Worlds Scores Malaysia

[Jordan]

Congrats to Joel! Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

 

[Jordan]

And congratulations to Whitney McClintock for winning the ladies overall!!!

[John Brooks]

Yes as @Horton says, let’s go with great conditions. As @Chad_Scott mentions get rid of the ridiculous sanction fee and invest in the best possible webcast.

[Horton]

@John Brooks if the skiers had a choice I would bet the Worlds would always be in Florida or Chile or Alabama or similar.

 

Not sure what I would change anything about the webcast. It was really good except that they did not tell anyone about it and made it semi hard to find.

[Zman]

@Horton Agree.

SAFE conditions has to be the #1 priority, hands down.

As @Chad_Scott link noted, those conditions were BS. All the injuries and seriously lower scores proved it.

But, to have crap, unsafe conditions at a location that cannot hardly get any audience = total BS.

And, surely they knew both were likely.

[aupatking]

Put the current world champions on the site selection committee.

[JackQ]

Andre, Don’t you think the conditions caused him to get behind and put everything on the line to win. Cause and effect, with random significant rollers it is a miracle more weren’t injured. The conditions appeared to be much worse than Moomba, there you get crowds, enthusiasm, legacy and challenging conditions. At the worlds the only attribute is, the more than challenging conditions.

 

Truly a case of IWSF valuing sanction fees over athlete safety, a roller at the wrong time jumping could literally kill someone.

[UWSkier]

Know about Joel's foot. What were the other casualties?

[dvskier]

Jack Critchley GB jump crash and hospitalized.

[BraceMaker]

Jack dislocated his hip

[Horton]

Jump crashes happen. I haven't seen the Open men's final webcast yet. Weather conditions dodgy or not?

[TFIN]

As per my earlier post, this event could have went either way, and it definitely fell short. Given how dismally attended this event was, it was not worth putting it in a more public venue. Site selection is not the difficult part, finding someone to come up with a quarter million dollars to floss the IWSF is the problem. Pro events are different, the Moomba Masters, the US masters, are heavily attended professional events, so less than ideal conditions are acceptable. Putting athletes at risk when there are zero dollars and zero spectators is pointless. I would say live and learn, but we know the latter does not seem to be happening

That being said, amazing how hard these guys and girls fought for their titles. Good work.

TF

[Chad_Scott]

@TFIN Well said.

[LLUSA]

@Horton Alabama is exploring the possibilities for 2021 and we do have a world renown sponsor in mind I said exploring

[Zman]

Lymanland would make an awesome venue!

[Andre]

Enough already about the conditions.This is the ''World Scores ''thread...

Which skier got your attention during this week?

For me,Dane Mechler performance is quite amazing.Running 39 both rounds and we all could see that he wasn't going to stand up 2 to tie.The kid was going for the win right there!

Congrats to Dane!

We'll see some more out of him for sure!

[ALPJr]

Awesome skiing and nice webcast/video.

[Jaypro]

Next time worlds are in the US, I’m going....super fun to watch.

[DangerBoy]

What's this?!! Do I see that Canada won the Worlds team Championship?!! iwwfed-ea.org/competition.php?cc=T-19IWWF02&page=overall_team_classification

 

Wooooooooo Hooooooooooo! :) Considering the fact that our lakes are frozen half the year and the center of the universe for the sport is in the USA where you have places people can ski year 'round, I'd say that's quite an accomplishment and quite an upset. Congrats to Team Canada!! And congrats to all of the teams and competitors who soldiered through the conditions and gave it their all. You've made us all proud and represented your countries well.

[Drago]

@DangerBoy not sure you are aware of the Canadian population in Florida...

[ScottScott]

I was thinking the same thing. "our lakes are frozen half the year".

 

Ya, thats why they all live in Central Florida....eh?

 

Good job team Canada either way.

[Jody_Seal]

Florida wins it all!!

[Chef23]

I think Neilly Ross may vacation in Canada but her home certainly seems to be in FL. If it makes them happy who cares really but it could be Team FL beat the world.

[disland]

Every sport is like that. Look at Tennis and Golf. Almost the entire Europe rider cup team lives in Florida

[DangerBoy]

@Drago Of course I figured the Canadian competitors at least winter in Florida if not live and train there. Florida is the world's undisputed epicenter for the sport and a large part of the world's infrastructure (e.g. lakes and coaching) is there. As far as I know, the sport is way, way more developed in the USA than in Canada or any other country for that matter. Is that a correct assessment? If yes, that would make Canada a pretty big underdog in the team competition wouldn't it?

