That paraphrase is taking it a little over the top.
The point was simply that you have to look at the depth of field when you consider the weight of a result. And yes, right now the North American events generally have much greater depth of talent than some of the other events. The athletes from other Nationalities can still enter things like the US Open, WSI, Nippon Open etc.
I wasn't suggesting that events such as Euro Open should not be counted, just that you need to consider depth of field when you decide how much weight to put on a result, especially when the result is not a win. A top ten run from last years Ski Tour would probably have been a top five run at the Euro Open or NZ Open.
It's more about who is there, than where it is, for example last years Nippon Open was a fairly well attended event by the majority of top pros.
It's not that "it shouldn't count" if it's not a North American event, it's just that you need to be smart with the weight you give to certain events, and generally the best way to do that is to look at who was there. Someone we don't know probably won the South American events in Chile this year, why don't we recognize those for X-Games? Because there were no recognized top level pipe riders present, and a result needs to be compared to the field that participates.
There was a FIS World Cup halfpipe event in Canada last year, and the Finnish skier who won it skied great. He beat Kevin and Xavier who were also there, so why does he not get a spot? Well, because without a good list of credible athletes, it is too hard to accurately determine what that result actually means.
A win at the JOI should be worth something, not because of where it took place, but because of the athletes who participated.
And as you can see by my more recent posts, I have already retracted my statements about Xavier, I completely forgot about his WSI podium when I first commented.
