how many gold medals can you earn? (tests)

Arwen17 said:

I'm only including "Adult" gold medals where you get to earn a medal early. For example, Adult Gold FS is really Juvenile FS (something which you wouldn't normally earn a medal for.)
If its an Adult Senior test, then ignore it and combine with the standard Senior test.
"Masters" I don't bother mentioning either because it lines up with "Adult".

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Arwen17 said:

I'm only including "Adult" gold medals where you get to earn a medal early. For example, Adult Gold FS is really Juvenile FS (something which you wouldn't normally earn a medal for.)

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Arwen17 said:

In theory, how many different gold medalist titles can you earn in the USFSA test track?

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Seren said:

I would not describe it as "getting to earn a medal early". The adult tests are not judged the same level as the kids- everyone knows that. That said- for an adult skater (who may have never skated as a kid) who works a full time job, ect, those tests are a big accomplishment. Most adult skaters never reach Adult Gold. I know there is debate as to whether or not these tests should be referred to as "gold medalists" and I honestly do not care. There are adult skaters who pass these tests and get gold medalist jackets- ect and that's fine, I personally won't because to me I'm not finished until I reach the highest test I cannot pass and fight with it the rest of my skating life. But don't knock really hardworking skaters by saying they "get" to earn a medal early. Most adult skaters have no chance of reaching Senior Moves- be it age, or time, ect.

You are correct than an adult skater who passes a Senior Moves or FS test would be considered a standard gold medalist. In competition adults are grouped Masters Intermediate-Novice and Masters Junior-Senior but the tests are still separate. I don't think it matters if the test was judged on standard track, adult track, or masters.

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Arwen17 said:

I'm only including "Adult" gold medals where you get to earn a medal early. For example, Adult Gold FS is really Juvenile FS (something which you wouldn't normally earn a medal for.)
If its an Adult Senior test, then ignore it and combine with the standard Senior test.
"Masters" I don't bother mentioning either because it lines up with "Adult".

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karne said:

Nice way to disparage plenty of hard-working adult skaters for whom that is an incredible achievement. Thanks for that.

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chiyung said:

I am not familiar with the USFS adult tests. I see this from my daughter’s perspective, and she's a minor. I think that the most "gold medal” that someone like my daughter can earn is seven.

Senior Moves in the Field
Senior Free Skate
Senior Pairs
Senior Free Dance (partner)
Senior Solo Free Dance
Gold Pattern Dance (partner or solo)
International Pattern Dance (partner or solo)

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jf12 said:

I would also add, that if you pass your Adult Gold MIF and then pass Senior MIF later, you wouldn't really be considered as earning 2 gold medals - you're replacing your adult GM with a standard GM.

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jf12 said:

I would also add, that if you pass your Adult Gold MIF and then pass Senior MIF later, you wouldn't really be considered as earning 2 gold medals - you're replacing your adult GM with a standard GM.

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Arwen17 said:

I swear I read somewhere that you are considered a "double gold medalist" if you have Adult Gold and Senior Adult passed.

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jf12 said:

Maybe you would be, but if you go by what people 'normally' mean by saying they're a double gold medalist, people typically do not mean 2 in the same discipline. Similarly with international/gold pattern dances.

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chiyung said:

Maybe I was too ice dance focused in my last reply. Maybe there are only 5 basic different “gold medals”.

Moves in the Field
Free Skate
Pairs
Pattern Dance
Free Dance

My daughter had passed her gold pattern dances, and will hopefully get through the International one within the next few years. Sounds like the International dances may not be considered an additional “gold medal.” This is ok with us, but we’re just wondering.

Are senior free dance (partner) and senior solo free dance the same “gold medal” or different? Any thoughts? They have some different elements (e.g., lifts for partner and edges for solo) between the 2 tests. My daughter has passed her senior solo free dance. She’s not testing the free dance (partner) now in case she is able to be paired up for competition in the future. Would she be considered having an additional “gold medal” if she eventually passes her senior free dance (partner)?

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jf12 said:

Technically yes, and if its a matter of something like a college application, or somewhere you can go into detail, go ahead and put them all down! To be more specific there are potentially 26 different gold medals you can earn, according to all the USFS patches you can get on your gold medalist jacket:

http://www.shopusfigureskating.com/Womens-Gold-Medalist-Jacket-_p_294.html

However, if you're just in conversation with someone or writing a short coaching bio of yourself, if for example you've passed Adult MIF, Standard Senior MIF, Adult Senior MIF, Masters MIF, Masters Senior MIF (by taking it again once you're over 50), you would probably just say you are a MIF gold medalist rather than saying you're a 5x gold medalist...

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jf12 said:

Technically yes, and if its a matter of something like a college application, or somewhere you can go into detail, go ahead and put them all down!

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davincisoprano said:

Unless you're me and testing both standard track AND adult track. I'm working on Adult Gold now as well as Juvenile MITF. Before anyone asks, it's because I can and I want to. I want to understand both testing structures, and when I switched to testing standard, I was already halfway through adult and decided I wanted to finish it. But I want the satisfaction of testing standard track at standard level.

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Vanshilar said:

Although it's already shown on the page that jf12 listed, you could in theory also do figures. Every year something like 55,000 tests are taken and around 16 of them will be in figures, heh, so good luck.

Figures also has a standard track and an adult track. My understanding is that unlike the MIF tests, once you pass Adult Gold in figures, there's no option to continue on in the standard figures test. The adult tests are quite different than the standard tests, in that for many of them, you only have to demonstrate one particular set, rather than all of them. For example, for 3-turns, for the standard track you have to demonstrate RFO-LBI, LFO-RBI, RFI-LBO, and LFI-RBO. For the Adult track, you choose one of those 4 -- so you only need to do your best one. My coach (who grew up during the figures days) said that's not fair since I'll be going for the adult figures track.

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Arwen17 said:

hahahaha, Figures is the one gold medal I know I will never earn since I have no interest in it. But my coach and a few other coaches at our rink are thinking about taking the tests. I guess they've run out of tests to take and are looking for a fresh challenge.

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theoreticalgirl said:

If you've passed MITF, I would definitely give the compulsory figures track a try, just to test your ability to do specific turns with a higher level of precision. You'll be surprised, for sure, haha.

BTW for anyone interested in the Adult track, I mapped out the Standard tests to the Adult track: https://is.gd/Jg68eU

From my experience (I passed the 8th test), I would say the hardest things on here are regular and change loops. Be happy the adult track omits paragraph loops! Otherwise, it's pretty attainable—good luck finding a judge tho.

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