Figure skating at the 2022 Winter Olympics – Qualification

Main article: Figure skating at the 2022 Winter Olympics

The following is about the qualification rules and allocation of spots for the figure skating events at the 2022 Winter Olympics. ^[1]

Qualification system

A total of 144 quota spots are available to athletes to compete at the games. A maximum of 18 athletes can be entered by a National Olympic Committee, with a maximum of 9 men or 9 women. There is also an "Additional Athletes Quota" which allows up to a maximum of 5 more total skaters, bringing the potential total to 149. The host (China) is the priority for these additional places so that if they have met minimum standards they may have an entry in each event, other than the team event. If unused, these five quotas can be used to qualify nations for the team event if they only need an entry in one more discipline. ^[1]

Skater qualification

There is no individual athlete qualification to the Olympics; the choice of which athlete(s) to send to the Games is at the discretion of each country's National Olympic Committee. Each country is allowed a maximum of three entries per discipline, resulting in a maximum of 18 athletes (nine men and nine women) possible per country.

According to ISU rules, countries must select their entries from among skaters who have achieved a minimum technical elements score (TES) at an ISU-recognized international competition on or before 24 January 2022. ^[1]

On the issue of the disqualification of participating athletes at the Winter Olympics, the ISU has issued a statement regarding its policy regarding doping violations which may be alleged for the duration of the events of the Games stating that the, “...International Skating Union cannot disclose any information about a possible anti-doping rule violation. This is regulated by the ISU anti-doping rules and the IOC anti-doping rules for the Beijing 2022 Olympics.” ^[2]

Country qualification

The number of entries for the figure skating events at the Olympic Games is limited by a quota set by the International Olympic Committee. A total of 144 quota spots are available to athletes to compete at the games. There will be 30 skaters in the disciplines of men's and women's singles, 19 pair skating teams, and 23 ice dance teams. Additionally, ten nations qualify for the team event.

Countries will be able to qualify entries to the 2022 Winter Olympics in two ways. Most spots are allocated based on the results of the 2021 World Championships. At the event, countries were able to qualify up to three entries in each discipline according to the usual system in place; countries which earned multiple spots to the Olympics also earned multiple spots to the 2022 World Championships, although the World Championships were not subject to the requirement that for 2/3 entries, countries must additionally qualify 2/3 skaters into the free segment. Every discipline qualifies independently.

At the World Championships, the system was as follows:

Number of skaters/teams entered at Worlds	To earn 3 entries to the Olympics	To earn 2 entries to the Olympics	To earn 1 entry to the Olympics
1	Place in the top 2	Place in the top 10	Next best ranked athlete from the NFs not qualified with two or three places, until the quotas of qualification through the ISU World Figure Skating Championships 2021 are reached.
2	Total placements is equal to or less than 13	Total placements is equal to or less than 28
3	Top two placements is equal to or less than 13	Top two placements is equal to or less than 28

• According to the ISU's Rule 378(2), any competitor who qualified for the free program received a maximum placement score of 16, and any competitor who failed to qualify for the free program received a maximum placement score of 18. ^[3]

Qualification spots available per tournament

The results of the 2021 World Championships determined 83 total spots: 24 entries in each singles discipline, 16 in pairs, and 19 in ice dance. The available spots were awarded going down the results list, with multiple spots being awarded first.

The remainder of the spots will be filled at the Nebelhorn Trophy in Oberstdorf, Germany in late September 2021. Countries that had already earned an entry to the Olympics were not allowed to qualify additional entries at this final qualifying competition. However, if a country earned two or three spots at the World Championships, but did not have two or three skaters, respectively, qualify for the free skate, then they were allowed to send a skater who did not reach the free segment at World Championships to Nebelhorn to qualify the remaining spot(s). Unlike at the World Championships, where countries could qualify more than one spot depending on the placement of their skater(s), at the Nebelhorn Trophy, countries could earn only one spot per discipline, regardless of ranking.

Initially, a total of six spots per singles event, three spots in pairs, and four in ice dance were available at Nebelhorn Trophy. One additional quota spot became available in men's singles following the 2021 World Championships. ^[4] If a country declines to use one or more of its qualified spots, the vacated spot is awarded using the results of Nebelhorn Trophy in descending order of placement.

