2011–12 ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating

The 2011–12 ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating was a series of senior international figure skating competitions in the 2011–12 season. Skaters competed in the disciplines of men's singles, ladies singles, pair skating, and ice dancing at six invitational competitions in the fall of 2011. Skaters earned points based on their placement at each event and the skaters who finished in the top six in each discipline qualified to compete at the Grand Prix Final, held in Quebec City, Canada.

The Grand Prix series set the stage for the 2012 European, Four Continents, and World Championships, as well as each country's national championships. The Grand Prix series began on 21 October 2011 and ended on 11 December 2011.

The Grand Prix was organized by the International Skating Union. Skaters competed for prize money and for a chance to compete in the Grand Prix Final. The corresponding series for junior-level skaters was the 2011–12 ISU Junior Grand Prix.

Schedule

Event	Location	Start	End	Details
2011 Skate America	Ontario, California	21 October 2011	23 October 2011	[1]
2011 Skate Canada International	Mississauga, Ontario	28 October 2011	30 October 2011	[2]
2011 Cup of China	Shanghai, China	4 November 2011	6 November 2011	[3]
2011 NHK Trophy	Sapporo, Japan	11 November 2011	13 November 2011	[4]
2011 Trophée Eric Bompard	Paris, France	18 November 2011	20 November 2011	[5]
2011 Cup of Russia	Moscow, Russia	25 November 2011	27 November 2011	[6]
2011–12 Grand Prix Final	Quebec City, Quebec	8 December 2011	11 December 2011	[7]

Changes

The maximum number of entries at each event was reduced from twelve to ten in singles and from ten to eight in ice dancing.^[8] This reduced by twelve the number of available spots in each discipline. The number of spots for pairs had already been reduced to eight and remained at that level.

The number of possible events was increased to three for the top six in each discipline at the 2011 World Championships.^[8] This had been allowed in the early years of the Grand Prix series but reduced to two later. If all of the skaters accepted, it would reduce by six the number of available spots for other skaters, which combined with the reduction of entries, would result in 18 fewer spots available to other skaters in each discipline, compared to the previous season. The top six were offered a US $10,000 bonus to compete at three events but face a fine if they later withdraw, even for valid medical reasons. About 29% of the 24 skaters/teams opted for three events.^[9]

A minimum score requirement was introduced to the Grand Prix series for the first time.

Qualifying

General requirements

Skaters who reach the age of 14 by 1 July 2011 were eligible to compete on the senior Grand Prix circuit.

Minimum score requirements were added to the Grand Prix series and were set at three-fifths of the top scores at the 2011 World Championships. Prior to competing in a Grand Prix event, skaters were required to earn the following scores:

The International Skating Union decided that the minimums do not apply to "host picks", i.e. Canadians Adriana DeSanctis and Elladj Balde were allowed to compete at their home country's event, 2011 Skate Canada, despite failing to reach the minimums at the 2011 Nebelhorn Trophy.

Assignments

The top six skaters/teams from the 2011 World Championships were seeded and assigned to two events. They also had the option of competing at a third event, receiving a US$10,000 bonus if they chose to do so, with their best two results counting toward qualifying for the Grand Prix Final.^[8] There were no substitutions of the seeded positions.

Skaters who placed 7–12 at 2011 Worlds were guaranteed two assignments. The remaining spots could be given to skaters who placed in the top 24 on the season's best score or world ranking lists.^[8] However, these skaters were not guaranteed any events, even if they had a higher Season's Best score than skaters in the top 12 at Worlds but did not compete at the event due to the three-per-country restriction.

The host country was allowed to assign three skaters/teams of their choosing from their country in each discipline.

Skaters who missed one or more seasons but had placed in the top six at any previous World Championships had the option of getting assignments to the Grand Prix under the "Come-back skaters" clause. They were obliged to commit to two events and could take advantage of this clause only once.

The following skaters have received assignments for one or more Grand Prix events:^[10]

Men

Ladies

Pairs

Ice dance

Replacements

A list of alternates was used to call up replacements, in the following order:

1. Come-back skaters
2. Skaters from split teams which had placed in the top 12 at a previous World Championships
3. Skaters from the top 24 on the season's best (SB) list
4. Skaters from the top 24 SB who have only one event
5. All other skaters in the top 75 SB
6. Winners of selected international competitions (Nebelhorn, Ondrej Nepela, Finlandia, Coupe de Nice, Ice Challenge, NRW Ice Dance Trophy)

Skaters from split teams which placed in the top 12 at the 2010 or 2011 World Championships and earned the minimum score in that period were not required to earn a new minimum with the new partner.

