ISU Congress 2022 (6-10 June)

[lajoitko]

 

 

[LiaRy]

7 minutes ago, lajoitko said:

About Olympic qualification competition.

 

My understanding is that Olympic qualification stays same as before. Majority of the spots are decided based on the results of the previous World Championships and the rest of the spots are decided at the new qualification competition. To me this is a positive change. Every Olympic year Nebelhorn Trophy has run two competitions at the same time and it has been hard to follow which country and skater are there for the spots and who is just competing in the regular competition. So at least it should be a clearer competition and easier to follow.

 

I could be wrong, but this is my understanding.

Thank you, that makes more sense

[Paskud]

Awesome, so here goes prediction: Japanese senior ladies field is a bubble that will burst somewhere during next quad. In 3 years they will be in real danger of not achieving 3 spots to Olympics. And very well.

Meanwhile in juniors we will see even more quads and even more injuries. But yay, seniors saved.

 

Btw, this spreading raising age over 3 seasons is useless. Right now 14 years old skaters can't go to seniors because the line is on 15. Next year they will be 15, but the line will bo on 16. Next year the same. So after 22/23 season, next wave of new seniors will be in Olympic season anyway. Which makes the incredibly important pre-Olympic worlds a bottleneck. Awesome.

[Melodie]

54 minutes ago, Paskud said:

Awesome, so here goes prediction: Japanese senior ladies field is a bubble that will burst somewhere during next quad. In 3 years they will be in real danger of not achieving 3 spots to Olympics. And very well.

Meanwhile in juniors we will see even more quads and even more injuries. But yay, seniors saved.

 

Btw, this spreading raising age over 3 seasons is useless. Right now 14 years old skaters can't go to seniors because the line is on 15. Next year they will be 15, but the line will bo on 16. Next year the same. So after 22/23 season, next wave of new seniors will be in Olympic season anyway. Which makes the incredibly important pre-Olympic worlds a bottleneck. Awesome.

Will kids like Mao be qualified for Milan under the new rules? I think she is 14 this year?

[JanMary]

3 minutes ago, Melodie said:

Will kids like Mao be qualified for Milan under the new rules? I think she is 14 this year?

Mao will not be qualified for Milan

[Paskud]

11 hours ago, Melodie said:

Will kids like Mao be qualified for Milan under the new rules? I think she is 14 this year?

Mao is 13 and she will not. (I'm sensing Yuna Aoki type of story for her anyway.)

Ayumi, Ami, Sakurako, Ikura and Yo will be age eligible in Olympic season. Also Akatieva, Zhilina and Jia Shin.

 

But it's not Olympics that are the problem, but pre-Olympic worlds.

[Perelandra]

Day 2 General Session Summary

 

40 Proposals 

Luckily quite a number of proposals were duplicates, so some were withdrawn or had already been discussed and voted with earlier proposal by number.

 

Proposals passed pertaining to Figure Skating ( Some proposals for further discussion in Branch meetings Figure and Speed/Short Track respectively, some proposals for Speed/Short Track Skating which have not been included)

 

-Olympic Qualification Event to be ISU sanctioned, with appropriate finding. Aim to give clarity about skaters competing for Olympic qualification and separate event for skaters not attempting to qualify for Olys. These 2 competitive events already occur during run up to Olys, it is not necessarily an additional event. There are still other criteria under which a skater may qualify the Olys, some will be set by skater's own fed ( who qualifies ) and others set by ISU ( how many spots each country has been allocated )

It is my understanding that this will not necessarily add to the ISU event calendar, unless a skater is aiming for Oly selection and has not been selected via National Championship or to gain Oly slot for country outside of WC. Please feel free to comment or correct if this is a misinterpretation*

 

- Age for senior competitions to be raised to 17.

