World Slalom Series Statistics 2007-2012

The year 2012 was as 2011 a normal hard working year. The further spread and developing of slalom is expected, new heroes, new countries. There were still several phantom doubles in the Rankings but not too many. Empty lines in the Rankings of the 2012 xls stats file are such doubles' places.

Competitions

Two special “easy travel” regions were added, as usual, to the major regions – Schengen zone and visaless zone of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus (R-U-B). Australia and Senegal are counted as Asian countries. Let one more country from Africa or Oceania conduct a WSS event and then stats for the new region will be opened.

There are 87 events (+10 from 2010):

• 10 «Δ» or "0c" (+6)
• 54 «Δ» or "1c" (+2)
• 15 «ΔΔ» or "2c" (+2)
•   6 «ΔΔΔ» or "3c" (-1)
•   2 «ΔΔΔΔ» or "4c" (+1)

The number of contests grew steadily! Proportion of regions remained almost unchanged (rounded to integer):

• 60% in Europe
• 20% in Asia (+Senegal and Australia)
• 8% in North America
• 12% in South America

Though number of classic competitions increased everywhere their part in the total competition number slightly decreased. For the first time both European and Asian highest level mega-contests were conducted and were double (classic + battle). For example, in 2011 there was none in Asia and before that European highest level events included only battles. Shenghen citizens, as usual, enjoyed easy access to events of any level.

The list of WSS events organizers includes now 27 countries (+4). Japan came back into it, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Chile and Hong Kong joined it for the 1st time. Singapore and Taiwan abandoned this list. France was the country with the largest number of WSS events. Be noted that "golden cones count" used for ranking includes now all contests and "greys" have 0.1 value. Beside China (12) and France (11.1) there were also "golden cones rich" countries: Germany (8.1), Italy (8), Thailand (7), USA (7). Russia was 7th with 6.2Δ.

Skaters

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

Despite huge 60% turnover in all disciplines we can gladly see women slalom had a serious gain in numbers. The numbers are sill twice less than men had, though at least not 3-4 times less as before. At the first look men slalom was a bit stagnated,but we remember enormous tide of “one-time” Chinese skaters in 2011 (160 in Freestyle and 110 in Speed). They shook the global picture so much, we had to deduct them to get a clear view. Let's do the same here and compensate their vanishing. The result is shown as dotted lines for men only.

• Men Style -1tCHN'11 +124 prs (+15,9%)
• Wome Style -1tCHN'11 +131 prs (+47,5%)
• Men Speed -1tCHN'11 +132 prs (+19%)
• Women Speed -1tCHN'11 +140 prs (+55,3%)

It turned out that the growth in Men Slalom was good and Women Slalom had simply a boom.

Slalom Disciplines

For the first time Russia managed, though not for a long, to take a lead in Men Freestyle! In August and September we beated France by 6 and 4 points. Our usually strong presence in top-100 provided enough points for such a rare outcome. Plus, of course, our new hero in top-10 Viktor Meleshkevich, who replaced Roman Gordin there. Chine lost not only a small army of its skaters but also level of elite troops. 5 heroes Pu Hao Yang, Ye Hao Qin, Guo Fang, Lan Wang Heng and Zhao Hao went gradually down in the second half of the year until only Guo Fang left in top-10. Thus China fell from the sky on the 3rd position. France went very smoothly almost all the time on the 2nd place and finished the year on the 1st. In July came into zenith the new French leader of the Ranking - Romain Lebois. He was accompanied in top-10 by Alexandre Claris and in August the old veteran Igor Cheremetieff returned there. Korea successfully competed for thr 4th place with Spain, then with Italy. Though Kim Sung Jin stepped down from the 1st line, he remained in top-10 together with Lee Choong Goon. Both Spanish guys Larrucea Jon and Almazan Adrian disappeared from the top, which made Spain to drop to 8th position. Italy had no heroes that year, lost in numbers, but gained slightly in level. Germany and Poland were similar in the fact that they were kept high by efforts of their lone heroes: Sloboda (GER) and Michał Sulinowski (POL) – another new hero of Men Freestyle. Both these countries lost in numbers: 34->23 GER , 42->34 POL. Argentina and Thailand set border of countries with less than 20 points. Right after them followed Ukraine.

