Can Korea earn extra places for Olympics? | Golden Skate

Can Korea earn extra places for Olympics?

YesWay

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Sep 28, 2013
It would be good to see South Korea with more than one competitor in each competition at their home Olympics - but is that possible?

This world championships in Helsinki, is where the 2018 Olympic allocations for each country will be decided, isn't it? And South Korea can only send one skater/team to each of the World's competitions this year? So it falls to that one person/team to try and earn extra places.

South Korea now has a lot of very promising young skaters, but most are under the age limit for this world's (and the Olympics for that matter). Shame, because eg. surely Jun Hwan Cha could earn an extra place for South Korean men right now, if he was allowed to compete?

(That also means that whoever South Korea does send to the men's competition in Helsinki... is going to write themselves out of the Olympics if they don't earn an extra place! Because if there's only one place, chances are it will go to Jun Hwan Cha - he will be old enough to go to the Olympics)

I guess it's a bit much to expect South Korea to earn extra places for Ice Dance or Pairs? Or is it?

And how about the ladies? Who will Korea send? Who has the best chance? Is it looking like Na Hyun Kim now?
 
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Hailey Shin

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Sep 3, 2013
It would be good to see South Korea with more than one competitor in each competition at their home Olympics - but is that possible?

This world championships in Helsinki, is where the 2018 Olympic allocations for each country will be decided, isn't it? And South Korea can only send one skater/team to each of the World's competitions this year? So it falls to that one person/team to try and earn extra places.

South Korea now has a lot of very promising young skaters, but most are under the age limit for this world's (and the Olympics for that matter). Shame, because eg. surely Jun Hwan Cha could earn an extra place for South Korean men right now, if he was allowed to compete?

(That also means that whoever South Korea does send to the men's competition in Helsinki... is going to write themselves out of the Olympics if they don't earn an extra place! Because if there's only one place, chances are it will go to Jun Hwan Cha - he will be old enough to go to the Olympics)

I guess it's a bit much to expect South Korea to earn extra places for Ice Dance or Pairs? Or is it?

And how about the ladies? Who will Korea send? Who has the best chance? Is it looking like Na Hyun Kim now?

For ice dance, and pairs, I don`t think so. :noshake:

I think Yura Min/Alexander Gamelin is the closest to the only one olympic spot, since Rebeka Kim/Kirill Minov disbanded..(I heard it, not sure about it! Anyway they gave up their spot of Skate America.)

M/G`s current season`s best is about 139. It is not enough to get 2 tickets, but it could be possible to earn 1 spot for olympic at their hometown. Gamelin recently in the process of earning Korean citizenship for PC 2018.

At pairs, Min ji Ji/Themistocles Leftheris can represent Korea at olympic. But their season`s best is just above 120 yet. I don`t sure if they can earn 1 olympic spot for them.

Ladies part is yes, most possible to earn two spots, but it will be very difficult. Dabin Choi, Na hyun Kim, and So youn Park can grab the chance for go to 2017 worlds, but it will be really hard to pick one of them to go. KSU will decide after 2017 national championships, I think. Na hyun can score above 170+ and also Dabin can. They have `Consistency`. So youn also can score more than 170 (and maybe 180? if her potential explodes..) But it seems very not likely to happen.. She has rollercoaster consistency and these days she seems to going down.. :sad21: I`m not sure that she will perform two perfect performance at both National and WC.

For men, any of Jinseo Kim and June hyoung Lee can represent Korea at Helsinki, and it seems like they just get 1 ticket even if they do their best. Get into top 10 is really hard! But even if they fail to get 1 ticket, Jun hwan can earn that at 2017 qualification event for himself.
 
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micnow

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Apr 7, 2011
Concerning Ice Dance/Pairs, isn't there a rule which allows the host to sent a couple to the olympics in any event?

for Ladies; I don't believe it is possible for Korea to earn a 2nd spot for the olympics. That would mean the korean womens entry (regardless who it is) this year would have to beat at least two of the Russian, Japanese, American (each 3 superstrong entries) and Canadian (2 very strong entries) ladies (and of course all of the remaining other nations as well) to reach top 10.
 

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avatar credit: @miyan5605
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Feb 27, 2012
Concerning Ice Dance/Pairs, isn't there a rule which allows the host to sent a couple to the olympics in any event? ...

The rule for host country spots is not quite as simple as that -- if I understand this document correctly.

That said, seems likely (although not absolutely guaranteed) that other countries will leave spots unused from "Additional Athletes Quota."
If so, and if a Korean pair does not qualify outright, then South Korea as the host country could use spots from the quota for one pair -- if they meet the minimum TES requirements.
Same for a Korean dance couple.

Anyway .... I hope that Kim/Kam will be in contention for the pair spot. (Good luck to them at the Autumn Classic :yay:.)
And that Lee/Kam will be in contention for the dance spot.
 
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Chemistry66

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The rule for host country spots is not quite as simple as that -- if I understand this document correctly.

