ISU Grand Prix Assignments 2018/19 season

The countdown of unused spots: 1 at SkAm (Ladies), 1 at SCan (Ladies), 2 at GP Finland (1 - Ladies, 1 - Man).

I hope that this trend is going to stop; whenever a situation like this occurs, my heart breaks. I hate wasting spots when it should be about spreading the wealth (although I know that official regulations and late withdrawals make it hard to prevent it)...
 
shah said:
The countdown of unused spots: 1 at SkAm (Ladies), 1 at SCan (Ladies), 2 at GP Finland (1 - Ladies, 1 - Man).

I hope that this trend is going to stop; whenever a situation like this occurs, my heart breaks. I hate wasting spots when it should be about spreading the wealth (although I know that official regulations and late withdrawals make it hard to prevent it)...
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The Skate Canada one should be counted separately. Veronik WD after the draw, so it really was too late to fill it. For the others, it was close before, but they could have been filled probably.
 
How hard is it to coordinate with the federations and have a “if a spot opens up, these athletes can go” list. I know visa issues and all, but it’s not rocket science. It would be a benefit to the athletes as well, as those on such a list might prepare differently.
 
Perhaps there could be a positive incentive to encourage federations and/or athletes to withdraw earlier? Sometimes you really cannot know until the last minute, but it seems likely that the reverse is sometimes true also. Unless there is an athlete from one's own country on the replacement list, there isn't really any compulsion for a federation to withdraw a skater.
 
Aceon6 said:
How hard is it to coordinate with the federations and have a “if a spot opens up, these athletes can go” list. I know visa issues and all, but it’s not rocket science. It would be a benefit to the athletes as well, as those on such a list might prepare differently.
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Dobre said:
Perhaps there could be a positive incentive to encourage federations and/or athletes to withdraw earlier? Sometimes you really cannot know until the last minute, but it seems likely that the reverse is sometimes true also. Unless there is an athlete from one's own country on the replacement list, there isn't really any compulsion for a federation to withdraw a skater.
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shah said:
The countdown of unused spots: 1 at SkAm (Ladies), 1 at SCan (Ladies), 2 at GP Finland (1 - Ladies, 1 - Man).

I hope that this trend is going to stop; whenever a situation like this occurs, my heart breaks. I hate wasting spots when it should be about spreading the wealth (although I know that official regulations and late withdrawals make it hard to prevent it)...
Click to expand...

This season the Grand Prix series has been hobbled by withdrawals.

My annoyance is that when skaters are sent as replacements at the last minute, they are at a distinct disadvantage to the rest of the field. A lot of the athletes train towards peaking at competition, and it must be tremendously difficult to find any kind of form under those circumstances.

(It reminds me of when Polina Edmunds was sent to the 2016 Four Continents Championships, but dropped out in the week of competition, citing 'boot issues'. Karen Chen was sent as her replacement, and she didn't do well at all.)

To my knowledge, at least Kailani Craine was training towards skating at a Challenger Series event around the same time as her invitation to NHK.

The Junior & Senior Grand Prix Finals each have reserves.

Perhaps moving forward, the ISU should implement a policy where each Grand Prix event host has three skaters or teams nominated on standby so that if someone drops out for what ever reason, they can be ready.
 
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meggonzo said:
This season doesn't seem any worse than others as far as unused spots?
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Last year we had 1 in ladies and 1 in pairs at CoC, 1 in men and 1 in ladies at IdF, 1 in ladies and 1 in dance at SA, as well as Hanyu's WD from NHK which is like Veronik Mallet's WD from SC this year.

So 6 last year, and 3 this time so far through 3 events.
 
shah said:
The countdown of unused spots: 1 at SkAm (Ladies), 1 at SCan (Ladies), 2 at GP Finland (1 - Ladies, 1 - Man).
Click to expand...
Aceon6 said:
How hard is it to coordinate with the federations and have a “if a spot opens up, these athletes can go” list. I know visa issues and all, but it’s not rocket science. It would be a benefit to the athletes as well, as those on such a list might prepare differently.
Click to expand...
essence_of_soy said:
My annoyance is that when skaters are sent as replacements at the last minute, they are at a distinct disadvantage to the rest of the field. A lot of the athletes train towards peaking at competition, and it must be tremendously difficult to find any kind of form under those circumstances.

Perhaps moving forward, the ISU should implement a policy where each Grand Prix event host has three skaters or teams nominated on standby so that if someone drops out for what ever reason, they can be ready.
Click to expand...
meggonzo said:
This season doesn't seem any worse than others as far as unused spots?
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I don't think this season is any worse than others either.

And while skaters may train toward peaking at competition, in 2005, Alissa Czisny got into both Skate America and Skate Canada as a replacement at short notice and finished second in the first competition and first in the second. What Czisny did have going for her, though, was that the competition venues were not that far away from her training base and she didn't need any visas.

If I am not mistaken, the Finnish Federation's choice for the Ladies' event are between Russia (which already has three entires), Japan (ditto), and South Korea. That's a very long flight, crossing many time zones. And if I am mistaken, this is the sort of situation that could easily happen. It might be nice to give a host in this situation the discretion to reach farther down the Season's Best list to find a replacement who trains somewhere not so far away and doesn't need a visa.
 