For the team trophy, scores from the 2021 World Figure Skating Championships and the 2021–22 Grand Prix season, will be tabulated to establish the ten top nations. Each nation compiles a score from their top performers in each of the four disciplines. The Grand Prix Final, to be held in early December 2021, was to be the final event to affect the Team Trophy score, before it was cancelled. ^[5]

Qualification timeline

Event	Date	Venue
2021 World Figure Skating Championships	22–28 March 2021	Stockholm, Sweden
2021 CS Nebelhorn Trophy	22–25 September 2021	Oberstdorf, Germany

Qualified countries

^{[4] [6]}

Nations	Men's singles	Women's singles	Pairs	Ice dance	Additional	Team event	Athlete(s)
Armenia				1			2
Australia	1	1					2
Austria		1	1				3
Azerbaijan	1	1					2
Belarus	1	1					2
Belgium		1					1
Bulgaria		1					1
Canada	2	1	2	3		Y	13
China	1	1	2	1		Y	8
Czech Republic	1	1	1	1		Y	6
Estonia	1	1					2
Finland		1		1			3
France	2			1			4
Georgia	1	1	1	1		Y	6
Germany		1	1	1	1	Y	6
Great Britain		1		1			3
Hungary			1				2
Israel	1		1				3
Italy	2		2	1	1	Y	9
Japan	3	3	1	1		Y	10
Latvia	1						1
Lithuania				1			2
Mexico	1						1
Netherlands		1					1
Poland		1		1			3
ROC	3	3	3	3		Y	18
South Korea	2	2					4
Spain			1	1			4
Sweden	1	1					2
Switzerland	1	1					2
Ukraine	1	1		1	2	Y	6
United States	3	3	2	3		Y	16
Total: 32 NOCs	30	30	19	23	4	(10)	148

• "Additional" quotas refer to extra quotas given to countries with athletes qualified in three disciplines so they can participate in the team event. Athletes who qualify via the team event quota compete in the team event only and cannot enter the individual competitions. Germany can send one man, Italy one woman, and Ukraine one pairs team (two athletes).

Qualification summary

Men's singles

Event	Location	Athletes per NOC	Qualified	Total
2021 World Championships	Stockholm	3	Japan	23 [a]
		2	United States [b]   ROC [b]   Italy
		1	Canada [b]   France [b]   South Korea [b]   China   Georgia   Switzerland   Estonia   Belarus   Latvia   Czech Republic   Mexico   Ukraine   Sweden   Israel
2021 CS Nebelhorn Trophy	Oberstdorf	1	United States   France   ROC   South Korea   Azerbaijan   Australia   Canada	7
Total				30

1. Only 23 out of the 24 possible quotas were earned. This is because ISU rule 400.A.3 states that Olympic quotas earned at the World Championships will be "attributed to the ISU Members with the best placed and qualified for the Free Skating/Free Dance Skaters". ^[3] While Chinese skaters Yan Han and Jin Boyang both qualified for the Free Skating, they only earned enough points for one Olympic entry, and all other skaters in the Free Skating had already earned an Olympic quota for their NOC. Therefore, an extra quota was made available at the 2021 CS Nebelhorn Trophy.
2. Country was also allowed to enter a skater at the 2021 CS Nebelhorn Trophy to compete for an additional quota spot, according to ISU rule 400.A.4.b. ^[3]

Women's singles

Event	Location	Athletes per NOC	Qualified	Total
2021 World Championships	Stockholm	3	ROC   Japan	24
		2	United States [a]   South Korea
		1	Belgium [a]   Austria [a]   Azerbaijan   Canada   Estonia   Sweden   Netherlands   Bulgaria   Germany   Georgia   China   Czech Republic   Great Britain   Finland
2021 CS Nebelhorn Trophy	Oberstdorf	1	United States   Poland   Belarus   Switzerland   Ukraine   Australia	6
Total				30

1. Country was also allowed to enter a skater at the 2021 CS Nebelhorn Trophy to compete for an additional quota spot, according to ISU rule 400.A.4.b. ^[3]

Pairs

Event	Location	Pairs per NOC	Qualified	Total
2021 World Championships	Stockholm	3	ROC	16
		2	China [a]   Canada   United States   Italy
		1	Japan [a]   Austria   Germany   Hungary   Czech Republic
2021 CS Nebelhorn Trophy	Oberstdorf	1	Spain   Georgia   Israel	3
Total				19

1. Country was also allowed to enter a pair at the 2021 CS Nebelhorn Trophy to compete for an additional quota spot, according to ISU rule 400.A.4.b. ^[3]

