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by George Rossano
Grand Prix Ladies Final Standings
Qualified for Final in Grey Grand Prix Men's Final Standings
Grand Prix Pairs Final Standings
Grand Prix Dance Final Standings
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(5 December 2014) Russian skaters continued their domination of international figure skating, qualifying for nine of the twenty-four possible entries in the 2014 Grand Prix Final. Russia qualified entries in each of the four disciplines, with Russian ladies earning four of the six slots in that event. In comparison, The U.S. qualified a total of four entries, with two entries each in Ladies and Dance. The U.S. count beat by one the three entries each earned by Canada, China and Japan. Since 2009, the Russian presence in the senior Final has steadily increased, with the increase mainly coming with greater success in the Ladies and Men's events. The U.S., on the other hand, has seen it's success in the senior Grand Prix decline since 2007, or at best has stagnated since 2011. The U.S. decline is mainly due to declining success in the Men's event. The U.S. has qualified one or two entries in Ladies and one or two in Dance for most of the last eight years. Entries in Men, have dropped off since 2009. The U.S. has not qualified a pairs team since 2007. The entry counts for the U.S. and Russia in the senior disciplines are shown in the following Table.
Number of Grand Prix Final Entries for the U.S. and Russia, 2007 - 2014The trends in qualification are also shown in the following chart.
Number of Grand Prix Final Entries for the U.S. and Russia, 2007 - 2014These charts prompt the question, how is it that Russia has developed its skaters to have tripled its presence in the Senior Grand Prix final by a factor of three since 2007, while the U.S. has seen its presence cut in half? These trends are even more striking when you consider that the U.S. has more than twice the population of Russia, more rinks, and U.S. Figure Skating has greater financial resources than the Russian skating federation. Similar results are seen for the Junior Grand Prix. In 2011 the Junior Grand Prix Final reduced the number of entries in each event from eight to six. Therefore, in the following graphics we show the number of entries from the U.S. and Russia who finished in the top six for the Junior Standings.
Number of Junior Grand Prix Entries for the U.S. and Russia Placing in the Top Six of the Standings, 2007 - 2014
Number of Junior Grand Prix Entries for the U.S. and Russia Placing in the Top Six of the Standings, 2007 - 2014Over the past eight years, for the Junior Grand Prix, Russia has seen the number of entrants in the top six increase steadily, doubling from six to twelve. The U.S. was well represented in the Junior standings in 2007 and 2008 with 10 and 11 entries. The following five years the U.S. achieved six or seven entries in the top six, but fell off the edge of the earth this year with just one entry, a reduction of a factor of ten in eight years. An even more striking illustration of the decline in U.S. success in the Grand Prix, and the increase in the Russian, is shown below, with the sum of the Junior and Senior entries that finished in the top six of the final standings for the four disciplines. Overall, in 2014, Russian entries took 44% of the top six places, and the U.S. 10%. Russian entries in the top six increased by a factor of 2.3 over the past eight years, while the U.S. decreased by a factor of 3.2.
Number of Junior and Senior Grand Prix Entries Placing in the Top Six of the Standings for the U.S. and Russia, 2007 - 2014These counts, and the names behind the counts, point to several longstanding problems U.S. Figure Skating needs to address. The U.S has had little success over the last eight years converting success in the Junior ranks to success in the Senior. This has been particularly true for the men, and also for the few U.S. pairs who have finished in the top six in the Junior Grand Prix. Achievement by U.S. skaters, despite a few bright examples during this period, has declined overall, or stagnated for the past eight years. The U.S. pipeline currently looks to be near empty. Following its poor showing in the 2010 Olympics, Russia embarked on an incredibly successful rebuilding program. When you couple the numbers in the Senior Final with the one entry the U.S. qualified in the Junior Grand Prix Final, it is now past the time for U.S. Figure Skating to initiate a rebuilding program of its own.
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