Photo of Alexei by Anke Photo of Michelle by Shaun Best
Masters of Figure Skating | 2000 Sears Canadian Open | Hershey's Figure Skating Challenge

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Skating has evolved in many ways during the modern era. Compulsory figures were eliminated, and many more competitions were made to give skaters a chance to earn more money. Not only that, special competitions were created so that professional and Olympic-eligible skaters would have a chance to compete against each other. Normally, particular skaters are invited to these events, and a jump-limit is enforced to give the pros a fighting chance against the young-uns, LOL. Unlike totally professional competition, the scores are given out on a perfect 6.0 scale. None of that silly 10.0 scale thing. To be fair to both types of skaters, a technical program is held first, which is similar to the short program in ISU-sanctioned competition. The skaters are judged for their technical ability: jumps, spins, footwork, etc. This is worth 1/3 of the total score, approximately. The second portion involves an interpretive free skate, where skaters are judged for their program's interpretation of the music chosen. There are no rules, though jumps are limited, as stated before. This portion is worth about 2/3 of the total score. Ordinals and not total amount of points are counted. If you want to learn more about ordinals, go to Skateweb or my amateur competition page.    Why would Olympic-eligible skaters want to compete with the pros anyway? Well, the obvious reason is $$$. Despite the jump-limit, the eligibles often out-jump the pros anyway and win. (For some really dumb reason, the 1998 World Professional Championships became a pro-am event that year, so Michelle Kwan and Alexei Yagudin are the only skaters to be World Pro champions without ever becoming pro. However, the big suits came to their senses and the following year, the competition was strictly pro, so Michelle and Alexei couldn't defend their titles. Oh well) But on the brighter side, competing with pro skaters whose main objective is to entertain, the eligible skaters learn valuable lessons about presentation and gets acquainted with performing in front of an audience.