Distribution Of Major Championships 1998–2018

A couple of weeks ago in the “Skipping Europeans VS 4CC” thread, there was a discussion about the distribution of Four Continents, and how often they were being held in Asia compared to the Americas. And @Giselle made out a list showing the distribution of the host cities for Four Continents.

Knowing the way that the ISU championships are sometimes allocated to particular places as a practice run for a bigger event (for example, the Olympics), it started me wondering about the overall distribution of the Major Championships.

So, to start with, I have made a table listing the host cities of all the Major Championships since the 1998 – 1999 Season.

Rather than just have the host cities listed, I have turned them into links to the Entries / Results Pages for each Championship. That way, if nobody is interested in discussing the distribution of the Championships, then this thread can at least act as a handy one-stop-shop for getting to old results.

Now, before I go any further, I should point out that I actually made two different versions of all the tables in this thread. One set which included the International Children’s Games, and one set that did not.

For those that have not come across the ICG before, it is the same idea as the Youth Olympics, but for the next age level down. What I am about to say is not strictly accurate, but it is the simplest way of explaining it: if the YOG is the Olympics for Junior level skaters, then the ICG is the Olympics for Novice level skaters.

And therein lies the problem. The fact that I felt the need to explain what the ICG is says everything. Given that it is an IOC sanctioned event, it should be classed as one of the Major Championships. But, hardly anybody has even heard tell of it. Like, I only came across it by accident a couple of years ago. I was looking up the Youth Olympics on Wikipedia, and there was a link at the bottom to the page about the ICG. And I thought “Oooh, what’s that?”

Another problem with the ICG is that the websites for all the previous editions have closed down. So, it is VERY hard to find the results. The Entries / Results Page for the figure skating at 2015 edition is still available. But apart from that, I have only been able to find a copy of the 2011 edition’s results on the Wayback Machine.

That said, the same thing has happened to the websites for the Asian Games. And there is no disputing that they are worthy of inclusion.

So, weighing everything up, I have decided to use the tables that do include the ICG in this thread. However, I have made spreadsheets for each set of tables, and uploaded them. So, you can see the difference. Here are the links:

Distribution Of Major Championships 1998–2018 (With International Children’s Games)

Distribution Of Major Championships 1998–2018 (No International Children’s Games)

And here is the first table, showing all the Major Championships ordered by season:


I should add that the host cities of some of the Multi-Sport events after the 2017 – 2018 season have actually been announced already. However, because the locations of none of the ISU Championships have been announced, including them would only have skewed the results.

But, so as to have a record of them, here is how the table would continue into the next Olympic Cycle:


* = Events relocated to Tallinn, EST.

Continued below...

Part 2

...Continued from above

The second stage was to arrange the host cites according to the geographical region in which they are located. For this, I used the same four designations that I used in my attempt to rearrange the figure skating calendar (see this post).

I did have one problem – which region to put the events hosted by Turkey (the 2011 Universiade and the 2017 EYOF) in. Most of Turkey is geographically in Asia, but Turkish skaters compete in the European Championships. The problem is that the way I have divided Europe up into “West” and “East” means Turkey doesn’t fit in right. When you think of Eastern Europe, you don’t exactly think of Turkey.

In the end, I listed these events in Asia, purely because of where the host city is located. Erzerum is in the far north-east corner of Turkey, so the opposite side of the country from Eastern Thrace (the European part of Turkey). Although Erzerum is near the Armenian border (and, indeed, used to be in Armenia), it is nevertheless on the wrong side of the Caucasus to be classed as Europe.

This stance has resulted in an edition of the European Youth Olympic Festival being listed in the Asia / Pacific region. Which is very weird. But, that is one of the quirks of geography.


When the host cities are organised like this, the unequal distribution for each Championship becomes clear. The most glaringly obvious thing that jumps out at you is that the World Championships have only been held in Eastern Europe twice since the 1998 – 1999 season, and both times they were in Moscow. But apart from this, the distribution of the Senior World Championships is pretty balanced.

The other noticeable thing about Senior Worlds is that they are the only Major Championship (other than Four Continents) that has been held in the Americas on a regular basis, visiting North America 6 times.

But, on the whole, the Americas do not get their fair share of any of the Major Championships. Hey, in the time frame being looked at, St. Petersburg has held the same number of Grand Prix Finals as the whole of the Americas! Also, the Youth Olympics and Universiade have not been to the Americas at all in this period, while Junior Worlds have only been once, and that was back in 2005.

