Creating An Olympic Team

Looking at the presumptive roster threads MissIzzy put together, I was curious about the thought process that goes behind selecting an Olympic Team. Someone mentioned that the season before the Olympics, you want to chose someone consistent over someone who's sometimes brilliant, sometimes not (I think the poster was referring to Ponsero, but don't quote me). But what goes into choosing an Olympic Team? Or more specifically, for countries with multiple slots: after you get your medal contenders onto your list, what do you aim for next?

The discussion surrounding the French men inspired this question. Most people recognize Joubert as France's number one man and his Olympic slot is (barring injury) locked. But who goes next: Amodio, Preaubert or Ponsero? I know people are badgering Ponsero about his consistency, but is Amodio that much better (winning the J. Grand Prix final then ending up out of the top ten at junior worlds?). But Amodio is the future, so wouldn't going to the Olympics pressure-free (relatively speaking) be a good thing for his future (which FFS would have a vested interest in, of course).

You know I have always wonder if U.S. Figure Skating should go the way in how gymnastics does their selection process.

Not in terms of let's say Nationals, Olympic Trials and a selection camp. But I think they need to look beyond the nationals results. I mean the top two or three at nationals should not automatically be the olympic team. But they really need to look at past results and include that in their selection process.

Right now I think Rachael Flatt is a very good candidate for the Olympic team because of her fifth place finish at the 2009 Worlds.

I mean if I was picking the team I would want skaters that I would know that can be consistent and I would be looking at the results from each competition whether it would be worlds or a GP event.

I just think that they need to look beyond the results from nationals

each national federation does it slightly diffrently but the USFSA pretty much has a rule that Nationals decides it fair and square. The top three (or in some cases the top 2) go. That it unless somebody in there is either too young to go by law or else really came out of nowhere like Katrina Hacker in 2007. The only reason that there might be any divination from that rule this year is the huge field of ladies squeezed into fighting for 2 spots. Some feel that Sasha, as reigning olympic silver medalist and world bronze medalist might be given a spot as long as she skates decently, begging the question who would get bumped off.

My opinion is that USFSA will not open a can of worms by deviating from the tradition of picking the top two at nationals. If any two of our top 10 ladies, (including kimmie, sasha, emily and all the rest) place in the top two, they go. Now of course the fact that they are in the top two might be highly debatable....but they I think that the top two will the the olympic team.

IIRC it's my understanding that the only one at Nationals GUARANTEED an Olympic berth is the gold medalist. For the other spot(s) USFS/USOC reserves the right to select from the rest of the field. Still wouldn't surprise me if they made some changes as the entire field of ladies has not stabilized and with only two spots, they'll want to make sure they send the strongest, most consistent and most reliable team they can.

Same goes for the other disciplines too.

So I think we can realistically expect all bets are off and this season's GPs will figure into the mix re: composition of the team. Consistent performance should count for something - either a fluky BAD skate - or a fluky GOOD one. JMHO

It seems to be an accurate assumption that each country's federations base their choices on which skaters can earn the highest potential PCS scores from international judges. The national judges know TES can be hit or miss, but I really think they pay attention to the skaters' PCS marks during the Grand Prix season and heavily consider that in their selections along with finishes at the most recent important events as the selection criteria mandates. PCS is half the total score in both SP and LP segments, after all.