2021 Cup of Austria: General Info

[gsk8]

The 2021 Cup of Austria is the sixth in a series of nine events of the 2021-22 Figure Skating Challenger Series. It is currently scheduled to take place in Graz, Austria, November 11-14, 2021.

The Challenger Series was established by the International Skating Union (ISU) during the 2014–15 season and the events consist of a group of senior-level events ranked below the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating. The series allows skaters to gain World Standing Points and is also a chance for officials to officiate at an international level.

• ISU Event page
• Official website
• Announcement
• Schedule for All Events pdf on this page
• ISU Senior Entries/Results
• Non ISU Novice Results/Protocols
• Non ISU Junior Results/Protocols & Senior Pairs
• ISU Senior Results/Protocols

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

Just to be clear - there are actually two Cups Of Austria this season:

1. The normal Junior one in October.
   
   
2. The new Senior one in November.

I say this one is "new", but it is anything but. It is actually the normal autumn Senior event in Graz, the Ice Challenge. The different name is because it has got Challenger status this year... but not all of it. So, the non-Challenger categories are running under the regular "Ice Challenge" name; while the Challenger categories are running under the "Cup Of Austria" name that is normally used for the Austrian Junior GP.

Yes, I realise that this event normally runs under two different names - the Ice Challenge for the Senior level categories, and the Leo Scheu Memorial for the Junior and Novice level categories. But, at least the separation was done in a sensible way. This time, we have:

• The Senior Ladies, Senior Men, and Senior Ice Dance are grouped together as the "Cup Of Austria"
  
  
• The Senior Pairs and the Junior level categories are grouped together as the "Ice Challenge".

To further complicate matters, the Novice skaters are not competing alongside the Seniors and Juniors. No, this year they have their own separate event in December... and it is called the "Ice Challenge" too!

Ever since the Challenger Series was first proposed, I thought that it would make things more complicated in terms of trying to work out what competitions counted towards ISU PB's and World Rankings / World Standings. But this is getting beyond ridiculous now, with some categories within the same event counting and some not.

It's a total mess! And something badly needs to be done to sort it out.

CaroLiza_fan

 

[ladyjane]

The senior pairs have no Challenger status (like at Lombardia)?

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

The senior pairs have no Challenger status (like at Lombardia)?

Correct.

It's not right. When the organisers are holding a Pairs competition as part of the event anyway, and it ticks the normal boxes (minimum number of international judges and entries), it should have same status as the other Senior categories on the bill. Not treated as a second class competition.

I am getting fed up with the way Pairs skating is getting discriminated against by the ISU. Yes, there are fewer partnerships around than in other categories. But, what do you expect when they aren't being given the same opportunities as skaters that compete in other categories?!

• Of the 7 Junior GP's we have in 2021, only 4 of them have Pairs competitions.
• Of the 10 Challenger events we have in 2021, only 6 have Pairs competitions with Challenger status.

Sorry, but I strongly believe that all four categories should be on the bill as default at all events. And a category should only be removed if there are very good reasons to do so.

I do worry that if this attitude continues, Pairs skating is eventually going to become yet another category of figure skating that is forgotten about in the public consciousness, joining the likes of:

• Fours Skating
• Solo Dance
• Synchronised Skating
• Theatre On Ice

And it really does not deserve this.

Sorry about the rant, but I am seriously fed up with Pairs skating being treated unfairly again and again.

CaroLiza_fan

 

[ladyjane]

It might be a rant, but I support this totally!

Especially this:
When the organisers are holding a Pairs competition as part of the event anyway, and it ticks the normal boxes (minimum number of international judges and entries), it should have same status as the other Senior categories on the bill. Not treated as a second class competition.

 

[cohkaix]

Team Japan entries (announced via Japanese media, as of Sept 23)

Men:
Sena Miyake, Lucas Tsuyoshi Honda

Women:
Mana Kawabe, Wakaba Higuchi, Tomoe Kawabata

 

[SnowWhite]

Correct.

It's not right. When the organisers are holding a Pairs competition as part of the event anyway, and it ticks the normal boxes (minimum number of international judges and entries), it should have same status as the other Senior categories on the bill. Not treated as a second class competition.

I am getting fed up with the way Pairs skating is getting discriminated against by the ISU. Yes, there are fewer partnerships around than in other categories. But, what do you expect when they aren't being given the same opportunities as skaters that compete in other categories?!

• Of the 7 Junior GP's we have in 2021, only 4 of them have Pairs competitions.
• Of the 10 Challenger events we have in 2021, only 6 have Pairs competitions with Challenger status.

