bravesfan451 said:

> IMO,it doesn't seem that US figureskating has any power or influence
> any more in the skating world.

But has the USFSA *ever* had any power or influence?

I well remember how Morry Stillwell came back from the 1998 ISU Congress
(after having sold out over the OBO issue in spite of explicit
instructions to the contrary from the USFSA's governing council) crowing
about how they'd achieved peace in our time and that the USFSA's influence
was at an all-time high in the ISU. So what happens but a few months
later, Speedy is stomping all over US skaters like Kwan and Eldredge and
threatening them with sanctions for not doing the GP events, and the USFSA
is utterly and completely powerless to do anything about it. If that's
the USFSA's influence at an all-time high, what could it have been like
before? :-P

-Sandra the cynic