Seeds For Worlds --> Explanation? | Golden Skate

Seeds For Worlds --> Explanation?

doubleaxelcm

On the Ice
Joined
Dec 2, 2004
Can anyone explain the process of how it is decided how many seeds a certain country has for Worlds based on their placing on worlds last year? It is always changing and I find it kind of confusing. An explanation would clear up a lot of questions I have.
 

hockeyfan228

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Sandra Loosemore has listed the rules on her site "Frogs on Ice." Here's the link to qualification:

http://www.frogsonice.com/skateweb/faq/rules.shtml#Q10

The gist is, then the placement scores of the top two skaters of a given country from last Worlds (or the single skater, if only one participated) determine how many skaters qualify for the next year. The site describes the number of placement scores needed for three, two, and one spot based on the number of participants from the year before, and how the placement scores are determined.

The site doesn't give details on how the ISU determines who gets what spots for the Olympics, where the number of competitors is kept smaller than for Worlds.
 

Tony Wheeler

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 27, 2003
I'm combining my previous posts here in order to try to explain things so sorry if it's confusing even more after.


Starting at the top of the results of the 2005 Worlds, countries are given their guaranteed number of spots that they have qualified until the number reaches 24 total, in singles (24 in dance, 20 in pairs). If a country has qualified two or three entries, they will certainly get all of them, but a top 24 placement at Worlds might not mean an automatic Olympic birth for that country. (Zuzana Babiakova, IIRC, was 24th at the 2001 Worlds and was the only lady to make the free skate who didn't qualify a spot for her country to SLC-- she would later do it in the skate-off competition that you referred to, where 6 more spots are given to countries that have no entry yet.)

Example, say the 2004 Worlds was actually the 2005 Worlds, and the 24 automatic births were up for grabs. The mens qualifiers would be:

USA (5, 6) = 3
FRA (2, 9) = 3
RUS (1, 12) = 3
GER (3) = 2
CHN (7, 10) = 2
CAN (8, 13) = 2
JPN (11, 16) = 2
SUI (4, 20) = 2
Meaning, 19 of the 24 spots would be taken by countries earning more than one entry.

Then,
BEL (14) = 1
BUL (15) = 1
ROM (17) = 1
BLR (18) = 1
CZE (19) = 1
would be the final five qualifiers from Worlds, and even though Urbas, Berntsson, and Wilson qualified for the free skate, they would have to qualify for the Olympics under the skate-off event.


Most of the time, though, so many countries (usually smaller European ones) will impose strict qualification criteria for their athletes to get to the Olympics, and even if they have qualified from Worlds/the skate-off event, they won't be sent to the Olympics and skaters who were the alternates will get to go.

If anyone remembers the Sarah Meier situation in 2002, when she was told she needed a top 10 placement at Europeans, but finished 13th, she had to go through all kinds of stuff to even get a chance to do a 'test-skate' of sorts where she had to land a certain amount of triples to even be considered to go to SLC. She passed the test-skate, which occured AFTER the start of the opening ceremonies IIRC, flew to SLC, and delivered an SP that put her in 9th place. Countries should learn from cases like this, as much money as it might cost them to send athletes!

I believe in the last Olympics in ladies, it got down to about the 4th or 5th alternate, and at that point, it was too late to add any others, which is why only 27 skated the SP in SLC.


As far as the points system for determining the amount of spots...

Placements for men & ladies at Worlds/Euros/World Juniors all get a certain amount of 'points', using this chart:

1-16 = placement is # of points (1st is 1, 13th is 13, etc)
17-24 = 16 points
25-30 = 18 points (did not qualify for LP)
31-# = 20 points (did not qualify for SP)

If there's one entry at Worlds:
1-2 points = 3 spots for the following season
3-10 points = 2 spots
11-20 points = 1 spot

If there's two entries at Worlds:
3-13 points = 3 spots for the following season
14-28 points = 2 spots
29-40 points = 1 spot

If there's three entries at Worlds, you use the TOP TWO finishers of the three..:
3-13 points = 3 spots for the following season
14-28 points = 2 spots
29-40 points = 1 spot

Therefore... just a note that if you have two skaters that go to Worlds, a 13th and 15th place finish would be enough to keep the two, so no, you don't HAVE to have one finish in the top 10!
 
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