World Slalom Series Statistics 2007-2012

In 2010 WSSA celebrated the victory over IFSA which stopped practically all activity. It's amazing, how far can lead spoiled relations between two persons at high posts. As for the changes, the event level and scoring system were upgraded. One more level was added and it gave five levels: "grey" and 4 "gold". Former would be "grey" events were split in "grey" and "1 golden cone". The highest "4c" level events got a new score table, starting with 400 points. Respectively "3c" - 300, "2c" - 200, "1c" - 100 and "gc" - 50. The goal was to make top skaters more distinct from each other by their points. A skater can get only one score from the 400 table. In case of taking part 2 "4c" competitions the 2nd result is counted as for "3c".

Competitions

More countries joined WSS in 2010 and the number of events grew from 50 in 2009 up to 67! Since the level system changed, no deltas are shown.

• 14 «Δ» or "0c"
• 29 «Δ» or "1c"
• 16 «ΔΔ» or "2c"
•   6 «ΔΔΔ» or "3c"
•   2 «ΔΔΔΔ» or "4c"

Number of "3c" and "4c" were fixed to 8 and 2 accordingly, but no limits for lesser events which number steadily increased. There were 28 "greys" in 2009, and the sum of "greys" and "1c" in 2010 is 43. More than a half competitions were in Europe (64%), almost a quarter in Asia (22.5%) and 12.5% in both Americas.

France scored 10.2 golden cones which was more than other countries had. The second were Germany and Korea with 9 g.c., 4th Spain (7.2) and 5th place was shared by Russia and Great Britain (6). Be noted that a grey cone is considered to be one tenth of golden one.

Another year classic was a rare type in Europe (2 of 44). It was still more popular in Asia (13 of 23) than battles. South Korea became golden cones rich, and China puzzled with just ONE "2c" event. In tiny Singapore enthusiasts carried on 5 slalom competitions.

Skaters

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

Growth in all disciplines was rather impressive, especially in Men Style. The gain in August-September was the result of high level events in China (2c), South Korea (3c & 4c), Spain (3c), France (2c) and Great Britain (2c). Skaters turnover in Freestyle Rankings was 53%. It was higher for Speed Slalom: 61% men and 85% (!) women. Only 21 women stayed in the Ranking from 2009.

Slalom Disciplines

China demonstrated an interesting phenomenon... again. Leadership at the start and at the end of the year but heavy loss in numbers in the middle (50->21->64). It's hard to imagine so few Chinese riders in this Ranking. The explanation is quite simple. The distance between Hainin and Shanghai 2009 is exactly a year. Before the Championship in Shanghai there were Beijin competitions in April. Since the participants number from every country in Shanghai was limited, all non-traveling Chinese 30 slalomers left the Ranking in April 2010. Of course, it doesn't explain why did China organize only ONE event in the whole year? And in previous 2009 only TWO. Mentioned there four best Chinese riders vanished from the Rankings and returned to it in autumn. France was on the 2nd place most of the year. Igor Cheremetieff was in top-10 the entire year with Le Xuan, who went down in September. Good year's start for Russia got worse to 4th place. Many our IFSA-time slalomers stopped skating and abandoned the Ranking (53->38). Dmitry Shevarutin and Roman Gordin visited top-10 only occasionally. Koreans gain number (14->18) with skill and raised Korea's level from 9th to 3rd position. The lone hero Kim Sung Jin took the 1st line in October and invited to top-10 his old friends Lee Choong Goon, Kim Tae Bin and Yu Jin Seong. Germany showed the meaning of stability. Martin Sloboda gave up leadership to KSJ but together with Op't Veld Rudy remained at the paramount. British top skater Milleret Jean-Baptiste left it and his country lowered down to 10th place. The other countries - Spain, Italy, Singapore, Poland - took the rest of the places: 6,7 and 8-9.