There has been a great deal of discussion already, not least about the need to safeguard physical, mental, psychological well being of developing athletes, but also in terms of longevity of career. Raising age limit is only one method of achieving this because older age group athletes may be better at handling some of the pressures of senior competition. There was no discussion about limiting type of jumps or number in junior competition

Mr Sergei Severedov ?sp? Rus Figure speaks about this - athletes retire after winning top level competitions, many do this to capitalise on commercial opportunities following their success. He singles out Yuzu for staying in competition despite OGM and WC gold. He asks about what sort of rewards/inducements could be offered to encourage champions to stay in amateur comp circuit. One option might be to provide and or fund higher education during or post career and also look at training methods, which should be aimed at minimising injury

There were some very good discussions including recommendations from medical commissions, the findings may impact on types and number of jumps.

Some countries were very resistant to raising age limits because they argued that it made their countries less viable in competition.

( I'm stunned that some countries put medal glory ahead of athlete well being, they gave the impression that the athletes are a rather a disposable commodity. Eric Radford from Athletes Commission spoke really well and presented research. ) I'm relieved that the proposal passed.

 

* In the BBC i Player documentary series Freeze - Back on Thin Ice, some of the British skaters from various disciplines attend ISU comps. Ladies skaters are trying to gain a score of 169 points to gain a Oly spot. Team GB has 1 Ladies Oly spot, won at Worlds by Ladies British No1. If one if the other Ladies GB competitors gets to the 169 threshold she will will to Olys instead of the British No1. The Olympic Qualification Event might be used in this manner.

Alternatively the Oly Qual Event might be for countries who have only very few skaters and need to score over a threshold mark to qualify for Olympic spot because they do not have enough skaters to hold a National Event

 

Spoiler

For wider discussion, not just ISU, but other sporting bodies, may need to look at e.g coaching environments. Clearly in some women's sport there has been a high profile court case, which is already in the public domain and not necessarily for discussion here. There have also been serious concerns raised about body image issues and eating disorders, not exclusive to women's sports but does seem to be more prevalent in this athlete group

(On a personal note, I have serious qualms about youngsters who are really talented going to senior comps, then a large majority retire 1 or 2 years later, the reasons behind ending skating career needs examination)

 

[Anabel]

@PerelandraThank you very much for the summary! 

[Perelandra]

You are welcome

Woohoo Branch meetings tomorrow. Good job I've had plenty of practice attending Professional Interest conferences and governance meetings. Hours and hours of droning , with occasional ear pricking up moments!!!

[Wintek]

15 hours ago, YuDai said:

Not surprising, but I'm glad the age limit was raised.

This is a start, but changes very little if the delegates and those covering the event get complacent. Little will change if juniors become a boot camp for jumping machines with bad basic skating techniques that gives the foundation for a safer incorporation and performance of other elements. Coaches will focus on training the children in elements that give points. We cannot dismiss that one of the proposed changes is to replace the step sequence for a choreographic sequence in Juniors (vibes over technique! yay!). That's not how you ensure the longevity of the athletes.

[Muffinator]

Thanks, everyone, for your attention on this topic, especially Perelandra for the summary. I REALLY don’t want to watch all that! I know it’s a megaton chore, so thanks for doing it. You people are hard core!

[ImmortalBeloved]

4 hours ago, Perelandra said:

You are welcome

Woohoo Branch meetings tomorrow. Good job I've had plenty of practice attending Professional Interest conferences and governance meetings. Hours and hours of droning , with occasional ear pricking up moments!!!

Yes, thank you so much for all your efforts in summarizing. It really helps people like me who know very little about these things. I think the bottom line for many of us fans on here is: will any of these changes ultimately be at all helpful for Our Man Yuzu or work in his favor if passed?  The way they want to  do away with some of the component score categories seems to be a step in the wrong direction too.

[Sun_Rise]

They accepted the jump sequence proposal. All these axel jumps combos would have a higher BV now. 

 

[Sun_Rise]

And another important proposal adopted:

 

[LiaRy]

4 minutes ago, Sun_Rise said:

And another important proposal adopted:

 

I don't really understand this one. Can someone explain it in a "for dummies" sort of way, please? 😅