Aleksei Yagudin (RUS) - 1997 World Figure Skating Championships, Men’s Free Skate

Lausanne, SWITZERLAND - 1997 World Figure Skating Championships, Men’s Free Skate - Aleksei Yagudin of Russia placed 3rd in the Free Skate and ended moving up from 5th to 3rd Place overall. The ISU implemented a new format this season as to how each country earned the number of berths for next year’s World Championships AND the Olympic Games. Rather than where the highest ranking skater places that decides on the number of berths, the total of the combined placements of all of the skaters from a country in each discipline would determine the number of berths. Because Aleksei Urmanov had to withdraw, that basically added 25pts to Yagudin’s 3rd Placement (3pts) and Ilia Kulik’s 5th Placement (5pts) for a total of 33pts. That total would only qualify Russia 2 berths (instead of 3, as it would have been under the old system) for the 1997/1998 season and would cause the Russian Federation to file a complaint with the ISU regarding this.