Pro or Am racer?04.Jan.2005
There are situations when it becomes important to know if a racer is Pro or Amateur. If a racer is only attending Pro and Open classes he will be treated as a Pro. If a racer is only attending Am and Open classes he will be treated as an Am. If only attending Open classes it starts to get difficult and when some racers attend both Pro and Am classes it gets even worse. This is actually only important for one reason, the Pro-Open class.
If an OPEN competition has 8 or more Pros the World ranking will divide the results up in 2 lists. One with Pros and giving them Pro points and one with Ams and giving them Am points. But to do this you will have to know who is Pro and who is Am. The World Ranking program, when calculating if you are considered a Pro or an Am, will use the following rules.
1. By choice. The person has registered himself as a Pro or Am before
the OPEN competition.
2. This Seasons Pro and Am disciplines. If entered more Am disciplines
than Pro disciplines you are an Am. Else Pro.
3. If no Pro or Am disciplines the current season use last season.
4. If none of the above person will be treated as Am.
For the moment there are no strict rules of who is Pro or Am. It’s a personal choice. The groups are to be seen more as the advanced group and the open group. The unwritten rule so far is that if you have won a couple of big amateur races during one season you should run as pro for the next. Since the Pro class is no “real” pro class there is no rule like “once pro always pro”. If you feel that you have been too far behind in the pro class during a whole season you may try to run the Am class again. Remember though that it is the pro class that is the one that really counts in the eyes of media and other skaters. Winning the Am class does not give you any more glory than telling that you are know ready to go and play with the big boys.
In the future there might be more strict rules set up concerning Pro and Am groups. For example that you can’t run the Pro class unless you have qualified for it. And that if you are among the last in the pro rankings you may have to qualify for running pro again for the next season. Such a qualification could be run at the first big competition each year (on each side of the Atlantic) between the lower ranked pros and the higher ranked Ams.
