Zen and the Art of Speedskating

I never thought I would find anything more painful than one of my coaches’ mid-summer 3 hour dryland workouts:

Until now…. I spent 3 days last weekend at every single minute of the US speedskating spring board meeting, wow… it was an amazing emotional spin-cycle of “the good, the bad, and the ugly”

It was painful to be there because of watching the clash of really smart & passionate people who have all dedicated much of their lives to this sport. There were moments of brilliance and moments of incompetence and disconnection.

Everyone REALLY cares, but due to their positions, experience, motivations, and “clue factor” ideas of what is “best” for this organization tend to differ radically.

Also I have never seen an organization who’s professional staff said as often to the membership “we need your ideas and help, come up with proposals & program ideas & sponsorship leads”-At least 3 different meetings, that was the recurring theme.

I have always argued that “US speedskating” is a misnomer, because it sounds like a singular item, like “US SPEEDSKATING” is one animal, or an individual.

It’s not, US SPEEDSKATING a beast with 1700 heads, arms, eyes, claws, teeth, scattered pockets of brain and stomping feet. And this beast frequently chews on itself, tears itself apart, and lurches about when the head tries to point it in a particular direction. It’s a beast to love, and to be deeply ambivalent about when it steps on your head.

There are several essential limbs of the beast in evidence at this meeting, and they all are pre-disposed to view this loveable & bloody creature from a different perspective depending on what appendage their life experience places them in. No group is unanimous, and there are people who have migrated between appendages (like there are 4 athlete reps on the board), but here are the essential rough groupings.

The board of directors
The 100 category 1 elite athletes
The half dozen professional salaried coaches
The paid staff at the national office in ohio
Officials (many with decades of service)
The HARDCORE club volunteers & coaches who come from all over the country
The business professionals who want to run this like a 21st century business.
Curious local skaters (I fit in this one)
Representatives: Facilities-Sponsors-USOC & Speed Skating Canada

I have struggled about how I should write about this meeting. Here is my take on the Good, the bad, and the ugly from my own impressionistic notes I wrote down as I watched the proceedings.

The Good.

• In the view of the general public, speedskating is often judged by our success at the Olympic games, to say there was interest and media coverage of US speedskating’s 10 medals is an understatement! 10 medals! what astonishing sucess!!
• There is a VITAL base of volunteers who REALLY care about what happens to this sport.
• There must have been 50 people at the meeting, all representing large numbers of members, who flew in from all over the USA. This passion will ensure a bedrock for this sport no matter what happens at the upper levels.
• There were some astonishingly good questions & concerns raised by the Elite Athletes in attendance, and what they had to say was honestly listened to. Derek Parra, Chris Witty, Catherine Rainey, K.C. Boutiette, Dan Jansen, Chris Needham, all were very active contributors in every meeting they were at. I have never seen an organization whose athletes were more directly involved.
• There are some people in positions of authority at US speedskating who are extremely competent, I was very impressed with Craig Wing, smart dude. Chris Needham & Scott Koons are going to be fantastic athlete reps as well. There are also some fearless & elouquent members of the volunteers, who were fun to watch & good to listen to.

The Bad

• In Canada, the provincial association pays the travel expenses of their top young athletes. Pretty cool!

  In the US, sometimes even the top skaters pay their own way to races. But hey, this is where Canadian tax dollars go! Essentailly taxes are the price of civilization, and I will refrain from commenting on where American civiliazation is headed!!!

• Some important political issues were obviously resolved in backroom closed-door meetings, not in front of the membership. If I were on the board, would I act differently? maybe, but maybe not, democracy can be a messy, full contact sport.
• US speedskating is cutting several regional development coaches; this is a BAD idea, as development is what this organization is all about. No money? There was practically a revolt in the membership about the elimination of these coaches. And it happened anyway. With an organization with a running budget somewhere over a million dollars, it seems silly to cut experienced human beings who don’t cost that much. Cut your altitude housing before coaching.
• US speedskating Membership has slowly declined over the last 4 years, but is has been in general decline for the past 100, so maybe that is no one’s fault but societal tectonics at work. However, with the popularity & availability of short-track clubs, it seems odd.

  Speedskating will never be a “major sport”. But it should be larger & better known than it is

The Ugly

• US speedskating has pissed off its sponsors royally. In the direct words of a budget committee member, they are facing “The Perfect Storm” in the next few months, here are the elements of said storm:
• US speedskating “got in the door” with Qwest as a potential sponsor because the idea of Shani Davis wearing a Qwest logo was incredibly attractive to this company that claims diversity as a core value. Shani never wore a Qwest logo, in fact, there was a picture of Shani on the front page of USA today with Qwest logo painted over by DSB (you could just barely see Qwest). The CEO of Qwest was PISSED, and not only is canceling their sponsorship, they are about to sue to get their money back from last year!! That would be crippling organization-wide if they do.
• ADT is furious as well, mostly due to the Olympic media firestorms. Why no one in authority in US speedskating did not step in to calm the waters is beyond me. It could have been a one or two day media story, not almost two weeks.
• Losing these two sponsors adds up to MILLIONS of dollars.
• The USOC demands that US speedskating has a new athlete agreement (the source of much of this friction) in hand, or they will not approve their 1.1 million of funding per year. So there MUST be some kind of a peace treaty, and right now the athletes who have outside sponsors seem still quite pissed off. (in the spirit of disclosure, I do work for one of them, so I can’t take too public a position on this).
• Essentially, every major source of funding in jeapordy, not good. It takes some real talent to piss off EVERYONE all at once!
• There was far too much, from people who should have been be better prepared: “we need ideas & proposals from the membership, we need help& proposals from the membership, since we don’t have a firm suggestion of direction” At several different meetings, this was a recurring theme.

Bonus Ugly: Yesterday the executive director of US speedskating resigned! why after the meeting? and not before? during? so there could be discussion/member input about what to do next, & who might replace her? or maybe so that people could simply say either “thank you” or “go away” depending on their feelings about her. Odd timing… very odd… Again, we were in her shoes, would we have handled it differently?

It’s unfair of me to point out issues, and not offer constructive solutions, or take the “walk a mile in other moccasains” thoughtful approach. My own small ideas, will come in another post (and maybe something about my own small innefective contribution to the meeting itself).

(right now I need to get to work, I am back in cube-land, I have a contract IT job at a cool company, and I am late for work)

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