In the thread about skipping Four Continents, it was pointed out that it was intended that the host city would alternate between Asia and North America, but that Asia has taken over in recent years. Well, the other thing that is noticeable from the regional distribution table is that the European Championships have been alternating between Western and Eastern Europe very successfully for the whole of the study period. Admittedly, there have been times where it has been in the same division for 2 years in a row. But, it is normally evened up straight away by 2 years in the other division.

Continued below...

Part 3

...Continued from above

The next stage was to take the table showing the distribution of Major Championships by region, and break it down further to show the distribution of Major Championships amongst countries.


Continued below...

Part 4

...Continued from above

The final stage of the study was to bring all the data together into one easy to analyse table:


A few notes:

1. The 2022 Olympics will be held in Beijing, China. Consequently, Beijing will probably be host to at least one Major Championship in the years leading up to the Olympics, to act as a practice run. However, since there have been so few locations of Major Championships announced for after the 2017 – 2018 season, the Beijing Olympic Cycle has been left outside the study area.
   
   
2. All 5 of the Major Championships held in Bulgaria have been Junior World Championships.
   
   
3. Both of the Major Championships held in the Netherlands have been Junior World Championships.

Of course, the locations of most of the Major Championships for the 2017 – 2018 season have still to be announced. And the location of the 2017 World Team Trophy has also yet to be announced. However, as it stands, the distribution of the Major Championships is very interesting.

In the 20 year study period, there have been the exact same number of Major Championships allocated to Western Europe and the Asia / Pacific region. They are the joint leaders, with 41 Major Championships each.

Eastern Europe is in 3rd place on the list, with 38 Major Championships. This may seem strange, given that this is the heartland of figure skating. But, I think the ISU are taking into consideration the fact that so many Senior B competitions are held in Eastern Europe. So, to try and balance out the overall distribution, they are allocating fewer Major Championships to this region.

The Americas are lagging behind in the Major Championships count with only 21 Majors in 20 years. HOWEVER, when you break it down into countries, Canada is in 2nd place with 11 Majors and the USA is in joint 3rd place with 10 Majors. The only country ahead of them is Japan (largely helped by Japan hosting every edition of the World Team Trophy).

And therein lies the problem.

Whenever they are allocating Major Championships to the Americas, the governing bodies (be they the ISU, the IOC, or FISU) only ever give them to Canada or the USA. None of the other 58 countries or territories seem to get a look in. In fact, if you look at all the complete lists of where each of the Major Championships have been held (not just in this 20 year period), you will discover just how deep this goes:

Central America, the Caribbean or South America have NEVER hosted a Major Championship in figure skating!!!

Even the city of Brisbane (Queensland) has hosted more Major Championships than the bulk of the Americas! (Brisbane was host city for Junior Worlds in 1988 and 1996. These were the only times that a Major Championship has been held in Australia).

Admittedly, the Junior Grand Prix Series visits Mexico every few years. But, that is the extent of ISU competitions being held in any part of the Americas other than Canada and the USA.

If another country or two in the Americas entered the equation, I have no doubt that the governing bodies would be only too willing to allocate Major Championships to them (provided it was viable, of course). After all, it would be a way of boosting the popularity of the sport, and even of introducing it to a new market. And it would also help in getting more Major Championships allocated to the Americas.

We shall now move the analysis to country level rather than regional.

Now, as you would expect, the “Big Four” figure skating countries are amongst the countries that have held the most Major Championships. But, it is the other countries that have been prolific that are interesting.

Korea is in joint 3rd place on the list with 10 Majors. Apart from the 1999 Asian Games and the 2002 Four Continents, all of them have been since Kim Yun-A started to make herself noticed in the Junior ranks (admittedly, the 2005 Four Continents would have been allocated to Korea already, but you know what I’m getting at!)

Italy is in joint 4th place on the list with 9 Majors. Here, it is less obvious as to whether the proliferation of events is a reaction to Carolina Kostner making a name for herself, or if it is the legacy of hosting the Olympics in 2006. I suspect that whilst both play a part, slightly more weight should be placed on the Turin Olympics. After all, of the 8 other Major Championships allocated to Italy since then, 4 of them were in Turin.

China is in 5th place on the list with 6 Majors during the 20 year study period. Now, this is a curious one. Two of the Major Championships held in China in the 20 year study period have been Multi-Sport Events (the 2007 Asian Games in Changchun and the 2009 Universiade in Harbin). So, you would expect some of the other Majors that the ISU allocated to China to have been practice runs for these Multi-Sports Events. Erm, no. The other Majors were held in different cities (2015 Worlds in Shanghai, and the other 3 Majors in Beijing), and none in the years leading up to the Multi-Sport events.