Medal summary

Event	Discipline	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Skate America[11]	Men	Michal Březina	Kevin van der Perren	Takahiko Kozuka
	Ladies	Alissa Czisny	Carolina Kostner	Viktoria Helgesson
	Pairs	Aliona Savchenko / Robin Szolkowy	Dan Zhang / Hao Zhang	Kirsten Moore-Towers / Dylan Moscovitch
	Ice dancing	Meryl Davis / Charlie White	Nathalie Péchalat / Fabian Bourzat	Isabella Tobias / Deividas Stagniūnas

Event	Discipline	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Skate Canada[12]	Men	Patrick Chan	Javier Fernández	Daisuke Takahashi
	Ladies	Elizaveta Tuktamysheva	Akiko Suzuki	Ashley Wagner
	Pairs	Tatiana Volosozhar / Maxim Trankov	Wenjing Sui / Cong Han	Meagan Duhamel / Eric Radford
	Ice dancing	Tessa Virtue / Scott Moir	Kaitlyn Weaver / Andrew Poje	Anna Cappellini / Luca Lanotte

Event	Discipline	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Cup of China[13]	Men	Jeremy Abbott	Nobunari Oda	Nan Song
	Ladies	Carolina Kostner	Mirai Nagasu	Adelina Sotnikova
	Pairs	Yuko Kavaguti / Alexander Smirnov	Dan Zhang / Hao Zhang	Kirsten Moore-Towers / Dylan Moscovitch
	Ice dancing	Ekaterina Bobrova / Dmitri Soloviev	Maia Shibutani / Alex Shibutani	Pernelle Carron / Lloyd Jones

Event	Discipline	Gold	Silver	Bronze
NHK Trophy[14]	Men	Daisuke Takahashi	Takahiko Kozuka	Ross Miner
	Ladies	Akiko Suzuki	Mao Asada	Alena Leonova
	Pairs	Yuko Kavaguti / Alexander Smirnov	Narumi Takahashi / Mervin Tran	Aliona Savchenko / Robin Szolkowy
	Ice dancing	Maia Shibutani / Alex Shibutani	Kaitlyn Weaver / Andrew Poje	Elena Ilinykh / Nikita Katsalapov

Event	Discipline	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Trophée Eric Bompard[15]	Men	Patrick Chan	Nan Song	Michal Březina
	Ladies	Elizaveta Tuktamysheva	Carolina Kostner	Alissa Czisny
	Pairs	Tatiana Volosozhar / Maxim Trankov	Vera Bazarova / Yuri Larionov	Meagan Duhamel / Eric Radford
	Ice dancing	Tessa Virtue / Scott Moir	Nathalie Péchalat / Fabian Bourzat	Anna Cappellini / Luca Lanotte

Event	Discipline	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Rostelecom Cup[16]	Men	Yuzuru Hanyu	Javier Fernández	Jeremy Abbott
	Ladies	Mao Asada	Alena Leonova	Adelina Sotnikova
	Pairs	Aliona Savchenko / Robin Szolkowy	Yuko Kavaguti / Alexander Smirnov	Stefania Berton / Ondřej Hotárek
	Ice dancing	Meryl Davis / Charlie White	Kaitlyn Weaver / Andrew Poje	Ekaterina Bobrova / Dmitri Soloviev

Event	Discipline	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Grand Prix Final	Men[17]	Patrick Chan	Daisuke Takahashi	Javier Fernández
	Ladies[18]	Carolina Kostner	Akiko Suzuki	Alena Leonova
	Pairs[19]	Aliona Savchenko / Robin Szolkowy	Tatiana Volosozhar / Maxim Trankov	Yuko Kavaguti / Alexander Smirnov
	Ice dancing[20]	Meryl Davis / Charlie White	Tessa Virtue / Scott Moir	Nathalie Péchalat / Fabian Bourzat

Top Grand Prix scores

Skaters ranked according to total score. The short and free columns break down the total score of a skater's best overall event into the short and free program.

Men

Top senior Grand Prix scores after six events: Skate America, Skate Canada, Cup of China, NHK Trophy, Trophée Eric Bompard Rostelecom Cup and Grand Prix Final.^[21]

Rank	Name	Country	Total	Short	Free	Event	Date
1	Patrick Chan	Canada	260.30	86.63	173.67	Grand Prix Final	2011-12-10
2	Daisuke Takahashi	Japan	259.75	90.43	169.32	NHK Trophy	2011-11-13
3	Javier Fernández	Spain	250.33	84.71	165.62	Skate Canada	2011-10-29
4	Yuzuru Hanyu	Japan	245.82	79.33	166.49	Grand Prix Final	2011-12-10
5	Jeremy Abbott	United States	238.82	82.66	156.16	Grand Prix Final	2011-12-10
6	Takahiko Kozuka	Japan	235.02	79.77	155.25	NHK Trophy	2011-11-13
7	Nobunari Oda	Japan	227.11	77.65	149.46	Cup of China	2011-11-05
8	Nan Song	China	226.75	72.72	154.03	Cup of China	2011-11-05
9	Michal Březina	Czech Republic	226.35	79.01	147.34	Rostelecom Cup	2011-11-26
10	Artur Gachinski	Russia	222.54	81.64	140.90	Cup of China	2011-11-05

