Figure Skating in Australia | Page 111 | Golden Skate

Figure Skating in Australia

I'm of the feeling that they will send Kailani to the Olympics and Brooklee to Worlds.
Australia, in recent Olympic cycles (2005-6 season, 2013-4 season) we seem to always have the problem of having 2 women's skaters of a similar level fighting for one spot. I just hope this cycle, there won't be any calls to the arbitration of sport.

They will probably select either another Senior B or Challenger AND THEN Four Continents.
I suppose this is Australia's way of holding qualification rounds like South Korea, but using international competitions instead of having to create their own test skates. I suppose by doing this, they attempt to make a more 'objective' selection instead of doing the 'body of work' profile thing that we saw in the US last olympics.
It's confusing as ever, but I generally understand the premise.

Assuming the stupidity of this document is to take out the junior scores and the two skaters need to go head to head. In your scenario why on earth would they go right up to 4CC as the last event? It is too close (13 days) to Olympics gives zero time to the athlete eventually selected to prepare. Will the selected events benefit the skaters from gaining further world standing points, finding comps where we can enter 2 skaters, who is funding the trips, what happens if one or both get a Grand Prix event in the mix. By the time Olympics come around either potentially could be burnt out. Already Brooklee has done 3 Internationals no podium finishes. Kailani 4 Internationals 3 podiums with all scores except one higher than Brooklee.

There is no consolation prize in the championship policy for 2018 worlds. Whoever meets this criteria (unless it is changed) will go.... If more than one (1) athlete in each discipline has met the above requirements, athletes will be ranked and selected based on the athletes total TES achieved at two (2) Senior ISU Championships or ISU International Events during the current International Skating season.
 
In addition to all everyone's said about the selection process, if they really mean World Ranking, which is based on this year only, it's a pretty meaningless list. At the moment it shows Kaliani ranked 1, and Brooklee ranked 14. For comparison, last year's world medalists: have Medvedeva and Osmond tied at 17, and Daleman not on the list at all.

Basically, the skaters from one to 16 are either seniors who have points from two "Selected international competitions" or juniors who have points from two JGPs. Given that there aren't 20 skaters in total in those two categories combined, there is no way on earth that the two Australian ladies could be 20 places apart.

If you eliminate the juniors, it's even worse. There are a grand total of 9 ladies who have points for two "Select international"s. Of those 9 ladies, Kaliani is 1st and Brooklee is 8th. Only Amber Glenn of the USA is lower at 9.

What more could Kaliani have been expected to do? I guess her coaches should have tried to strong-arm a lot of ladies just below her level into doing two early competitions, to spread out the results more. What a crock!

It looks like they've really painted themselves into a corner by not thinking things through, and it seems really unfair to me. By the time the selection is done, BOTH ladies will be exhausted.

That said, I agree that 4CC is too late to be a selection competition.
 
^We can't use this season's 4CC, because it's after the entry deadline for the Olympics.

I feel like the ISA is on a bit of a losing wicket here. They got so much crap for making the rules too vague for the last couple of Olys, so they lay it out all nice and explicit and way ahead of time - this document was released before last season IIRC - and now they're getting crap for it being "too complicated".

Kailani and Brooklee seem to get along very well and have respect for one another. If there is a bunfight, it won't be because of them.

If it was explicit, then we and many others around the world wouldn’t be having these conversations. This document came out about 4 months ago after 2017 worlds. So one would think plenty of time to get it right with very clear terminology and well thought out criteria to work for the skaters, ISA and AOC.

Why would you think any skater would give up fighting for a place at the Olympics just out of respect? At this level, Olympics is the goal. I don’t think so and nor would the coaching staff.
 
Thank you all for the information and analyses! IMO, unless "Senior World Ranking" is defined somewhere in the criteria, it does seem to me that your governing body's criteria is not very transparent, at least to the general public. Given the importance of that terminology, and the fact that lawyers understand how important every word is in a document of potential legal significance, my best guess is that, either, the criteria were not heavily vetted/drafted/influenced by lawyers, or, the ambiguity/lack of precision may have been intentional. To be clear, this is just my personal opinion as an objective observer from what has been posted here. Also, I didn't see any mention of Nationals in the quoted selection process for the OG. So, does that mean Nationals is pretty much irrelevant for the selection process?
 
Thank you all for the information and analyses! IMO, unless "Senior World Ranking" is defined somewhere in the criteria, it does seem to me that your governing body's criteria is not very transparent, at least to the general public. Given the importance of that terminology, and the fact that lawyers understand how important every word is in a document of potential legal significance, my best guess is that, either, the criteria were not heavily vetted/drafted/influenced by lawyers, or, the ambiguity/lack of precision may have been intentional. To be clear, this is just my personal opinion as an objective observer from what has been posted here. Also, I didn't see any mention of Nationals in the quoted selection process for the OG. So, does that mean Nationals is pretty much irrelevant for the selection process?

