Sochi team competition for ice skaters | Golden Skate

Sochi team competition for ice skaters

ice coverage

avatar credit: @miyan5605
Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 27, 2012
London 2012 gymnastics fever has become a little opportunity to spread awareness of the Sochi team competition for ice skaters. Two separate observations:

- A young American skater (who has competed internationally with good results) tweeted, "I'm thinkin' we need an Olympic team event for skating." A skating website quickly replied to inform her of the Sochi team competition.

- And when a young skating enthusiast (whose name I don't recognize) sent a tweet wishing for a team event, USFSA immediately assured her that Sochi will have one.
 

london_calling

On the Ice
Joined
Jun 3, 2007
I feel like figure skating doesn't lend itself easily to a team competition. I'm interested to see how it all plays out in 2014. Right now, it doesn't even seem like the ISU is sure how it's all going to work.
 

dorispulaski

Wicked Yankee Girl
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Country
United-States
It does, at least as well as gymnastics. There are even several ways to do it.



But the real team event would be synchronized skating, which really should be in the Winter Olympics IMO.
 

starryxskies

On the Ice
Joined
Dec 2, 2012
I wonder how the Federations will see this. The talks about the Russian Fed asking for 2 spots at Sochi really got me thinking. If they're really stuck with only one spot, it means Plu needs to skate in both the team event and the men's singles from the viewpoint atm. However, the rules really aren't clear at the moment (if there are even any) if it's going to be the same as gymnastics. 1 per discipline makes up the team but does their skater for each discipline have to be from their qualifying pool for singles/pairs events? Like for example, even if Russia only has 1 spot for Men's Singles, can they choose their #2 Russian man to skate for the team event? This gives other skaters more opportunities, kind of like an honorary prize.

I'm sure Federations still value the singles/pairs competition higher atm so I'm afraid they might not want to send their top skater to exhaust their energy in this new field yet either. For a country like Japan where it's so tight, having their #1 man skate (Dai/Yuzuru/Kozuka) for the team event before their singles event is really a disadvantage for said #1 skater because the #2 & 3 men will have all this energy for the singles event that they haven't exerted yet.

I really hope this team event allows wiggle room to "qualify" one more skater in each discipline just to give others more opportunities and to level the playing field for their own events especially since it's going to be held first from what I read.

Interesting to see what this will develop into.
 

gmyers

Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 6, 2010
All plushenkos careful training and pacing of himself could be totally undone by having to do both team and singles. Might be better to ask the team event moved after the singles pairs dance
 

starryxskies

On the Ice
Joined
Dec 2, 2012
Seems like there already rules for the team event
http://corporate.olympics.com.au/files/dmfile/ISU_FigureSkating_Sochi2014_QualSystems_Dec2011_web.pdf

As of right now, Countries with only 1 qualifier for a discipline must enter that skater into the team event. No exceptions. Countries with 2 or 3 skaters in a discipline gotta have them battle it out the short program portion of the team event the day before or something (what..? it's both now?)

So the Federations don't really have any control for who to send. I don't know how I feel about this team event now that the rules are like this and it's held before the Singles/Pairs competition. It should really be the event to close it off before the gala. This is going to hurt the Russians and Japan the most I believe with all 3 men skaters a contender for the OGM with each other.

I wish we can petition against having this event first somewhere...
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
I don't think it will hurt anybody to skate in the team event first, then a week later do the individuals. Gymnasts do it back to back.

If you have two or more skaters I think the federation has the choice. They can send the same skater to both the short and the long, or they can send one skater to the short and a different skater to the long. Conceivably this might benefit a country that has a "short program specialist" who is known for skating a great short but running out of steam in the long.

So, who is going to win the very first Olympic team gold medal? As of now, Canada has Chan, Osmond, Duhamel & Radford, Virtue & Moir. Can anyone beat that?
 

dorispulaski

Wicked Yankee Girl
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Country
United-States
Russia comes close- Volosozhar & Trankov, Bobrova & Soloviev, Plushenko (if his back surgery goes OK), and whoever is strongest next year of the talented flock of Russian ladies.
 

