Why US Figure Skating Developed a New Qualifying Pipeline

This month, as with every January, the US Figure Skating Championships will take place, only this year will mark the final time, at least for now, that events at the juvenile, intermediate, and novice levels will be held. This is only one change in US Figure Skating's reimagined qualifying competitive pipeline that will be implemented in the coming season. This system will introduce a new way that single skaters can qualify for sectionals as well as allow for a national ranking to be used for every participating skater in the country, among other things. Here is how US Figure Skating's new plan will work.

General Rules and Qualifying for Mens/Ladies Events

Single skaters, pairs, and dance couples will participate in newly developed National Qualifying Series, a group of competitions approved by US Figure Skating at which skaters can earn scores for a sectional and national ranking. These competitions will take place between June 1st and September 15th, and only the skater's highest total competition score from the final round of an event will count toward their ranking. When the series is over, all skaters that have earned a final round score in a participating event will receive a sectional ranking as well as a national ranking for their division. However, the winner of the series is not given the title "US Champion", as that is only used for the US Championships. The top six single skaters in each discipline and in each section receive a bye to their Sectional Singles Final. The rest of the skaters will have to compete at their Regional Singles Challenge and place in the top four in order to qualify for the Sectional Singles Final. This brings the number of single skaters competing in each event at sectionals up from 12 to 18. At sectionals, the top 4 single skaters in the senior and junior events will qualify for the US Figure Skating Championships along with any skaters who already received byes to nationals. The top 4 sectional finishers at the juvenile, intermediate, and novice levels become members of the National High-Performance Developmental Team and are invited to the National High-Performance Development Team Camp, a training program that takes place immediately after nationals. There, skaters and their coaches and parents can be trained to act as being a part of the development of the future of Team USA. Skaters can also earn Team USA assignments from this camp at the advanced novice and junior levels. The intention and hope for this as a replacement for national competition is to give the skaters what they can use to have successful figure skating careers, instead of just one more competition and one more medal. In addition, novice-level single skaters who place in the top 2 in their section are also invited to compete in the junior division at the US Figure Skating Championships. This is being done to allow skaters to debut at the junior level without the pressure of immediate success. To accommodate this change, the free skate durations for the intermediate and novice ladies and men have been made longer. More specifically, the novice free skate duration will exactly match the junior free skate at 3 minutes and 30 seconds. This change, along with the others I have stated, should work to establish the younger qualifying levels as structuring stages and build up a stronger field of Team USA members in the future.

Qualifying for Pairs and Dance

There are some important differences between the qualifying structure for singles and for pairs and dance, but the general idea is the same. Both disciplines will still have their own National Qualifying Series and national ranking, but no sectional ranking. Also, instead of competing at a Regional Singles Challenge in order to qualify for a Sectional Final, these skaters will compete at a Sectional Challenge in order to qualify for a US Final. The top 3 pairs and ice dance couples in their levels from the National Qualifying Series receive a bye to the US Final, while the top 5 pairs and couples at each sectional challenge will also qualify. The Sectional Pairs and Dance Challenges will take place at the same time and place as a Regional Singles Final in its corresponding section. The same is true for the US Pairs and Dance Finals and the Sectional Singles Finals. From the final, the top 12 juniors and seniors qualify for the US Figure Skating Championships, along with any national byes. As for the younger levels, the top 9 teams are invited to the National High-Performance Development Team Camp.

New Qualification Rule for Senior Competitors

The senior level in figure skating is usually the level with the lowest number of skaters in the country. This normally allows for every senior pair and dance couple to qualify for the national championships, even if they may not be able to qualify at the junior level or even lower. This, along with the very high number of byes for senior competitors, makes for very long senior national events with a wide range of ability. There are many cases in which the events are so long that spectators leave before the final warm-up groups begin, which is where the top skaters are seeded. The solution to this is to establish minimum technical element scores that must be met during the National Qualifying Series, the qualifying season, or at an ISU event in order to compete at the US Championships. This would set a higher standard for what is necessary to be a senior national competitor and, possibly, cut the competitive fields to a slightly smaller number. Personally, I think raising the bar for what is acceptable for a senior-level skater is a pretty good idea. I just hope we don't see USFSA shrink the fields too much, because I always like to see big senior events.

Why People Hate This

The answer to this is pretty simple if you ask the general population of currently competitive skaters; The younger levels don't have nationals any more. It's no secret that a lot of people see this as a big downside, but there is evidence to suggest that taking away this national success and recognition could be extremely beneficial to US Figure Skating's attempt to build up a stronger national team.

Ever since a national championship event for juvenile and intermediate skaters was first contested in 1991, skaters and parents began to believe that a national title at these levels was something to strive for. As a result, skaters would spend more time competing in the juvenile, intermediate, and novice levels with the goal of success at the US Championships, instead of challenging themselves and moving up toward the junior and senior levels for the better experience. To put it more simply, parents wanted their skaters to aim for short-term success, while US Figure Skating wanted them to aim for long-term success. It has also been shown that skaters tend to end their competitive careers within just a few seasons of competing at nationals at the Intermediate level. Of the 12 ladies who competed at that level at nationals in 2013, only two competed in the 2018 season, and four are no longer US Figure Skating members. What I found the most staggering is that of the 22 pairs competing at nationals at the intermediate or novice levels, only four individual skaters and one whole pair competed at the junior or senior level, which means 87% of those skaters did not compete last season. This is also largely affected by teams splitting up and skaters not finding partners who meet their preferences, but my frustration with the lack of longevity in US pair partnerships is for another time. To get back to my original point, the hope for replacing the US Championships being held for developmental levels with the National High-Performance Developmental Team Camp is to replace the goal for short-term success with a goal of setting up a future for the athlete as a strong skater at the junior and senior levels and a member of Team USA.

My only worry for this is that younger skaters will be less inclined to work as hard when they lose the chance to become a national champion. However, I wouldn't expect coaches to allow their skaters to put in any less effort than they already do, and the pairs and dance couples will still be able to compete at a national level with their US Pairs and Dance Finals, so I'm not all that concerned. I guess I'd just call it what I think is most likely to go wrong with this system, if anything. Still, I'm pretty confident that this system can be effective in the future.

So, I hope this helps with learning the new changes for next season! If you have anything you'd like to add or you have a question about something I said, don't be afraid to leave a comment.

Happy New Year!
-TJ