The world of figure skating is in mourning: the former president of the Russian Figure Skating Federation, Valentin Piseev, has passed away. He battled illness for a long time and died at the age of 83.
Piseev became a member of the Presidium of the USSR Figure Skating Federation in 1965, almost 60 years ago. He devoted his entire life to the development of figure skating in our country.
On this difficult day, “Championship” remembers the story of the famous leader.
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Former FFKKR President Valentin Piseev has passed away at the age of 82
Figure skating came into Valentin Nikolaevich’s life in 1950: he started skating at the Moscow Stadium of Young Pioneers. Piseev’s coach was Tatyana Granatkina, the founder of the Soviet school of figure skating. Piseev did not achieve great success in sports, but he became a candidate for Master of Sports of the USSR, entered the Institute of Physical Culture and graduated with honors.
Piseev combined his work as a coach with organizational work. At the age of 24 he headed the All-Union Board of Judges, and at 26 he became executive secretary of the USSR Figure Skating Federation.
Valentin Nikolaevich devoted a lot of time to judicial work. From 1972 to 1977 he was a judge at the European and World Championships and the Olympic Games. In 1977 a major scandal broke out with the suspension of all Soviet judges for the 1977/1978 season due to the maximum score of 6.0 for the pair Irina Rodnina/Alexander Zaitsev.
Irina Rodnina and Alexander Zaitsev
Photo by: RIA Novosti
This is what Piseev himself said about him: “During the reign of the Frenchman Jacques Favard, we were really “strangled”. At the 1977 World Championships in Tokyo, I gave Rodnina and Zaitsev 5.9 in technique (with a small mistake in the execution of the jump) and 6.0 in artistry. After them, two more pairs had to perform, which in theory could have scored higher, since according to a tacit agreement in such cases the maximum scores were not to be given. But I knew: if I did not score 6.0, the Union would not understand me. I deliberately took a risk. And so, the head of the technical committee, the Italian Bianchetti, immediately after the end of the pairs competition, assembled a panel of judges – although according to the rules she had no right to do so – and gave them a reprimand. They announced a disqualification not only for me, but for all our judges: they collected several cases where the scores of Soviet figure skaters were allegedly inflated.”
The situation was resolved by correspondence: Piseev and the head of the sports committee, Sergei Pavlov, prepared an emotional letter to the ISU president Jacques Favard, and in response received an explanation of the cases of biased refereeing. The official promised to take control of the evaluations of Soviet figure skaters so that they “would not be squeezed out,” and instead of disqualifying Piseev, he was promoted.
Valentin Piseev in 2010
Photo: Oleg Buldakov/TASS
For eight years (1977-1985) Piseev was elected a member of the ISU technical committee. Valentin Nikolaevich has repeatedly pointed out that in figure skating it is necessary to have good contacts with the world: “Those who do not know and do not try to work with international federations are worthless. And in such subjective sports as figure skating, personal contacts are doubly valuable.”
In 1989, Valentin Piseev headed Soviet figure skating, and after the collapse of the USSR – the Russian Figure Skating Federation. Over the next 18 years, Russian figure skaters won countless medals, including Olympic medals. A galaxy of men’s singles (Urmanov-Kulik-Yagudin-Plyushchenko), the most brilliant victories in dance – Grischuk/Platov, Navka/Kostomarov, dominance in pair skating – Mishkutenok/Dmitriev, Kazakova/Dmitriev, Berezhnaya/Sikharulidze, Totmyanina/Marinin, women’s singles revived in the person of Butyrskaya and Slutskaya – all this happened during the period when Valentin Nikolaevich was at the head of the federation.
What did our skaters gain from Piseev?
Stories
Piseev headed our figure for more than 20 years! Plushenko, Yagudin and Slutskaya won with him
How did the FFKKR get a general sponsor? This is largely the merit of Piseev. Here is how he spoke about it in an interview in 2016:
“Participation in the Council for Physical Culture and Sport chaired by the Russian Federation helped. In 2007, the Head of State held a meeting in Sochi. After the meeting, I decided to take the opportunity and informed Putin that the federation did not have a general partner. He asked: how much money is needed? I called. Vladimir Vladimirovich was surprised: “It’s not so much money to talk about it.” A few months later, Rostelecom started a collaboration with us that continues to this day.”
Piseev resigned as president of the FFKKR in 2010: after the results of the Vancouver Olympics, he decided not to stand as a candidate for the new elections. For another four years, Valentin Nikolaevich became the general director of the federation, and in 2014 he became the honorary president of the FFKKR.
Valentin Piseev and Evgeni Plushenko
Photo by: RIA Novosti
Valentin Nikolaevich has repeatedly spoken out in the media on important news issues in the world of figure skating, giving rise to vivid quotes. For example, after the elimination of Russian athletes from international competitions, he spoke about the place that Japanese Kaori Sakamoto would take in the student Spartakiad:
“You know, we just had the final of the Spartakiad. It was two days ago, I flew in from Sochi. And the girls performed in the first category, so two of them, of these first-class girls who were 12-13 years old, jumped four revolutions. This is the level. And we thought: what place will Sakamoto take in the final of the Spartakiad, where top-class athletes participate? Well, somewhere we thought she could get into the top six, but not higher.”
After Alexandra Trusova’s five quadruple turns at the figure skating competition in Chelyabinsk, Piseev said that he invited the skater to compete with the boys: “I have never seen anything like this in historical figure skating: five quadruple turns in four minutes. I told her: now you can compete with the men. And Sasha replied: “Why not. I’m ready. I can also perform in doubles. In dance it is more difficult.”
Valentin Piseev
Photo by: RIA Novosti
With Valentin Nikolaevich’s departure, figure skating has lost a lot. Many of Piseev’s contemporaries spoke about this.
“Valentin Piseev loved figure skating, lived and served it faithfully. He loved his friends and was devoted to sports. The period of his activity was very long. And all the great victories of Russia in figure skating are connected with him. Our sincere condolences,” said Tatyana Tarasova.
“Of course, this is a man of his time. He led a whole generation of figure skating in the USSR. All the victories of our team are associated with his name. And then he continued to lead in the new country. As a leader he was ambiguous, inconvenient for many, but his most important and important quality was that as a leader he always knew how to make decisions and take responsibility. During his leadership, many victories of our athletes took place. He was present at every start he could. He always sat, looked at everything with the eyes of a leader, wrote down a lot, recorded it himself. He took care of the guys and looked after them. He was a real workaholic,” Elena Buyanova noted.
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“Championship” offers its condolences to the family and friends of Valentin Piseev.
