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I have a question/gripe:  Should a skater that has a bye to sectionals compete at the regionals, thus denying another skater the opportunity to go to sectionals?   Last year, in our region, we had two senior ladies with byes to national competing in our regional, so, only two spots were available for the other 14 senior ladies.  I notice in this year's competition announcement, we have the same scenario in our senior and junior (due to JPG assignments).

I have a question/gripe:  Should a skater that has a bye to sectionals compete at the regionals, thus denying another skater the opportunity to go to sectionals?   Last year, in our region, we had two senior ladies with byes to national competing in our regional, so, only two spots were available for the other 14 senior ladies.  I notice in this year's competition announcement, we have the same scenario in our senior and junior (due to JPG assignments). I assume you are talking about USFSA qualifying competitions, but are you talking about byes to sectionals, or byes to nationals? If a senior lady doesn't qualify for a bye straight to nationals by virtue of being a national medallist from the previous year, or a bye to sectionals by virtue of being the sectional champion from the previous year, then she has to enter and compete at her regional competition unless she has a conflicting international competition or is injured.  If a skater competes at regionals but then gets a bye to nationals because of a conflicting international competition or injury, the first alternate from her region goes to sectionals in her place.  So who is being denied an opportunity to go to sectionals in this case?   BTW, I don't believe any skaters are going to get byes out of sectionals to nationals this year because of conflicting JGP assignments, because there *is* no conflict in the competition dates this year.  OTOH, the USFSA might decide to give skaters who qualify for the JGP Final such a bye.  They've done this sometimes in the past so that skaters who are competing senior for USFSA competitions don't have to switch back and forth between training their junior and senior competitive programs. -Sandra

I think we discussed this last year and correct me if I am wrong, but if a skater is given a bye to sectionals, thus not being required to compete at regionals, then if they do decide to compete at regionals, the standings at regionls is what transfers to sectionals. so, if Jane Doe has a bye out of Mid Atlantic's because of X reason and will go straight to Easters, if she decided to compete at Mids and does poorly and finishes out of the top 4 or however many move on, then she forfeits her bye. If she does finish in the top group that goes on, they don't take the next gal on the list. (say the top 4 go to sectionals and Jane Doe places 3nd. the 5th place girl does not get to go to Sectionals because Jane forfeited her bye and earned her way to Sectionals) This is incorrect.  If a skater who competes at Regionals and places in the top 4, the next in line 5th place skater will go to Sectionals. This happened in 2001 Regionals when Stacey Pensgen competed in North Atlantics, but had a bye out of Easterns for a Senior B International (Golden Spin?).  Erica Dyreson finished 5th and went to Sectionals. Jocelyn

  False premise.    The performance of   another skater , relative to the rest of the field, determines who gets to go on.  If another skater does not beat the others, HE/SHE doesn't deserve to go. But I think the whole system of byes is set up with the assumption that most people will take them.  I mean, couldn't all the top skaters in the U.S. could ignore their byes, and skate at sectionals and regionals?  ....but then, if those were the skaters chosen for Nationals,, a lot of other skaters  (who I consider 'deserving' when I see them in Nationals) wouldn't go, and the field would be much smaller.  I think one of the purposes of regional and sectional competitions is to sort out people who haven't (recently) established themselves as clearly qualified for nationals.  And aren't there some areas that are just full of talented skaters

But I think the whole system of byes is set up with the assumption that most people will take them.  I mean, couldn't all the top skaters in the U.S. could ignore their byes, and skate at sectionals and regionals?  ....but then, if those were the skaters chosen for Nationals,, a lot of other skaters  (who I consider 'deserving' when I see them in Nationals) wouldn't go, and the field would be much smaller. Just a correction