Figure Skating History

The origins of speed skating lie in the distant past, and go back to the Bronze Age (late 4th - early 1st millennium BC), archaeological finds - bone skates made from the phalanges of the limbs of large animals testify to this. Similar finds are found in many countries of Europe , and the most ancient “ skates ” were found on the shore of the Southern Bug near Odessa ^[1] . Even such primitive designs gave the traveler or hunter a gain in speed, but they were still not good for figured riding.

The birth of figure skating as a sport is associated with the moment when the skates began to be made of iron , not bone . According to research, this first happened in Holland , in the XII - XIV century . Initially, figure skating was a competition for the skill to draw a variety of figures on ice, while maintaining a beautiful pose.

The first figure skating clubs appeared in the 18th century in the British Empire in Edinburgh ( 1742 ). There, a list of mandatory figures for the competition and the first official rules of the competition were developed. Artillery lieutenant Robert Jones published A Treatise on Ice Skating ( 1772 ), in which he described all the main figures that were then known ^[1] .

Figure skating came from Europe to the United States and Canada , where it was developed enormously. Numerous figure skating clubs were created here, new models of skates were developed, and a school of technology was created. By the middle of the 19th century, almost all modern obligatory figures and basic technical methods for their execution were already known in figure skating, as evidenced by the books “The Art of Ice Skating” by D. Anderson, President of the Glasgow Skating Club, and the work of H. Vandervel and T Maxwell Whitman from London . These books contain descriptions of all eights, triples, hooks and other simple maneuvers of figure skating.

At that time, figure skating was performed in a stiff “English” style. The American Jackson Haines (in another Heinz transcription; 1840–1875), a dancer and a skater, combined both of them and got his own style of skating: riding to music, dancing movements and “ spinning tops ” on ice. The skates, fastened with belts to the shoes, could not withstand such loads, then he was one of the first to screw them tightly onto his boots. However, in Puritan America this style was not adopted, and in the 1860s he went on tour to Europe. The tour went off with a bang, Nikolai Panin-Kolomenkin wrote: ^[2]

At the I Congress of Skaters in 1871, figure skating was recognized as a sport.

In 1882, the first official European figure skating competitions took place in Vienna . True, initially, as A. N. Mishin notes, “it was a kind of backstage competition”, ^[2] since only a few athletes took part in them.

But the approach to the competition changed after the best skaters from around the world were invited to the competitions in St. Petersburg in 1890, dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the rink in the Yusupov Garden. Arrived in St. Petersburg: US champion L. Ruben-stein, German champion F. Kaiser, the best skaters of Sweden, Austria, Finland, England, Holland, Sweden, Norway. The competitions acquired the status of an “unofficial world championship”, the winner of these competitions in all types of programs was the honorary member of the Petersburg Society of Ice Skating Lovers Alexei Pavlovich Lebedev .

The following year, in 1891, in Hamburg , the first European Championship in men's single skating took place (the German skater Oscar Ulig won).

But the demonstration of the international scope and potential of figure skating, shown at competitions in St. Petersburg, was haunting. Therefore, already in 1892 the International Union of Skaters (ISU) was created, which was supposed to lead the organization of international competitions.

4 years later, in 1896 , the first world figure skating championship was held in St. Petersburg (the winner was Gilbert Fuchs , German Empire ). In 1903, in honor of the 200th anniversary of St. Petersburg , the St. Petersburg Society of Skating Lovers was granted the right to host the 8th World Championship (1st place - Swede Ulrich Salkhov , 2nd place - Nikolai Panin-Kolomenkin ).

It is not known who first supplied the figured skates with a prong. Heinz’s skates had a rounded toe (similar skates were known in the USSR as “snowballs”), Salkhov had a tooth, and Panin’s skates had a sharp emphasis resembling a compass needle. ^[3]

The first figure skating competitions were held only among single men , women figure skaters got the opportunity to participate in world championships only 10 years later. True, in 1901, under pressure from the public, ISU as an exception allowed the English woman Medge Sayers to participate in men's competitions.

Officially, the first world single women championship was held in late January 1906 in Davos ( Switzerland ). Mandatory figures for women and men were similar, but the free skating of women immediately attracted the attention of high artistry, plasticity and musicality of movements.

Obviously, pair skating appeared immediately after Haines demonstrated how to dance on ice; already in 1897 it was codified as a sport. But officially the first competitions were held only in 1908 in St. Petersburg . German skaters Anna Hübler and Heinrich Burger went down in history as the first Olympic champions in pair skating.

The most titled of the pre-war skaters is the loner Sonya Heni (Norway). Brilliantly trained as a skater and as a dancer, Sonya raised women's skating to a new height - her free programs at that time were inaccessible complex, more like ballet . Not surprisingly, she won ten world championships and three olympiads before becoming a professional. Of the men of the greatest heights, the Austrian Karl Schäfer achieved.