It is actually a similar situation with Austria, which is joint 6th place on the list with 5 Majors. Of these, 4 were Multi-Sport Events. 3 of them were held in Innsbruck (the 2005 Universiade, the 2012 Youth Olympics and the 2015 International Children’s Games) and the other was held in Dornbirn (the 2015 European Youth Olympic Festival). There were no practice runs for any of them. But, there again, this is a city that has hosted 2 Winter Olympics (in 1964 and 1976), so they are used to holding Multi-Sport Events for Winter Sports. Incidentally, the other Major Championship in Austria was the 2000 Europeans, held in Vienna.

With the 2022 Olympics being held in Beijing, I had been expecting the ISU to allocate at least one Major Championship to Beijing in the years leading up to 2022, to act as a practice run. Now, I am not so sure.

So, I am intrigued to see where the Majors are allocated during the Beijing Olympic Cycle.

It will also be interesting to see where the remaining Major Championships to be allocated during the study period end up. Will the ISU make a concerted effort to even up the distribution between the geographical regions?

After being in Asia for 5 years on the trot, might we see Four Continents returning to the Americas? And, if it does and it gets allocated to the USA, will it be somewhere other than Colorado Springs?

Will we see the 2017 World Team Trophy held in a country other than Japan for the first time? I do think it is possible, especially when you take into consideration that Sapporo is hosting the Asian Games a few months earlier in February 2017. The JSF might want to concentrate their efforts on that.

Having been overlooked since 2005 (2011 was a hastily arranged replacement venue for earthquake / tsunami hit Japan), will the ISU allocate the Senior World Championships to Eastern Europe? And if they do, will they be held somewhere other than Moscow?

Personally, I would like to see Senior Worlds go to either the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland or Slovakia. All four countries do a great job with the Senior B’s they hold, and with Four Nationals. The capital cities of 3 of these countries have hosted Senior Worlds in the past, but they were so long ago:

• Prague (CZE) hosted Senior Worlds in 1939, 1962 and 1993.
• Budapest (HUN) hosted Senior Worlds in 1909, 1929 and 1988.
• Bratislava (SVK) hosted Senior Worlds in 1973.

Opava (CZE) also hosted Senior Worlds in 1908 when it was part of Austria (and known by it’s German name of Troppau).

Poland has NEVER hosted Senior Worlds. (Although, Warsaw did host Europeans in 1908 and 2007).

Bratislava (SVK) hosted the European Championships this season, while Ostrava (CZE) will host Europeans next season. So, I doubt if the ISU would allocate Senior Worlds to either country so soon afterwards. So, if it was up to me, I would take the 2019 Senior World Championships to Poland. Probably to Toruń. And then have them make their long overdue return to Bratislava a few years later (perhaps in the Olympic year of 2022).

Incidentally, apart from the four cities I just listed, only 2 other cities in Eastern Europe hosted Senior Worlds prior to the study period:

• St. Petersburg (RUS) hosted Senior Worlds in 1896 and 1903.
• Ljubljana (SVN) hosted Senior Worlds in 1970 when it was part of Yugoslavia.

I don’t know about anybody else, but I found it very hard to get my head around the fact that it is over 110 years since Senior Worlds were last held in St. Petersburg! Admittedly, the city did host Europeans a couple of times since then, in 1970 and 1990. But, even so! It is still so hard to believe!

I really hope that the next time Senior Worlds go to Russia, it is to “the Venice of the North”, rather than a third visit to the capital.

But, those are just my thoughts. The ISU will probably have very different thoughts on where they allocate the Major Championships.

So, what are your thoughts about the findings, and about what should be done in the future?

CaroLiza_fan

Just need to point this out

#AUSTRALIAWUZROBBED2000

An addition would be a distribution of skaters by same criteria on those events. If the number of skaters correlates with the number of event, it may explain it, kinda.

That is a wonderful effort, thank you for that list. It shows to me clearly, which nations and federations want the sport and which don´t. The ISU can only pick of those who want and many nations don´t even want sports events these days. Look at us in Germany, the debacle of the Olympic Games... we will never get them if our politicians and those non interested in sports, can set up polls. How I hate these people, words can not describe how angry I am about what happened there.

We lose TV rights, sports journalists their jobs and non sports interested take over and post messy articles without any passion or charm and our kids can no longer visit event´s and lose their interest in sports --> disaster with no upcoming talents and it´s clearly visible already in each sport, except soccer.

