Last Olympic quota places on the line at Qualifying Event Nebelhorn Trophy

The last Olympic quota places for the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games – seven for Men, six for Women, three for Pairs and four for Ice Dance – will be assigned at the ISU Challenger Series and Olympic Qualifying Event Nebelhorn Trophy September 23-25 in Oberstdorf (GER).

Overview of the competitors

Out of the 32 Men entered, 26 are vying for one of the seven tickets to Beijing 2022. 2019 ISU World Figure Skating bronze medalist Vincent Zhou (USA), Brendan Kerry (AUS), Mark Kondratiuk (RUS), Roman Sadovsky (CAN), Adam Siao Him Fa (FRA) and Paul Fentz (GER) are among the favorites to secure a spot for their country.

Thirty-four of the 38 entries in the Women’s hope to earn one of the six available Olympic quota places. 2020 ISU World Junior Figure Skating bronze medalist Alysa Liu (USA), Alexia Paganini (SUI), Ekaterina Kurakova (POL), Kailani Craine (AUS) and Viktoriia Safonova (BLR) are the top contenders for these spots.

In the Pairs, 13 out of 16 entries aim for one of the three quota places. Bogdana Lukashevich/ Alexander Stepanov (BLR), Yuchen Wang/Yihang Huang (CHN), Karina Safina/Luka Berulava (GEO) and Laura Barquero/Marco Zandron (ESP) are the favorites.

The Ice Dance event features 21 couples and 17 are going for one of the four Olympic spots. The top teams are 2020 ISU World Junior Figure Skating silver medalists Maria Kazakova/Georgy Reviya (GEO), Yura Min/Daniel Eaton (KOR), Tina Garabedian/Simon Proulx Senecal (ARM), Natalie Taschlerova/Filip Taschler (CZE) and Sasha Fear/George Waddell (GBR).

Olympic qualifying procedure

The majority of entries for Beijing 2022 were assigned according to the results of the ISU World Figure Skating Championships 2021 in Stockholm (SWE): 23 for Men, 24 for Women, 16 for Pairs and 19 for Ice Dance. In order to have three spots, two entered Skaters needed to achieve a maximum of 13 points in Stockholm. In order to get two entries, the maximum number of points is 28. If there is only one entry, the maximum number of points for two spots is 10 and the maximum number for three spots is 2. Skaters who are in the Free Skating/Free Dance and are placed 16th and lower count with 16 points. Skaters who did not reach the Free Skating/Free Dance, get 18 points.

However, if an ISU Member has earned the necessary points for three spots or for two spots but did not have three or two Skaters qualified for the Free Skating/Free Dance, the third / second entry is not automatically attributed nor is it reserved for the respective ISU Member. They now have the possibly to secure that third / second spot at the Nebelhorn Trophy – this concerns for example the USA in the Women and Men and Russia in the Men. Liu, Zhou and Kondratiuk will aim to secure a third quota place in Oberstdorf. The ISU Members were not able to send a Skater or Couple to Oberstdorf that competed in the Free Skating/Dance at the ISU World Championships 2021.

For more details on the Olympic entries and quota places please see ISU Communication 2388. For full entries and results of the Olympic qualifying competition, please see the Nebelhorn Trophy event page. A live stream will be available through the German Figure Skating Federation.

As a service to our readers, Around the Rings will provide verbatim texts of selected press releases issued by Olympic-related organizations, federations, businesses and sponsors.

These press releases appear as sent to Around the Rings and are not edited for spelling, grammar or punctuation.