There are four Olympic figure skating events: ladies singles, mens singles, pairs, and ice dancing.
Figure skating made its Olympic debut at the London 1908 Summer Games and appeared later at the Antwerp 1920 Games. It became an official Olympic Winter Games sport at the inaugural Winter Games in Chamonix 1924.
To find out more, please visit: http://www.iceskating.org.uk
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Like many winter sports, figure skating's roots grew from necessity. As a mode of transportation for warfare and hunting in Northern Europe, skating was a swift way to traverse frozen lakes, ponds, rivers and streams. Warriors and hunters crafted makeshift skates of reindeer antlers or elk bones, and later iron and steel. By the 16th century, skaters were transporting goods across frozen waterways.
As the technology of the skate and blade improved, skating slowly emerged as a recreational and leisure sport. In the 1600’s, the Dutch used their frozen canals to skate from village to village, mastering the skating manoeuvre known as the "Dutch Roll," a simple skill that involves pushing off from one skate and gliding on the other.
To this, the French added pirouettes and spins. In 1892, the International Skating Union (ISU) was founded. Six years later, the first ISU-sanctioned event was held, and organisers hoped it might soon become an official Olympic sport. Because competitions could be held indoors, figure skating was added to the Olympic program for the 1908 Summer Games. Figure skating became an official Olympic Winter Games sport at the 1924 Winter Games in Chamonix.
Figure skating made its Olympic debut at the London 1908 Summer Games and appeared later at the Antwerp 1920 Games. It became an official Olympic Winter Games sport at the inaugural Winter Games in Chamonix 1924 and has remained on the program ever since. It is the only winter sport to have mixed competitions. The ice dancing competition was added at Innsbruck 1976.
One of the superstars of the Winter Olympics was Sonja Henie, who at just 11 years of age, made her Olympic debut finishing eighth at Chamonix 1924. Four years later she returned to win her first of three consecutive gold medals.
There are four Olympic figure skating events: ladies singles, mens singles, pairs, and ice dancing.
The mens, ladies, pairs and dance competitions consist of two separate parts: the short programme (or Short Dance) and the free programme (or Free Dance).
The short programme combines up to eight prescribed elements such as step sequences, lifts, jumps, jump combinations and spins. In the free skating programme, skaters perform an original arrangement of techniques to music of their choice.
Following the Short Programme (or Short Dance) the top 24 competitors in the singles events and the top 20 teams in the pairs and dance events qualify for the next section of the competition, the Free Programme (or Free Dance) .
In the pairs the couple works as one unit, demonstrating overhead lifts, throw-jumps with the man launching his partner, and other skilful and and dangerous manoeuvres. The performance requires harmony, strength and grace.
In the Ice Dance event every routine should be a dance that is intended to be performed to music with an audible rhythmic beat. Couples skate mostly in close dance holds or with a very small distance apart but are still required to include intricate and creative lifts, superlative footwork and spins within their routine.
Figure skating blades are made of high carbon steep which is hardened and tempered for strength and reliability. The blades are 3.175mm wide and are concave so that movements can be executed on different edges. Skaters use plastic or rubber guards to protect their blades. The skating rink is 30m x 60m and the ice has no markings.
Following a judging controversy in Salt Lake 2002, the ISU adopted a new system in 2004 to award points for each element of a skater’s routine, based on degree of difficulty and level of performance. In addition, computer scoring programme was introduced which randomly selects the scores from seven judges from the panel of nine, discarding the highest and lowest scores from that seven, leaving five judges' scores to produce the final result.
A total score is based on the addition of points of two segments.
The technical score (or Total Element Score) comprised of points gained on the required elements. Each element of the performance is assigned a base value relating to its degree of difficulty, with judges evaluating the quality of the performance on each element within a range of plus 3 to minus 3.
The Program Component Score comprised of points gained from the evaluation of five components:
Skating Skills; Transitional/Linking Footwork and Movement; Performance/Execution; Choreography/Composition and Interpretation of the music
The program component scores range from 0.25 and increases in increments of 0.25 up to 10.0 and ranges from very poor to outstanding.
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