World Slalom Series Statistics 2007-2012

2009 was the last year of competition between WSSA and IFSA. Unofficial World Championship 2008 in Singapore, organized by WSSA, displayed that it was more popular, more numerous and more countries joined it. That caused FIRS to switch its attention to WSSA and acknowledge Shanghai 2009 as World Slalom Championship 2009. Seeing this, after a couple of events IFSA ceased its activity for good.

Competitions

Difference between 2009 and 2008 is shown in parenthesis. In addition to major regions there are also easy-travel Schengen and Russia-Ukraine-Belaruss (R-U-B) zones on the chart.

There are 50 events in the list (+12):

• 28 «Δ» or "0c" (+10)
• 15 «Δ» or "1c" (+1)
•   5 «ΔΔ» or "2c"(+1)
•   2 «ΔΔΔ» or "3c"

The first thing to notice is that Americas joined World Slalom Series - a battle in Boston (USA) and a couple of contests in Brazil and Argentina. The country-continent Australia did one "grey" battle, which was counted as Asian region. Sébastien Laffargue wasn't fond of classic and kept organizing in Europe only battles. He did though an exception for PSWC, where Asian rules classic competition was introduced in Europe. Classic contests in Asia were in favor and surpassed battles like 3 to 1. In Europe there were many "1c" events, and in Asia it's locally "grey" or something major. Highest "3c" level events were conducted in Moscow and Shanghai.

Countries are ranked by "golden cones weight" of organized events. Russia and China led with 5 g.c., followed by Germany (4.2) and France (3.3). It's hard to believe now how few events there were!

Skaters

Let's now observe four slalom disciplines and, for the start, dynamics of total skater numbers in each.

All slalom disciplines gained many participants. Two peaks of activity were caused by groups of events in August and November. August group consists of "3c" in China, "2c" in Germany, "2c" in South Korea, "2c" in Great Britain, "1c" in Poland. November group consists of national contests in Thailand, South Korea, Singapore, Argentina, Australia and Ukraine ("1c"). Rankings' turnover was about usual 60%.

Slalom Disciplines

China was leading the whole year. Both by the numbers and powerful presence in top-10, where there were from 3 to 5 Chinese heroes: Guo Fang, Lan Wang Heng, Bao Hui Fa, Liao Jie plus Zeng Jian Bo. And with all this China lost the whole HALF of its sportsmen (from 100 to 50). Russia was steadily on the 2nd place, sharing it sometimes with France and Korea. We had only Misha Gurevich in top-10 at the start of the year. In December a new hero entered the paramount - Dmitry Shevarutin. France, not yet fully recovered after the previous year ordeal, swayed between 4th and 3rd places and finished the year at the 3rd by gaining numbers up to 56. On elite positions far from their comrades Igor Cheremetieff and Le Xuan kept watch. Igor gave up the 1st line to Guo Fang and never returned on it. South Korea had strangely uneven situation by losing most of its riders (40->7). That lowered it from 2nd to 9th place. Korea recruited several new guys in November but just few. Elite Korean slalomers jumped up and down in the Ranking. In top-10 there were Yu Jin Seong, Kim Tae Bin and, of course, Kim Sung Jin. Germany was active and after Korea's fall took 4th place. In August Martin Sloboda occupied the top line and took the long lead in Men Freestyle Ranking. The next countries didn't sent their athletes afar much and didn't collect many points: Singapore, Spain, Italy, Great Britain and Japan. Only Singapore had small regress, others gained level and numbers.

The situation, as usual, looks the same. A half of Chinese girls after the domination in 2008 disappeared from the Ranking (from 35 to 16) and even gave up the 1st place to Russia for a while. It's hard to overcome 3 China's heroes in top-10: competing for the 1st line Chen Chen, Ye Run Shi and come later Su Fei Qian. It's hard but possible! Polina Semenova, Nadezhda Zelenova and Anzhelika Babiy held 3rd, 4th and 5th lines. Thus Russia had clear 2nd and sometimes 1st place in the Country Ranking. France improved its position up to 3rd, thanks to #1 Chloé Seyrès and Fanny Violeau. Italian girls started to return into the Ranking, though not all accepted new rules, and Italy rose from 10th to 4th place. Germany and Ukraine slightly got higher as well. Poland and Spain kept their levels. Great Britain and Korea went down. In general, all countries increased their numbers but the outflow of Chinese riders is astonishing.

France quickly regained its leading position by numbers (16->50) and levels. The famous seasoned skaters Seb Laffargue, Igor Cheremetieff, Le Xuan and for a brief time Greg Pinto were in top-10. With lessened numbers China descended from 1st to 5th place. Until the year's end Guo Fang and Lan Wang Heng stayed in top-10. Germany lost the level, pressed by strong French and Italian guys. In January there were 7 Deutchers in top-20, but in August only Martin Sloboda remained. Italy, like France, greatly gained in skill and doubled their numbers (11->28). Tiziano Ferrari stationed himself on the 1st line of the Ranking and in top-20 he was accompanied by 5 more comrades. Russian speed slalomers number lessened but country level was stable. Kirill Ryazantsev, Andrey Shitov and Misha Gurevich got in top-10 and provided high points for Russia. The rest 5 countries gradually joined at common 6th place: Poland, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and Great Britain with a sole hero Jean-Baptiste Milleret. Does his name sound like French? :)

Here we can see the same divide as men had: countries with one or several elite riders - China, France, Russia, Italy; and "eliteless" - Poland, Germany, Korea, Taiwan, Argentina. Argentina joined the Ranking in the year's end with 18 sportswomen. China was represented by Chen Chen, Ye Run Shi, France by Chloé Seyrès and Fanny Violeau, Russia by Olga Fadina and then Kristina Lysenko, Italy by Barbara Bossi and Chiara Lualdi. Anya Ziertmann came to replace Miriam Kwasny for Gremany. And Jong Jae Won for South Korea in top-10.

Summary

Many European slalomers entered the World Slalom Series events. Italy and France got back their positions in Speed Slalom. Poland and Spain showed some progress, but Germany started to went down. New countries and continents joined WSSA Rankings - both Americas with athletes from Argentina, Brazil and USA. Russia surely held its position high among the best slalom countries, not going lower 4th place and often taking the lead. Just as 2008 this 2009 didn't go without strangeness. About half of Chinese skater vanished from the Rankings with no good explanation for it. There were enough events in China to keep the Rankins full. Maybe that was just ordinary loss of interest to the sport. We already know it was a temporary drawback for China. But disappearance of Korean skaters had once again a conflict as a reason. This time between Skaters Federation of South Korea and WSSA. Korean sportsmen were forced to ignore some of WSS events and left the Rankings. Though the conflict was eventually resolved, the interest to slalom in South Korea didn't return. Only the great KSJ and a couple of other strong slalomers kept their devotion to the sport. After ISFA demise WSSA became the only international slalom organization and with quickened pace continued to spread around the world. Battles were not an official discipline yet, but the whole Europe compete only in battles! Vice versa in Asia: it used mostly classic type of competitions.

XLSX-file with data of 2009: Rankings themselves, charts of presence, competition lists and more statistics in charts and numbers.

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