Ice dance

Event	Location	Pairs per NOC	Qualified	Total
2021 World Championships	Stockholm	3	ROC   United States   Canada	19
		1	Italy [a]   Great Britain [a]   Spain   Poland   China   Lithuania   France   Germany   Japan   Ukraine
2021 CS Nebelhorn Trophy	Oberstdorf	1	Finland   Georgia   Armenia   Czech Republic	4
Total				23

1. Country was also allowed to enter a team at the 2021 CS Nebelhorn Trophy to compete for an additional quota spot, according to ISU rule 400.A.4.b. ^[3]

Team event

^[6]

Qualified to Olympics

Reserve

Not eligible for Olympics

Rank	Team	2020–21	2021–22	Total
1	ROC	4387	1560	5947
2	United States	3793	1416	5209
3	Canada	2729	1220	3949
4	Japan	2434	1396	3830
5	China	1904	905	2809
6	Italy	1701	1073	2774
7	France	926	952	1878
8	South Korea	930	851	1781
9	Germany	739	741	1480
10	Great Britain	756	718	1474
11	Georgia	714	758	1472
12	Austria	992	191	1183
13	Estonia	552	610	1162
14	Czech Republic	586	551	1137
15	Belgium	787	324	1111
16	Belarus	422	474	896
17	Ukraine	308	585	893
18	Poland	377	457	834
19	Spain	418	324	742
20	Switzerland	275	410	685

• 2020–21 total is the sum of the top qualifying points total in each of the four disciplines derived from the 2021 World Figure Skating Championships. ^[1]
• 2021–22 total is the sum of the top qualifying points total in each of the four disciplines derived from one of the 2021–22 ISU Grand Prix individual events or Grand Prix Final.
  If Skaters/Couples of a NOC/ISU Member have not obtained points in the aforementioned ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating individual events and Final, then the best result in one event of the 2021–22 ISU Junior Grand Prix individual events (only in individual events, but not the Junior Grand Prix Final) season 2021/22 can be considered. ^[1]
• For a nation to be represented in the team event it must have qualified entrants in at least three of the four disciplines. Ten nations in total were eligible according to this criterion, qualifying all ten automatically regardless of their ranking. Host nation China could not use 'host' qualifiers to qualify for the team event, ^[1] but was able to earn quotas in all four disciplines through non-host qualifiers.
• Only the top 20 nations that have scored qualification points are listed above. No nation ranked 21st and lower had enough Olympic quotas to be eligible for the team event.

Next eligible NOC per event

If a country rejects a quota spot then additional quotas become available. A country can be eligible for one quota spot per event in the reallocation process. Countries in bold indicate the country later received a quota spot. The following list is compiled after the remaining spots were allocated at the 2021 CS Nebelhorn Trophy. ^[7] There were no alternates for the team event because no additional NOCs beyond the qualified ten met the eligibility criteria for inclusion in the event. ^[6]

Men's singles	Women's singles	Pairs	Ice dance	Team event
Turkey   Armenia   Great Britain   Germany	Italy   Cyprus   Chinese Taipei   Slovenia	China   Belarus   Australia   Netherlands	Hungary   South Korea   Italy   Australia	—

References

1. "QUALIFICATION SYSTEM FOR XXIV OLYMPIC WINTER GAMES, BEIJING 2022". International Skating Union. 4 December 2019. Archived from the original on 28 September 2021. Retrieved 4 March 2021.
2. "ISU made a statement about the situation with Kamila Valieva". By Lee Michaelis. GamingDeputy journal. Feb. 10, 2022.
3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "International Skating Union: Special Regulations & Technical Rules – Single & Pair Skating and Ice Dance 2021". International Skating Union. June 2021. Archived from the original on 2019-01-06. Retrieved 2021-03-25.
4. "Communication No. 2388: Entries/Participation 2022 Olympic Winter Games (OWG) – Single & Pair Skating and Ice Dance". International Skating Union. 1 April 2021. Archived from the original on 26 September 2021. Retrieved 1 April 2021.
5. "Cancellation of the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final 2021, Osaka/Japan". International Skating Union. 17 December 2021. Archived from the original on 29 June 2022. Retrieved 28 December 2021.
6. "Communication No. 2443: Olympic Winter Games 2022 – Entries/Participation Figure Skating Team Event". International Skating Union. 13 December 2021. Archived from the original on 20 December 2021. Retrieved 13 December 2021.
7. "Communication No. 2428: Olympic Winter Games 2022 – Entries/Participation Single & Pair Skating and Ice Dance". International Skating Union. 28 September 2021. Archived from the original on 28 September 2021. Retrieved 1 November 2021.