In 2013 we observed slowing down of almost all stats in the freestyle slalom world. Only growth in Women's disciplines was good enough. Other numbers told us about saturated stagnation in contests' and participants' numbers. This assumption turned out to be not entirely correct. The growth went on in 2014 as we see in the stats collected in this article. Let's take a look at the numbers.

Events

There were 97 events in 2014, 11 more than in 2013:

• 24 "Δ" events or "0c" (+13 from 2013)
• 49 "Δ" events or "1c" (-4)
• 14 "ΔΔ" events or "2c" (+1)
• 9 "ΔΔΔ" events or "3c" (+2)
• 1 "ΔΔΔΔ" events or "4c" (-1)

The number of high level events held at its limit which slightly changed in 2014. The highest "4c" level had been set exceptionally for World Championship which can be only once a year. WFSC 2014 was in Paris and so Asia had one more "3c" event to level numbers of major events - 5 in Asia and 4 in Europe. "2c" and "1c" didn't change much. Now it's obvious that event number growth came from 24 starter competitions which made a huge intake of new skaters into the Rankings.

Senegal (Africa) is considered to belong to Asian region. Let's wait for a couple more African countries to make a special count for African region.

• 61 (+8) events, 63% (+1,4%) in Europe
• 21 (+5) events, 21,6% (+3%) in Asia
• 4 (-3) events, 4,2% (-4%) in North America
• 11 (+1) events, 11,3% in South America

Events' "golden weight" (introduced in 2013 analysis) shows slight growth from 107,1 to 110,4. Events proportion by regions almost unchanged beside the fact that slalom went down in North America. There were only 4 small contests for the whole year.

The chart on the left shows us proportion between classics (blue colors) and battles (red colors). That's what changed positively: 36/81 in 2013 turned into 57/77 in 2014. Classics took back once lost popularity in low level events both in Asia (12->18) and Europe (19->30).

The number of events organizing countries remained 27. There were no events in Ukraine and there were usual changes among "one event" countries: Greece, Taiwan, Slovakia were replaced by Japan, Columbia, Thailand, Romania and Bulgaria. The countries on the diagram below are ranked by their "golden cones weight". It's counted as a golden cones sum of organized events. Value of a "grey cone" is 0.1 to make a difference in case of equal golden ones. The leader is forever the same - France with tremendous 18.9 golden cones, not too far from 20. The 2nd is China also rich with gold (15.1). Russia came up third with exactly 10 golden points. Italy stepped down 2 positions to the 4th place (9), 5rd - Spain (7). White numbers at the bases of the columns are integer "g.c. weight". Now we can see clearly that "0c" event growth happened only in one country. So the good events' stat in 2014 owes only to France.

This report is not a part of a larger research yet, thus some long-term diagrams could be useful here to contemplate current tendencies of the slalom world.

Almost linear yearly growth of events number seemed to reach its limit in 2013. Well, and it did with one happy exception of France. The most slalom country in the world had become even more slalomly developed.

The next two charts show classic/battle stats for all 8 years of WSS. The number of classics almost doubled since 2013 (34->57) and it happened all regions (except for N. America, of course). Another assumption about classic losing popularity is wrong, fortunately.

Skaters

Rankings literally exploded with participants. Round numbers 1000 for men and 500 for women were left far behind.:

The gain in all slalom disciplines is amazing. The table shows that it still holds on fragile but so constant balance between large numbers of people who join and leave Rankings every year. Remarkable that the growth hasn't changed this balance keeping close to 50%. Simply saying a half of Rankings renews every year, but which part stays and fights for success? The answer is at the next diagram of active skaters.

The number of successful (meaning active) skaters is defined by 500 points threshold for freestyle and 400 points for speed slalom like it's described in WSSA 2007-2012 Statistics. The chart shows that the numbers of active skaters didn't change much until 2014 when they started to go up in slalom disciplines. Only Women Speed Slalom grew steadily year by year. The proportion remains the same: there are 10-14% of active World Slalom Series skaters and that's many. Nearly 400 people in the world put great efforts into the sport of slalom aiming for high results.

