- Joined
- Mar 24, 2007
It's my understanding that the longer the competition, the more money it costs.
I don't buy the costs more money excuse. I'm sure Worlds make ton of money for ISU and they can afford it.As someone who's been called on to evaluate people for over 8 hours straight I can tell you from personal experience that human beings can't do a great job of that for so long. After hour 4 or 5 you get kind of punch drunk and your ability to evaluate is seriously impaired (especially those who are far better or worse than the norm) and there is _no_ way around that. Some of the question SP judging can probably be put down to judging fatigue.
I don't buy the costs more money excuse. I'm sure Worlds make ton of money for ISU and they can afford it.
Well, yes, qualifications for the Grand Prix should be changed a bit. Every country should be able to send at least one skater to one Grand Prix event. Every country also automatically gets one entry to 4 Continents/Euros as well. That provides two chances a season for any country to get a skater to Worlds.
If a skater is world-class they ARE going to get the necessary score at one of the competitions.
A few of the lesser skaters might be "unfairly" left out because of relative scoring between events, but it's much more important for Worlds to actually showcase the best skaters in the World. Yukari Nakano, Akiko Suzuki, Johnny Weir, Alban Preaubert, Caroline Zhang, Ashley Wagner, and various other skaters absolutely should have been at Worlds this year. Limiting entries to a certain number per country needs to stop. It's such a backwards way of thinking.
Okay, then include Africa and call it the 5CC. Or you allocate a few wildcard spots. Regardless of how it comes about, the point is, the number of competitors should be reduced to at least 36 for singles and 28 teams for pairs and dance, IMO.
There would probably need to be more GPs and/or nobody gets to go twice, to fit all the skaters in. Also how do you determine which country gets to send more than one to the GPs?
I disagree - i think it's ridiculous enough that world championships can be decided by less a point - something which is completely meaningless within that same comeptition because of teh random selection. To use those scores across different competitions could cause (a) a real injustice and (b) perpetuates the myth that scores are comparable from different competitions.
Ant
NO!!!!!!!!!!!! This is "WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS" and not 5CC!!!!
I am so angry now!!!
There would probably need to be more GPs and/or nobody gets to go twice, to fit all the skaters in. Also how do you determine which country gets to send more than one to the GPs?
Not necessarily - even skaters who get two GPs IMO shouldn't be able to take the highest score out of the two otherwise it gives them an unfair advanatge over the other skaters. We know that skaters can have bad competitions so i don't think it's as cut and dry as that. It also takes something out of the GP series in and of itself if it's only function is as a qualifier for worlds.
I disagree - i think it's ridiculous enough that world championships can be decided by less a point - something which is completely meaningless within that same comeptition because of teh random selection. To use those scores across different competitions could cause (a) a real injustice and (b) perpetuates the myth that scores are comparable from different competitions.
Ptichka - Definitely, it seems the Feds do not have full interest in the sport However, they do want to have control over the administration of it. More popular sports events also have the same problems, but there is an interest in resolving matters affecting the sports. The ISU should not allow any particular interests of Feds to interfere with the overall workings of the Sport but take a stand on what is good for the sport, and override any special interests of any particular countryJoe, this gets us, I think, to the very heart of the ISU problems. ISU deals with federations, not skaters. Federations have their own interests that have very little to do with the interests of the sport; however, they are the ones who finance sport development, so they naturally have a say. To me, the current system of figuring out how many skaters each country can send isn't too bright - I mean, even if Elene medals at Worlds, Georgia still won't automatically produce another elite skater! I say - have the top 12 ranked skaters all go even if they are all from the same country, and then allow each country to send two skaters to qualifying round to compete for the other 24 spots.
Joe, this gets us, I think, to the very heart of the ISU problems. ISU deals with federations, not skaters. Federations have their own interests that have very little to do with the interests of the sport; however, they are the ones who finance sport development, so they naturally have a say. To me, the current system of figuring out how many skaters each country can send isn't too bright - I mean, even if Elene medals at Worlds, Georgia still won't automatically produce another elite skater! I say - have the top 12 ranked skaters all go even if they are all from the same country, and then allow each country to send two skaters to qualifying round to compete for the other 24 spots.
Why would there need to be more GPs? Just have more skaters per event.
It doesn't give them an unfair advantage, any top skater should get 2 Grand Prix assignments. The GP has always been a warm up for the later events in the season. It doesn't take anything out of the GP to have it also serve as a qualifier for Worlds. Skaters still have incentive to skate the best they can in order to achieve the best World standing and receive the money bonus.
Random selection of scores is an entirely different tangent (but it should, of course, be stopped and judges' scores should be visible).
As for the injustice part - how so? The Worlds should be about bringing the best skaters in the world together to compete. It doesn't matter what judging panel you get at a qualifying event. If you are a top skater you WILL qualify, somewhere. They can give the top 10 finishers from recent World Championships automatic byes to that year's Worlds as well in order to account for injuries that may have taken people out for the entire season leading up to Worlds.
I think having a qualifying competition just before Worlds is far cheaper - having a separate competition is too much overhead, and the skaters who made would then have to fly to whatever the Worlds location is.The ISU should plan a separate competition a week before the major one for all the skaters who have not reached the ISU rankings. Just a thought.
Where's the slap head smilie when you need it - of course you could just add more skaters to the line up! Though I do wonder if the increase in cost of increasing the numbers would be something that would make it prohibitively expensive? Competitions could end up running for a week rather than just the few days they currently stand at?
I didn't want to get into the finances of it, but judging and watching 60 Ladies to come up with 24 for the major events which is seeking only 1 winner and 2 runner ups, is not an easy chore for competitors, coaches and fans.I think having a qualifying competition just before Worlds is far cheaper - having a separate competition is too much overhead, and the skaters who made would then have to fly to whatever the Worlds location is.
I could buy this. The first 15 skaters at Euros, and the first 15 skaters at 4CC, would make an even 30 for Worlds The ISU could continue with the Limitation of 3 per country so if one country had 4or more within the qualifying results, the excess would be replaced by the next in line. Of course, there would no more be automatics based on previous years results.BTW, let's look at how Olympics are handled. There is a hard limit - 30 men, 30 singles, 20 pairs, 24 ice dancing teams. Most countries qualify, of course, through 2009 Worls. However, those countries that have not qualified to send even 1 skater to the Olympics don't get to send 1 automatically, but have to qualify through Nebelhorn Trophy. Article [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Figure_skating_at_the_2010_Winter_Olympics_-_Qualification] specifies that for 2010, Nebelhorn will qualify 6 ladies, 6 men, 4 pairs, and 5 ice dancing teams. Something similar could be used for Worlds.