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The Grand Prix Series
In
the old days, the only competitions in the skating season were Nationals,
Europeans, and Worlds. Nothing else mattered, really. But then as soon as the
big suits realized the huge TV ratings that figure skating was pulling in, they
created a Grand Prix series, in addition to the regular competitions.
No matter what anyone tells you,
the Grand Prix has nothing to do with Worlds or Nationals, though you have to be
participate in one (if you're invited) in order to do pro-ams. It's just there for
skaters to earn money, experience, and recognition from the international judges. Plus it
gives us skating fans something to talk about in between the major competitions,
LOL. It's a lot easier to tell how a skater's season is going, since competition
take place almost weekly in the series.
The skaters are invited to a Grand Prix competition by the
country who is hosting it. (I believe the events are Skate
America, Skate
Canada, Cup of Russia, Trophee Lalique in France, and NHK Trophy in Japan) Skaters may choose 2 scoring events, though seeded
skaters (the top 6 in the world) may choose 3 if they wish. The non-scoring
event must be declared by the skater beforehand and the points still go to their
respectively placed skaters. The winner of the
event gets 12 points, the second place finisher 9 points, then on it goes 7, 5,
and 3. I think...
The 6 skaters with the most points at the end of the series go
on to the Grand Prix Final. The ISU has changed the format of this
competition from previous years, but the skaters still have to skate a short program,
and two different long programs. (see below) It's better than the head-to-head format, but it's still uselessly exhausting for the skaters since they have to skate 2 long programs and only 1 of them was aired on TV. Well, except for those lucky enough to be in Canada, where the Final took place, but still the ISU the claims that the two long programs are meant for "variety" in TV
programming. Sigh......
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Nationals and Worlds
Skaters get to US Nationals (I'm
not sure how other countries work) by first competing in regional competitions
for their skating level. Top 4 go on to sectionals, and then the top skaters
advance to Nationals. The USFSA may also excuse ("give a bye" to) some
skaters, from regionals and sectionals, who have proven themselves already and
would obviously be successful at the competition (like Michelle Kwan, LOL...)
After Nationals - and Euros if
you're a European - it's on to Worlds. The Western Hemisphere (or any other
country not participating in Europeans) has a competition called Four Continents
Cup, and some federations might wait to see how skaters do there before deciding
on an official World team. Usually top 3 at Nationals goes, but the ISU
has an age rule now: all skaters now must be 15 by July 1st before Worlds or
else they can't go. No exceptions. Tara Lipinski doesn't have to worry about someone
dethroning her as the youngest World Champion in history, LOL...
At Worlds, the placement of a
country's skaters determine the number of skaters who are able to go to Worlds
the next year, as well as the Olympics if it's a pre-Olympic year. If the total
placement of the top 2 skaters of a country is equal to or lower than 13, then
the country can send 3 skaters to Worlds/Olympics the year after. I think the
2-skater cut-off is at 28, but I'm not sure...all of the federations associated
with the ISU are allowed to send one skater though.
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The Competition
For Worlds
and Europeans, there is a qualifying round to whittle down the large number of
competitors. The results of the previous year are split up into two qualifying
groups. (All odd-numbered finishers go in one group, and all even-numbered
finishers go in another. Uneven groups do sometimes result, as seen in the 2000
Worlds Ladies QR. There, Michelle Kwan, Irina Slutskaya, Sarah Hughes and
Viktoria Volchkova were forced to battle it out in one group, and Maria
Butyrskaya had another group all to herself, LOL. It was so uneven, the
second-place finisher in Maria's QR group had neither a flip nor a lutz jump.)
After the groups are decided, they draw for their skate order: the skaters dress
nicely, form a long line, and draw numbers out of a bag. Michelle needs to
practice this more often. She's drawn first waaaay too many times...I'll explain
the disadvantage to this later. In the QR, the skaters basically have to skate their long
program and the judges will judge them accordingly out of a 6.0 scale. Skaters
who make the cut off (don't ask me what it is, I don't know...#25 or
something...) advance to the short program. The qualifying round is rather
controversial, since it exhausts the skaters, who are forced to skate their LP
twice in the same competition, and is never televised on TV anyway. (Ahem, not
in the US, at least...) Plus, it counts for 20% of the overall score at Worlds,
but skaters who would obviously qualify are just wasting their energy needed for
the long program. Defending World Champion Alexei Yagudin finished a disastrous
fifth in his qualifying group in 2001 Worlds due to an injured landing foot, and
was basically shut out of the gold medal after that first round. So much for the
competition, LOL...
In smaller events, like those of the Grand Prix, there are only
a few competitors, so there is no need to whittle the number down with a QR. A
short program is skated first in those events, after a draw for skate order of
course. With a technical program about 2.5-3 minutes long with required
elements, the
skaters are judged on their ability and skill. Each skater must declare their
elements beforehand, so the judges can come up with a specific base mark to
start from. Like gymnastics, the judges have an approximate base mark based on
the skater's abilities. Skaters who don't do an element or fail to do one
correctly have
points docked off their technical mark. The ISU has a rulebook that lists the
specific deductions for specific faults; please don't make me list them, LOL.
Still, a skater who skates clean might place lower than a skater who falls but
has more difficult elements. It works that way.
