Criteria for selecting Italian ice dance teams for Euros, Olympics and Worlds | Golden Skate

Criteria for selecting Italian ice dance teams for Euros, Olympics and Worlds

pingu

Rinkside
Joined
Jul 27, 2013
Criteria for selecting Italian ice dance teams for Euros, Olympics and Worlds

Last week there was a press conference at the rink Forum, in Milan. Some skaters attended it - Della Monica/Guarise officialized their switch to the Forum skating club, Cappellini/Lanotte and Bernardi/Mior talked about their new programs - besides two federation members.
One of them, Olga Gilardini, explained the criteria that will be used to decide which ice dance pairs send at Euros, Olympics and Worlds.
She explained that the federation set this criterias in order to make the selection as fair as possible, as now Charlène Guignard has Italian citizenship and thus can compete at the Olympic Games for Italy.

Article here: http://www.artonice.it/?q=en/node/13919

Relevant excerpt:
Given the recent circumstances that happened in Italian ice dance – Charlène Guignard obtained the Italian citizenship – the Federation has decided to set different standards in order to guarantee a fair selection of the ice dancers who will compete at the major international competitions of the season: European Championships, Olympic Winter Games, World Championships. We will take into account the Technical Elements Score of three national competitions: the First National Competition – held in Bolzano – a test skate in November and the National Championships in Merano in December. We will sum up this scores with the best TES of two international competitions skated by the ice dancers during the first part of this season. The final standings will ratify the participants of the major three international competitions of the season. The Technical Panel of the three national competitions will be strictly balanced, in order to obtain the highest objectivity.

Let me know if you need any further explanations

Laura
 

tulosai

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 21, 2011
Last week there was a press conference at the rink Forum, in Milan. Some skaters attended it - Della Monica/Guarise officialized their switch to the Forum skating club, Cappellini/Lanotte and Bernardi/Mior talked about their new programs - besides two federation members.
One of them, Olga Gilardini, explained the criteria that will be used to decide which ice dance pairs send at Euros, Olympics and Worlds.
She explained that the federation set this criterias in order to make the selection as fair as possible, as now Charlène Guignard has Italian citizenship and thus can compete at the Olympic Games for Italy.

Article here: http://www.artonice.it/?q=en/node/13919

Relevant excerpt:


Let me know if you need any further explanations

Laura

I think that's a really terrible idea. I will try to elaborate later, but wow. Very unusual.
 

pingu

Rinkside
Joined
Jul 27, 2013
It doesn't look that terrible to me: actually, for once the federation is basing its decision on scores, and not on who trains where/who is coached by whom...
 

tulosai

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 21, 2011
It doesn't look that terrible to me: actually, for once the federation is basing its decision on scores, and not on who trains where/who is coached by whom...

Basing on scores is great, but I'd base it on international scores/results at least in part if they are going to consider early season results heavily in this decision. I see they have thought some about bias and eliminating it in these national competitions, but I think national competitions are not the best way to gauge skaters and how they are likely to do internationally. If they are going to base it on these national competitions, I'd give most if not all weight to the Italian Nationals. This will give a better indication of who is peaking at the right time and how the couples preform under pressure. In short, I guess I think Russia has this one right (factor Nationals results strongly, and also factor international results). I don't see the point of essentially having 3 Italian Nationals to determine the team. A team might peak early and not be the best choice to send, but nonetheless have the highest average score.
 

pingu

Rinkside
Joined
Jul 27, 2013
Basing on scores is great, but I'd base it on international scores/results at least in part if they are going to consider early season results heavily in this decision. I see they have thought some about bias and eliminating it in these national competitions, but I think national competitions are not the best way to gauge skaters and how they are likely to do internationally. If they are going to base it on these national competitions, I'd give most if not all weight to the Italian Nationals. This will give a better indication of who is peaking at the right time and how the couples preform under pressure. In short, I guess I think Russia has this one right (factor Nationals results strongly, and also factor international results). I don't see the point of essentially having 3 Italian Nationals to determine the team. A team might peak early and not be the best choice to send, but nonetheless have the highest average score.

They are going to sum up the scores of the three national competition with the two best scores of international competitions the ice dancers will attend, this means that they will take into account (at least in part) international scores.
I agree with your last sentence, but how can you predict whether a team is going to peak in the first part of the season and then perform bad in the major competitions? I know this might not be the best criterias ever, but it's still an improvement to the criterias the federation had before.
 

eleonora.d

On the Ice
Joined
Jun 8, 2006
Saturday the first national competition for ice dance was held in the skating rink of Forum in Assago, Milano. Pingu was there and interviewed the couples involved. This was the first test towards the designation for Sochi!
Interesting that Marco Fabbri pointed out that the criteria doesn't look very balanced. IMHO it's a miracle to actually have a criteria, one that is known to the audience as well, but I agree with him.

Here is the article about the competition in italian, and the interviews in italian and english, also !
 

pingu

Rinkside
Joined
Jul 27, 2013
No problem :) Sorry for the bad quality of the videos, though...
I am happy that we have such a depth in ice dance now, and if you consider that we also have skaters competing for other countries (Federica Testa, Stefano Caruso, Carolina Moscheni, Andrea Fabbri), it meas that Italy's ice dance school level is very high.
 
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