Watched live: Worlds vs. Nationals

You often hear a skater say that Nationals is the toughest competition of the year. You are skating against your peers/friends, skating for a spot on the World team...I have been to the World Championships and it was incredibly exciting and tension filled! I haven't been to Nationals yet, but am going to the 2005 US Nationals. For those of you who have experienced both competitions, is there a difference? What are the pros/cons of each competition?

eliza88

Live or not, personally Worlds is the competition. You (usually) have the best skaters of all the four disciplines in there and you can't deny that a World medal is much more important than a Nationals medal. It may be nice to win in front of your crowd, but overall it can mean very little. The pairs' champions in Slovakia, for example, may not even be in the Worlds top 10.

If you are not going Live to Worlds this year, you will be missing the skates of so many talented contestants. It happens to be an unusual year og exceptionally gifted skaters.

Problem with TV, what will you see if it not LIVE? A tape of the top six skaters in each discipline at its best. And in some case you may not even see the top 6 due to fluffs and adverts.

In my case, if I do not see Ilia Klimkin, Johhny Weir and Stephan Lambiel's LP because they didn't make the top 5, I'm not going to see them. and for me, that's a bummer even if one is left out.

And that's just the highly contested Men's event. Ladies, Pairs and Dance are also filled with excellent contestants. I'm interested in all these skaters, not just the tippy top tier.

How much revenue would ABC lose if it showed the full tapes from 2 to 5 in the morning hours on 4 separate days, and without the fluff, it would only take 2 hours on 2 separated days.

Es macht mir leide.

Joe

It makes me sad, too!

I was at Worlds and got to see Brian Joubert fight back after a disastrous QR, I got to see amazing skates by Karel Zelenka and Gregor Urbas, and saw Kevin Van Der Perren for the first time and said, "this guy is going to be great," and got to see the skaters from Mexico and Australia giving 100% in the QR.

I haven't been to a Nationals (though I would give my left arm to attend Russian nationals), with the exception of an Olympic year Nationals in Russia or the US, I can't imagine the excitement and energy is anywhere near that of Worlds.

But someone is welcome to disagree.

Laura

On the plus side, at US Nationals, you get to see the Juniors, and if you are willing to cope with the travel to the alternative rinks, the Novices. It is really nice to see the up and coming kids skate. At Worlds, you will see only seniors. However, you get to see the Qualifying rounds, which are not part of US Nationals.

On the down side, at US Nationals, often the politics is as thick and perhaps more so than at Worlds. And the price for seats is sometimes even higher than Worlds.

On the plus side again, at US Nationals, you may get to see Rohene Ward, Angela Nikidinov, and Jane Bugaeva skate. There are always great skaters, that for whatever reason, will seldom make it out of the country. Many of them have a great deal to offer. The likelihood of Rohene making it out the US is very small (but I used to go to Nationals to watch Rudi Galindo skate, and said the same of him...hmmm)

At Worlds, you get to see all of the very, very best. And that is the overiding thing. But when World's are some place that I can't get to, I go to Nationals.

And when I have no money, I go to Skate America, Cheesefests, and maybe Sectionals or Regionals. I am also going to look into going to Jr. Worlds in Kitchener in 2005, but I haven't seen a website where tickets can be ordered yet.

Doris, really great question! This past year I attended both my first Worlds and Nationals. They were both thrilling ... it's so hard to say which was better. I do think though, that Nationals had a little more exciting feel to it. Not by much though. I really enjoyed both and hope to attend Nationals in 2005 and 2006.

eliza88:

I have been to many Nationals - live - and I have to say, they have that "homey" feeling. It's kind of nice. Of course, I was more into the skating world then and knew a lot of the skaters from various rinks and rubbed elbows with a few of the top skaters. One is cheering for their favorite skater of course.

I only went to see the figure skating history hall when the world's were held here in Vancouver a couple of years ago. We watched the skating outside on a big screen. I think the feeling was sort of the same - just on a larger scale. There was lots of people there. It's a different sort of feeling though because one is cheering for their countrymen (and women!) so gets quite nationalistic. It is fun to see skaters from other countries.

well... there's the case of Langlois and Archetto, who with the exception of this year... skate better internationally than at home... so it all depends on the skater(s)... but I wouldn't mind going to a regionals competition... just to be going LOL

you all have all the fun

*hoping to have the $$ to go to Portland nats!*

I would say that worlds is the competition, because it is against the rest of the world not just your fellow skaters in America. It is there that you are competing against the best of the best. Maybe there is more pressure on home ice.

I dunno... while I love skaters from all different countries... I think I'd want to see the US World Team get "built"... more than see the best go for it...

then again in the US there's 5 or 6 really awesome skaters in the singles disiplines that could easily go to worlds LOL so maybe that'd make it even mroe fun