Ladies

Top senior Grand Prix scores after six events: Skate America, Skate Canada, Cup of China, NHK Trophy, Trophée Eric Bompard Rostelecom Cup and Grand Prix Final.^[22]

Rank	Name	Country	Total	Short	Free	Event	Date
1	Carolina Kostner	Italy	187.48	66.43	121.05	Grand Prix Final	2011-12-10
2	Akiko Suzuki	Japan	185.98	66.55	119.43	NHK Trophy	2011-11-12
3	Mao Asada	Japan	184.19	58.42	125.77	NHK Trophy	2011-11-12
4	Elizaveta Tuktamysheva	Russia	182.89	62.04	120.85	Trophée Bompard	2011-11-19
5	Alena Leonova	Russia	180.45	63.91	116.54	Rostelecom Cup	2011-11-26
6	Alissa Czisny	United States	179.15	57.25	121.90	Trophée Bompard	2011-11-19
7	Mirai Nagasu	United States	173.22	60.96	112.26	Cup of China	2011-11-05
8	Adelina Sotnikova	Russia	169.75	57.79	111.96	Rostelecom Cup	2011-11-26
9	Sofia Biryukova	Russia	166.07	56.30	109.77	Rostelecom Cup	2011-11-26
10	Ashley Wagner	United States	165.65	55.88	109.77	NHK Trophy	2011-11-12

Pairs

Top senior Grand Prix scores after six events: Skate America, Skate Canada, Cup of China, NHK Trophy, Trophée Eric Bompard Rostelecom Cup and Grand Prix Final.^[23]

Rank	Name	Country	Total	Short	Free	Event	Date
1	Aliona Savchenko / Robin Szolkowy	Germany	212.26	69.82	142.44	Grand Prix Final	2011-12-10
2	Tatiana Volosozhar / Maxim Trankov	Russia	212.08	71.57	140.51	Grand Prix Final	2011-12-10
3	Yuko Kavaguti / Alexander Smirnov	Russia	197.84	65.17	132.67	Rostelecom Cup	2011-11-26
4	Vera Bazarova / Yuri Larionov	Russia	184.91	59.06	125.85	Trophée Bompard	2011-11-19
5	Zhang Dan / Zhang Hao	China	182.54	63.43	119.11	Grand Prix Final	2011-12-10
6	Wenjing Sui / Cong Han	China	180.82	59.23	121.59	Skate Canada	2011-10-29
7	Kirsten Moore-Towers / Dylan Moscovitch	Canada	177.43	59.60	117.83	Skate America	2011-10-23
8	Meagan Duhamel / Eric Radford	Canada	176.62	61.06	115.56	Trophée Bompard	2011-11-19
9	Caydee Denney / John Coughlin	United States	175.40	59.62	115.78	Skate America	2011-10-23
10	Narumi Takahashi / Mervin Tran	Japan	172.09	57.89	114.20	NHK Trophy	2011-11-12

Ice dancing

Top senior Grand Prix scores after six events: Skate America, Skate Canada, Cup of China, NHK Trophy, Trophée Eric Bompard Rostelecom Cup and Grand Prix Final.^[24]

Rank	Name	Country	Total	Short	Free	Event	Date
1	Meryl Davis / Charlie White	United States	188.55	76.17	112.38	Grand Prix Final	2011-12-11
2	Tessa Virtue / Scott Moir	Canada	183.84	71.01	112.83	Grand Prix Final	2011-12-11
3	Nathalie Péchalat / Fabian Bourzat	France	169.69	68.68	101.01	Grand Prix Final	2011-12-11
4	Kaitlyn Weaver / Andrew Poje	Canada	166.07	66.24	99.83	Grand Prix Final	2011-12-11
5	Ekaterina Bobrova / Dmitri Soloviev	Russia	163.52	65.73	97.79	Cup of China	2011-11-05
6	Maia Shibutani / Alex Shibutani	United States	160.55	65.53	95.02	Grand Prix Final	2011-12-11
6	Anna Cappellini / Luca Lanotte	Italy	154.87	61.92	92.95	Skate Canada	2011-10-30
8	Elena Ilinykh / Nikita Katsalapov	Russia	149.48	61.83	87.65	NHK Trophy	2011-11-12
9	Nelli Zhiganshina / Alexander Gazsi	Germany	136.12	55.69	80.43	NHK Trophy	2011-11-12
10	Madison Chock / Evan Bates	United States	135.10	51.24	84.67	Skate Canada	2011-10-30

Prize money and Grand Prix Final qualification points

The top finishers earned prize money, as well as points toward qualifying for the Grand Prix Final, according to the chart below.

