Step by step overview01.Jan.2005
Step 1 - Discipline count
1. Your 8* best discipline point results per year will count.
2. You can only count your 2 best disciplines per competition.
3. The 8* best results will give you your yearly World Ranking point total.
Conclusion 1: The World Ranking expects that you travel to a minimum of 4* competitions per year and enter at least 2 disciplines in each of these competitions.
* Note! For Amateurs, Women and Juniors only the 6 best discipline results will count. So for them the World Ranking expects that you travel to a minimum of 3 competitions per year.
Step 2 - Boosting your points
Entering more than 4* competitions will normally not affect your total point as much as your 4 first ones. But remember if you can get more and better result points than what you previous have you will be able to increase your total point by exchanging your lower points with higher ones. Remember though that even if you have 12 counted discipline results only your 8* best will count for the ranking. The world ranking is not only showing who are the fastest. It also weighs in travel and attendance. The more you travel around on these high level competitions the more you increase the likeliness of getting good points.
Conclusion 2: By travelling and competing in more than 4* competitions you increase the chance of boosting your world ranking total point.
* Note! For Amateurs, Women and Juniors only the 6 best discipline results will count. So for them the World Ranking expects that you travel to a minimum of 3 competitions per year.
Step 3 - Competition statuses
To be able to have a 100% fair ranking you would have liked to have all the racers in the world competing in the same competitions all the time. This is not possible or very practical. For most of us competing this is not really necessary but the better racer you are the more important this becomes. To try and solve this problem the World Ranking system will filter out some competitions each year with higher statuses. These competitions will have higher points to give out and should attract those who want to compete for the highest placements in the World Ranking. For the top skaters this is important but for many others it will not necessarily give you more points. High status competitions will have many top racers. Going to a lower status competition with less top racers attending may give you the same point in the end.
Each year there is one competition selected on each side of the Atlantic as the highest ranked contest of the year. A Major. This competition should attract all the best skaters on each side of the Atlantic and maybe even the world since some elite skaters from the other side of the Atlantic very well may consider the trip worthwhile. Worth noting though is that you can only count 1 Major per year. If you attend both of them the one with lower points will be treated as a Main status when it comes to World Ranking points. The statuses in order of importance are Major, Main, Prime, Basic and Plain.
Conclusion 3: The better slalom racer you are the more important it becomes that you enter the high status competitions. And especially if you want to be among the best in the world you shouldn't miss one of the Majors each year.
Step 4 – Pro and Am classes
To be at the very top of some World Rankings (Total and Pro) you will need to compete as Pro. It’s important due to ranking points to be aware of Pro and Am classes. An Open class will count less than a Pro Class but more than an Amateur class. If there are 8 or more Pros in an Open class it will be counted as a Pro-Open (Pro/Am) in the world ranking. Pros will get Pro points and Ams will get Am points.
Conclusion 4: For Pro racers it’s important to race as pro in Pro Class competitions. For Pro’s it may be important to check out if there is a separate Pro class or not at a competition. Also important is if it’s an Open competition to check out if 8 or more pros are attending.
Step 5 – Ranking types
There are two types of ranking for the moment, the Year ranking and the 4-year ranking. The year ranking counts only results from a specific season and shows who was the best a given season. The 4-year World Ranking is running over 4 years. The 2 best years are counting full points. The third best year gives 50%. And the worst year of the last 4 years is not counted at all. No competing during four years and you are out of the 4-year ranking.
The World Rankings for Men-Pro and Women are the 4-year ranking. The World rankings for Men-Am and juniors are the 1-year rankings.
Conclusion 5: To be the top World Ranking skater for men-Pro and Women it is not just a one-year saga. It's hard work over a long period of time. This adds other talents than just skating fast and getting good points for a specific year. Also since one of the last four years are not counted it will handle situations of season injuries or other private situations that may result in less competing in a specific season. With this system your long-term ranking will not be totally destroyed in these cases.
Step 6 – Registered results
It’s important that your points get registered. It is the responsibility of the event organizer to publish competition results and make the World Ranking aware of them. You as a competitor can also help out if you notice that some competitions are missing. E-mail the event organizer to send results to the World Ranking. You can also e-mail the World Ranking administrator.
Conclusion 6: If the competition results are not published or unknown to the World Ranking system they will not be counted when calculating the ranking lists. Help out with making sure that results are getting registered correctly.
Step 7 – Rankings results during the year.
To not only have a ranking at the end of each year there will be rankings calculated during the season. At the end of each month (except January, February and November) an official ranking will be published. During the early calculations in the beginning of the season a virtual year point will be calculated. This is done to be able to compare result with last years ranking all the way during the season.
Conclusion 7: You may gain places in the first season World Rankings by starting to compete early on in the year
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