The Olympic Qualifiers

What do the new rules mean?

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by Corin Nguyen

3 November 2005   |   In a few weeks, the Olympic Qualifiers will be held at World Cups #3 and #4 in Bormio, Italy and The Hague, Netherlands. The Olympic Qualifiers are not qualifiers for the skaters, but qualifiers for the country. After the competition, each participating skater receives a ranking in each distance, i.e. the skater that wins the 500m will be ranked 1st, the skater that finishes 2nd will be ranked 2 and so on. How the skaters rank will determine which countries can attend the 2006 Winter Olympics and how many skaters that country is allowed to bring. Needless to say, everyone will be there.

The Olympic Qualifiers are not national trials that determine which skaters make their respective national Olympic teams. Some countries like Canada have already held their Olympic team trials and have their Olympic team chosen. Other countries like the USA will hold their team tryout competition after the Olympic qualifiers. All countries that want a chance to to attend the Olympics must attend both World Cups. Attendees can expect long days of skating since there will be many more skaters than usual competing.

The Athlete Quota

For the 2006 Winter Olympics, the International Olympic Committee has implemented an Athlete Quota wherein only 55 men and 55 ladies can attend.

In the previous Olympics, no quota existed. The best 32 skaters per distance including ties, could participate. A country could also bring an alternate, so a country with 2 qualified skaters could bring 3 athletes up to a maximum of 6 men, 6 women per country.

Only a maximum of 2 skaters per country could actually compete per event. Also, the number of qualified skaters didn't include relay members. Below is the list of the 2002 Member Qualification results:

NOC/Member	Maximum Entries		32 skaters per distance
	Ladies	Men	Ladies	Men
Bulgaria	3	3	2	2
Canada	3	3	2	2
China	3	3	2	2
Great Britain	3	3	2	2
Italy	3	3	2	2
Japan	3	3	2	2
Netherlands	3	3	2	2
Republic of Korea	3	3	2	2
USA	3	3	2	2
France	2	3	1	2
Germany	3	2	2	1
Hungary	2	3	1	2
Ukraine	3	2	2	1
Russia	3	-	2	-
Austria	2	-	1	-
Belarus	2	-	1	-
Czech Republic	2	-	1	-
Hong Kong	2	-	1	-
Israel	2	-	1	-
Romania	2	-	1	-
Australia	-	3	-	2
Belgium	-	3	-	2
New Zealand	-	2	-	1
Poland	-	2	-	1
Slovak Republic	-	2	-	1
Sweden	-	2	-	1
26 Countries - Total	52	51	32	32

Austria was unable to compete so Mongolia replaced them. Cyberscoreboard has a list of skaters competing in individual events. In 2002, each country that qualified for the relay was allowed an additional 2-3 skaters to complete their relay team. This meant that more than 103 skaters listed were able to attend the Olympics even though all of them didn't compete.

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