G.O.E +3

The thibg is, when you’re from a small Country you don’t get to be in big competitions. Take Italy, where I live. Nationals are like nothing. No broadcast, no audience and not even competition for the international athletes, like Anna and Luca. If you consider nationals in Russia, USA or Japan it’s more of a big deal and people lerform at their best to try and beat the others from the same country. So of course most of their scores would be better than theo ones of small countries’ best skaters. I think all nations should have a chance at worlds because they improve athletes, teams and influence future generations of the small Countries

I’m from Italy too (😁) and I get the point very well. What I was saying in my first post wasn’t that we should take spots away from smaller countries and give them to skaters from bigger countries. Smaller countries have every right to go to international competitions, including Euros, 4CC and Worlds. My point was (and is) that if a skater doesn’t make the world team because his/her country doesn’t have enough spots, but still proves to deserve to compete, there should be a way for him/her/them to qualify for these events. Also, in some ways athletes from smaller countries have an easier life compared to skaters from bigger countries. Since they have less rivals in their home country, they can still go to international events even if they didn’t do perfect in their national championships. For example, Carolina Kostner (or even Valentina Marchei) wasn’t always in top form, but still made it to international competitions every year, because there weren’t other italian ladies that could do better. Instead, skaters from bigger countries can’t take a day off of perfection because there are tons of other athletes that are ready to take their place (and here I’m using poor Daisuke as an example again, because he’s out of the world team, while if he was from a country like ours he would probably never even leave it). I think it’s pretty frustrating and unfair for a skater to be in such situation. This is the main reason why I’m saying there should be a way for them to qualify (but again: they have to deserve it).

Yes of course my whole idea started from the possibility to increase the number of athletes competing in each event. There would be no point in having a world championship where Russia, Japan, Canada, China and the US just compete against each other haha! Anyway, it’s all really just my opinion, I don’t think the ISU is planning to change the qualification system any time soon.

If they increased total number of athletes, that would be great, but then other countries would also complain that “oh such-and-such country got this many spots, but so-and-so shouldn’t even be at Worlds because they didn’t do well at Nationals for their country…” It’s actually why quite a few skaters switch affiliations. Take Chris Caluza for example. He used to skate for the US, but he has dual citizenship with the Philippines. He skated for the Philippines because it was easier to get to Worlds and the Olympics (which politics of skating screwed up for him anyway. I’ve spoken to him about this). While I do think increasing the total number of skaters is awesome, I don’t want to see the politics of skating (i.e. whining about skater count per country) involved where the number of slots for the next world championships comes in. Also, do we want Worlds to go on for like…a million years? XD

That is a good point indeed (although in all honesty, considering how depressed I get when worlds are over, I wouldn’t mind them to go on for a million years ahahah). Let’s imagine this very surreal scenario though: Yuzuru Hanyu wins the GPF, breaks all the world records, but then messes up at Nationals, finishes 6th and doesn’t go to Worlds. Would that be fair? I don’t know, I personally don’t think so. Of course using Yuzuru as an example isn’t fair either (lol) but you never know, right :’) This might also be a problem for smaller countries too: if they only have one spot, but that particular year two skaters do really well, one will have to sit out just because someone the year before didn’t do good enough to get more spots. It kind of kills the competition, in my opinion. Of course I’m not saying that we should let all the skaters that get the minimum tech go to worlds cause that would kill the competition too lol. And anyway, as a skating fan (and as unfair to the skaters as this will sound), if I have to watch a short program where a ton of men score in the 60s, I would also like to see 4 or 5 men score in the 80s-90s-100s, even if they’re all from the same country :’D

Your Wagner/Gold/Nagasu example is exactly my whole point. If we pretend Team USA only has two spots for Worlds and Mirai doesn't get to go even after winning nationals, for me that's unfair. At the same time though, if Wagner had to sit out after an amazing GP only because she bombed at Nationals, that would be unfair as well. And these should be the cases where there should be a way for the skaters to earn their spot for Worlds independently of what country they're from. How this should work though, I still don't know exactly (and it was one of the reasons why I started the whole discussion). World ranking? (But considering it's based on the results of the past three years, that wouldn't be the fairest system) Season's best? (Again, I don't feel like it would be fair cause one could have an awesome score once and then bomb every competition of the season). Using just the minimum tech score would open the competition to literally everyone, which is nit what I'm aiming for. I'm still trying to come up with some sort of idea on this (LOL as if I was the ISU anyway XD). This is all just my opinion though, of course, and I do understand your point and agree with you on many aspects. I'm sorry I can't write a proper answer to everything right now (sitting in a hospital waiting room and running on 4 hours of sleep, I would probably make no sense XD) but it's always interesting hearing different points of view ;)

The thibg is, when you’re from a small Country you don’t get to be in big competitions. Take Italy, where I live. Nationals are like nothing. No broadcast, no audience and not even competition for the international athletes, like Anna and Luca. If you consider nationals in Russia, USA or Japan it’s more of a big deal and people lerform at their best to try and beat the others from the same country. So of course most of their scores would be better than theo ones of small countries’ best skaters. I think all nations should have a chance at worlds because they improve athletes, teams and influence future generations of the small Countries

