My coach used to tease me that I was his only international Gold medal skater, but we both knew exactly how much that was worth. Similarly, one year my husband was technically British AND French adult champion - at the lowest level and oldest age group!

The international competitions are great fun, and well worth going to at least once, if you can scare up the fare and the entry fees (oh, we did miss most of our American friends at the Mountain Cup this year - only coskater64 and blueIIImoon and one other!), but they are no more prestigious, really, than your local Open.

Having said that, Oberstdorf is an ISU competition and you do skate representing your country. The organisers even rushed out to buy a Republic of Ireland flag this year, as they didn't have one, and the flags of the competing nations are flown over the rink during the competition!

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No i think you're right about that. I think (though i'm going from memory so it could be very faulty!) that the criteria to qualify to worlds and europeans was to attain a certain score in the LP (which was set at the 24th place finisher i.e. the person that qualified for the LP at worlds and Europeans respectively) or above at named competitions. If more than one person attained the relevant score then the person with the highest SP+LP score at their named competition would go. From memory the winner of nationals didn't get a qualifying score and Elliott beat Matt on the total score so qualified for Europeans and Worlds. After Euorpeans NISA went back on their criteria and named Matt to the world team and that kicked off the legal action.

Ant

No, the affordability for internationals doesn't apply to other levels. Yes, affordability in the sense of being able to skate period, but not being able to compete internationally.

In the US, if you earn a spot to compete internationally through US figure skating based on your placement at nationals, in most cases your airfare, hotel, entry fees, everything are covered by US Figure Skating (I am not sure how it works for all disciplines, for synchro the number of top junior or senior teams it applies to changes from year to year...at one time it was top 6 in each division from nationals got internationals and everythinig is covered. I think right now it's top 4 are funded, teams placing 5-6th get internationals but they are not fully funded). Skaters who go to worlds are always covered.

When my synchro team went to internationals in France, Sweden, Canada and Florida in the mid 90s-2000, we had travel, hotel, entry fees for the entire team and coaches covered (maybe our manager too), plus a representative from USFS and a doctor were sent with us. Overseas we also had a local leader to take us around and make sure we got where we needed to be. We were given team USA jackets and pants to wear and keep. One year I know the team also got some extra money to bring in a choreographer and a dietician to monitor all of us in the months leading up to the competition. USFS also sent judges to monitor us periodically. All we had to pay for as far as internationals were concerned was food and passports. (Even in years where we kind of got the shaft and were sent to an international a few hours away in Canada, they were covered.) Sure, our parents or other family who wanted to go still had to pay their own way, but my parents never made overseas trips, many of them didn't.

If I were to compete at the adult international, I'd have to pay for everything.

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I will say this again: Icenetwork covered the event via the Incrowd. You can see the results on Eissport magazine. Oberstdorf has been covered in the past by US figure skating but this year there were fewer American skaters and no one covered the event. No other invitationals are covered by US figure skating for the kids but there is an adult page in US figure skating that is currently talking about adult skating in other countries.

As someone who has gone to this event for all 5 years I don't get what all the whining is about, they didn't cover it this year, big deal. I skated gold and now I skate masters, its an open event. I go to hang out with my friends who live in Europe...can we move along.???

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Well, that may be in the USA. It seems that your skating asociation has plenty of money to do so. As far as I am aware, the Czech Republic ladies champion attended Worlds and paid her own expenses. It depends on your federation if they send you and pay for it, or if they 'send you' (after you win your country's championships) but you pay your own expenses. Therefore one can argue that at all levels, competing is about what you can afford.

From what I was told by several parents of US competitors, the funding from USFS doesn't begin to cover the expenses of those skaters assigned to international competitions, especially the JGP and B internationals. Even Worlds and Olympics aren't totally free rides.

USFS has cut back a lot on the spending in the last decade or so. Hence the prize money at the GPs and the grants for high finishes at Nationals.

None of which has anything to do with adults or the Adult Internationals. I suspect that the only reason there was no coverage in Skating is because none of the US participants submitted anything. Unlike some of the other publications, Skating Magazine does not have a huge staff of roving reporters they send to cover events. They depend a lot on free-lancers.

This sounds really interesting. Do you remember which countries it's about?

Does somebody know if there is a way to access the article online? (I am outside the US)

I THINK it was Germany, France, and something else... It's a 3 part series, so they'll profile 9 countries. Just a one column blurb about the state of adult skating. It was more or less a "you've got it good there" sort of thing. The Germany article talked about Obsterdor, and France about Mountain Cup, but both said that adult skating is hard to come by, even though there are adults who want to skate, and programs aren't always very welcoming, and there isn't a lot of competition opportunity without travel.

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It doesn't seem that the Adult Corner article is online.

http://www.usfigureskating.org/Magazine.asp?Issue=43358

Rob

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2010 Adult Nationals - earning a gold - "Priceless"
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Well said lady!

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There are also "standard track" international competitions that are not covered by SKATING magazine. One of the coaches at my rink takes a whole herd of kids to Belgium every year for a competition that has competitors from around the world. But they all decide they are going, pay all their own way and also have their country announced when they compete. But I know about this event only because that couple of weeks the rink is really empty (woo-hoo!) and the kids come back and talk about how they skated in Belgium and ate chocolate when the coach wasn't looking. I don't even know the name of this event... but in some ways, it sounds like Mountain Cup or Obertsdorf... really cool international competitions that skaters choose to go to and fund their own trips.