I am actually quite happy, that we have Nebelhorn, NRW & Co. at least something, but we had worlds and Europeans and even a GP event years ago at Gelsenkirchen. It would be wonderful for our skaters and fans, to get one of the bigger event´s again, I would love a junior worlds at Oberstdorf and if the DEU ever needs help, I am so ready :agree:

Dang! That is one VERY extensive list. Thank you, and respect.

First of all, Wow! Thank you for taking the time to make such a detailed list. I do think it's a good idea to spread these events out. However, I'm also in favor of "If It Aint Broke, Don't Fix It" Helsinki is a beautiful city and the event they ran 1999 was one of the most exciting and well run events I've been to. And not just because I got married to Maria B. at that event. I haven't been to that many skating events. However, I've been on several tours that have taken me all over the world. Without a doubt, Canada has hosted the best events. Not only are the Venue's great. The people in Canada are knowledgeable and just plain nice. They treated us so very well.

St Petersberg Russia is also a very beautiful city. I wasn't there for a figure skating event as we were there for a hockey game. I'd go back there just to see their Hockey Team. They were and very funny. Even though I couldn't understand half the stuff they were saying, they were very nice to us.

Wow, this is a very informative and extensive list. Thanks for taking the time!

Canada needs to host 4CC again sometime soon!

qwerty said:

Wow, this is a very informative and extensive list. Thanks for taking the time!

Canada needs to host 4CC again sometime soon!

Click to expand...

Totally! They did a fantastic job with 2013 worlds, and Skate Canada is always well-done. They're the only non-European Big 4 country that hasn't hosted recently...I wonder why?

Wow!!! Thank you all so much for your kind words!!!

It was just something I thought would be interesting to look into.

And now you all know why I haven't been posting much to the forum recently!

To karne, I know I said it in another thread (can't remember which) a couple of months ago, but I would love to see Worlds going to Australia sometime in the future. But, I do think that they need to get hosting another Major Championship first as a practice run.

Yes, Brisbane has hosted Junior Worlds before (twice!), but the most recent time was 20 years ago. It's well overdue for a Major Championship to go Down Under again, and since Canada and the USA don't seem interested in hosting 4 Continents any more, that would be the perfect Championship to go.

At least it would provide an alternative to rotating between Japan, Korea and Taiwan.

To Alex D, I have to be honest, when I was making out the list, I was really surprised with how few Majors had been held in Germay in the 20 year study period. I would have at least expected Europeans to have been held a couple of times. Like, you always do a great job with the Senior B's that you host! So, I would have thought the ISU would have recognised that.

But, I suppose for the first half of the study period, you had the GP as well as the Senior B's, so the ISU and/or the DEU probably thought that was enough.

(I have said it many times, but I still believe that the GP Series should be extended to 8 GP's with 2 in each of the 4 regions, and that the German GP should return as part of that! :agree: )

I totally agree with you that the whole business over the Olympic bid was a debacle. But, it did show where the true colours of the powers that be lie. They don't want to host anything big like that.

With attitudes like this, is it any wonder that you lost the GP and you don't have any really top skaters any more?! (Yes, you have Aljona and Bruno. But they were both imported!)

To mrrice, although Helsinki has already hosted 2 Majors since the 1998 – 1999 season, I do like it that Worlds are going back there next season. Let's face it, when you take everything into account, Finland does not hold many international figure skating competitions.

And I've already made clear that I would love to see St. Petersburg hosting Worlds again. Like, for a city where so many of the coaches are based, it has not hosted many Majors. And it is almost scandalous that Worlds have not been there since 1903!

Thank you all again. It is nice to know that my efforts were appreciated.

CaroLiza_fan

Where I notice the greatest discrepancy is in the allocation of the Junior Grand Prix Events. In recent years at least, these have been heavily concentrated in Europe, especially central and eastern Europe. If memory serves, in each of the past two years only one JGP has been held outside of Europe--Colorado last fall and Japan the season before that.

I understand that the events have to be given to those who are willing to host them. Is there a problem with finding willing hosts in NA and Asia? I would like to see a JGP event held every season in North America and one in Asia every season as well. That would leave five events for Europe. Still an imbalance, but better than what's happening now.

Alex D said:

That is a wonderful effort, thank you for that list. It shows to me clearly, which nations and federations want the sport and which don´t. The ISU can only pick of those who want and many nations don´t even want sports events these days. ...

Click to expand...