Vagabond said:
I don't think this season is any worse than others either.

And while skaters may train toward peaking at competition, in 2005, Alissa Czisny got into both Skate America and Skate Canada as a replacement at short notice and finished second in the first competition and first in the second. What Czisny did have going for her, though, was that the competition venues were not that far away from her training base and she didn't need any visas.

If I am not mistaken, the Finnish Federation's choice for the Ladies' event are between Russia (which already has three entires), Japan (ditto), and South Korea. That's a very long flight, crossing many time zones. And if I am mistaken, this is the sort of situation that could easily happen. It might be nice to give a host in this situation the discretion to reach farther down the Season's Best list to find a replacement who trains somewhere not so far away and doesn't need a visa.
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Last minute withdrawals mean that skaters down the list are missing out; they are losing potential ranking points in the process.

I was waiting for someone to bring up Czisny. From memory, Czisny said that it was better for her being invited under those circumstances because it gave her less time to worry about the competition. Given her reputation at the time for being such a nervous skater, that was probably a good thing. So she would be one of the exceptions to the rule, I guess.
 
essence_of_soy said:
From memory, Czisny said that it was better for her being invited under those circumstances because it gave her less time to worry about the competition. Given her reputation at the time for being such a nervous skater, that was probably a good thing. So she would be one of the exceptions to the rule, I guess.
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I wonder how many skaters actually train to peak at one or more specific Grand Prix events. I have seen many programs at the first Grand Prix event of the season (most commonly Skate America) that I would hope are far short of skaters' peaks. :shuffle:
 
Vagabond said:
I wonder how many skaters actually train to peak at one or more specific Grand Prix events. I have seen many programs at the first Grand Prix event of the season (most commonly Skate America) that I would hope are far short of skaters' peaks. :shuffle:
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Having to peak twice in two weeks, it must be brutal for the skaters doing back to back competitions as well. With the first two Grand Prix stops being in North America, that would probably make it a little easier on the skaters training in Canada and the US.

Sometimes though, it takes almost the entire season of training and competition for some athletes to kick it into top gear.
 
No hosts are required to fill any empty spots at any time unless it is more than two weeks before the start and the field drops below:

6 for Pairs
8 for Dance
10 for singles

It's remarkable that Feds have been replacing withdrawals aside from host picks, even when they don't have to. It might be enlightened self-interest in some cases, if they care about ticket holders, but, nonetheless, the fields could be smaller.
 
As some others have said, not clear to me that this year is any worse than a typical year for withdrawals. I've been following the GP replacements really closely for 5-6 years now. Usually the post-Olympic year is kind of brutal with withdrawals, however, I might say that this year there do seem to be more last minute withdrawals than in 2014-15.

I do think the Olympic year tends to see fewer withdrawals because many skaters are determined to make their seasons happen regardless...
 
I love the idea of naming reserves when they award spots.

They could even get cute and award a spot to highest scoring skater/team from a reserves list, using scores from designated challenger events.
 
I think naming reserves could get complicated when Russia and Japan have maxed out their spots. So could other JPN and RUS skaters be named as reserves? Because they can still sub if a skater from their country withdraws.
 
So far this season, I have these withdrawal counts before the event:

  • SA: 6, 5 replaced, including 1 within the 14-day period
  • SC: 3, all replaced within the 14-day period (2 host spots)*
  • ISU GP: 12, 10 replaced, including 1 within the 14-day period
  • NHK: 8, all replaced, including 1 within the 14-day period
  • RC: 4, all replaced to date
  • IdF: 4, all replaced to date
*Mallet: I've read that she WD after the draw, and she's still listed on the grid, but I don't see where in the SC results she is listed as having WD, and she's not on the Standings list. I thought those who WD from the draw are listed in at least the Results summary table. If she didn't, then the SC count is 4, 3 replaced within the 14-day period (2 host spots)

Not replaced so far, and all WD the week of the event:
  • SA: 1 (Radionova)
  • SC: 0 or 1**
  • ISU GP: 2 (Erokhov and Schott)
**Mallet WD, not counted above since not clear when she did
 
kwanfan1818 said:
*Mallet: I've read that she WD after the draw, and she's still listed on the grid, but I don't see where in the SC results she is listed as having WD, and she's not on the Standings list. I thought those who WD from the draw are listed in at least the Results summary table. If she didn't, then the SC count is 4, 3 replaced within the 14-day period (2 host spots)
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Mallet WD before the SP draw, which is why she's not listed online in the final results as WD or in the point standings table: http://www.isuresults.com/events/gp2018/gpsladies.htm

ETA: Skate Canada's team leaders' meeting was on Thursday, October 25 at 10:30 (no skaters can be added after this point), then Mallet skated at the first official practice and was sighted coming off the ice in tears. :( The Ladies SP draw was after that practice at 13:45.
 
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They may have updated their Instagram, because now it says, "Very sad to announce that due to illness we had to withdraw from our 2nd Grand Prix next week...? We were really looking forward to skate in Japan! ??"
 
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