52nd ISU Ordinary Congress (ST Decisions)

[bubblebuttsbabe]

I've only posted the decisions that pertain to ST.

Decisions of the ISU Council - Monaco
22 Jun 2008 14:40

The ISU Council considered applications made by Members for ISU Championships during its meeting on June 21-22, 2008 in Monaco. The ISU Council took the following decisions:

Provisional Allotment of ISU Championships 2011

Short Track Speed Skating

ISU World Junior Short Track Speed Skating Championships, January 18-20, 2011 - Aosta/Italy

ISU European Short Track Speed Skating Championships, January 14-16, 2011 - Heerenveen/Netherlands

ISU World Short Track Speed Skating Championships, March 11-13, 2011 - Sheffield/Great Britain

ISU World Short Track Speed Skating Team Championships, March 19-20, 2011 - Warsaw/Poland

Further details will be published in an ISU Communication.

52nd ISU Ordinary Congress
20 Jun 2008 16:39

General

The Congress decided to change the rules on the size of trademarks on clothing and technical equipment to facilitate sponsor support for competitive athletes. In the Speed Skating branch, a motion to allow an additional advertising marking on the upper body was also passed.

Short Track

Significant changes were also brought in to the Olympic Winter Games qualification system for Short Track so at to simplify the procedure.

The format of the ISU World Junior Short Track Speed Skating Championships has been revised to give additional importance to Relay at Junior level. Under the newly approved rules Members can enter four competitors in the Ladies and Men’s relay team respectively (as opposed to three in the past) and the relay races will take place over 3000 meters (as opposed to 2000 meters in the past).

In the Super Final over 3000m, the first skater to cross the finish line after 1000m would be entitled to 5 extra points thus raising the strategic importance of the first part of the race and improving attractiveness of the competition (note that if the skater is disqualified then these extra points would not be awarded to any skater)

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source: isu.org

I'm very interested to see how these changes will affect short track, if at all.

[susie]

Great Britain is getting a World Championship meet! That is so way cool! Thanks for the info, Bubblebuttsbabe.

[wags]

elle, doonik...here's your chance!! Get us some real good shots.

[A.O.Freak]

Isn't Apolo gonna retire from short track after the 2010 Olympics?? I hope not

[tdav]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think he's said what he's going to do after 2010. He has said in an interview that he could go to two more (2010 in Vancouver and 2014 in Sochi) if he wanted to.

[Lori]

In the Super Final over 3000m, the first skater to cross the finish line after 1000m would be entitled to 5 extra points thus raising the strategic importance of the first part of the race and improving attractiveness of the competition (note that if the skater is disqualified then these extra points would not be awarded to any skater)

This change is particularly interesting... I'm sure it's meant to discourage those slo-mo first laps, but it'll make for a pretty exhausting race for the skaters, eh?

[bubblebuttsbabe]

You're welcome!

As for post-2010, if I remember correctly, it was the Fox news show (Good Day LA) that Apolo said he could go for 2014. I think it was during his DWTS stint. But my memory might be off.

[susie]

I remember that interview as well -- Apolo hadn't ruled out Sochi 2014 at that point.

Sometimes I wonder what it would take for him to want to continue. I remember that he said that much of the appeal of Vancouver 2010 is that he would be skating so close to home. I also remember him saying at one point that if the 2010 Olympics were to be overseas again, that he wouldn't have had as much interest in doing it. But he's also said that as long as he's enjoying himself, and is able to compete at a high level, he wants to continue. It will be interesting to see what happens.

I did some research into Sheffield and was surprised to find that they've already hosted a World Championships! -- back in 2000. Evgenia Radanova medalled there, as did Yang Yang, but evidently a young hot-shot named Apolo Ohno was just a blip on the radar at that point. They have a gorgeous facility called iceSheffield.