The 2021

Four Continents Figure Skating Championships The Four Continents Figure Skating Championships (4CC) is an annual figure skating competition. The International Skating Union established it in 1999 to provide skaters representing non-African and non-European countries with a similar competit ...

were scheduled to be held from February 9–14, 2021 in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. Held annually since 1999, the competition would have featured skaters from the Americas, Asia, Africa, and Oceania. Medals were to be awarded in the disciplines of men's singles, ladies' singles,

pairs Concentration, also known as Memory, Shinkei-suijaku (Japanese meaning "nervous breakdown"), Matching Pairs, Match Match, Match Up, Pelmanism, Pexeso or simply Pairs, is a card game in which all of the cards are laid face down on a surface and tw ...

, and

ice dance Ice dance (sometimes referred to as ice dancing) is a discipline of figure skating that historically draws from ballroom dancing. It joined the World Figure Skating Championships in 1952, and became a Winter Olympic Games medal sport in 1976. Ac ...

was announced as the host in June 2019. Following the cancellation of the event on October 16, 2020, the

International Skating Union The International Skating Union (ISU) is the international governing body for competitive ice skating disciplines, including figure skating, synchronized skating, speed skating, and short track speed skating. It was founded in Scheveningen, Net ...

provisionally awarded Sydney the right to host the 2023 edition of the event. This would have been

's first time hosting the Four Continents, having last held an ISU Championship event in

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic

The Australian government closed the country's borders to non-citizens in March 2020 to prevent the spread of the

pandemic A pandemic () is an epidemic of an infectious disease that has spread across a large region, for instance multiple continents or worldwide, affecting a substantial number of individuals. A widespread endemic (epidemiology), endemic disease wi ...

and, as of the event's cancellation date, had not yet reopened them. In August 2020, Australia's flagship airline

Qantas Qantas Airways Limited ( ) is the flag carrier of Australia and the country's largest airline by fleet size, international flights, and international destinations. It is the world's third-oldest airline still in operation, having been founded ...

announced the suspension of all international flights through at least July 2021, making it unlikely for athletes to be able to travel to the competition if it were to be held. On October 14, 2020, two days before the event's official cancellation, Ice Skating Australia announced the suspension of all ticket sales until further notice. The ISU and various host federations had already cancelled several events earlier in the season, including the

2020–21 ISU Junior Grand Prix The 2020–21 ISU Junior Grand Prix was scheduled to be the 24th season of a series of junior international competitions organized by the International Skating Union. It was intended to be the junior-level complement to the 2020–21 ISU Grand Pri ...

, several 2020–21 ISU Challenger Series events, and the 2020 Skate Canada International.

Qualification

Age and minimum TES requirements

The competition was to be open to skaters from all non-European member nations of the

. The corresponding competition for European skaters was scheduled to be the 2021 European Championships, before it was cancelled in December 2020. Skaters would have been eligible for the 2021 Four Continents Championships if they turned 15 years of age before July 1, 2020 and met the minimum technical elements score requirements. The ISU accepts scores if they were obtained at senior-level ISU-recognized international competitions at least 21 days before the first official practice day of the championships.

Number of entries per discipline

Each qualifying ISU member nation may have up to three entries per discipline.

Schedule

Entries

Member nations had yet to announce their selections at the time of cancellation.

References

External links

2021 Four Continents Championships
at the

{{DEFAULTSORT:Four 2021 in figure skating 2021 in Australian sport February 2021 sports events in Australia Figure skating events cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic International sports competitions hosted at Sydney Olympic Park