Each year the Pacific Northwest Ski Association (PNSA) chooses athletes to attend the Western Region Junior Olympics (JO) at the J3 level. Racers from PNSA, Alaska, Far West, Northern, and Intermountain regions of USSA compete at the JO. Each region is given a certain number of spaces for men and women at the JO. This year (2011), PNSA has a quota of 23 men and 21 women for the J3 JO.
Points earned based on each racer’s finish position in each run during the JO qualifying races (not USSA points) determine who gets to go to the JO. There are 6 days of qualifying races 2 SL, 2 GS and 3 SG races with a total of 4 runs in SL and GS and 3 in SG. The World Cup Point system (see below) is used to determine the number of points awarded each racer based on their finish position in each run, not each race. Unlike other races, all racers get two runs in each SL or GS race even if they DQ or DNF on the first run. Each racer’s top two runs in terms of World Cup points in each discipline are totaled to determine their final point total. The J3 racers with the highest point totals fill the quota for their respective championship race.
The start order is determined differently for J3 JO Qualifier races compared to other PNSA Jr. races. To minimize the effect of the start order on qualifying, the PNSA randomly assigns bib numbers for each JO qualifier race discipline. For the first run in each discipline racers go in bib order and on the second run in reverse bib order. For the third run the start order is cut it in half and the two halves are flipped, i.e., if there were 100 racers the bib order would be 50-1, then 100-51. The bib order for the final run would be numbers 51-100, then 1-50. Thus, for two races of GS, which is 4 runs total, all racers have a start position in each of the 4 quarters of the start order. A new random order is created for SL and SG races and in each of the runs the process above is repeated so each racer skis in each quarter of the start order.For more details see the PNSA Competition Manual.
World Cup Points:
1st 100 points
2nd 80
3rd 60
4th 50
5th 45
6th 40
7th 36
8th 32
9th 29
10th 26
11th 24
12th 22
13th 20
14th 18
15th 16
16th 15
. . .
30th 1
Unofficial 2011 JO Qualifying Standings
