Earning Spots for the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics: An Introduction
SYWTW FS
NOTE: This post describes the spot qualification process for the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics. Rules may be different for other Winter Olympic Games.
The Olympic season is bearing down upon us, and you’ve probably heard lots of people talking about “spots” - namely, how many skaters each national federation is allowed to send to the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics. If you’ve read our Introduction to Skating Competitions guide, you’ll probably know that the process is very similar to how skaters earn spots for the World Championships, but let’s go over it in more detail because the rules are slightly different for the Olympics. Remember that we are talking about how many skaters each federation can send to the Olympics, not which skaters they will send to the Olympics - each federation will choose their Olympic team based on their own criteria.
Information taken from this ISU document on Olympic qualification. This post will only cover the individual events at the Olympics. The qualification process for the Olympic Team Event is explained here.
ATHLETE QUOTA & TES MINIMUMS
This is the total number of skaters that can compete in the individual events at the Olympics:
Men’s singles: 30
Ladies’ singles: 30
Pair skating: 20 teams
Ice dance: 24 teams
Just like the ISU Championships, each country can send a maximum of 3 skaters/teams per discipline to the Olympics. All skaters who compete in the individual events at the Olympics must have obtained the minimum technical element scores in both the SP and FS. They must obtain the TES minimums at ISU competitions during the Olympic season or preceding season. The TES minimums for the Olympics (as well as the ISU Championships) are set by the ISU at the beginning of the Olympic season.
QUALIFICATION PHASE 1: THE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
Most of the Pyeongchang Olympic spots are earned at the 2017 World Championships. Number of spots up for grabs at Worlds:
Men: 24
Ladies: 24
Pairs: 16 teams
Ice dance: 19 teams
How many spots each national federation earns depends on the placements of their skaters at Worlds. For the ISU Championships, each national federation is automatically given one spot per discipline as long as they have skaters who have the TES minimums, but this does not apply for the Olympics, as there is a definite cap on the number of spots.
The following rules for earning more than one spot apply to both the ISU Championships and the Olympics:
If a fed has 1 skater/team in a discipline at Worlds: Skater/team must place in the top 10 to earn 2 spots, and top 2 to earn 3 spots.
If a fed has 2 or 3 skaters/teams in a discipline at Worlds: Top 2 skaters’/teams’ placements must add up to 28 or less to earn 2 spots. Top 2 placements must add up to 13 or less to earn 3 spots. As long as a skater qualifies for the free skate at Worlds, their final placement will count as 16th towards the spots count even if they place lower than 16th. If they don’t qualify for the free skate, their placement will count as 18th regardless of where they actually place. At ISU Championships, the top 24 singles skaters, top 16 pairs, and top 20 dance teams after the short program qualify for the free skate.
Examples:
A country has 1 skater and they place 8th. They earn 2 spots for the Olympics and Worlds.
A country has 1 skater and they place 2nd. They earn 3 spots for the Olympics and Worlds.
A country has 3 ladies’ skaters and the top 2 place 6th and 7th at Worlds. The sum of their placements is 6 + 7 = 13, so they earn 3 spots for the Olympics and Worlds.
A country has 2 men’s skaters and they place 12th and 20th at Worlds. The sum of their placements is 12 + 16 = 28, so they earn 2 spots for the Olympics and Worlds. (Since the second man qualified for the free skate, his final placement of 20 counts as 16.)
A country has 2 ladies’ skaters; one places 15th and the other 25th, not qualifying for the free skate. The sum of their placements is 15 + 18 = 33. They earn 1 spot for Worlds, and possibly 1 spot for the Olympics depending on how many spots are left.
After counting all the spots allotted to feds that earned 2 or 3 Olympic spots, any remaining spots up to the quota are allotted to feds that earned 1 spot, in order of their highest-placing skater at Worlds. For example, 15 Olympic spots were earned by 6 countries in the ice dance discipline for the 2014 Olympics. 19 Olympic spots were available at 2013 Worlds, so the best-placing 4 (different) countries that only earned 1 spot at Worlds were given the remaining spots. However, if the number of multiple spots per country earned at Worlds exceeds the quota of spots available at Worlds, the lowest-ranked country with 2 spots will not have 2 spots. For example, the number of 2 or 3 Olympic pairs spots earned at 2017 Worlds totaled 17, but only 16 spots were available at Worlds. The United States, which was the last country to earn 2 spots, would only receive 1 pairs spot at the 2018 Olympics.
Countries that do not earn any Olympic spots at Worlds have another chance to qualify through Nebelhorn Trophy, the Olympic Qualifying Competition.
QUALIFICATION PHASE 2: THE OLYMPIC QUALIFYING EVENT
The Olympic Qualifying Competition is a competition held early in the Olympic season. National federations that did not qualify spots at Worlds can try to win the remaining spots at this event, usually Nebelhorn Trophy, held in September. Any skaters can compete at Nebelhorn, but if they represent countries that already earned Olympic spots at Worlds, their placements are disregarded when it comes to earning the remaining spots.
Olympic spots available at Nebelhorn:
Men: 6
Ladies: 6
Pairs: 4 teams
Ice dance: 5 teams
Each country can only earn up to 1 spot per discipline at Nebelhorn. The highest-placing countries at Nebelhorn are given the spots until the quota is filled.
If any of the countries that earned spots at Worlds elect not to use their spots, those spots will become available at Nebelhorn. For example, the Danish ice dance team of Fournier-Beaudry/Sorensen earned an Olympic ice dance spot for Denmark at the 2017 World Championships, but as they did not fulfill citizenship requirements for the Olympics and Denmark had no other eligible ice dance team, the Danish federation gave up their spot to Nebelhorn.
HOST SPOTS
At some Olympics, the hosting country is automatically given 1 spot per discipline. If South Korea qualifies skaters to the Pyeongchang Olympics the “normal” way (through Worlds or Nebelhorn), the host spots will not be applied. If they do not qualify any skaters in a discipline, they will be given 1 host spot in that discipline only if there are spots left over from the “Additional Athletes Quota” for the Olympic Team Event. Skaters for the team event are usually skaters who qualified for the individual events, but if they are “missing” a discipline, a country is allowed to bring in one “extra” skater who only competes in the team event. A maximum of 10 “extra” skaters are allowed for the team event. If not all 10 of those spots are used, the remaining spots will go to South Korea as host spots for the individual events, if necessary.