varing # entries for ladies at Nationals

[AUT]

I recently was looking at the placements for various skaters at US nationals and I noticed that the # of participants was as low as 14 and as high as 21.
I know that the top four finishers from the 3 sectionals advance to national and top 3-4 finishers from the previous year also have a bye. That adds up to 16. How do the others get in?

[Dustin]

Injury byes (they were injured during regionals-sectionals), competition byes (they competed in a grand prix event/other intl. assignment conflicting with regionals/sectionals), and some other reasons that I might not be aware of?

[Sylvia]

There were 21 senior ladies at US Nationals in 2003. Besides the 12 qualifiers through the 3 Sectional qualifying competitions, the 9 who received byes were: Kwan, Cohen and Hughes (the 3 medalists from 2002 Nationals got automatic byes), Nikodinov and Gardiner (injury byes), Corwin, McDonough and Mok (competition byes that conflicted with their respective Sectionals), and Kirk (she didn't compete at Eastern Sectionals for some reason).

For 2004 Nationals, the top 6 ladies at 2003 Nationals (Kwan, Hughes-if she competes, Cohen, McDonough, Kirk, Mok) will all receive automatic byes to Atlanta due to a new rule change, and the ladies receiving byes due to competition conflicts with Sectionals are, so far: Liang, Corwin, and Jennifer Don (she is scheduled to compete at South Atlantic Regionals in October, and if she places in the top 4 there, she will receive a bye through Eastern Sectionals in singles because she and partner Jonathon Hunt will be at Trophee Lalique for pairs that same week). However, other recent rule changes will result in no more skaters receiving medical/injury byes to Nationals and any skater that qualifies for the Senior or Junior Grand Prix Final will get an automatic bye to Nationals at the junior or senior level (even if the skater is new to that level).

[skatepixie]

if one of the top 6 doesnt go does the 7 place get to go?

[Sylvia]

Originally posted by skatepixie
if one of the top 6 doesnt go does the 7 place get to go?

No, but Beatrisa Liang was 7th at 2003 Nationals and her 2 Grand Prix assignments conflict with Pacific Coast Sectionals, so she is currently scheduled to get a competition bye to Nationals anyway.

The USFSA Governing Council news summary is at:
http://www.usfsa.org/news/2002-03/GC2003/index.htm

Relevant excerpt (I bolded the sentence below):

It was approved that skaters placing 1st through 6th at the previous U.S. Championships at the senior level in men, ladies, pairs and dance will receive an automatic invitation to the current U.S. Championships in the same discipline. There will be no replacements should skaters decline the invitation at the current U.S. Championships. This was an amendment from the original request for action that stated skaters 1st through 4th would receive automatic invitations.
It was approved that there will be no byes given at the U.S. Championships except to those skaters that have a conflict with an international competition.