I know. It's still unfair, less exciting for the viewers, and not good for the sport. I can understand the realities of the situation and still acknowledge the flaws within it. I have tickets to SA. I've already seen both Laurine & Nicole skate. Nicole has been to SA twice, including last season. And Laurine was at SC last year.
Korea has the highest ranked athletes on the replacement lists in 3 of 4 disciplines. And part of that is because their athletes were skipped. I'm grateful to Finland for picking up the slack, and I'm sad Korea could not afford to host. But this does highlight why GP events should be balanced geographically. And while I don't think much of karne's argument here, I do hope Australia can find the means to begin hosting more events like the upcoming 4CCs. It's nice to see countries like Korea & Australia producing multiple athletes. In Korea's case, especially, athletes that are homegrown and adding to the depth of the overall sport. We should be looking for ways to continue expanding the sport into new countries and to do so without dumbing down the level of competition. Here is a prime opportunity to do so, and yet athletes get left home because they live too far away from high profile competitions.
Maybe some form of special funding could be put into place to help defray travel costs for senior athletes near the qualification bubble. And really there must be some way to improve the lack of geographical balance on the JGP.