ISU Communication 2119: Official number of entries by country and judges' draw for the 2018 Winter Olympic Games

This communication includes the official entries per country for the Olympic individual events following Nebelhorn, including a list of substitute countries should any qualified countries give up their spot(s).

Countries qualified for Olympic spots from 2017 Nebelhorn Trophy

Each country has won one spot in their respective discipline. Which skaters are actually sent to the Olympics is at the discretion of each country’s national skating federation.

PAIRS: Australia, Austria, North Korea, Israel, Czech Republic

MEN: Belgium, Sweden, Italy, South Korea, Malaysia, Ukraine

ICE DANCE: Great Britain, Japan, Germany, South Korea, Czech Republic, Slovakia

LADIES: Australia, Sweden, Switzerland, Brazil, Finland, Ukraine

ISU official: 'Radical change' could be on the way

Highlights:

Lowering quad BVs in men’s and pairs:

The change would involve substantially lowering the base values of quadruple jumps and, for pairs, quadruple throws. For three of the five quads being done in men’s singles, the reduction would be more than 10 percent, according to proposed numbers obtained by icenetwork.

Possible “athletic program and artistic program”:

Another change may include replacing the current short program and free skate with what would effectively be an athletic program and an artistic program. Each would award full medals in events like the Olympics and the world championships, and there also would be a full medal for the all-around winner.

“Everything is possible,” Bianchetti wrote. “At the moment, it is absolutely too early to say anything. The intention is to have three different medals: one for technical, one for artistic and one all-around, but how it will be for sure is impossible to say now.”

While the scoring changes could go into effect for the 2018-19 season, the plan for new programs may have to wait until after the 2022 Olympic Games.

Reducing BV of 3A:

The ISU proposal also calls for a 6 percent reduction in base value of the triple axel and double-digit percentage reductions in the base values of quad throws in pairs. In the latter case, the ISU is concerned not only about one element having an outsized effect on the results but also the occurrence of injury with the top pairs trying quad throws.

Reducing program lengths, removing a jumping pass, new GOE scale:

The ISU already has approved changes that will impact the TES totals in men’s singles and pairs beginning with the 2018-19 season: reducing the free skate time by 30 seconds, to four minutes, and eliminating one of the men’s eight jumping passes. Because there is not a finite TES maximum like there is with PCS, removing one major element should bring the scores closer together.

The ISU also has already signed off on another scoring change for 2018-19, increasing the number of Grade of Execution (GOE) scores from seven (+3 through -3, including 0) to 11 (+5 through -5, also including 0). The interval between the scores would be set at 10 percent of the base value, as opposed to the current system, which has no standardized relationship to the base value.

For instance, a +2 on a triple lutz now adds 1.4 to a base value of 6.0, a 23 percent bonus, while a +2 on a quad lutz adds 2.0 to a base value of 13.6, a 14 percent bonus.

Bianchetti said the decrease in base value of “some elements that at present is extremely high…should also produce a better balance between the technical and components scores that now is in favor of the technical part.

"But the biggest effect,” he continued, “would be to give in the technical mark more credit to the quality of an element (with the wider range of GOEs), enlarging the difference between a very good element and a very bad one.”

Reactions of coaches to these changes/proposals:

“If the intent is to weight artistry differently, cutting the program is contrary to that,” Ade said. “What allows artistry is more time. One of the things (skaters like Jason) do so well is use music to tell a story. The current length is comfortable for him to get into the story.”

Brian Orser, who coaches world champions Hanyu and Fernández, also thinks a shorter program will make it more difficult to display the sport’s ideal: a “total package.”

“You will have to be a very good skater to manage doing all the elements and have a program with attention to transitions, choreography, meaning and cohesiveness,” Orser said. “It’s going to be very difficult physically, even for top skaters, to do this. And I have junior men who tell me it is easier to do a senior long program (4 minutes, 30 seconds) than a junior program (four minutes).”

One of the reasons quads have become so valuable, Ade believes, is judges being overly generous with the GOEs they award for the jump.

