Figure skating is a sport in which individuals, duos, or groups perform spins, jumps, moves in the field, and other elements and moves on figure skates. The four Olympic disciplines are men's singles, ladies' singles, pair skating, and ice dancing. Non-Olympic disciplines include synchronized skating and four skating.
Figure skaters compete at various levels from beginner up to the Olympic level (senior), and at local, national, and international competitions. The International Skating Union (ISU) regulates international figure skating judging and competitions. These include the Winter Olympic Games, the World Championships, the World Junior Championships, the European Championships, the Four Continents Championships, and the Grand Prix series (senior and junior).
The sport is also associated with show business. Major competitions generally conclude with exhibition galas, in which the top four, sometimes five, skaters or teams from each discipline perform non-competitive programs for the audience. Many skaters, both during and after their competitive careers, also skate in ice skating shows which run during the competitive season and the off-season.
Read more about Figure Skating: Terminology, Disciplines, Jumps, Spins, Lifts, Steps and Turns, Competition Format and Scoring, History, Competitors' Expenses, Income, and Funding, Injuries and Health Issues, Figure Skating in Popular Culture
Famous quotes containing the words figure and/or skating:
“Put in hours and hours of planning, figure everything down to the last detail, then what? Burglar alarms start going off all over the place for no sensible reason. A gun fires of its own accord and a man is shot. And a broken-down old house no good for anything but chasing kids has to trip over us. Blind accidents. What can you do against blind accidents?”
—Ben Maddow (1909–1992)
“In skating over thin ice, our safety is in our speed.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)