1. In the year before Olympic season, hold it at the upcoming Olympic venue.
2009 4CC was held in Vancouver, exactly 1 year before Olympics ... like a preview, very nice way of doing it IMO.
About the North American Championships, in addition to the fact that the U.S. and Canada alternately accused each other of crooked judging every other year, the real reason the series ended in 1973 was that Canada decided it was more in their interests to host an international competition, Skate Canada.
The U.S. (don't get mad, get even ) countered with Skate America six years later.
I really don't know if anything can be done to fix this.
As someone already mentioned, it is not exactly so straightforward - a lot of european skaters train in North America. Also, we definitely DO NOT speak similar languages. It is a stretch. Additionally, I do not see how these factors you mentioned would make the Europeans prestigous. Following your logic, Worlds should not be prestigous at all.I think the problem is that Europe is a big "nation" for itself so to speak. You are at another country in a few hours, you have the Euro as currency in many, you speak similar languages
Look at Euro´s, you have Russians, Germans, Fins, Swedes, Brit´s, Lithuanian, Italian, French, Spanish .... so many countries with such a huge skating history - that's just not there at the 4 CC´s.
Not sure how fair this is to non-euro countries but not a bad thought at 4cc IMO.Or what if medalists at 4CC and Euro qualified for Worlds with out it counting against the skaters country's allotted number of skaters.
ie: based on this 2014 Euro's Julia, Adelina, and Carolina would all get spots at Worlds and Russia could send 2 more skaters and Italy 1 more. Would certainly encourage federations to take them seriously
Not sure how fair this is to non-euro countries but not a bad thought at 4cc IMO.
If you do it for one continental level championship event you need to do it at the other. Every federation should have the same chance to win extra slots.
This only happens in an Olympic year, and it's because half of the competitors have to fly half-way around the world to get there. It takes one week for the competition and one week to recover from the jet lag. In non-Olympic years, nearly all of the top skaters show up.
Additionally, this year the Olympic skaters are doing the team competition in addition to their singles events. They hardly need yet another competition between Nationals and the Olympics.
As someone already mentioned, it is not exactly so straightforward - a lot of european skaters train in North America. Also, we definitely DO NOT speak similar languages. It is a stretch. Additionally, I do not see how these factors you mentioned would make the Europeans prestigous. Following your logic, Worlds should not be prestigous at all.
Spanish and Lithuanian history of figure skating is huge? Spain is maybe just starting writing its own (and lets see how it goes in the nearest future). Lithuania - accept of Drobiazko/Vanagas, who did they have exactly?
I want to point out that this isn't a battle I started and not one I want to fight either. But you cant close your eyes and say that the 4 CC´s are more important or even bigger than Europeans, as that just isn't based on fact´s and truth.