“I haven’t seen anyone with intricate steps or connections into a quad,” she said. “The bullet points for GOE are not adhered to for quads.”

Timeline of proposals:

Bianchetti said there will be a test event to evaluate all the new criteria “so we can make sure we can submit the best proposal to the next ISU Congress.” He did not know if it would be possible to have a proposal on the replacement of the short program and free skate ready for consideration by the 2020 Congress.

Some entries for early-season competitions

Team Japan entries for early 2017-18 season events:

• Asian Open Trophy (Hong Kong, China, Aug. 2-5): Keiji Tanaka, Kaori Sakamoto

• CS Lombardia Trophy (Bergamo, Italy, Sept. 13-17): Shoma Uno, Wakaba Higuchi

• CS US International Skating Classic (Salt Lake City, UT, USA, Sept. 14-17): Marin Honda, Kaori Sakamoto, Takahito Mura

• CS Autumn Classic International (Montreal, QC, Canada, Sept. 20-23): Yuzuru Hanyu, Mai Mihara

• CS Ondrej Nepela Memorial (Bratislava, Slovakia, Sept. 21-23): Keiji Tanaka, Rika Hongo

• CS Finlandia Trophy (Espoo, Finland, Oct. 6-8): Satoko Miyahara

Sources: 1, 2

Japan Open (Saitama, Japan, Oct. 7)

Team competition where retired skaters may also be invited. Only free skates are performed.

• Team Japan: Mai Mihara, Marin Honda, Shoma Uno, Nobunari Oda

• Team Europe: Evgenia Medvedeva, Alina Zagitova, Javier Fernandez, Tomas Verner

• Team North America: Karen Chen, Gracie Gold, Nathan Chen, Jeremy Abbott

Website

2017-2018 ISU Scale of Values and Level/GOE Guidelines for Singles & Pairs Skating

2016-17 document for reference. Some minor changes:

• Combination of 3 turns on each foot in the step sequence: “Only the first combination attempted on each foot can be counted.”

• GOE bullet point for solo jump preceded by steps in the singles SP: “Difficult” steps/movements changed to “creative, interesting, original” steps/movements.

• GOE bullet point for twist lifts: “No scratching of the blade on the ice” changed to “Clear controlled catch”.

• “SP: Jump element not according to requirements final GOE must be -3”

• “Unbalanced number of revolutions in change foot spin” should receive -1 GOE

• “Program Components: As a guideline the score ten (10) should not be awarded for any of the components in a program containing a Fall or Serious error.”

• “Step sequence pattern: It must be visible and identifiable and should be performed by using almost the full ice surface (e.g. straight line, serpentine, circle, oval or similar shape) either in it’s length from short barrier to short barrier or twice in its width from long barrier to long barrier.” No more requirements on exact amount of ice a step sequence must cover?

2017 Challenger Series

• 9/13-17: US International Figure Skating Classic - Salt Lake City, USA

• 9/14-17: Lombardia Trophy - Bergamo, Italy

• 9/20-23: Autumn Classic International - Montreal, Canada

• 9/21-23: Ondrej Nepela Trophy - Bratislava, Slovakia

• 9/27-30: Nebelhorn Trophy (Olympic Qualifying Competition) - Oberstdorf, Germany

• 10/6-8: Finlandia Trophy - Espoo, Finland

• 10/27-29: Minsk-Arena Ice Star - Minsk, Belarus

• 11/16-19: Warsaw Cup - Warsaw, Poland

• 11/21-26: Tallinn Trophy - Tallinn, Estonia

• 12/6-9: Golden Spin of Zagreb - Zagreb, Croatia
  

Source. Dates still subject to change.

Additional news: For the 2017 Grand Prix Series, starting orders for the short programs will return to using reverse World Standing orders (lowest-ranked go first, highest-ranked go last) instead of random draw.

2018 Olympic Figure Skating quota places earned at the 2017 World Championships

List of Olympic spots earned at Worlds. A few additional spots will be available at the Olympic Qualifying Competition (Nebelhorn Trophy) early next season. If any of the countries that earned spots at Worlds decide not to use them, those spots will become available at Nebelhorn. More information