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Archive Record
Images
Metadata
Object ID |
2013.55.45 B |
Object Name |
Video Recording |
Title |
David Dore Interview |
Scope & Content |
David Dore interview, 5 November 2008. Digitized MP4 from Sony 40 Advanced ME DVCAM. Two videos with a total viewing time of 00:58:10. 1of 2, 00:58 Childhood: had polio at age 12, it was suggested that he try figure skating to help him relearn how to walk, find coach Wallace Diestelmeyer who was willing to try, did reach the Nationals as a skater; life changing - changed outlook on things, when you realize you can do something and a lot of other things too, led to complete change in mental outlook which contributed to the rest of his life 03:33Were you scared to go on skates: talks about polio and how there were few solutions for this disease, no high tech solution, skating was really a stab in the dark but a lucky one for him 04:50Was your case well-known? No, one off, medical research not available in the 1950's 05:31When did skating become a passion? Became a love, it became an absolute passion; talks about Wallace Diestelmeyer giving him a real, true love of the sport and the realization you can do anything if you want, on the ice and off, that schoolings was fundamental to what you were going to become, skating was not supposed to be your life but something your life carved out, taught him all that about himself and gave him huge amount of confidence, strong steely mental outlook; second coach was Sheldon Galbraith, who taught him the appreciation, knowledge, awareness of figure skating, as a sport and as a science; he was never destined to be a successful competitor but Wally taught him its about what you accomplished in yourself, the goals that you set and where you go with these, from Sheldon he learned so much about what could be done with the sport, training and competitiveness, taught him those skills of how to appreciate the sport not only by himself but within an organization, which led him to a life-long involvement with the sport, feels his contribution was what he was able to bring to the sport as an administrator and trying to create systems of helping people to advance 08:38Goal as a skater was to achieve entry to the Nationals and he achieved that 09:20Why did you enjoy the administration part of the sport? He was the consummate volunteer, loved involvement at every level, never had any aspirations to high level of administration, like the excitement of doing something, seeing things happening, excitement of people working together and finding solutions together and something happening out of it; Loved developing programmes, both his coaches taught him to never be satisfied, always aspire to be more; Sheldon planted ideas and made him see visions of the sport, when started the sport did not have a lot of vision or direction 12:08Transition from skater to judge: there is a great need for people as the whole system is a judgemental sport, also attracted him to direct involvement with the ice, stopped him from walking away from the sport, still get energy from the sport 13:38On the politics: feels he is naive about that, doesn't like the word politics, anything that is subjective has a certain bias to it, develop in your own mind a certain styles and you develop certain things you like but the challenge is that you have to work with yourself to understand that you have to be there for the benefit of all the people who present a performance; have to respect the skater, finally see judging is in the moment and that has been a long time coming 15:43"At the end of the day you have to look at yourself, leave with personal pride and understanding of what you did" 16:49Talks about his career: started as a high school teacher, liked it but felt he had reached a plateau; in parallel to his teaching he was a volunteer in figure skating at all levels; in 1980 elected president of the CFSA, felt the organization was not run in a businesslike fashion, run by a small, select group, very male dominated in the board room, did not see necessity to reach out to other people or organizations, stagnant, huge divide between the elite who ran the sport and the participants, true in many sports; At that time skaters paid their own way, while history makes them successful, they were successful because of themselves not because of what other people did for them The divide intrigued him: how did it happen and why should it continue, had been elected to keep the status quo - he was bothered and concerned that a young athlete like Toller Cranston could make scathing remarks and began to realize a lot of them were true and uncomfortable - how can you piggyback on the glory and success of people while not allowing them support? Had a young family but had quit his teaching job, started working with a trade organization where he learned finance and administration, understood you had to be creative and inventive; at this point began to define the direction for the CFSA Started to form study groups to look at governance, finance, exposure of the sport, etc; found solutions, was the front man and got the reputation of being steely, created the national team, got funding - put Johnny Esaw in charge of this area, feels he was the catalyst & had people with him who had the skills he did not; offered the job as Executive Director in 1984 29:20How does the CFSA get a young skater to the Olympics? Talks about the biggest challenges in Canada are the size and the cultural and linguistic diversity; good governance system from the national level to provincial to regional to the clubs that allows communication to work up and down at the same time, a centralized organization that it's strength is that it is one entity 31:59Are the best at the Nationals? Confident, that if all things are right and the athletes take advantage of the opportunities, then yes, but there are no guarantees 33:51On leaving the CFSA: last part of his tenure created the Trust which was to manage events as a commercial product, major income generator, had to be managed professionally not by volunteers, but the volunteers are needed to be the backbone of the event, talks about the 2001 World Championships in Vancouver and the success of this event; began to question what next, better to leave while at the top; 5 months after his retirement he was became a VP with the International Skating Union, not a planned move, whole new learning curve 40:41Legacy with Skate Canada: point when you accept what you did and allow other people opportunities, has great confidence in the group of people there 2 of 2; 00:01 (continued from tape 1)Perception that he had a lot of power and was self-perpetuated, this bothers him, not who he is, "to lead and be successful, sometimes you have to make decisions that are not always popular with people." Time for new generation to come forward, give someone else a chance; proud of what he has done and no regrets, ", "when you become the icon, it is time to look at yourself" 03:54On the judging scandal in 2002 Salt Lake City: "was it a good thing to have happened, I really don't know. I wish it had never happened but it did", finds the facts ugly and discomforting, calls it an ugly time that has done irreparable harm to the sport and has damaged its credibility; his work with the ISU was to create the system which has a certain integrity and credibility, now in a re-invention period 08:11On whether judges should be identified: purpose of not naming them enables as assessment commission that is monitoring the judging system, from a technical perspective, the judging community has to understand that they have responsibilities and if they not live to these responsibilities there can be consequences, which wasn't there before, from the internal perspective by being anonymous the commission has no idea who they are reviewing and makes the reviews credible Talks about the perspective of dilemma with the public wanting to see judging on what the performance is and yet they want to see the top skaters on the podium; system helping skaters to analyze their performance and move up 13:15On educating the spectators: we have to help spectators change, whole new concept today, not interesting, has advanced the sport 15:42On skaters "earning their stripes": cites Patrick Chan as the perfect example of how the system is working 16:47Why do we still need judges: still a subjective sport, need that involvement by people |
Date |
2008/11/05 |
People |
Dore, David Diestelmeyer, Wallace Galbraith, Sheldon |
Search Terms |
David Dore Figure skating skating interview Canadian Figure Skating Association International Skating Union |