I had already noticed that the ISU has some difficulty with numbers. In recent years the marks assigned by the judges have become very imaginative, in the international ranking calculated over three seasons I have repeatedly seen very strong skaters fall in the standings due to the low number of competitions skated, when with a few simple changes, as linking the number of competitions and the scores, and the number of competitions in relation to the seasons, the ranking would be much more correct (for my curiosity I did the calculations, even if I never published them, so I know what I’m talking about, but it would be a long explnation), the value of the quadruple axel is ridiculously low, the TSS is totally unbalanced in favor of TES and at the expense of PCS, jumps are disproportionately high in importance compared to everything else (spins, steps), and now I’ve also come across an article that got me thinking about the minimum TES at Worlds. The article is this:
https://anythinggoe.com/womentechmins/
I remember the whole story of Dasa Grm and her vain attempt to obtain the technical minimum for the 2020 World Championship, a competition that ultimately was not disputed. Grm spent a lot of money and demanded a lot from her body to try to get the minimum score she had and which, overnight, was taken away with a change to the rules made by the ISU:
Changing the rules mid-season is unfair, even if the ISU reserves the right to do so, and has done so in some cases. There is a huge difference between what is legal and what is correct. By rules, the ISU can make some changes during the season, but it is not fair to the skaters, and Grm’s case speaks for itself. But, beyond this episode, I had never focused on the numbers. It wasn’t a problem for me or the skaters I rooted for, so why should I care?
The human tendency to concern ourselves only with what directly affects us is always present. But sometimes something catches our attention. In this case for me it was the article of which I inserted the link. Interesting article, but that is an article in retrospect. Whoever wrote it, analyzes what is happening. It’s an interesting analysis, but now the damage is done. Couldn’t it have been understood before that there would be an imbalance? That women would be asked for something too difficult? Not to the strongest, of course, but to those of the small federations, those struggling to get some attention, and who should be helped if the ISU wants to increase the importance of figure skating even in nations that are normally interested in other sports. For them, being present at a World Championship can be really important. And it is precisely last year’s World Championship that I watched, to understand if the difficulty of obtaining the minimum is the same in all disciplines.
I looked at the TES, of both programs, in the four disciplines. It is obvious that, if these skaters have participated in the World Championships, they have achieved the minimum in at least one competition in which they have participated in the previous two seasons. However, if this competition had been binding to participate in the 2023 World Championship, how many of these skaters would have managed to get the minimum? How many in each discipline? The ones I’ve used as a reference are the current values. In 2022 the minimum for three out of four disciplines, five out of eight competition segments, have been raised. What would the ISU have seen if it had compared the values it wanted to establish with the commpetition that had just been held?
I have transcribed only the TES, in order of TSS. I wasn’t interested in anything else.
25 out of 29 men, all of whom qualified for the free skate, plus one, passed the minimum, which for them was set at 34.00 points. In the free skate there are only 23 skaters, Junhwan Cha is missing, who retired, but we know that he has no problems reaching the minimum of 64.00 points. Three out of 24 skaters did not reach the minimum in the free skate.
17 out of 33 women did not meet the minimum. Eight of the skaters who competed in the free skate at the last World Championship, with the short program of the 2022 World Championship would not qualify for the 2023 World Championship. A big difference compared to the men’s situation. And even in the free skate, where the imbalance is lower, there are 6 female skaters who have not reached the minimum, against 3 male skaters.
The situation of the Pairs seems even more unbalanced, with 6 pairs out of 14 who did not reach the minimum, but at the last World Championship the Pairs competition (with some exceptions) was of a medium-low level, with numerous absences, including two pairs Italians blocked at the last moment by covid. For this competition it is better to look at what happened at the Olympic Games, something I will do shortly.
In ice dance, getting the minimum is even easier than in the men’s field, almost all teams have succeeded. Let’s see the Olympic Games.
If someone could have decided not to go up at the World Championship due to tiredness (I don’t consider injuries because they can occur in all competitions), everyone was at the Olympic Games.
25 out of 29 male skaters passed the minimum in the short program, and it almost certainly would have been 26 if Vincent Zhou hadn’t been forced to withdraw by covid. In the free skate, only one skater remained below the minimum.
Among the women, only 21 skaters passed the minimum in the short program. 25 female skaters took part in the free skate due to the still unclear Valieva affair, however, in this case there were 20 woman capable of exceeding the minimum, against 23 men (and, if Zhou had been there, all the men would have exceeded the minimum).
In Pairs, with all the skaters, all pairs would pass the minimum in the short program, one pair would fail it in the free skate. Ice dancing couples would have no problem.
Even before the minimums were raised – they were set at 30.00 points in the short program, 51.00 in the free skate – it was more difficult for women to reach them than for skaters competing in other disciplines. Now the difficulty has increased, and as a result the skaters will be forced to perform more risky jumps to try to get the required score. But didn’t the ISU say it was worried about the health of the skaters? I thought I heard something like that. Maybe they were just empty words. Or maybe there’s someone who has serious problems with numbers.
