Why not Asian Championships and American Championships instead of 4 Continents?
There’s nothing official in this thread, I just want to open the debate
The European Championships exists since 1891 (and are older than Worlds, created “only” in 1896) and for many European skating fans (and maybe for skaters too?), this event seems as important as Worlds (ok that’s my opinion, but it’s based on what I observe since many years). Quite no european skaters are skipping European Champs even when it’s Olympic year (Savchenko/Massot are an exception to this!)
The 4 Continents Championships were created in 1999 for the “no-european” countries, which were 16 at this date – only 13 really active in figure skating.
- South Africa on the African continent
- Canada, Mexico and USA on the American continent
- China, Chinese Taipei, Hongkong, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Uzbekistan (+ unactive DPR Korea, Mongolia and Thailand) on the Asian continent
- Australia and New Zealand on the Oceanian continent
This situation quite didn’t change until 2007/2008 and the competition wasn’t taken very seriously by many top skaters. Michelle Kwan or Sasha Cohen never took part on it, even when it was held in the USA!
It wasn’t rare that Canada, USA or Japan sent only their national-ranked-4-to-6 skaters to 4 Continents, when the podium went to Worlds. Now this competition is a bit more popular (and a great way to earn World ranking points), but top skaters are still skipping it during Olympic year. And during the last 11 years, it seems that only Korea and Chinese Taipei were really interested to organize it : they each hold it 4 times! Last time in Japan was in 2013, 2012 for USA, 2009 for Canada and… 2003 for China. It never was organized in Oceania.
But 20 years after its creation, there’s now 29 “4 continents” members, and figure skating is growing in Asia and Latin America.
So the idea is, to improve the interest of this event, wouldn’t it better to earn separate Asian Championships and American Championships?
Let’s make some fiction
- Asian Championships
Figure skating in Asia is historically dominated by China and Japan. South Korean skating improved super fast in the last years. This sport seems to be more and more popular in Hongkong and Chinese Taipei too. In South-East Asia (Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand), some clubs can now form world-level skaters and many North American/European skaters with Asian roots are skating for these countries.
Kazakhstan has developed this sport too and will maybe be followed by Uzbekistan and Kirghizstan.
With the normalization of his diplomatic relationships, DPR Korea could be seen more often in competitions. Cambodia joint the ISU last year and will be probably soon imitated by Vietnam. United Arab Emirates and Qatar (but only in speed skating for the moment) are other newcomers.
Indian figure skating is a special case, as local skating has absolutely not improved in ten years.
Australia is already taking part at Asian Football Championships and could do so at an Asian Figure Skating Championships, and New Zealand could follow. It was already the case at Asian Winter Games.
As it happens… Let’s take a look at the last Asian Winter Games, held last year in Sapporo.
Without minimum technical scores required, we saw 24 ladies, 21 men, 8 pairs and 7 ice dance teams.
This event wasn’t held since 2011, and the number of 2017 entries was significantly higher than the other years (between 10 and 14 men, 12 and 17 ladies, 3 and 6 pairs/dance teams)
With minimum TES, the number of “Asian” entries at 4 Continents was not especially lower: 23 men, 17 ladies, 8 dance teams, but only 5 pairs (no pairs from China).
By decreasing a little bit the required TES, it would be easily possible to have 24 individual skaters and +/- 10 pairs and dance teams.
A men event could be very interesting, with an open podium fight between Japanese, Chinese and Korean skaters. A ladies event too, with the strong Japanese and Korean fields (and don’t forget Tursynbaeva). The pair competition could be more surprising than only a chinese domination, with the Australian and north Korean pairs. Dance event would be totally open.
I don’t doubt that Korea or Chinese Taipei would be very interested into hosting this event. Maybe other federations too. But the question is, for skaters and for fans, would it be more gratifying to be Asian champion or to be 4 Continents champion?
Let’s make some fiction - American Championships
The situation is completely different if we try to do an American Championship, as it will quickly turn into a Canada+USA championship. Mexican figure skating is improving again, but only one skater could qualify for 4 Continents this year. Figure Skating in South America is not yet competitive, top-level skaters were all from Canada and USA.
Of course, this event would be a bit boring with the current requirements, but why not to change it a little bit? For example, 5 skaters per countries, without minimum TES. South American skaters would have a chance to skate at a big event and tickets for a possible competition with Kaetlyn Osmond, Ashley Wagner, Gabrielle Daleman, Nathan Chen, Weaver/Poje or Hubbell/Donohue would be probably sold out quickly. For the skaters, it could be an interesting challenge too.
And who knows if in some years Latin America could rival with North America.
Let’s make some fiction - what do we do with Africa?
The problem if we organize separate Asian and American championships, is that the 2 African skating countries (South Africa and Morocco) will be without big championship. Morocco could skate at European championship (they took part at 1980 Eurovision Song Contest ^^), but South Africa is far from all the 3 other continents. Both countries have currently no international-level skaters and I doubt to see a big change soon.
Now it’s time to discuss, what do you think on it? Especially, would Asian and American skating fans here happier to watch an Asian or American Championship instead of 4 Continents? And for African skating fans, which option seems better?