Our slalom girls often made Russia the top country in Women Freestyle, competing mostly with China. Weakening of its positions allowed us to take firm lead, thanks to permanent residents of top-10: Polina Semenova (#1 in June and July) and young rising star Daria Kuznetsova, who took the 1st line in August. Dasha was also the Champion of Europe and Vice-Champion of the World 2012. Let's not forget those who left the paramount still staying high: Kristina Lysenko, Yulia Kulagina, Anzhelika Babij. Olga Semenikhina came very close to the top and entered it it in April 2013. Russia raised the number of slalom girls (27->38), matching with China, which lost almost half of its sportwomen (72->38). That didn't affected Chinese presence in top-10. Su Fei Qian stepped down but stayed close. Meng Yun, Chen Chen, Feng Hui ('till July) were among the best. In August a new girl Guan Yu Xiang joined them. Poland finished the year also the 2nd. Young Polish talents pushed our seasoned skaters from the top. In August Prucnal Angelika and Czapla Ewelina made a company to their hero Hartmanis Klaudia #2. After some lowering down Italy let Poland ahead and stayed on the 4th place. Only Barbara Bossi briefly appeared on the 10th line, but it can be said that Italy lost elite presence here. France got many fresh skaters (28->49), but it didn't change the level much. France had 5th place most of the time, only Zoé Granjon heroically held on in top-10. Ukraine was presented by permanent resident of top-10 Maryna Boiko. Maryna, Ksenija Komarchuk from the 2nd ten and several Maryna's students kept Ukraine on the 6th place, separating countries with less developed Women Freestyle discipline - Germany, Taiwan, Argentina, Thailand. Germany's situation got worse (12->7), and Anya Ziertmann sank down to the Ranking. The same for Taiwan (21->9). Argentina and Thailand numbers got bigger, but still their level are relatively low.

The situation here was stable for a long time. France dominated absolutely by numbers (94->124) and levels of its sportsmen. At least 3 French guys were in top-10 all the time, sometimes even more: Yohan Ford, Romain Lebois, Alexandre Claris, Pasquier Banvillet Loic, Jimmy Fort and Igor Cheremetieff. All they crowded the top. In August Nai Oleari Simone ended Yohan's 13 months reign by taking the 1st line. Italian chart is surprisingly uneven. Usually fast Italian skaters lost numbers and levels but elite saved the country level from further fall. After China's descent Italy took distinct 2nd place between skyhigh France and all others. The level was defined by the same well-known guys: Nai Oleari Simone, Ferrari Tiziano, Ulivieri Luca, from the middle of the year Brivio Savio - when Luca went down. In the year's end Russia and China met at the 3rd place. Single Guo Fang worked for China in top-10. The same for Russia - only one hero at a time. Andrey Shitov in first half and Kirill Ryazantsev in the second. We had a good gain of speed slalomers that year (29->45), which was very good tendency and gave 4th place in the end, close to 3rd. Poland and South Korea were nearby and finished at the 5th place. Kim Sung Jin was permanently at the top, making good score for his country. Poland had many people (32) with significant presence (about 8) in top-100. Germany, Thailand having suddenly lost 57 people (74->17), Argentina and Taiwan humbly stayed low. And with all that Taiwan had a new hero in top-10 - Yang Hsin Chiao.

The picture, as usual, is very much alike. French level was the highest, but Italy was pretty close. All the year and not the first year the competition in top-10 is between 3-4 French and Italian girls. In 2012 they were: Conan Maeliss, Guicheteau Clémence, Granjon Zoé for France against #1 Rotunno Cristina, Bossi Barbara, Codazzi Barbara for Italy. Sara Barlocco and Chiara Lualdi went down on the way, but remained rather high. French speed slalom girls also had some "losses" - Derisbourg Tiffany and Bourbon Tiphaine. Italian girls were usually faster and took higher places in contests, but France easily outnumbered them 41->77 FRA against 26->47 ITA. Went down China allowed Poland to take the 3rd place after the most speed slalom countries. In top-10 Klaudia Hartmanis was joined by Ewelina Czapla in August. Russia got the 4th place by efforts of Kristina Lysenko in top-10 and rising number of sportswomen (17->29). Steady Ukrainian line is supported by steady level of Ksenija Komarchuk at the 10th line. Between Ukraine and Russia was the line of Taiwan, jumping up and down. It had even a representative at the top - Wang Tzu-Chien appeared there in October. Germany, Argentina and Thailand simply took vacant places on the chart.

Summary

That was a good year of increasing overall activity in slalom. Practically all important numbers grew up: number of competitions of every level, number of organizing and participating countries, number of slalomers, especially in women disciplines. The main tendencies of the time were as follows. Countries with best developed slalom, its ideological hosts, so to speak: China, Russia, France, Italy, South Korea. Those countries present on every chart during all first 5 years of WSS and they are not going to give up their high positions. Of course, Korea has a lack of girl skaters, but hopefully they'll find a way to make slalom popular again. Poland was growing steadily in number and level of its riders, especially among girls, and seriously pretended to join the "club" of major slalom countries. Once strong Germany suffered a loss of interest to slalom, despite numerous contests on its territory. There awere other minor slalom countries: Spain, Argentina, Thailand, Taiwan, Ukraine. Singapore, famous in the past years with big events and serious sportsmen, in 2012 ceased almost all slalom activity.

2012 highlighted new heroes of slalom, who entered Ranking's top tens for the first time:

Women Freestyle: Kuznetsova Daria (RUS), Meng Yun (CHN), Huang Yu Hauan (TPE)
Men Freestyle: Sulinowski Michał (POL)
Women Speed: Conan Maeliss (FRA)

XLSX-file with data of 2012: Rankings themselves, charts of presence, competition lists and more statistics in charts and numbers.

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