I totally get and agree with what you're saying.
Even though I joked about drunken lawyers drafting that selection criteria, in all honesty it likely wouldn't have been written by a lawyer, as law school here has a massive focus on not using legalese and writing in "plain English" instead.
Karne's essentially correct in saying that the criteria isn't complicated - technically, with a lot of patience and a few migraines, it's able to be broken down into understandable points (eventually). To the poster (sorry for not remembering your name!) who suffered so we could be spared, thank you for explaining it.
The problem isn't really the criteria itself, but the page or so of extra words that don't need to be there and do nothing but cause major confusion. Well, ok, the criteria is a little OTT perhaps but hey, if it helps us avoid what those poor girls went through in 14.....

Lawyers would also include a definition section (as you mentioned). That to me would be the most important element. It's one thing to just have a pain in the butt, wordy criteria, but a completely different thing all together to not define any of the, you know, important stuff that the skaters actually need to know
(If there is a definition section, a clear one, somewhere that I've not seen, I take that back).
Not to mention that this being new criteria means no precedent cases to judge by.

If they're not gonna get specific about what constitutes a ranking, event etc, then we may as well just go "Body of Work!!" and throw this ten page document away.
 
Any word on Holly Harris? Haven't heard a thing about her since her concussion. Is she still living in the US or has she returned to Sydney?
 
Best of luck to our new Ice Dancers Chantelle and Andrew competing at the Cup of Nice this week.
 
Any word on Holly Harris? Haven't heard a thing about her since her concussion. Is she still living in the US or has she returned to Sydney?

I'm afraid I haven't heard anything.

Best of luck to our new Ice Dancers Chantelle and Andrew competing at the Cup of Nice this week.

And to Ryan who is making his international debut as a singles skater!
 
Next week aussieSKATES will be sending our very own reporter to cover Team Australia at the ISU Grand Prix Series - Skate Canada International in Regina, Saskatchewan.

We thought it would be fun to do a quick Q & A with Justin Laem, a serious and dedicated YouTube vlogger, and long - time skating enthusiast, based in Seattle, U.S.A. Justin will be in Canada representing aussieSKATES (as well as his own site) during the week - long event.

Click below to read our feature article with Justin.

http://aussieskates.com/news_laem.html
 
The Formal attire for the 2018 Australian Olympic Winter team has been released.
My thoughts.....the shirt makes it look like they are working at a supermarket. But the shirt looks a lot nicer with the Blazer. I also like the nice detail of having the name of every Australian Winter Olympian on the inside lining of the blazer. Not a fan of the green jumper.
The competitive attire is yet to be released, but at this stage, I prefer the 2014 attire.

Compare the pair
2014: http://corporate.olympics.com.au/aocMedia/gallery/AFFE6280-8E32-11E3-AD0D005056A37760
2018 http://pyeongchang2018.olympics.com...2018-australian-team-formal-uniforms-unveiled
 
I just feel like our Winter Olympic uniforms are always so daggy compared with our Summer Olympic ones.
 
The Formal attire for the 2018 Australian Olympic Winter team has been released.
My thoughts.....the shirt makes it look like they are working at a supermarket. But the shirt looks a lot nicer with the Blazer. I also like the nice detail of having the name of every Australian Winter Olympian on the inside lining of the blazer. Not a fan of the green jumper.
The competitive attire is yet to be released, but at this stage, I prefer the 2014 attire.

Compare the pair
2014: http://corporate.olympics.com.au/aocMedia/gallery/AFFE6280-8E32-11E3-AD0D005056A37760
2018 http://pyeongchang2018.olympics.com...2018-australian-team-formal-uniforms-unveiled

There aren't any full-length pictures, but I did notice that they have 2 types of pants for 2018 - ones that match the blazer and a tan/brown similar to those in 2014. In the 2014 pictures, I found the combination of the tan pants and the green blazer rather jarring. The matching pants look much better.
 
The Formal attire for the 2018 Australian Olympic Winter team has been released.
My thoughts.....the shirt makes it look like they are working at a supermarket. But the shirt looks a lot nicer with the Blazer. I also like the nice detail of having the name of every Australian Winter Olympian on the inside lining of the blazer. Not a fan of the green jumper.
The competitive attire is yet to be released, but at this stage, I prefer the 2014 attire.

Compare the pair
2014: http://corporate.olympics.com.au/aocMedia/gallery/AFFE6280-8E32-11E3-AD0D005056A37760
2018 http://pyeongchang2018.olympics.com...2018-australian-team-formal-uniforms-unveiled

These garments, individually and combined could pass as school uniform items..... :noshake:
 
The uniform is not too bad, but the media reaction is so funny, I was laughing with tears after reading the first couple paragraphs of the news.

AUSTRALIA’S 2018 Winter Olympic formal uniforms have been unveiled and the verdict is in: they’re not bad — if you work at a bank.

“If I walked into ANZ and saw staff wearing this, I’d be impressed,” designer Alex Perry said.


http://www.news.com.au/sport/olympi...s/news-story/c8b331adba1db1e639d1f5030c2643ad
 
Doesn't the Australian team usually have some of the coolest, most delightfully colored opening/closing ceremony outfits?
 
Set your DVR timers.

SBS TV Australia will be airing the ISU Grand Prix Series each Saturday from 2.30 - 4.00pm. (Screening times may vary from state to state.)

Next week on October 28, the season beings with the ISU Rostelecom Cup.
 
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