That said, seems likely (although not absolutely guaranteed) that other countries will leave spots unused from "Additional Athletes Quota."
If so, and if a Korean pair does not qualify outright, then South Korea as the host country could use spots from the quota for one pair -- if they meet the minimum TES requirements.
Same for a Korean dance couple.

Anyway .... I hope that Kim/Kam will be in contention for the pair spot. (Good luck to them at the Autumn Classic :yay:.)
And that Lee/Kam will be in contention for the dance spot.

I believe you're understanding the rules correctly. As long as there's leftover "Additional Athletes Quota" spots, South Korea will be able to make use of them. And since those "Additional" spots are only available for countries in the Team Skating competition that didn't qualify skaters/couples outright AND each country could only use one of those spots, the only way South Korea wouldn't get at least one Host Nation spot is if every single Team Skating team needed a spot. Which is incredibly unlikely.

It's most likely that (barring absolute disaster) at least Russia and the USA will qualify at least 1 spot in all 4 disciplines. Likely Canada too.
 

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avatar credit: @miyan5605
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I believe you're understanding the rules correctly. As long as there's leftover "Additional Athletes Quota" spots, South Korea will be able to make use of them. And since those "Additional" spots are only available for countries in the Team Skating competition that didn't qualify skaters/couples outright AND each country could only use one of those spots, the only way South Korea wouldn't get at least one Host Nation spot is if every single Team Skating team needed a spot. Which is incredibly unlikely.

It's most likely that (barring absolute disaster) at least Russia and the USA will qualify at least 1 spot in all 4 disciplines. Likely Canada too.

Agree with the overall conclusion :agree:.

But b/c I know you like to be precise, a caveat is that -- if I understand correctly -- the additional athletes quota is ten skaters (as opposed to ten entries). It's the head count that matters. So one pair counts as two skaters from the quota of ten. Same for one dance couple.
So hypothetically, if only five countries needed one pair (or one dance couple) for the team event, they would use up the entire quota of ten additional athletes.
Still a very unlikely scenario.

p.s. Sorry for messing up :hopelessness: the link to the ISU document in my previous post. I have fixed it.
 

Chemistry66

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Agree with the overall conclusion :agree:.

But b/c I know you like to be precise, a caveat is that -- if I understand correctly -- the additional athletes quota is ten skaters (as opposed to ten entries). It's the head count that matters. So one pair counts as two skaters from the quota of ten. Same for one dance couple.
So hypothetically, if only five countries needed one pair (or one dance couple) for the team event, they would use up the entire quota of ten additional athletes.
Still a very unlikely scenario.

p.s. Sorry for messing up :hopelessness: the link to the ISU document in my previous post. I have fixed it.

It's kind of unclear but I do think the following from beginning of the document implies it's 1 entry (skater OR couple). The Team Event countries can be allocated 1 Additional Athletes Quota place to use in 1 discipline, which makes it more likely that it's counting Pairs and Dance couples as 1 entry.

They should really make stuff like that clearer.

*NOCs/ISU Members who do not have qualified skaters/couples in an individual Olympic Winter Games
(OWG) event (Men Single Skating, Ladies Single Skating, Pair Skating, Ice Dance), may be allocated one
(1) “Additional Athletes Quota” place and enter into only in the Figure Skating Team event. If applicable,
each NOC may only use the “Additional Athletes Quota” place in only one (1) event (Men Single Skating,
Ladies Single Skating, Pair Skating or Ice Dance) of the Figure Skating Team event.
 

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avatar credit: @miyan5605
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It's kind of unclear but I do think the following from beginning of the document implies it's 1 entry (skater OR couple). The Team Event countries can be allocated 1 Additional Athletes Quota place to use in 1 discipline, which makes it more likely that it's counting Pairs and Dance couples as 1 entry.

They should really make stuff like that clearer.

Hmmm ... what stood out to me are the multiple uses of the phrase "ten (10) skaters" (emphases added):

The paragraph after yours:
The Additional Athletes Quota of up to ten (10) skaters will be used giving preference to the best-ranked “incomplete Teams” according to the ranking of the Figure Skating Team qualification list. The Additional Athletes Quota beyond the above-mentioned ten (10) skaters cannot be exceeded and if not sufficient, the lower ranked “incomplete Teams” according to the ranking of the Figure Skating Team qualification list, may in such case not be able to complete their team.

The same paragraph is repeated on page 5:
The Additional Athletes Quota of up to ten (10) skaters will be used giving preference to the best ranked “incomplete Teams” according to the ranking of the Figure Skating Team qualification list. The Additional Athletes Quota beyond the above-mentioned ten (10) skaters cannot be exceeded and if not sufficient, the lower ranked “incomplete Teams” according to the ranking of the Figure Skating Team qualification list, may in such case not be able to complete their team.

And IIRC, it was explained somewhere (maybe in an IN article???) before Sochi that the 2014 quota was for ten skaters. And that the IOC's approval of the 2014 team event was all about the strict head count.

In any case, it does look good for Korea to have one pair and one dance couple compete in 2018.
 
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