I’m from Italy too (😁) and I get the point very well. What I was saying in my first post wasn’t that we should take spots away from smaller countries and give them to skaters from bigger countries. Smaller countries have every right to go to international competitions, including Euros, 4CC and Worlds. My point was (and is) that if a skater doesn’t make the world team because his/her country doesn’t have enough spots, but still proves to deserve to compete, there should be a way for him/her/them to qualify for these events. Also, in some ways athletes from smaller countries have an easier life compared to skaters from bigger countries. Since they have less rivals in their home country, they can still go to international events even if they didn’t do perfect in their national championships. For example, Carolina Kostner (or even Valentina Marchei) wasn’t always in top form, but still made it to international competitions every year, because there weren’t other italian ladies that could do better. Instead, skaters from bigger countries can’t take a day off of perfection because there are tons of other athletes that are ready to take their place (and here I’m using poor Daisuke as an example again, because he’s out of the world team, while if he was from a country like ours he would probably never even leave it). I think it’s pretty frustrating and unfair for a skater to be in such situation. This is the main reason why I’m saying there should be a way for them to qualify (but again: they have to deserve it).

Yes of course my whole idea started from the possibility to increase the number of athletes competing in each event. There would be no point in having a world championship where Russia, Japan, Canada, China and the US just compete against each other haha! Anyway, it’s all really just my opinion, I don’t think the ISU is planning to change the qualification system any time soon.

If they increased total number of athletes, that would be great, but then other countries would also complain that “oh such-and-such country got this many spots, but so-and-so shouldn’t even be at Worlds because they didn’t do well at Nationals for their country…” It’s actually why quite a few skaters switch affiliations. Take Chris Caluza for example. He used to skate for the US, but he has dual citizenship with the Philippines. He skated for the Philippines because it was easier to get to Worlds and the Olympics (which politics of skating screwed up for him anyway. I’ve spoken to him about this). While I do think increasing the total number of skaters is awesome, I don’t want to see the politics of skating (i.e. whining about skater count per country) involved where the number of slots for the next world championships comes in. Also, do we want Worlds to go on for like…a million years? XD

That is a good point indeed (although in all honesty, considering how depressed I get when worlds are over, I wouldn't mind them to go on for a million years ahahah). Let's imagine this very surreal scenario though: Yuzuru Hanyu wins the GPF, breaks all the world records, but then messes up at Nationals, finishes 6th and doesn't go to Worlds. Would that be fair? I don't know, I personally don't think so. Of course using Yuzuru as an example isn't fair either (lol) but you never know, right :') This might also be a problem for smaller countries too: if they only have one spot, but that particular year two skaters do really well, one will have to sit out just because someone the year before didn't do good enough to get more spots. It kind of kills the competition, in my opinion. Of course I'm not saying that we should let all the skaters that get the minimum tech go to worlds cause that would kill the competition too lol. And anyway, as a skating fan (and as unfair to the skaters as this will sound), if I have to watch a short program where a ton of men score in the 60s, I would also like to see 4 or 5 men score in the 80s-90s-100s, even if they're all from the same country :'D

The thibg is, when you’re from a small Country you don’t get to be in big competitions. Take Italy, where I live. Nationals are like nothing. No broadcast, no audience and not even competition for the international athletes, like Anna and Luca. If you consider nationals in Russia, USA or Japan it’s more of a big deal and people lerform at their best to try and beat the others from the same country. So of course most of their scores would be better than theo ones of small countries’ best skaters. I think all nations should have a chance at worlds because they improve athletes, teams and influence future generations of the small Countries

I’m from Italy too (😁) and I get the point very well. What I was saying in my first post wasn’t that we should take spots away from smaller countries and give them to skaters from bigger countries. Smaller countries have every right to go to international competitions, including Euros, 4CC and Worlds. My point was (and is) that if a skater doesn’t make the world team because his/her country doesn’t have enough spots, but still proves to deserve to compete, there should be a way for him/her/them to qualify for these events. Also, in some ways athletes from smaller countries have an easier life compared to skaters from bigger countries. Since they have less rivals in their home country, they can still go to international events even if they didn’t do perfect in their national championships. For example, Carolina Kostner (or even Valentina Marchei) wasn’t always in top form, but still made it to international competitions every year, because there weren’t other italian ladies that could do better. Instead, skaters from bigger countries can’t take a day off of perfection because there are tons of other athletes that are ready to take their place (and here I’m using poor Daisuke as an example again, because he’s out of the world team, while if he was from a country like ours he would probably never even leave it). I think it’s pretty frustrating and unfair for a skater to be in such situation. This is the main reason why I’m saying there should be a way for them to qualify (but again: they have to deserve it).

Yes of course my whole idea started from the possibility to increase the number of athletes competing in each event. There would be no point in having a world championship where Russia, Japan, Canada, China and the US just compete against each other haha! Anyway, it's all really just my opinion, I don't think the ISU is planning to change the qualification system any time soon.