After the last event, the 2011 Cup of Russia, the six skaters/teams with the most points advanced to the Grand Prix Final. If a skater or team competed at three events, their two best results counted toward the standings. There were seven tie-breakers:

1. Highest placement at an event. If a skater placed 1st and 3rd, the tiebreaker was the 1st place, and that beats a skater who placed 2nd in both events.
2. Highest combined total scores in both events. If a skater earned 200 points at one event and 250 at a second, that skater would win in the second tie-break over a skater who earned 200 points at one event and 150 at another.
3. Participated in two events.
4. Highest combined scores in the free skating/free dancing portion of both events.
5. Highest individual score in the free skating/free dancing portion from one event.
6. Highest combined scores in the short program/original dance of both events.
7. Highest number of total participants at the events.

If a tie remained, it was considered unbreakable and the tied skaters all qualified for the Grand Prix Final.

Qualification standings

Bold denotes Grand Prix Final qualification.

Points	Men[25]	Ladies[26]	Pairs[27]	Ice dance[28]
30	Patrick Chan	Elizaveta Tuktamisheva	Aliona Savchenko / Robin Szolkowy Yuko Kavaguti / Alexander Smirnov Tatiana Volosozhar / Maxim Trankov	Tessa Virtue / Scott Moir Meryl Davis / Charlie White
28		Carolina Kostner Akiko Suzuki Mao Asada		Maia Shibutani / Alex Shibutani
26	Javier Fernández Daisuke Takahashi Michal Březina Jeremy Abbott	Alissa Czisny	Dan Zhang / Hao Zhang	Kaitlyn Weaver / Andrew Poje Nathalie Pechalat / Fabian Bourzat Ekaterina Bobrova / Dmitri Soloviev
24	Nan Song Takahiko Kozuka Yuzuru Hanyu	Alena Leonova
22		Adelina Sotnikova	Narumi Takahashi / Mervin Tran Meagan Duhamel / Eric Radford Kirsten Moore-Towers / Dylan Moscovitch	Anna Cappellini / Luca Lanotte
20		Mirai Nagasu Ashley Wagner	Wenjing Sui / Cong Han Vera Bazarova / Yuri Larionov Stefania Berton / Ondrej Hotarek	Elena Ilinykh / Nikita Katsalapov
19
18	Adam Rippon	Viktoria Helgesson	Amanda Evora / Mark Ladwig	Nelli Zhiganshina / Alexander Gazsi
17	Nobunari Oda
16	Kevin van der Perren Ross Miner		Caydee Denney / John Coughlin	Madison Chock / Evan Bates
15
14	Richard Dornbush Denis Ten Artur Gachinski	Kanako Murakami
13
12	Samuel Contesti	Kiira Korpi	Lubov Iliushechkina / Nodari Maisuradze Jessica Dube / Sebastien Wolfe
11		Ksenia Makarova Elene Gedevanishvili		Pernelle Carron / Lloyd Jones
10
9		Kexin Zhang Haruka Imai Mae Berenice Meite		Penny Coomes / Nicholas Buckland
8
7	Tomáš Verner Florent Amodio	Christina Gao		Ekaterina Riazanova / Ilia Tkachenko Kharis Ralph / Asher Hill Lorenza Alessandrini / Simone Vaturi Xintong Huang / Xun Zheng
6
5	Alexander Majorov Konstantin Menshov Daisuke Murakami	Amelie Lacoste Caroline Zhang	Xiaoyu Yu / Yang Jin Tiffany Vise / Don Baldwin Huibo Dong / Yiming Wu	Ekaterina Pushkash / Jonathan Guerreiro Madison Hubbell / Zachary Donohue Lynn Kriengkrairut/ Logan Giulietti-Schmitt Xiaoyang Yu / Chen Wang
4	Kevin Reynolds Tatsuki Machida Andre Rogozine Douglas Razzano	Cynthia Phaneuf Sonia Lafuente
3	Armin Mahbanoozadeh Jialiang Wu Romain Ponsart	Bingwa Geng Joelle Forte Agnes Zawadzki Yretha Silete Sarah Hecken

Medal standings

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Russia	7	4	7	18
2	United States	6	2	4	12
3	Canada	5	4	4	13
4	Japan	4	7	2	13
5	Germany	3	0	1	4
6	Italy	2	2	3	7
7	Czech Republic	1	0	1	2
8	China	0	4	1	5
9	France	0	2	2	4
10	Spain	0	2	1	3
11	Belgium	0	1	0	1
12	Lithuania	0	0	1	1
12	Sweden	0	0	1	1

References

External links

• Men standings, ISU, retrieved 30 October 2011
• Ladies standings, ISU, retrieved 30 October 2011
• Pairs standings, ISU, retrieved 30 October 2011
• Ice dance standings, ISU, retrieved 30 October 2011