Then comes the long program, which focuses are presentation but
technical prowess still counts. About 4-4.5 minutes long, the LP has still has
some requirements - number of spins and footwork sequences, etc. - but the skaters are rewarded for what they do (i.e. if they mess up or
change a jump, it's okay, no points are taken off. The base mark would be lower,
if that really makes a difference...). There are other rules, such as the Zayak
rule, which limits repeated jumps, and costume rules that the judges - ahem
- never seem to deduct for. Vocals are now allowed, though there can't
be any words. Only "oohing," "ahhing," etc. Ice dancers are
allowed to use vocals with words, though.
The Zayak rule states that no more than two
triple jumps may be repeated, and one of those repeated jumps must be in combination.
Thus, men are limited to 8 triple jumps if they have a triple axel, while ladies
are limited to 7, since no woman has landed a triple axel since Tonya Harding
and Midori Ito. This rule was named after US skater Elaine Zayak, who won Worlds
by doing like 4 triple toe loops. We skating fans figured by now that the Zayak
rule doesn't apply to quad jumps, since the judges haven't been deducting for
them.
The costume rules are basically irrelevant, LOL, with the outfits that the
ice dancers have been wearing lately with no deductions whatsoever. Though I'd
like to point out that the stereotyped male figure skater in tights is not
possible now, since men have a "no tights" rule, thanks to Brian Boitano. Don't ask, LOL. They have to wear "trousers," which is by
definition "pants that flap at the ankle." This rule is what Kim and
Laurie were worrying about after Sun
Valley, since they thought Alexei looked pretty dang good in his
"almost-tights-but-not-quite-there-yet" black pants
emphasized with show lighting, LOL. Women have to wear skirts as well, so why
not get rid of that rule too, LOL?
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The Scoring
Okay, this section is due for a MAJOR overhaul because of the switchover to the "Code of Points" judging system. While you're here, you can refer to the ISU page for the officialities. And for the truly hardcore (like moi), you can refer to all of the officialities here. In the meantime, you can consider the following schpiel a relic of the old times, LOL...while I figure out a way to find some time to update this page, and learn all of the stuff myself..
In
figure skating, the scores themselves don't count, it's the placement. Get this
in your head and you'll be fine, LOL. Often people forget that and they complain
about how low the scores are when the placements are perfect. Thus, a perfect
6.0 really doesn't mean anything significant. The judges use the numbers only to
place the skaters in the order they would like the skaters to finish in.
Thus
said, there are two marks: one for technical and one for presentation. The
technical mark reflects the skill of the skater in difficulty and execution of
jumps, footwork, speed, edging, etc. If the short program warranted specific
deductions, they would be shown here. In the long program, the judges would base
it mostly on the difficulty of the jumps landed, with no deductions if the skater
messes up. However, if a skater messes up on a jump, he/she would have a lower
base mark to score from anyway. So in the long program, it more or less depends
on how nice the judges want to be, LOL.
In
the presentation mark, there are specific criteria so it isn't that subjective
as one might think. Remember, it's "presentation," not
"artistry," though a bit of artistry won't hurt your presentation, LOL.
Some things to look for is speed, flow, ice coverage (some of the Russians need
work in this, since most of the time they face the judge's direction and one
side of the arena gets to look at a well-toned derriere instead of a face),
musical interpretation, etc. There are people out there who know more, LOL, but
I'm not one of them. Skateweb
will help, LOL. In the long program, a fall might lower the presentation score
if the fall was very jarring and interrupted the flow of the program.
After one
performance, the judges have literally moments to decide the scores and where
the performance fits in comparison to everyone else's (i.e. "the
placements"). This
is why skating first is bad, since the judges have to hold the marks back in case
someone skates better later. Woe to the judge who boxes her-/himself in too early
into the competition, LOL...judges at 2001 Europeans AHEM!! (Three
perfect 6.0's to Evgeny Plushenko, the first skater of his group, with defending
World Champion Alexei
Yagudin and Russian National bronze medallist Sasha Abt left to go...sigh...)
(Imagine what the scores would have
been like for Alexei had he completed that second triple axel, LOL...)
Ordinals are
determined by the total of the technical and presentation marks (This is new -
the OBO system. They used to rank the skaters by ordinals only. Seems like was
simpler, LOL...) Whoever
the judges deem is first will have the largest number, and then the standings go
in descending value. If a judge has two numbers for different skaters that
happen to be the same, the presentation marks decide who comes out on top. Anyway, with ordinals, if the judges more or less
agree on a placement for a skater, then the skater gets that placement for that
portion of the competition. Majority rules, and it's almost impossible to get a
tie, since there are an odd number of judges. Plus there are other instructions
about what to do if there's a tie, but I've never seen one happen, so that's
pretty rare. For the
overall competition placement:
SP and LP only:
SP placement x
0.5 + LP placement x 1.0 = Total # number of pointsSkater
with lowest number of points wins. With
the QR:
QR placement x
0.4 + SP placement x 0.6 + LP placement x 1.0 = Total # of pointsSkater
with lowest number of points wins Man, did I learn a lot off the Internet!
If
you still have ponderings, the ISU official
page has basically everything, and Skateweb
has a lot of answers as well. Whew....
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