How do Adult Sectionals/Nationals work?

[TreSk8sAZ]

Hey everyone. This may be a really dumb question, but I'm not sure.

I was looking at the Pacific Coast announcement today. I'm only 20, so I was just looking for fun at what events were being offered. In the non-qualifying events, I saw that there were Young Adult events being offered. Now, I know for things like adults Bronze if you skate in sectionals you are allowed to enter nationals even though it's non-qual. Is that true for young adults too? Or do I have the process completely wrong to being with?

Thanks in advance!
Tracy

[Debbie S]

Actually, Adult Nationals is only open to adults age 25 and older. There are no Young Adult events there. My understanding is that except for qualifying events like Championship Gold and Championship Masters, Sectionals and Nationals are completely separate competitions, so you can enter one without the other or both. It doesn't matter. But you do have to be a full-fledged "Adult" skater to go to AN, and pass at least the Bronze FS test.

[skaternum]

DebbieS is correct. I sorta look at it as three "tiers" of skating at Adult Sectionals. Tier 1 is the entire reason for having sectionals: the qualifying adult events. Tier 2 is the add-on and completely unrelated non-qualifying adult events. Tier 3 is the "no-such-category-really-exists-and-thank-you-local-organizers-for-having-these," completely unrelated young adult events. :lol:

[TreSk8sAZ]

Alright, thanks. I didn't remember there being young adult events at nationals previously. I was hoping that there would finally be something for our age group to do, but I doubted it!
Thanks again!

[skaternum]

Nope, sorry. And I wouldn't look for it to be included in the next couple of years. There's been talk from time to time of expanding AN to include young adult categories and/or pre-bronze, but it never quite makes it. AN is just so huge, they'd have a hard time squeezing in another category. As it is, it eats up 3 sheets of ice for almost a week!