I really think that there should be a "super-qualifier" for a 4th spot, say if two people from the same country earn a total of 5 or less. And a country that has three skaters totalling 10 or less should get 5 spots. Next year with KAZ getting three spots is not new. For years, Lu Chen was earning 3 spots and she was pretty much the entire Chinese ladies program.
What I would really like to see is in addition to the current rules for qualifying for the next Worlds, is that a 12 month ranking system like the WTA is put in place (the skating WR seems to be the past 24 months). And the top 10 world ranked skaters automatically get an invitation to Worlds. In other words, Russian can earn their 3 spots under the current rules, but any other Russian who is world ranked in the top 10 also gets to Worlds. At most, which is highly doubtful, they might have 7 more spots if the top 10 are all Russian. That won't ever happen, but all it means is if the World Ranked top 10 all go, you will only have one extra flight of skaters. That would be most fair. Hopefully I'm not being too confusing.
Actually, recently i heard a different oppinion on this whole spot system on a russian podcast, and its quite curious.
For example, they pointed out that if we have lets say 2 countries with many strong skaters, such as it currently happens in ladies with Russia and Japan, this virtually leaves everybody else with no chance of getting 3 spots, even though their skaters are not much worse.
What happens - if a country has 2-3 spots, they need to have their top two placements add to 13. Look at last worlds - top 6 was 2 russians and 3 japanese. And to have 13, the worst case you can do is 6th + 7th. So in the current field, a country, to get 13 spots, would either need to have 2 skaters place somewhere at 5-8 adding up to 13 (and that still kind of depends on the mistakes of the top girls). Or, as alternative, have a skater who can compete with Zagitova and Kihira and get into the podium (what lilBet did). Still, its very hard, as we have 2 countries getting their spots with huge margin (1+3 Russia, 4-5-6 Japan), and worst of all, their 3rd skaters are also very close to the podium, so while they do not contribute to their own country's spots, they make it harder for someone else to get that spot (see japanese #3 on 6th and russian #3 on 8th).
Take USA for example - the americans were 7th and 9th, but if you take out the russian and the japanese #3, you would have a 6th and 7th, enough for 3 spots.
Just adding a 4th spot to whoever would actually make this even worse.
Then, also, there is the whole old thing of using past results for the next season. I dont think its a good idea. I mean, Osmond won worlds last year, and Canada got 3 spots. Except this year Canada has really just 1 top skater, while everybody else struggles. Something similar will happen with Kaz next year - Lizzy got the spots, but who will fill them?
You could also see this issue clearly at the GP this year, with skaters like Panenkova and Tsurskaya bombing absurdly, while Russia had much stronger skaters who could have benefitted of those spots and do well maybe.
Imho, the whole way the spots are defined should be changed. I personally would appreciate much more if they used a criteria based on the current season, rather than previous years. For example, number of skaters from each country in some SB bands - lets say countries that got 3 skaters in top 20 will get 3 spots, then some rule for 2 and then everybody else gets 1 spot. Something like this maybe.
That was completely unnecessary, she got a bit carried away in trying to explain a situation. And now again, Alina’s water intake will be discussed, I guess...
I look now with those subtitles that is, just anger takes - so primitively translated. How can they do so unprofessional? If you can not translate well - so do not start! But if you took it - translate well! I always get angry when half throw out. For example, Pozner is an intelligent person - before talking about racial advantages, he says "I apologize in advance because I will touch on a rather sensitive topic now" And the one who makes these miserable subtitles just throws out this remark - Pozner immediately starts talking about racial advantages. And so all the time. Please Dante, translate for us!
