When i was little i somehow made a cheat with the gamegenie, where the jumps (as big mario) was always sommersaults, even when you didn't have star on. I don't remember much, but i remember clearly not being able to jump up into pipes with sommersault animations. It never worked.
I think it's usually because the speed runs are part of a bigger event (Dreamhack in this case), so most people are off doing other things. That, and events in Europe aren't as famous as GDQs, I think