There’s nothing official in this thread, I just want to open the debate
The European Championships exists since 1891 (and are older than Worlds, created “only” in 1896) and for many European skating fans (and maybe for skaters too?), this event seems as important as Worlds (ok that’s my opinion, but it’s based on what I observe since many years). Quite no european skaters are skipping European Champs even when it’s Olympic year (Savchenko/Massot are an exception to this!)
The 4 Continents Championships were created in 1999 for the “no-european” countries, which were 16 at this date – only 13 really active in figure skating.
- South Africa on the African continent
- Canada, Mexico and USA on the American continent
- China, Chinese Taipei, Hongkong, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Uzbekistan (+ unactive DPR Korea, Mongolia and Thailand) on the Asian continent
- Australia and New Zealand on the Oceanian continent
This situation quite didn’t change until 2007/2008 and the competition wasn’t taken very seriously by many top skaters. Michelle Kwan or Sasha Cohen never took part on it, even when it was held in the USA!
It wasn’t rare that Canada, USA or Japan sent only their national-ranked-4-to-6 skaters to 4 Continents, when the podium went to Worlds. Now this competition is a bit more popular (and a great way to earn World ranking points), but top skaters are still skipping it during Olympic year. And during the last 11 years, it seems that only Korea and Chinese Taipei were really interested to organize it : they each hold it 4 times! Last time in Japan was in 2013, 2012 for USA, 2009 for Canada and… 2003 for China. It never was organized in Oceania.
But 20 years after its creation, there’s now 29 “4 continents” members, and figure skating is growing in Asia and Latin America.
So the idea is, to improve the interest of this event, wouldn’t it better to earn separate Asian Championships and American Championships?
Let’s make some fiction
- Asian ChampionshipsFigure skating in Asia is historically dominated by China and Japan. South Korean skating improved super fast in the last years. This sport seems to be more and more popular in Hongkong and Chinese Taipei too. In South-East Asia (Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand), some clubs can now form world-level skaters and many North American/European skaters with Asian roots are skating for these countries.
Kazakhstan has developed this sport too and will maybe be followed by Uzbekistan and Kirghizstan.
With the normalization of his diplomatic relationships, DPR Korea could be seen more often in competitions. Cambodia joint the ISU last year and will be probably soon imitated by Vietnam. United Arab Emirates and Qatar (but only in speed skating for the moment) are other newcomers.
Indian figure skating is a special case, as local skating has absolutely not improved in ten years.
Australia is already taking part at Asian Football Championships and could do so at an Asian Figure Skating Championships, and New Zealand could follow. It was already the case at Asian Winter Games.
As it happens… Let’s take a look at the last Asian Winter Games, held last year in Sapporo.
Without minimum technical scores required, we saw 24 ladies, 21 men, 8 pairs and 7 ice dance teams.
This event wasn’t held since 2011, and the number of 2017 entries was significantly higher than the other years (between 10 and 14 men, 12 and 17 ladies, 3 and 6 pairs/dance teams)
With minimum TES, the number of “Asian” entries at 4 Continents was not especially lower: 23 men, 17 ladies, 8 dance teams, but only 5 pairs (no pairs from China).
By decreasing a little bit the required TES, it would be easily possible to have 24 individual skaters and +/- 10 pairs and dance teams.
A men event could be very interesting, with an open podium fight between Japanese, Chinese and Korean skaters. A ladies event too, with the strong Japanese and Korean fields (and don’t forget Tursynbaeva). The pair competition could be more surprising than only a chinese domination, with the Australian and north Korean pairs. Dance event would be totally open.
I don’t doubt that Korea or Chinese Taipei would be very interested into hosting this event. Maybe other federations too. But the question is, for skaters and for fans, would it be more gratifying to be Asian champion or to be 4 Continents champion?
Let’s make some fiction
- American ChampionshipsThe situation is completely different if we try to do an American Championship, as it will quickly turn into a Canada+USA championship. Mexican figure skating is improving again, but only one skater could qualify for 4 Continents this year. Figure Skating in South America is not yet competitive, top-level skaters were all from Canada and USA.
Of course, this event would be a bit boring with the current requirements, but why not to change it a little bit? For example, 5 skaters per countries, without minimum TES. South American skaters would have a chance to skate at a big event and tickets for a possible competition with Kaetlyn Osmond, Ashley Wagner, Gabrielle Daleman, Nathan Chen, Weaver/Poje or Hubbell/Donohue would be probably sold out quickly. For the skaters, it could be an interesting challenge too.
And who knows if in some years Latin America could rival with North America.
Let’s make some fiction
- what do we do with Africa?The problem if we organize separate Asian and American championships, is that the 2 African skating countries (South Africa and Morocco) will be without big championship. Morocco could skate at European championship (they took part at 1980 Eurovision Song Contest ^^), but South Africa is far from all the 3 other continents. Both countries have currently no international-level skaters and I doubt to see a big change soon.
Now it’s time to discuss, what do you think on it? Especially, would Asian and American skating fans here happier to watch an Asian or American Championship instead of 4 Continents? And for African skating fans, which option seems better?
