2012-13 Grand Prix Speculation

[NMURA]

Doing three GPs is beneficial for (top) skaters. They have the better chances of making GPF and earn more prize money. They can also reduce pressure on each events. Quite frankly, they can use the first GP as a warmup, instead of Nebelhorn or Finlandia trophy (on the expense of the ISU and the host federations). I doubt Brezina is sincerly regretting. What he has learned is that it's better to avoid tight schedules. There's no point of designating which events to gain points. The ISU wants more top skaters to appreciate its merits.

[Dragonlady]

Well it makes more logical since to develope them at the GP instead of throwing them into Euros, 4CC, and Worlds.

You can't go to 4CC, Euros or Worlds unless you meet the minimum scoring requirements. You can't go to the GP events unless you go to Worlds and make top 24 or get on the top 24 season scores.

[conga]

You can't go to 4CC, Euros or Worlds unless you meet the minimum scoring requirements. You can't go to the GP events unless you go to Worlds and make top 24 or get on the top 24 season scores.

Yeah...does seem like a catch 22, doesn't it, especially when there is any depth of field?

[Mathman]

I think the Grand Prix should be the beginning of the new season, not the end of the old. Last year's world champion -- that's old news. I do not see the necessity of requiring, come hell or high water, that each event must have exactly one form 1-3 and exactly one of 4-6 from last year in each discipline.

Personally, I would rather see Weaver and Poje than more of the same Virtue and Moir and Davis and White, or Caroline Zhang than...well, actually I wouldn't mind more Carolina Kostner.

[ImaginaryPogue]

Thanks for this information! I was wondering how it all balanced out. I only knew that for Carolina the strategy to compete as often as possible really worked.

I wonder who's going to do 3 next season...

Some stats....

Of the 24 eligible to select three GP events

a) Four didn't participate in the GP series (Kim, Ando, Pang/Tong, and technically, Yankowskas/Coughlin)
b) Thirteen chose to do two events.
c) Seven chose three

Of the seven...

a) Only one didn't follow through (Pechalat/Bourzat withdrew from SC due to his bronchitis)
b) Six were from Europe (only Weaver/Poje represented the four continents nations)
c) Five train in Europe (again, only W/P and P/B train in North America)
d) Two were medalists at the 2011 World championships (Savchenko/Szolkowy, Kostner)
e) Three were from non-host nations (Brezina, S/S, Kostner)

Skaters the trained in Europe went for three GPs more but only one went to two European GPs (Brezina did CoR and TEB). Skaters in the lower half were more likely to go than the upper half (with the note that we saw a couple medalists at Nebelhorn and Finlandia last season). If I were projecting, I'd argue that all the skaters (except S/S) had something to prove and/or make up for.

So, who would I guess goes for three this year, Trewyn?

Men: None
Ladies: Suzuki and Leonova
Pairs: Duhamel/Radford, Bazarova/Larionov
Dance: Ilynikh/Katsalpov, Cappellini/Lanotte

[mskater93]

I don't think Suzuki will. She's well into her 20's an should preserve her body.

[NMURA]

I think Suzuki wants to do three GPs. But the JSF could ignore her request. I suspect that they don't want Suzuki to strengthen her position in the Japanese team and jeopardize Murakami's Olympic chances. Suzuki was held up in this season only because Ando was absent. If Ando doesn't come back, maybe a different possibility....

[Trewyn]

Does the skaters' federation have a say in the decision? It sounded like it was the skaters' decision.. But I could very well be wrong, I'm sure the federation has more power than I know. No idea what Suzuki wants.. Is it even certain she's going to compete next season?

Has Ando made any announcements yet? For some reason I can't picture her coming back, especially now Morozov has Alena for an elite skater...

[mousepotato]

Did it fail? Of the seven skaters that chose to do three, two of them are World Champions (Kostner, S/S), a further earned a medal (Leonova) and a fourth certainly cemented a higher position in the ice dance ranking (W/P). Brezina and K/S suffered, as did P/B (who didn't actually do three due to illness). I was rooting for it to fail, but I don't think that's an accurate reflection of what actually happened.

K/S doing bad at worlds wasn't because they did three grand prix competitions; it was because he had surgery 12 weeks earlier. They actually earned two golds and a silver and a bronze and the GPF.

What stinks is they won two golds and a silver yet only got 400 points, they would have done better doing two Senior Bs. It's really only a money issue at that point. It won't help the skaters any other way as far as ranking.

I think that's why more don't even bother, the ends don't justify they means.

[chuckm]

When it comes to ISU ranking points, it DOES make more sense to do just two GPs and then do an International "B" or even two.

You can get only a maximum of 800 Ranking points (400 per event) if you do 3 GPs and win all of them. But if you win two GP events and then win two International "B"s (one in the early fall and one after Jan 1), you get a total of 1300 points.

Carolina Kostner has done International Bs just about every year, which is why she's always been 1st or 2nd on the World Ranking list even in her less successful seasons.

[ryanbfan]

The USFSA needs to stop treating its marquee events like local club comps and get some professional organization behind them. In this age, it's hard to find a club with the resources and the skills to take on the building rentals and other expenses of organizing a big competition with the hope of turning a profit somewhere in the future. Who has this kind of cash sitting around in their bank accounts? And then they have to have even more resources and skills to promote and advertize ticket sales.

What's funny is I applied for their Events intern position a year ago and I stressed that even though I was a Fashion Retail Management major, one of our major things in this field of study is events and that I took a class called Event Production (not to mention the 50 marketing classes...)

I still wonder who they picked over me, Nationals was a mess imo.

[golden411]

Don't know whether this announcement date has been noted in other threads:

"The list of athlete entries for the 2012 ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Series will be announced on May 21, 2012." Source: Skate America website

Two weeks from today!

[chuckm]

It's been mentioned on another site that the ISU has done away with the optional 3rd spot for seeds. That's good news, indeed.

What is interesting is that now the GP selection comes BEFORE the Congress meeting in June. So what happens with the proposed new age rules (15 by July 1st for all Senior competitions)? Will Lipnitskaia (14 in June) be allowed to move up to the GP, or will she have to do the JGP again?

[Mathman]

^ Will the new rules go into effect for the 2012-13 season?

[mskater93]

It's been mentioned on another site that the ISU has done away with the optional 3rd spot for seeds. That's good news, indeed.

What is interesting is that now the GP selection comes BEFORE the Congress meeting in June. So what happens with the proposed new age rules (15 by July 1st for all Senior competitions)? Will Lipnitskaia (14 in June) be allowed to move up to the GP, or will she have to do the JGP again?

One of the other proposed rules is also no jumping from Jr-Sr-Jr so if she can do (and does) Sr GP, she can't do Jr Worlds...