I was 22 when a group of spiteful figure skating coaches tried to destroy my reputation and get me deported from Australia.

Seriously.

This happened.

And as much as I’ve tried to forget about it, every couple of years, the Olympic Games reminds me.

 ✍️ So now, I’m writing this story down — for the first time.

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Ignorance is bliss

I truly had no idea what I was walking into.

And being only 22 at the time, I probably didn’t have the ability to properly process it. 

But there I was —  unexpectedly engaged in a perilous showdown with an irate mob, all while enduring the typical stress and long days that accompany a new business launch.

Looking back, I’m absolutely stunned that:

1. I was put into that position as a 22-year-old.

2. And I… won. 🤯

It all started when I was hired to lead programming for the largest ice sports center in the Southern Hemisphere — an $85 million venture*.

Was I qualified to do this? Probably not.

_{*Adjusted for inflation}

I’m in charge of… what now?

My new boss at the (under-construction) National Ice Sports Center of Australia knew how old I was.

He told me he must be crazy to hire me, but after an extensive interview process, there was simply no one else who had proven to him that they could do the job.

I should’ve thought more about why that was before I agreed to accept the role…

Because as it turned out, I had been handed a Quixotic endeavor. 🤦 

Up until that point, competitive figure skating in Australia was ruled by a gang of morally questionable coaches whose egos couldn’t fit in a Range Rover.

Despite Australia gaining strength internationally in winter sports such as skiing and speed skating, figure skating was still an embarrassment.

The reason for this became utterly clear to me in my first week, when I visited a rural ice rink to watch one of Australia’s “top” skaters train. 

This kid had raw, natural talent, an ideal body type, and a hugely supportive family — three ingredients for an Olympic-caliber athlete.

But she also had countless technique flaws, purely the result of poor coaching, that would be nearly impossible to fix. 

Her entire career had been hoarded by a husband-and-wife coaching team who refused to let her be trained by anyone else. Their own egos and personal financial gain kept this poor kid from even having a chance at competing at the world level.

It was infuriating.

This inspiring young athlete had her dreams ripped from her… and her parents had been duped for tens of thousands of dollars.

It made me realize what the hiring pool had looked like for my job — and what I was now up against.

They hired me

And now, I was responsible for hiring coaches and administrators across all four ice sports to deliver programming at the brand new, state-of-the-art National Ice Sports Center of Australia.

I needed to go mining for diamonds.

Hockey, speed skating, and curling were a breeze. Australia offered some absolutely stellar talent in those sports who were eager to be a part of what we were building.

But the figure skating coaches had no enthusiasm for us.

You see, we were making a pretty insane demand of them—

They needed to join our team.

That was preposterous. They wanted to rock up to the rink like gods, run their own little businesses (squeezing families for as much cash as possible), and be accountable to no one.

Many “leaders” in Australian figure skating were early fans of our project, but quickly changed their tune once they learned that we planned to adopt a teamwork approach.

In protest, one such leader even marched into my office, dropped an envelope on my desk in front of me, and stormed out without saying a word to anyone. 

It was like a scene from a movie. I had never witnessed someone behave like that in real life.

The envelope contained a letter withdrawing his name from consideration as a coach (um… he had never even applied), and calling me a “dictator”. 

Wow. That’s a little dramatic. 🎭️ 

But I needed to hire coaches. We couldn’t function without them. And you catch more flies with honey, so…

I scheduled a friendly meeting with the President and Vice President of the local Figure Skating Coaches Association.

I thought if I could sit down face-to-face with these folks, I could explain the reasons behind our programming decisions.

And I could clarify that these decisions were all being made in partnership with…

…wait for it…

The Olympic Winter Institute of Australia.

I had only been in this country a short time, and had quickly observed the deeply-rooted problems in their figure skating culture.

The Olympic Winter Institute had been observing these problems for years. They viewed the launch of this new facility (which would also serve as their new HQ) as a fresh start for figure skating in Australia.

They knew it would take time to make an impact at the highest level of competition, but they were 100% behind everything I was doing to build a better foundation.

Two faces

I met with the co-heads of the Coaches Association at a quaint little cafe.

They were pleasant enough. 

I walked them through the plans for the first year of operations, and asked them to pass on these details to any coaches who may want to be a part of it.

I opened up to them about my own experience as a competitive figure skater, which included training with several Russian coaches.

I spoke about my respect for the Russian training method, but mentioned that I had not seen it perform well at the grassroots level in the U.S., and probably wouldn’t recommend adopting it in Australia for a while.

Bingo — I had given them exactly what they were looking for.

The boy who cried racist

This gaggle of coaches (wrongly) believed that I was the only thing that stood in the way of them being able to carry out business as usual — in a shiny new building.

All they had to do was get rid of this 22-year-old nobody.

And so, despite this being many years before “cancel culture” became a thing, they decided to cancel me.

After all, I was a dangerous racist that had to be stopped.

Racist — against Russians. Their words, not mine.

They sent letters to every news outlet they could find, announcing that the person holding the reins of the future of figure skating in Australia was a “racist”, specifically discriminating against Russians (not even close to true), and was publicly refusing to hire Russians (again, not true, none had even applied).

And they sent a letter to Parliament, requesting my visa be revoked.

Journalists began calling my office by the dozens, looking for background and a comment.

After two or three minutes of speaking with me, my boss, or our PR team, they realized there was no story, and that the claims they were investigating were completely unfounded. They gave up and moved on.

But one major newspaper kept digging.

A bigger story

The journalist from this newspaper quickly knew I wasn’t a racist, but why on earth would a group of professionals make these claims? There was a story here — just not the story they had been told.

So they interviewed a bunch of the coaches, and learned their true grievances.

They felt victimized. Some of them were passed over for my job, and now they were being told they had to –gasp– apply and be interviewed to work “for me”.

The journalist was confused. 

Isn’t that how all jobs work? 

So the coaches explained how figure skating operated in the rest of the country. They were permitted to coach and operate their own businesses out of the other rinks, usually in exchange for a small monthly fee as rent.

They were their own bosses.

And the idea of having a boss, or being forced to “share” students with other coaches, was intolerable to them.

So the journalist went right to the top — they contacted the CEO of the Olympic Winter Institute of Australia.

His name is Geoff Lipshut, and to this day, that man retains legend status in my book.

Geoff’s response to the coaches’ grievances on how the new National Ice Sports Center would be operating its figure skating program was (paraphrased from memory):

While training Olympic figure skaters was not my job, that comment killed the story, and thwarted most of the other attempts this group of unduly agitated coaches made to “cancel” me.

And through this process, the cream rose to the top.

Our first three figure skating hires, Dorothy, Mark, and Amber, personified teamwork and led a collaborative culture that put the skaters at the center of every decision.

Together, we grew the program to nearly 20 diverse and talented coaches…

…including Svetlana. She was a rockstar in skates. Take a wild guess where she was from. 🤷

I did my best

Look, I don’t know if I positively impacted the trajectory of Australian figure skating or not.

All I know is that the culture we created in that rink made the kids pilots — not pawns. They had freedom to explore the sport on their terms, and a community of support to help them reach their goals.

To this day, it’s the thing I’m most proud of in my entire career.

I want to extend a heartfelt and eternal thank you to Dorothy, Mark, and Amber for their bravery in stepping out from the crowd, and for their support during one of the most difficult periods in my life.

They’ll never know how much they inspired me. ❤️ 

Cheers! 🍻

-Kristin :-)

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