Men Freestyle Slalom

Due to massive presence everywhere in top-100 Russia held the leading position in the first half of the year. Alexander Timchenko raised from 10th to 6th line and his younger brother Sergey got from 8th line straight to the top and was going to stay there for long. But Russian dominance ended with retirement of a group of "older" slalomers from top-100 (20 in Jan -> 10 in Dec). That allowed France and China to start argument for the 1st position among countries. French guys in the top were Lebois Romain and Claris Alexandre. They went up to the top-5. Romain found himself twice on the top line but only for a month each time. Besides there was great inflow of French skaters into the the Ranking (82->141) as a result of many basic level events in France. China could be proud of its sportsmen in top-10 - Ye Hao Qin, Guo Fang and Zhang Hao. Ye Hao started the year the first, went down to 9th and back to 2nd because the top had been already taken by Sergey. Zhang Hao held fast in top-5 and Guo Fang modestly at the edge of top-10. China finished the year on the 1st place among countries thanks to number and level of participants. Spain is stably 4th. Well-known Korean riders Lee Choong Goon and Yu Jin Seong moved actively in top-10. Yu Jin was even the 1st for 3 months! Michal Sulinowski from Poland went down from 3rd to 8th line. Lines of Korea and Poland are close at the 5th place. Italy was represented by Guslandi Lorenzo who visited paramount at 10th position. Overall level of Italian skaters grew with some loss in number. Italy finished the year at 3rd place together with Russia. We can also see 3 "below 20 points" countries - Thailand, Argentina and Brazil.

Women Freestyle Slalom

Traditionally Russia had a good picture in this discipline. Leadership along with Italy for the 1st half of the year, then a little drop, and back to high level with some number growth. Only close to the year's end Chinese sportswomen managed to climb high both in level and numbers. As a result China and Italy shared the lead and Russia, just a little lower, was the 3rd. Daria Kuznetsova lost her top points due to 2013 points recalculation and she had to give up the 1st position to Su Fei Qian (CHN) in January. Daria took back the crown in august but now the time spent as a Ranking Leader was reset. The record of Cloé Seyres (25 months #1) could have been broken by now. Olga Semenikhina accompanied Daria in top-10 until July but went down afterward. A foot injury didn't let her skate much. Then new names appeared in the top: Zenkova Anastasia and Dubinchik Ksenia. China had 5 girls in top-20 and hence high country level. Together with Su Fei Qian there were Feng Hui and Meng Yun. The pattern of Italian leadership remains the same - good presence in all tens but the 1st. Though Morbidoni Camilla visited 10th line for a couple of months. Poland's 4th place was supported only by effort of several slalom girls - Hartmanis Klaudia (#2 in Dec) and Prucnal Angelika both never left the top. Then we see Ukraine for many years represented by Maryna Boiko and Ksenia Komarchuk. Granjon Zoé must be mentioned as well since she was the only French slalomer in the top-10. But France got many other girls in the Ranking (74->113) which gave high level for France and 3-4 place in the discipline. Spain grew in numbers balancing on 20 points line and reached 6th position in freestyle. Ukraine lost 2/3 of its skaters (17->5) and went down on the chart. 3 vacant places are taken by Taiwan, Argentine and Thailand.

Men Speed Slalom

In Men Speed Slalom France dominated with incredible number skaters (151->273), though Italy managed to take the lead for 3 months when Italian presence from top-10 to top-60 was maximum. Then 4 Frenches took the top and France was #1 again. Lebois Romain and Claris Alexandre - constant heroes of top-5. Brothers Jimmy and Yohan Fort joined them in October. Famous for its speed slalomers Italy gained in their number (43->55) and level. Nai Oleari Simone needed only one month to reach Yohan's record (23 months #1) but didn't. Guo Fang (CHN) pushed him down in July and his fellow Brivio Savio in October. Another fine record didn't happen. Other Italiens - Brambilla Alessandro, Allegrini Matteo, Guslandi Lorenzo and Ferrari Tiziano came briefly to the top. Despite the growing number (51->65) Russia lost the presence in the top. Shitov Andrey and Tsokolov Alexey left it for good in July and top-100's skaters decreased from 13 to 9. In the end Russia switched 3rd place after France and Italy for 4th after China. Chinese riders got reinforcements in the top: Guo Fang was joined by Zheng Jia Ming and Ye Hao Qin. Tired Lan Wang Heng went down in May. Asian autumn contests brought a number of new Chinese skaters (51->65). Poland has a nice flat line with no ups and downs. There's only one hero for both freestyle and speed slalom - Sulinowski Michał. He spent 3 months in top-10 and went down. Together with Michal we saw in July Taiwan rider Wu Dong-Yan rising who managed to hold there till December. That's when Taiwan passed Poland and took 5th place. As usual, South Korea has just a few riders. Only Yu Jin Seong's presence in top-10 kept his country on the chart. There was also De Araujo Diego from Brazil (but living in Europe). Germany, Spain and Argentina simply took the remaining positions.