GF2445

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 7, 2012
This team event is baffling me a little. If they want a team event format the isu will have to have more team competitions so people can get used to this format. The world team trophy every two years and the Olympics every four is not good enough. What the isu should be thinking about is what they can do to make synchronised skating an Olympic discipline.
 

dorispulaski

Wicked Yankee Girl
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Country
United-States
I wish they would make synchro an Olympic discipline. I d heard the problem is the extra housing, etc,, that would be needed for all those team members, though?
 

ice coverage

avatar credit: @miyan5605
Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 27, 2012
ISU rules for Sochi figure skating team event - Feb 2013 link

Cross-posting from the Olympic team event thread in The Edge:

The ISU just published an updated version of "Qualification System for Figure Skating and the Rules for the Figure Skating Team Event."

The team event is discussed in Annex A, which begins on page 5 of the 12-page document.

The document is dated Feb 5, 2013, and it was posted on the ISU website on Feb 18.

I wonder what Japan will do for a pairs team.

Seems to me that Japan has two options regarding Pairs.

- "Each Team must participate in at least 3 disciplines (Ladies/Men/Pair Skating/Ice Dance) of the Figure Skating Team Event." (page 8)
So I guess that Japan could compete in the team event without any Pair. The Japanese Team would be at a disadvantage overall because it would not earn any points for the Pair discipline.​

- "NOCs/ISU Members who do not have qualified Skaters/Couples in an individual OWG competition/discipline (Single Lady, Single Man, Pair Skating, Ice Dance), may benefit of an “Additional Athletes Quota” and enter into the Figure Skating Team Event 1 Skater/Couple. If applicable, each NOC may benefit of this Additional Athletes Quota for only one discipline of the Figure Skating Team Event." (page 9)
I think this means that a Japanese Pair who does not qualify for the Olympic event for the Pair discipline itself would be permitted to compete in the Olympic Team event. So I think Takahashi and her new partner theoretically could compete in the Team event for Japan. If they placed last among the 10 Pairs in the SP, they would earn one placement point toward the Team total. If the Japanese Team as a whole advances to the free skating and the Japanese Pair places last among the 5 Pairs in the FS, the pair would earn six placement points toward the Team total.​
 

fairly4

Medalist
Joined
Oct 28, 2007
this is my take on the team event.

i think U.S.A. , Russia, Canada, Japan most likely will be in the final flight.

the other countries will be China, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, my top 9. the 10th can be between. Ukraine, Great Britain, Korea_yes based on yuna strenght alone and if put in the junior dance team of kim/minrov if qualify, plus czech, and others, possible, sweden, estonia. turkey.

i basically have the final flight of 5 U.S.A, Russia, Canada, Japan, and italy rounds it out than either depending on how they skate in short, china, germany, france fills it out .

canada might win but russia has the best way, canada has the skaters than can medal easily in dance and men, possible pairs.
but it comes to final flight in pairs, china could hold the canadian pair team down. , women, zijun and possible carolina kosnter.

italy could medal in the final filght depends on who goes from u.s., russia, canada, japan, and italy.
i think the countries that more likely be in final flight will have to decide ifwant the team medal or not and that also might have a bearing on individual as well as team.

javier, can mess up short program results, so can yuna if korea gets in top 10 but not final flight along with other countries.

the federations might want to decide ahead of time in want a medal and strategize for against other countries getting one, and might help/ hurt individual chances.
 

KKonas

Medalist
Joined
Oct 31, 2009
This team event is baffling me a little. If they want a team event format the isu will have to have more team competitions so people can get used to this format. The world team trophy every two years and the Olympics every four is not good enough. What the isu should be thinking about is what they can do to make synchronised skating an Olympic discipline.

Doubtful. Synchro has too many skaters on each team and housing at Winter Games is always a problem.
 

Frenchie

I'm gonna customize the CRAP out of this title!
Medalist
Joined
May 4, 2013
Here's a question for whoever can answer it:
Narumi Takahashi and Ryuichi Kihara failed to earn a spot to compete in the pairs event at Sochi.
I read this in the ISU qualifying rulebook:
NOCs/ISU Members who do not have qualified Skaters/Couples in an individual OWG
competition/discipline (Single Lady, Single Man, Pair Skating, Ice Dance), may enter into
the Figure Skating Team Event 1 Skater/Couple per competition/discipline plus one Stand-by
Skater/Couple per discipline.
Does this mean that they are still allowed to go there as part of the team competition? Or does this disqualify Japan from participating in that team comp?
Greetz
Frenchie
 
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