[dvskier]

@DangerBoy Actually most all of the Canadian skiers actually live full time in Florida. The others spend most of there time there. So I can’t see as how you feel Canada is an underdog.

[jayski]

@dvskier not as large of an 'underdog' as some other countries but just based on population to draw potential skiers we are greatly at a disadvantage, (37 million in all of Canada, California alone has 39 million) plus our climate does not warrant the mentality to compete generally in summer sports such as water skiing

[keithh2oskier]

@jayski so your saying you have less people and 23x the spaces as us in California. Sounds pleasant.

[Andre]

Yep,but some of it is cold cold cold...

[Drago]

They are subsidized as well

[Horton]

The event organizer is taking to Facebook to defend the event. I hate to send anyone to Facebook but this is worth a read.

 

The post starts with the text "TALK ABOUT SORE LOSERS, NOW WE HAVE SORE WINNERS - NOT A GOOD ROLE MODEL!"

 

https://www.facebook.com/hanifahyoongyinfah

[BlueSki]

@Horton, can you post the text please? Some of us trust the galactic emperor more than Zuckerberg.

[Horton]

@BlueSki I sort of reconstructed it here. The video is NOT mine but that link was handy.

 

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/B1Ua1huBAsd/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

 

TALK ABOUT SORE LOSERS, NOW WE HAVE SORE WINNERS - NOT A GOOD ROLE MODEL!

Tell me all you sportsmen out there. Whatever sport IOC or not, which sport would condone a world champion hitting out on their own International Federation (IWWF in this case) which governs their sport and escape scot-free? Waterski, is the only sport which allows that, I supposed!

 

What a shame and what a lowly world champion who climbed our medals ceremony podium barefoot (against protocol and obligations) as well as refusing to represent Canada in the recent PANAM Games waterski competition held recently in Lima, Peru for a certain gold for the national pride and glory of Canada for want of a fees to be paid (it seemed and so, I heard). And how irresponsible is an interviewer whose company received the rights to broadcast webcast and received fees from the host country to not able to cut short this interview for the sake of saving the world champion's face and reputation as well as the international federation's reputation? It's like a guest invited to a sumptious wedding dinner who willingly attend knowing the food was good and eat it all take the spoils of a world title medal then shout about how horrible the food was and how the host and sanctioning body who hosted the "dinner" lined their pockets for serving bad food! LOL!

 

What he contended here are lies as our water conditions had many personal best, Asian and world records set and was far better than the 2008 World Cup here. The IWWF had approved and sanctioned anR status (world record capable site) and the organisers as well as most athletes were very happy bar a few.

 

To top it all he is also IWWF's athlete rep in the World Tournament Council which is supposed to help govern the sport with rules in a path ahead to build the sport, not to destroy it! What a big joke this is! A world champion telling lies on internet is a dastardly act. The accidents were caused by over the limit efforts and not the unsafe water conditions. The rule has it that the Chief Judge's responsibility is to stop the competition if deemed dangerous. The Chief Judge didn't so it was deemed safe for the athletes and for the organisers. Speaking about cut-your-nose-to-spite-your-face! This is classic!

[Horton]

The comments from the other skiers that follows in worth a read for those of you who have a Facebook account.

[jcamp]

Wrong move Hanifah ...

 

 

[Than_Bogan]

I'm probably going in with a strong bias, but to me it's the organizer who looks bad in this exchange. Ryan comes off as very genuine in that clip.

And when your best defense of your conditions is "It's better than 2008" -- that's laughable.

[bojans]

The comments would be funny if it were not centered around injury. Hanifah has dug a hole but just keeps digging.

[ScottScott]

Criticizing skiers for showing up to the podium barefoot? Huh?

 

He's just lashing out back at them and showing what lack of class he has.

[kc]

So Jared was supposed to cut off the interview? So much for freedom of speech I guess...sounds like censorship to me. Ryan wasn’t the only world champion on top of podium barefoot. Joel was also barefoot, and was hopping like an Aussie kangaroo because of his broken foot.

[BlueSki]

Wow! Thanks for posting the text @Horton. Malaysia doesn’t have a good history of respect for freedom of expression and oppression has clearly influenced this guy’s views. He should have consulted the Beijing office in charge of Hong Kong protest propaganda, to think that they could have helped him with the diplomacy is illustrative. (I guess this means I won’t be getting a set in Malaysia.)

[UWSkier]

It's a cultural thing. He's Malaysian. There is heavy influence from Chinese culture around face. His reaction is not at all unexpected.

