Well I will settle for what you suggest. If not at the Olympics, atleast they should have a skating competition somewhere with the all of the very best skaters.
OK, let's say we're going to scrap the World Championship structure and replace it with a competition for all of the very best skaters in the world.
First thing we have to do is decide how many of these very best skaters should participate. For practical reasons, it's been decided that 24 skaters for the long program is a good maximum number for judging panels and audiences to maintain concentration. Maybe 30 for the short program with 6 skaters being cut before the long.
It would also be possible to go with a smaller number of participants -- only the very very best skaters. Or a somewhat larger number, at least for the SP. But the number of initial entries can't be infinite.
Second question would be how to determine who qualifies as very best in the world and therefore is eligible to enter this championship.
There may be 10-20 ladies and 10-20 men who are capable of contending for world medals, at least on a good day. So we want all of those skaters to participate?
Then there might be, say, 100 others per discipline around the world who even at their best no one would expect to come out on top of a world championship event but who could, on a good day, beat some of the potential medal contenders on a bad day. In the current context they might be dreaming of a top-10 or even top-24 Worlds finish, a respectable (midfield) finish at a Grand Prix event or continental championship, or a medal at a senior B international, but only on their good days could they achieve those goals.
That would already be too many skaters to judge in one competition, so there would need to be some means of qualifying in smaller groups.
And there might be another few hundred around the world who can meet their federations minimum requirements to be considered senior-level skaters but who even on their best day don't have the skills to finish in, say, the top half of a Euros or 4Cs field.
So how could these several hundred senior skaters worldwide be narrowed down to the very best 24 or 30?
I can think of three possibilities.
1) Make Worlds a multistage event lasting for at least a week and a half. Anyone can enter, although skaters or their federations would have to pay significant entry fees -- $1000 or more per skater. Maybe each fed would get one entry for free in the discipline of their choice. Skaters who qualify for the final get their entry fees refunded.
Hold qualifying rounds, probably lasting two days for the ladies and at least a full long day for the men. This could consist of short program, long program, or some other format that would replace the current short program in all skating competitions. We would probably have to go back to dividing the field into several approximately equal groups of no more than 24 per group and then taking the top X skaters from each group to end up with a final round of the appropriate size.
2) Make Europeans and Four Continents into open qualifier competitions. Anyone can enter those events, probably with with entry fees as above, there would be a day or so of qual rounds for each discipline at those events, and then the top 15? from each continental championship would be qualified for Worlds.
Or make the number of qualifiers from each continental group proportional to how that continental group's representative did at Worlds the previous year. Or use the total scores as cutoffs.
3) Forget about having any single event where all federations or half of all federations (European or non-European) can all gather at the same venue. Set up a super-Grand Prix series instead -- 8 or 12 or more full-sized events (24 or 30 entries) of equal weight, located around the world with half or fewer located in Europe. There might be some permanent host countries and other events would rotate to different locations each year.
All federations would be guaranteed at least one or two entries in this series. Beyond that, there would need to be a way of determining how federations might end up with 5 or 10 or 20 ladies, or men, in the series, and a way of determining which individual skaters can enter more than one of these events. There would also need to be a way of seeding the fields so that all the best skaters don't congregate at one of the events and leave another event with no strong contenders.
Qualifying for Worlds would be based on results in this series in some way.
Maybe points for placements in two events, similar to how skaters qualify for the current Grand Prix and Junior Grand Prix finals.
Maybe all medalists at these events would qualify, regardless of results in a second event.
Maybe something similar to the current world rankings.
Maybe the top 30 IJS scorers from across the series would qualify.
Or look at the curve of all scores from the series and draw a cutoff at a point where there's a clear gap between the last skater who falls above the line and the first who falls below it and that still leaves a manageable sized field. E.g., anywhere between 20 and 40 skaters would qualify depending on the point spreads in that year's series. That way you wouldn't have anyone just missing the cut by tenths of a point or less.
This could be done with the scores at the initial rounds at Worlds or at the continental events.
Or take the top X from each Worlds initial round or continental qualifier or super-Grand Prix qualifier, for approximately 24 total, plus anyone in what proved to be a higher scored event whose total was higher than someone who qualified from a group with weaker scores.
If the total number of qualifiers ends up being more than 24, then cuts would be made after the SP at Worlds.
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Whichever method is chosen, a similar setup might be used for pairs and dance, although the numbers in those disciplines, esp. pairs, are enough smaller worldwide that you might end up more teams qualifying for Worlds than getting cut.
(actually it funny and sad)