Women Speed Slalom

Little changed here: France and Italy kept wrestling for leadership. Despite having 3 times more skaters France (86->175) gave up the 1st place to Italy (46->61) in the middle of the year. Zoé Granjon and her sister Lily were in top-10 getting to 3rd and 4th lines respectfully. Then Tiffany Derisbourg took shift from Lily. Barbara Bossi and Christina Rotunno stood firmly on 1st and 2nd lines most of the year. But then a really unexpected thing happened in September. For the first time in exactly 4 years Italians stepped down from the 1st place which was taken by Wang Tzu-Chien from Taiwan! Nevertheless Italy possessed the strongest presence in top-100 in general and in top-10 in particular. Beside mentioned leaders there were Chiara Lualdi and Federica de Sensi in top-10. Then Camilla Morbidoni replaced them in November. The next couple of countries here - Russia (49->40) and Poland (25->36). Russia had been having a little advantage till the end of the year but then finished it together with Poland on the 3rd place. Russia was represented by Kristina Lysenko joined occasionally by freestyle hero Daria Kuznetsova. 3 Polish girls started the year in top-10: Hartmanis Klaudia, Czapla Ewelina and Pruznal Anzhelika. In July Klaudia was left alone there and only in November she got help from Czapla Paulina on 10th line. China got more points this year, though the only Chinese girl in top-10 Meng Yun left the paramount in August. That assigned China to 5th place, close to Russia and Poland.

Summary

The year 2014 was deceivingly successful in growth of skaters and events numbers. As we could see "the slalom boom" happened only in one country - France and mostly because of many local "grey cone" competitions. By and by, this year is evenly normal with positive growth of interest to slalom and especially to classic freestyle. Other leading slalom countries are Russia, China, Italy and Poland. They had usual ups and downs that happen all the time. Slalom skaters got generally younger, older sportsmen always have less time to train due to education, work, family activities. Some of them started skating in their youth and still on the top. For example, some of the best Italian girls had been skating and competing for 11 years. Russia got more new kids this year and lost some of "old guys" who stopped skating and left Rankings. This picture is familiar to other slalom countries as well. That's one of reasons to make separate junior Ranking, expected in 2016. Permanent turnover of slalom skaters remained unchanged (over 50% a year) as well as the number of active sportsmen (10-14%).

Tendencies among leading slalom countries were the same. French skaters took nearly a quarter of Rankings. Russia and Poland kept status quo, Italy and China had some growth of slalom activity. South Korea had a few but very skilled guys. Lesser slalom countries didn't change their level much - Spain, Thailand, Argentina, Taiwan. They were joined by Brazil this year. There were no international events in Ukataine and most of its slalomers quitted the Rankings. Germany didn't presented any new talents in 2014 and disappeared from charts, save for 10th place in Men Speed.

China needs a special mention here. There are actually thousands of slalomers and a couple of hundreds slalom events a year in China. Only extreme shortage of certified judges who would judge, process and deliver results to WSSA keeps Rankings from being overrun by Chinese skaters.

2014 highlighted new heroes of slalom, who entered Ranking's top tens for the first time:

Women Freestyle: Dubinchik Ksenia (RUS), Zenkova Anastasia (RUS), Morbidoni Camilla (ITA).
Men Freestyle: nobody.
Women Speed: Kuznetsova Daria (RUS), Wang Tzu-Chien (TPE), De Sensi Federica (ITA), Morbidoni Camilla (ITA), Meng Yun (CHN).
Men Speed: Allegrini Matteo (ITA), Wu Dong-Yan (TPE),Zheng Jia Ming (CHN), Ye Hao Qin (CHN).

XLSX file with data of 2014: Rankings themselves, charts of presence, competition lists and more statistics in charts and numbers.

Go to:
"World Slalom Series Statistics 2007-2012"
"World Slalom Series Statistics 2013"

17.09.2015, Dmitry Milyokhin