[Skiwoodgate]

Hanifah even goes on the offensive slamming injured athletes, Jaret for not "cutting off" Ryan, Daniel for having passport issues, Ryan for being slow to the podium ... Smearing anyone and blaming anything possible to detract from the actual conversation about the site being terrible. That tells me all I need to know.

[skiinxs]

Wow, I read all that guy had to say, "alternative facts"? Way to go Ryan for speaking up! Very sad to see the state our sport is in to subject our elite athletes to this as the world championships.

[Horton]

Imagine if IWWF paid for the best site possible for the skiers to compete and perform. Instead it appears that the high bidder gets the event regardless of what is best for the sport or the skiers.

 

NOTE: I am not 100% clear about how the bid process works. I have heard a lot of 3rd hand stories about money changing hands but never read the official docs. If someone really knows and wants to explain that would be great.

[DangerBoy]

@dvskier I was thinking Canada is an underdog because competitive water skiing is not a well developed or participated in sport here. In the USA you've got so many more dedicated waterski lakes, clubs, leagues and competitions, etc. You've also got waterskiing as a sport/program in some Universities and Colleges. That may exist somewhere in Canada but I personally am unaware of it. Do we have any Universities and/or Colleges with waterskiing teams here in Canada? You've also got 10 times the population and have got so many more kids competing and moving up through the ranks competing and lots of good coaching at all the levels and other things you need to become a powerhouse at the sport. In Canada, we have very little of those things and our season is so short compared to what it is in a lot of the USA.

 

Now if you look at hockey, we have thousands of kids playing, zillions of leagues going, heaps of excellent coaches at every level and all the infrastructure and things you need to turn out a high number of elite players and be one of the top countries in that sport. It's like the USA in baseball, basketball and especially football. In Canada, competitive waterskiing is pretty much right at the opposite end of that spectrum with few athletes being funneled into the system/moving through the ranks, very few places to do it, not a lot of top coaching available and a very short season for doing the sport. Given all that, I think it's quite surprising that Canada is able to offer up enough high ranking athletes in the sport to actually be competitive with the US in overall team score and in this case come out ahead of them at this year's World's.

 

I have to guess it's only because we're able to channel at least some of our athletes through the US system and get them into US schools that have waterski programs, etc, that we're able to do that. Certainly, having them be able to live and train in a place where they can do the sport year 'round and have access to great coaching and top notch facilities like they can in Florida is a huge help. Without that, there's no way we could be competitive in the sport. The same thing can probably be said for a number of other countries as well.

[Cnewbert]

With all the debate and controversy about the conditions at the recent Worlds and how skiers were being endangered and injured as a result, I got to wondering how often skiers pushing their limits are injured at major 3-event tournaments with good conditions. I have no way of knowing of course, but coincidently a video just showed up on Facebook produced by Flowpoint TV, entitled “Paradise Lost” and featuring Marcus Brown narrating. Marcus of course injured his back very badly in competition to the point where to this day he is not skiing tournaments. The theme of the video concerned how to return waterski tournaments to the national spotlight and popularity they once enjoyed in the mid 80s. Considerable footage was from the Worlds in Mexico in 2015 I believe. Shown on the video were numerous brutal wipeouts in slalom and some horrific looking crashes in jumping. At one point a skier was shown being loaded into an ambulance, not unlike what just occurred in Malaysia. But the difference was the conditions in Mexico looked about perfect. Yet bad crashes and injuries happened anyway, as many or more than what I saw in Malaysia. So I have to wonder whether or not the organizers of the Malaysia Worlds are getting a bad rap for what may well be unfortunate yet inevitable in a sport that is inherently dangerous amplified by athletes going for broke resulting in accidents occurring even when conditions are ideal.

[Horton]

@Cnewbert if you ski hard you might get hurt. If you ski your absolute hardest in bad conditions you are much more likely to get hurt.

[rockdog]

Aah gee (sigh) I've no answers here but this is embarrassing for our sport. Honestly it's just turned into amateur hour.

[MillerTime38]

@Horton so you know going into the competition that the conditions are going to be sketchy and you choose to still compete because that was your choice then after the competition blast the event organizers for something you knew before attending the event?? If Dodd wanted to make a statement he should have chose to not participate.

[Horton]

It's an amateur event but if I'm one of the best skiers in the world it's my job. It's how I pay my mortgage and put diapers on my baby. If I'm one of the best skiers in the world and Canadian I get paid by my Federation. I also get paid by boat companies and other sponsors. It's my job to go win and nothing is more coveted by my sponsors and supporters than a world title.

 

Besides the money - winning world titles is the ultimate achievement in the sport. It's a no-win situation. How does one work for a lifetime and then let somebody else take the gold.