Figure Skating - Disciplines

Disciplines

Olympic sports in figure skating comprise the following disciplines:

• Singles competition for men and women (who are referred to as "ladies" in ISU rulebooks), wherein skaters perform jumps, spins, step sequences, spirals, and other elements in their programs.

• Pair skating teams consist of a woman and a man. Pairs perform elements specific to the discipline such as throw jumps, in which the man 'throws' the woman into a jump; lifts, in which the woman is held above the man's head in one of various grips and positions; pair spins, in which both skaters spin together about a common axis; death spirals; and other elements such as side-by-side jumps and spins in unison.

• Ice dancing is again for couples consisting of a woman and a man skating together. Ice dance differs from pairs in focusing on intricate footwork performed in close dance holds, in time with the music. Ice dance lifts must not go above the shoulder.

The four disciplines of men's singles, ladies' singles, pair skating and ice dancing will also appear as part of a team event for the first time at the 2014 Winter Olympics. Other disciplines of figure skating include:

• Synchronized skating (formerly known as precision) for mixed-gender groups of 12 to 20 skaters. This discipline resembles a group form of ice dance with additional emphasis on precise formations of the group as a whole and complex transitions between formations. The basic formations include wheels, blocks, lines, circles, and intersections. The close formations and need for the team to stay in unison add to the difficulty of the footwork performed by the skaters in these elements.

• Compulsory figures, in which skaters use their blades to draw circles, figure 8s, and similar shapes in ice, and are judged on the accuracy and clarity of the figures and the cleanness and exact placement of the various turns on the circles. Figures were formerly included as a component of singles competitions but were eliminated from those events in 1990. Today figures are rarely taught or performed. The United States was the last country to retain a separate test and competitive structure for compulsory figures, but the last national-level figures championship was held in 1999.

• Moves in the field (known in the United Kingdom as field moves), which have replaced compulsory figures as a discipline to teach the same turns and edge skills in the context of fluid free skating movements instead of being constrained to artificially precise circles.

• Fours, a discipline that is to pairs as pairs is to singles. A team of four skaters, consisting of two men and two women, perform singles and pairs elements in unison, as well as unique elements that involve all four skaters.

• Theatre on ice, also known as "ballet on ice" in Europe. This is a form of group skating that is less structured than synchronized skating and allows the use of props and theatrical costuming.

• Adagio skating, a form of pair skating most commonly seen in ice shows, where the skaters perform many acrobatic lifts but few or none of the other elements which competitive pairs must perform.

• Special figures, the tracing of elaborate original designs on the ice, common in the early days of skating.

• Acrobatic skating, also known as "Acrobatics on ice" or "Extreme Skating", is a combination of circus arts, technical artistic gymnastics skills, and figure skating.