks. And to see this debacle, which it is, since Salt Lake, to see the wonderful sport we all love just disappear down the drain, it's so, so sad. So, I just want you to know that we totally support you. Without fans and without skaters our wonderful sport will just disappear. So this is a rallying call. Please carry on your battle. Please carry on for no secrecy in judging [crowd cheers]. Also, please, if you've got any friends in Europe or Asia, in other parts of the world, please contact them, tell them about your mission, about SkateFAIR's mission, and together maybe... [sorry, the tape ran out at this point and the end of her speech got cut off].
Naomi Paiss orders Paul Wylie, who is persuaded to give an impromptu speech to the protestors: I don't want to be rude, but you need a step stool [crowd laughs].
PAUL WYLIE:
You know, I've never really been to a protest in my whole entire life. I just want to say thank you on behalf of all the athletes of the world for your pressure, and for your purity of heart, and looking at the sport and saying "we love the sport." We love the sport and we know that there are fair judges out there and we want to bring those fair judges back to the sport and give the sport back to to the athletes. To have true results and results that every athlete can see and every audience member can see instantly, not just the people who are on the boards and who are on the ISU committees, the people who are locked away in Lausanne, Switzerland, but the people who are sitting at home in every city in America and all across the world, watching on television, and watching this championships right here. It's hard to watch a championships and to not know who's giving what marks to what skater and why [crowd cheers]. So please, thank you so much for your support, and "no more secret judging," please! [crowd cheers]
Lithuanian ice dancer POVILAS VANAGAS (with wife Margarita Drobiazko at his side):
Hi everybody, hi America, and hi all the fans who gather here from all over the world. We just want to say that always the fans were just very important part for every skater. Believe me, without fans the skating competitions don't exist [crowd cheers]. And at the very difficult situations that fan support is so important for all of us, believe us, and thanks for that great job you did always, especially on the Internet, when we read that, we always live the troubled situations much easier [crowd laughs]. And what we would like to say that it's great that you are trying to say what you're not, what you don't agree with in the judging system and the current rules system. And because that just shows the people who are the governing body at the moment of figure skating that something has gone wrong [crowd cheers]. So just go on and your support, I hope, will help improve figure skating all over in the world. All the best for you [crowd cheers].
RON PFENNING:
Hello everyone. Well, what can I say? Your enthusiasm is overwhelming. The task we have before us is not a short journey. It's a long trip, and we need you every step of the way. So continue to do what you're doing here. Your voice will be heard around the world. Judges have to be open; there can be no veil of secrecy in our sport [crowd cheers].
Marching in a circle begins, together with the chanting of slogans.