Sorry, but I strongly believe that all four categories should be on the bill as default at all events. And a category should only be removed if there are very good reasons to do so.

CaroLiza_fan

Well, the entire reason they stopped having pairs at all the CS events was because there weren't enough entries, and events kept not counting for WS points (despite the requirements for pairs being less than other disciplines). Which hurt the skaters who competed there. That problem didn't regularly happen with any other discipline. You can argue that it wasn't the best solution, but you can't claim that it was just because ISU thinks pairs matters less. At least in the case of the Challengers, having fewer partnerships led to fewer events, not the other way around.

As for the JGP, it's the same thing. Pairs gets fewer entries than the others, so having it at fewer events encourages bigger fields. The ISU obviously thinks it would be better that way than having a bunch of events with like 4-5 entries, which is very possible. And they do allocate spots differently for pairs, so there's almost as many potential spots as in the other disciplines.

Personally, I'd be happy to see at least a couple more CS pairs events, if they can meet the requirements. I wasn't happy about the change, even though I understood the reasons. But I don't see a need to change the JGP system at this point. There aren't enough teams out there to need more events. Already a lot of countries don't use all the spots they have.

 

[MFarone]

Does anyone know if the Challenger portion will be live streamed? I'm watching Nebelhorn now and their is a free stream offered and in the past I've paid a fee to watch Finlandia but don't know what is being offered this year. I don't recall ever seeing Ice Challenge offer a stream.

The entire way this is being presented is very confusing....but I would still love to watch!

 

[GoneWithTheWind]

US entries:

Ladies: Starr Andrews, Audrey Shin, Bradie Tennell
Men: Ilia Malinin
Dance: Bratti/Somerville, Wolfkostin/Chen, McNamara/Spiridonov (listed incorrectly on the US assignments page as McNamara/Carpenter)

 

[Jeanie19]

US entries:

Ladies: Starr Andrews, Audrey Shin, Bradie Tennell
Men: Ilia Malinin
Dance: Bratti/Somerville, Wolfkostin/Chen, McNamara/Spiridonov (listed incorrectly on the US assignments page as McNamara/Carpenter)

I'm so happy Ilia will be at this event.

 

[GoneWithTheWind]

I'm so happy Ilia will be at this event.

Me too. I'm really glad USFS is giving the top skaters from the JGP a chance to get their senior minimums (they've assigned several to Warsaw Cup as well).

 

[cheerknithanson]

Yay for Ilia!! I'm happy he'll be able to get the chance to get senior minimums!

 

[lariko]

It might be a rant, but I support this totally!

Especially this:
When the organisers are holding a Pairs competition as part of the event anyway, and it ticks the normal boxes (minimum number of international judges and entries), it should have same status as the other Senior categories on the bill. Not treated as a second class competition.

I would also agree to this. And, tbh, the visibility of slashing pairs in both JGP and Challengers doesn’t bode well. I would rather they relaxed ‘compete for a country’ restriction more for them, instead of losing the discipline…

 

[CrazyKittenLady]

I guess the complete entry list should come out tomorrow. I'm so excited to see if any of the Russian lads will come to Austria. Really looking forward to Ilia M. too, I enjoyed him at the JGPs!

 

[Keith]

Èntries now up on ISU website. Quite some fields here!

 

[celestial]

wolfkostin/chen's first senior assignment, I would be interested to know the thought process behind it

 

[Rudel-chw]

I hope ISU will stream Live the Challenger event, I'd love to see the ISU Challenger Women events on Friday and Saturday

 

[CrazyKittenLady]

I hope ISU will stream Live the Challenger event, I'd love to see the ISU Challenger Women events on Friday and Saturday

Here is the link to the official website: https://www.icechallenge.at/ (I kinda feel some second-hand embarrassment for my countrymen because the English version is not very good...). You can also buy tickets there.
If there is a live stream, it should appear on the website linked above or maybe on this youtube channel (where they usually stream Austrian Nationals and other local competitions): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCumwRQ0JMZ-_XiOlkj4ajGA
I got tickets for Friday and Saturday, so I'll be able to cheer for Liza live!

 

[Andrea82]

Pairs and Junior entries are here:

Icechallenge 2021

 

[GoneWithTheWind]

Changes to the entries, the following have been removed:

Ice Dance: Demougeot/Le Mercier FRA, Dupayage/Nabais FRA, Galyavieva/Thauron FRA