Concept
The U.S. Figure Skating Championships is a figure skating competition held annually to crown the national champions of the United States. The competition is sanctioned by U.S. Figure Skating. In the U.S. skating community, the event is often referred to informally as "Nationals". Medals are currently awarded in four disciplines: men's (boys') singles, ladies' (girls') singles, pair skating, and ice dancing in four colors: gold (first), silver (second), bronze (third), and pewter (fourth) on two levels, senior and junior. Medals were previously given at the novice, intermediate, and juvenile levels. The event is also used to determine the U.S. teams for the World Championships, World Junior Championships, Four Continents Championships, and Winter Olympics, however, U.S. Figure Skating reserves the right to consider other results. Unlike in other countries, such as Japan and Russia, where the "Junior National Championships" refers to the National Championships on the Junior level, in the United States, Junior-level skaters compete at the U.S. Championships. Juvenile- and Intermediate-level skaters are the skaters who compete at the "U.S. Junior Championships". The similar names for the events can cause confusion when Juvenile- and Intermediate-level skaters receive local media attention. Junior-level skaters compete at the "U.S. Championships on the Junior-level", whereas Juvenile and Intermediate skaters compete at the "U.S. Junior Championships". In that vein, the "Junior national champion" is a skater who won Nationals on the Junior level, not a skater who won an event at the U.S. Junior Championships. Those skaters would be the Juvenile and Intermediate national champions. Qualification for the U.S. Championships begins at one of nine regional competitions. The regions are New England, North Atlantic, South Atlantic, Upper Great Lakes, Eastern Great Lakes, Southwestern, Northwest Pacific, Central Pacific, and Southwest Pacific. The top four finishers in each regional advance to one of three sectional competitions (Eastern, Midwestern, and Pacific Coast).