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by JOHN POWERS Te Skating Club of Boston has been one of


the sport’s most productive and distinguished hot- beds since 1912. Seven of its officials, coaches and skaters are enshrined in the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame. Its athletes have competed in the Olympics since 1920 and have won an armful of medals. Te club has hosted seven U.S. champion- ships. So why not bid for Worlds?


Boston put up its hand for the 2016 edition, the first to be held in the States in seven years, and when the lights were turned out at TD Garden af- ter the Sunday exhibition, the riverside home of the Vinsons and Buttons and Albrights and Wylies had orchestrated an exceptionally successful cham- pionships, drawing more than 108,000 spectators. “I don’t think we could have asked for any-


thing more,” said club president Joe Blount, “and I don’t think we could have asked for anything more from our volunteers.” Just under 200 of the club’s nearly 800 mem-


bers staffed 35 committees, covering everything from transportation to hospitality to skater ser- vices. Most of the volunteers had worked on the 2001 and 2014 U.S. Championships, as well as the 2012 U.S. and 2013 World Synchronized Skating Championships. “Tey were trained, they were experienced,


they were rested and they were ready to go again,” Te Skating Club of Boston Executive Director Doug Zeghibe said. “Tere was a good mix of club members who have volunteered for a long time and this was their last one. Tey wanted to go out on a high note. And we pulled a few out of re- tirement who just wanted to be part of this event, plus a bunch of new members who wanted to get involved.” Since Worlds customarily are held in the U.S.


only every half dozen years, Te Skating Club of Boston didn’t want to miss a favorable hosting window.


Mirai Nagasu receives a standing ovation for her free skate. The crowds in Boston were some of the best ever, according to organizers and officials.


Joe Blount and Doug Zeghibe


“We figured that two years after the U.S. Championships gave us a leg up organizationally as well as keeping awareness in the Boston mar- ket and giving it time to recover from an exciting event,” Zeghibe said. “We knew this was our one opportunity to keep this volunteer group together and we were aggressive about it. We really wanted this one.”


What helped greatly was that Zeghibe had


been event director of the 2009 Worlds in Los An- geles.


“I got to see marketing and promotions and,


more importantly, I got to see all the numbers, so I understood how the event came together numeri- cally, which was a big leg up,” he said. “It gave me a comfort level — let’s take this on, I feel pretty good about it.”


Te biggest organizational difference between hosting the U.S. Championships and Worlds is dealing with the International Skating Union and its expectations involving staging a global event. “Te ISU is very exacting,” Zeghibe said. “In


some ways they’re easy because they’re very clear about what they want. In other ways they have all these protocols and specifics that they really care about.” Having worked closely with TD Garden and city officials two years ago helped enormously in the club’s effort to deliver a successful event. Even so, Blount was at the Garden at 5:15 a.m. on the final competition day, smoothing out glitches. While the club wouldn’t mind staging another ma- jor competition in the future, its president reckons that it’s time for a breather. “We’re probably going to pull back a little


bit,” Blount said. “People are exhausted from so many events.”


Te immediate respite was only for a couple of days, since the members quickly were back at work organizing the club’s 104th annual show, the oldest continuing ice carnival on the planet. Worlds may be a once-in-a-lifetime event for Bos- ton, but Ice Chips comes around every year.


28 MAY 2016


PHOTO BY SARAH BRANNEN


JAY ADEFF/U.S. FIGURE SKATING


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