CaroLiza_fan said:

...It will also be interesting to see where the remaining Major Championships to be allocated during the study period end up. Will the ISU make a concerted effort to even up the distribution between the geographical regions? ...

Click to expand...

In the absence of exhaustive data as to which countries submitted applications for ISU Championships over past and future years, I do not think we can judge whether the ISU is making "a concerted effort to even up" the geographical distribution.

Not to mention that the ISU understandably takes factors other than geography into consideration when allotting the ISU Championships.
Money, of course, is a big factor.

CaroLiza_fan said:

... If another country or two in the Americas entered the equation, I have no doubt that the governing bodies would be only too willing to allocate Major Championships to them (provided it was viable, of course). After all, it would be a way of boosting the popularity of the sport, and even of introducing it to a new market. And it would also help in getting more Major Championships allocated to the Americas. ...

Click to expand...

I have doubt.
Although not sure what you mean by "provided it was viable." If you are referring to a country's ability and willingness to take on the costs of hosting, I think it is a huge conditional that a country in the Americas other than the USA or Canada would have the ability and willingness.

moriel said:

An addition would be a distribution of skaters by same criteria on those events. If the number of skaters correlates with the number of event, it may explain it, kinda.

Click to expand...

:agree:

I have a question for people outside of Europe. How many of you have been to Europeans? I was just thinking about all the events I've been to and I've never been to Europeans. I would love to go because you get to see skaters from so many different countries and since they don't all make it to Worlds, it would give me an opportunity to see some skaters I've never seen.

Very interesting, thanks for the time and research you've done. I personally think that this shows what competitions various countries are eager to host. For example, I really don't think the US federation thinks they could make money off the grandprix final or 4CC and therefore they are not making a play to host these events.

CaroLiza_fan said:

...Continued from above

Major Championship	Americas	Western Europe	Eastern Europe	Asia / Pacific
Winter Olympics (OWG)	2002: Salt Lake City, USA	2006: Turin, ITA	2014: Sochi, RUS	2018: Pyeongchang, KOR
	2010: Vancouver, CAN
5	2	1	1	1
Senior Worlds (WC)	2001: Vancouver, CAN	1999: Helsinki, FIN	2005: Moscow, RUS	2002: Nagano, JPN
	2003: Washington, D.C., USA	2000: Nice, FRA	2011: Moscow, RUS	2007: Tokyo, JPN
	2006: Calgary, CAN	2004: Dortmund, DEU		2014: Saitama, JPN
	2009: Los Angeles, USA	2008: Gothenburg, SWE		2015: Shanghai, CHN
	2013: London, CAN	2010: Turin, ITA
	2016: Boston, USA	2012: Nice, FRA
		2017: Helsinki, FIN
		2018: Milan or Turin, ITA
20	6	8	2	4
Europeans (EC)		2000: Vienna, AUT	1999: Prague, CZE
		2002: Lausanne, CHE	2001: Bratislava, SVK
		2003: Malmö, SWE	2004: Budapest, HUN
		2005: Turin, ITA	2007: Warsaw, POL
		2006: Lyon, FRA	2008: Zagreb, HRV
		2009: Helsinki, FIN	2010: Tallinn, EST
		2011: Bern, CHE	2013: Zagreb, HRV
		2012: Sheffield, GBR	2014: Budapest, HUN
		2015: Stockholm, SWE	2016: Bratislava, SVK
			2017: Ostrava, CZE
			2018: Moscow, RUS
20	0	9	11	0
Four Continents (4CC)	1999: Halifax, CAN			2000: Osaka, JPN
	2001: Salt Lake City, USA			2002: Jeonju, KOR
	2004: Hamilton, CAN			2003: Beijing, CHN
	2006: Colorado Springs, USA			2005: Gangneung, KOR
	2007: Colorado Springs, USA			2008: Goyang, KOR
	2009: Vancouver, CAN			2010: Jeonju, KOR
	2012: Colorado Springs, USA			2011: Taipei, TWN
				2013: Osaka, JPN
				2014: Taipei, TWN
				2015: Seoul, KOR
				2016: Taipei, TWN
				2017: Gangneung, KOR
19	7	0	0	12
Grand Prix Final (GPF)	2001 – 2002: Kitchener, CAN	1999 – 2000: Lyon, FRA	1998 – 1999: Saint Petersburg, RUS	2000 – 2001: Tokyo, JPN
	2003 – 2004: Colorado Springs, USA	2007 – 2008: Turin, ITA	2002 – 2003: Saint Petersburg, RUS	2004 – 2005: Beijing, CHN
	2011 – 2012: Quebec City, CAN	2014 – 2015: Barcelona, ESP	2006 – 2007: Saint Petersburg, RUS	2005 – 2006: Tokyo, JPN
		2015 – 2016: Barcelona, ESP	2012 – 2013: Sochi, RUS	2008 – 2009: Goyang, KOR
		2016 – 2017: Marseille, FRA		2009 – 2010: Tokyo, JPN
				2010 – 2011: Beijing, CHN
				2013 – 2014: Fukuoka, JPN
19	3	5	4	7
Junior Worlds (WJC)	2005: Kitchener, CAN	2000: Oberstdorf, DEU	1999: Zagreb, HRV	2011: Gangneung, KOR
		2002: Hamar, NOR	2001: Sofia, BGR	2017: Taipei, TWN
		2004: The Hague, NLD	2003: Ostrava, CZE
		2007: Oberstdorf, DEU	2006: Ljubljana, SVN
		2010: The Hague, NLD	2008: Sofia, BGR
		2013: Milan, ITA	2009: Sofia, BGR
			2012: Minsk, BLR
			2014: Sofia, BGR
			2015: Tallinn, EST
			2016: Debrecen, HUN
19	1	6	10	2
Winter Universiade (WU)		2003: Tarvisio, ITA	1999: Poprad / Tatry, SVK	2009: Harbin, CHN
		2005: Innsbruck, AUT	2001: Zakopane, POL	2011: Erzurum, TUR
		2007: Turin, ITA		2017: Almaty, KAZ
		2013: Trentino, ITA
		2015: Granada, ESP
10	0	5	2	3
Youth Olympics (YOG)		2012: Innsbruck, AUT
		2016: Lillehammer, NOR
2	0	2	0	0
International Children’s Games (ICG)	2011: Kelowna, CAN (Results: Girls; Boys)	2009: Montreux and Vevey, CHE	1999: Maribor, SVN
		2015: Innsbruck, AUT	2013: Ufa, RUS
5	1	2	2	0
Asian Winter Games (AWG)				1999: Gangwon, KOR
				2003: Aomori, JPN
				2007: Changchun, CHN
				2011: Astana, KAZ
				2017: Sapporo, JPN
5	0	0	0	5
World Team Trophy (WTT)				2009: Tokyo, JPN
				2012: Tokyo, JPN
				2013: Tokyo, JPN
				2015: Tokyo, JPN
4	0	0	0	4
Team Challenge Cup (TCC)	2016: Spokane, USA
1	1	0	0	0
Total Majors
129	21	38	32	38