Russian level here is much higher. Till September Russia was leading the Ranking with good breakaway: trio Polina Semenova, Nadezhda Zelenova and Anzhelika Babiy stood proudly in top-5. Then Nadezhda finished her sport career and left the Ranking. By the way, in March our future hero girls joined it - Darya Kuznetsova and Olga Semenikhina. France got more sportswomen and 25 was the greatest in 2010 for this discipline. France was surely the 2nd after Russia, then after Italy. Fanny Violeau stopped skating and disappeared from the Ranking. Chloé Seyrès was left at the 1st line of top-10 without a company. 2 years Chloé had been the leader of the Ranking until August, when Maryna Boiko from Ukraine became #1 for the next 13 months. For a couple of months Ksenia Komarchuk also from Ukraine was in top-10. Together with Maryna and the team of Maryna's young students they raised and held their homeland level to the 6th place. The long distance between Chinese events caused the drop for China. Nevertheless, they started and ended the year close to France on the 2nd place. Chen Chen and Su Fei Qian was only briefly away from top-10. Italy took France as an example and increased presence and skills of its slalom girls. They were Barbara Bossi and Chiara Lualdi who helped greatly to make rise from 4th to 1st place for Italy at the end of the year. Germany showed no progress again. Anya Ziertmann was firmly in the 2nd five and her country on the 5th place. Lines of Poland USA and Thailand are close to each other. Spain started the year with them but then went down. Poland girls took by the numbers (22). Thailand and USA had heroes in top-10 which made their levels: Pinyojarassang Pichaya (THA) and Megan McIntosh (USA).

Everything's simple and clear in this discipline. France soared above all others by the level and the numbers. The old guys in top-10 Igor Cheremetieff, Sebastien Laffargue and Le Xuan were replaced with younger trio Yohan Ford, Robin Tessier and Roman Lebois. Italy was also far from the others on its 2nd place. Tiziano Ferrari spent the whole year as Number One. He was supported in top-10 by Nai Oleari Simone, Davide Pacentini, Luca Ulivieri and from September plus Andrea Bellotto. All this Italian "mafia" could not overcome the great French advantage in numbers (up to 70) and strong presence in top-100. But unfortunately for Russia kicked out from top-10 Kirill Ryazantsev and Andrey Shitov in September. Misha Gurevich left earlier. That made Russia to step down from 3rd to 4th place. China rejoiced after Hainin event and became 3rd among countries. Guo Fang, the former Ranking leader, returned on the 5th line. South Korea, Poland, Germany, Taiwan and Singapore were close together and to the common 5th place. Special mention for sole heroes. Kim Sung Jin kept some level for Korea by holding in top-10. British guy Jean-Baptiste Milleret lost his position and went down along with Great Britain.

As usual, we see a rough copy of Men Speed Slalom situation. France was high but Italy was getting dangerously close to it, as number of Italian girls increased (11->17) and French ones did not (29->25). Until May there were 3 French girls in top-10: unsurpassed #1 Chloé Seyrès, Fanny Violeau and Emilie Audrezet, then only Chloé and in September Clémence Guicheteau entered top-10. Italians doubled their presence there. Barbara Bossi and Chiara Lualdi received reinforcements - Sara Barlocco and future #1 Cristina Rotunno. Russia started the year from 2nd place, but lost in number (14->10) and level of its sportswomen. Maria Nikolaenko and Olga Fadina left top-10 and by the year's end Russia became 6th. Only Kristina Lysenko never left the paramount. After Chinese return in September (8->22) and Chen Chen into top-10 China took the 3rd place. Though Polish girls exceeded Ukrainian ones 3 to 1 (23 to 7), levels of their countries were almost equal at the end of the year. Ukraine thanked its heroes Maryna Boiko and Ksenija Komarchuk. Germany lost many points with Miriam Kwasny and Anya Ziertmann leaving top-10. Singapore and USA simply took vacant remaining places in our Country Ranking.

Summary

The first WSS year without IFSA's influence went well. Number of events grew, though organizing countries remained the same (22). Strangely few contests in China - 2 in 2009 and just 1 in 2010. That caused great tides and ebbs of Chinese presence and therefore China's level. The answer to that is known, probably, to Seb and Chinese skaters. France and Italy continued to get numbers and skills of their riders. Korea recovered from the last year ordeal and got some level back but not numbers. Russia said goodbye to a number of old IFSA time sportsmen and lowered among other countries. Poland little by little enlisted new participants and we know that soon they became new heroes of slalom. The levels of other countries were generally stable.

XLSX-file with data of  2010: Rankings themselves, charts of presence, competition lists and more statistics in charts and numbers.

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