U.S. champions no longer guaranteed spot on world figure skating team

New selection rules mean none of the champions crowned at the 2017 U.S. Figure Skating Championships this week in Kansas City are guaranteed a place on the team for the 2017 World Figure Skating Championships in Helsinki this March.

According to a U.S. Figure Skating spokesperson, the rules change to eliminate the champions' automatic qualification was made in the fall by the U.S. Figure Skating International Committee, with approval coming Dec. 13 by the organization's board and its Athletes Advisory Committee.

That decision was made too late to make it into the 2017 U.S. Figure Skating media guide, which says the winner of each discipline at the current U.S. championships will earn an automatic spot on the world team.

There has been no public announcement of the new rules, nor are they available on the public area of U.S. Figure Skating's website. The change was first reported by International Skating Online.

The new selection procedure is the same as the one that was used for the 2014 Olympic Winter Games (PDF), and it will also be used for the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics.

The process bases 2017 world team selection on results from events beginning with the 2016 World Championships and ending at the 2017 U.S. Championships.

The events under consideration are separated into three tiers (see below), with more weight accorded by tier level. There are no specific weighting numbers assigned to each tier.

The selection criteria is based on the body of work of those athletes who are believed to have the best chance to win Olympic medals, as opposed to relying on the results of a single competition, and, in the case of the 2017 worlds, those with the best chance to place well and earn the United States the most spots at the 2018 Olympics.

"This is the most important U.S. championships of the quad (four-year Olympic period)," U.S. Figure Skating Executive Director David Raith said.

While it seems highly unlikely that a national champion would be left off the world or Olympic teams, Raith said Friday he could imagine some scenarios in which it might happen.

Although the U.S. championships in an Olympic year are not called Olympic trials for financial reasons -- doing so would give the U.S. Olympic Committee broadcast rights and some of the marketing rights -- the USOC still has final approval over the athletes picked for its Olympic team in any sport.

With the possibility that a relatively undecorated athlete could win a medal at the U.S. championships, including the gold, U.S. Figure Skating officials now have the option to discount that result entirely if the athlete's record over the past year is less than impressive.

The following, excerpted from the new U.S. Figure Skating document "World Team Selection Procedures," outlines the essence of the new procedure:

Athletes shall be selected based upon performance(s) in the events below. The events have been stratified into tiers from the highest value events in Tier 1 through the lowest value events in Tier 3. Events within each tier shall be evaluated at equal weight.

Tier 1

- 2017 U.S. Figure Skating Championships

- 2016 ISU Grand Prix Final

- 2016 ISU World Figure Skating Championships

Tier 2

- 2016 Grand Prix Series Competitions

- 2016 Four Continents Figure Skating Championships

Tier 3

- 2016 Challenger Series Events and other senior international competitions

- 2016 U.S. Figure Skating Championships

- 2016 World Junior Figure Skating Championships

- 2016 ISU Junior Grand Prix Final

The names of the top five athletes/teams at the current U.S. Figure Skating Championships will be automatically placed into the pool of athletes/teams being considered for the World Team, if eligible. Consideration will be given to add additional athletes/teams to the pool by reviewing the events above in priority order and adding others due to extenuating circumstances as approved by the respective International Committee Discipline Group. Discussion on, and the selection of the pool of athletes identified by the International Committee Discipline Group, will be limited to the competitions listed above.

(This article originally appeared on icenetwork.)

U.S. Figure Skating head wants Russia out of 2018 Winter Games

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KANSAS CITY - U.S. Figure Skating President Sam Auxier said Thursday that Russia should not be allowed to compete at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games because of the doping scandal that has enveloped the country's athletes.

Auxier added that the integrity of both the International Olympic Committee and the International Skating Union hinged on issuing a stiff penalty against the Russians.

"I mean, it's state sponsored. ... It was a huge program, well coordinated, to cheat, and they should pay a pretty stiff penalty," Auxier said during a press conference at the 2017 U.S. Figure Skating Championships. "I think the only way the IOC and the ISU maintain any level of integrity is to take a strong stand and weigh a strong penalty for those actions."

Auxier joins Sebastian Coe, president of the International Association of Athletics Federations, as one of the few sports federation heads in the world to take such a strong position on the issue of Russia's Olympic participation.

In saying all Russian athletes should be excluded, Auxier even went a step further than IAAF leader Coe, who called only for Russia's track and field athletes to be banned from the Rio Summer Olympics. Only one Russian track and field athlete was allowed to compete in Rio.

No Russian figure skaters have been officially implicated in doping allegations that could involve as many as 1,000 Russian athletes in summer and winter sports, according to an independent investigation commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency.

But 2014 Olympic ladies champion Adelina Sotnikova is reportedly one of 28 athletes under investigation by the IOC for a doping sample that was among those allegedly manipulated in the Russian anti-doping lab in Sochi.

The manipulation allegedly involved tampering with sample bottles to fill them with drug-free urine. Scratches on the bottles are seen as evidence of tampering, and the Italian sports newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport reported that a bottle containing Sotnikova's sample had been identified as one of those with the scratches.

There is no evidence she was involved in or aware of any such tampering.

Sotnikova is the first Russian woman to win Olympic singles gold.

Should Sotnikova be banned, Gracie Gold would inherit the bronze medal, with Yu-Na Kim of South Korea getting gold and Carolina Kostner of Italy the silver.