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This is an impressive analysis. :agree:

I have to admit though, I find it a little odd that Prague is listed as being in Eastern Europe vs Vienna being in Western Europe, when in fact Prague is located west (well, technically northwest) of Vienna. That really struck me when they were next to each other in the table for the 1999 and 2000 EC.

peg said:

This is an impressive analysis. :agree:

I have to admit though, I find it a little odd that Prague is listed as being in Eastern Europe vs Vienna being in Western Europe, when in fact Prague is located west (well, technically northwest) of Vienna. That really struck me when they were next to each other in the table for the 1999 and 2000 EC.

Click to expand...

Come on, peg. As somebody who was born in the Czech Republic when it was under Communist rule, and whose first country of refuge after you left was Austria, I thought you of all people would understand why the Czech Republic was classed as Eastern Europe and Austria was classed as Western Europe.

But, I do agree with what you are saying. This is a paradox that has bothered me for many years.

Most people use the position of the "Iron Curtain" as the division between Western Europe and Eastern Europe:


That is, running along the current Eastern borders of Germany, Austria and Italy.

But, as you have pointed out, using this line does lead to some weird classifications. Like, Finland and Greece are positioned way East, yet are classed as Western Europe.

Personally, I prefer to split the European landmass into more parts than just West and East. Specifically Northern, Western, Central, Eastern and Mediterranean. Thus, I normally class the Czech Republic as Central Europe, along with Germany, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria and Slovenia.

So, rather than using the "Iron Curtain" to separate Eastern Europe, I normally use the current eastern border of Germany, and the pre-war internal border that separated the Austrian and Hungarian parts of the former Austria-Hungary. (The one complication with using this line is Galicia, which was actually Austrian territory, but is classed as Eastern Europe as it is now divided between Poland and the Ukraine).

But, for the purposes of splitting the figure skating world up, it was sufficient to just have the 2 divisions of Europe.

I mightn't like the "West" and "East" model, but in this case it works.

CaroLiza_fan