In pair skating, in the 1920s and 1930s, the struggle between the "stunts" and the "anti-stunts" was waged. The former were initially distinguished by spectacular, albeit not difficult to implement, supports that did not require a woman's special ability to skate, the latter - by the coordinated riding of both partners. In the end, the leading place was taken by the "antitukists".

Before the war, jumping was considered "aerobatics", not accessible to everyone. Even world-class skaters cost two to three jumps to the program. In 1948, Dick Button made a revolution by introducing a free program full of jumps, including a double axel. Since then, jumping has firmly established itself in the arsenal of skaters.

Sports dancing on ice arose in the 1930s in the UK, and then became widespread throughout the world. In 1952, sports dances were included in the program of the World and European Championships . During the first 10 years, UK skaters won all major international competitions. Ice dancing has been included in the program of the Winter Olympics since 1976 .

In 1961, a tragedy occurred: the entire US team died in a plane crash . This put an end to US dominance in figure skating.

The revolution in ice dancing was made by the Czech brother and sister Eva Romanova and Pavel Roman . They preferred to dance to turbulent Latin American rhythms; their productions at that time sounded defiant, but they managed to defend their creative views, becoming 4-time world champions ( 1962 - 1965 ).

With the advent of television, such a paradox arose. Mandatory figures were extremely boring discipline, television people preferred to show a free program . Often there was a situation: the skater got a huge margin on the mandatory figures (which gave 60% of the points), skated a nondescript free program and became a winner, bypassing the "favorites of the public" (this is known, for example, Beatrice Shuba ). In 1968, the first step took place: the cost of mandatory figures was reduced to 50%. In 1972, a short program was added, giving 20%. By 1990, mandatory figures, a short program and a free program were already estimated at 20:30:50. Since 1991, mandatory figures have been completely abolished.

The complexity of the programs increased rapidly: Belousova and Protopopov demonstrated new variants of todes ; Rodnina with Ulanov - unusual combinations of jumps. The standard trick was triple jumping and throwing . In 1988, Kurt Browning was counted as the first quadruple jump - a sheepskin coat .

Almost the entire podium in pair skating was occupied by the USSR and Russia: Belousova - Protopopov , Rodnina - Ulanov / Zaitsev , Valova - Vasiliev , Gordeeva - Grinkov , Berezhnaya - Sikharulidze ... The USSR also had no equal in dancing: pairs of Pakhomov - Gorshkov , Linichuk - Karponosov and Bestemyanova - Bukin brought the USSR many first places.

In women's skating, the rules of the ball were Jutta Müller’s ( GDR ) school, which gave sportswomen such as Seifert , Pötcz and Witt . In the 1990s, the United States temporarily regained its position. The most champion titles among men were for the USA and Canada: Hamilton , Orser , Boytano , Browning , Stoyko . In the post-Soviet years, success came to coach Alexei Mishin , who trained athletes such as Urmanov , Yagudin and Plushenko .

When the strengths of the athletes are close, often the fate of the medal is determined by the subjective decision of one or two judges. In this situation, collusion is not uncommon. One of them was revealed at the 2002 Winter Olympics ( Salt Lake City ). This was the impetus for the emergence of the New Judicial System . The effect turned out to be twofold: on the one hand, the “ hooks ” were put to an end across the rink; ^{[5] An} athlete tries to turn even short dashes into a small path of steps . On the other hand, theatricality disappeared, the programs of different participants became more and more similar to each other: ^[4] athletes prefer to perform not beautiful and unusual figures, but those for which they give more points.

Although there are unofficial records in the New Assessment System, they do not make much sense: throughout the 2000s, the system was worked out and balanced .

In men's skating, the first places were occupied by Evgeni Plushenko , Stefan Lambiel and Brian Joubert . At the 2010 Olympics, American Evan Lysacek sensationally won. In the female - Irina Slutskaya , Miki Ando , Kim Yong-ah and Mao Asada . In pair skating, the pair Totmyanina - Marinin received well-deserved victories; You can also note the Chinese Pan Qing - Tong Jian , Shen Xue - Zhao Hongbo and the international couple Savchenko - Sholkov . The most titled of the dance couples of recent times - Werth - Moir .

Despite the fact that today most of the sports have become professional , ISU still retains the amateur status of competitive skiing. Professionals are not allowed to enter the World Cup and Olympic Games . In 2010, Plushenko was disqualified for professionalism.

Synchronized figure skating is the latest discipline in figure skating. In its modern form, synchronized skating appeared in the USA in the 60s, although the idea of ​​group skating appeared much earlier. For example, in Russia, group ice skating competitions (pairs, fours, eights) were held back in the mid-20s. last century ^[6] , but then this type of popularity did not receive. In the United States, this kind began to develop as an entertainment for spectators during breaks in hockey matches. It turned out that synchronized skiing is a very bright and interesting sport.

The first official synchronized figure skating competitions were held in 1976 in Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA. In 1994, the International Union of Skaters (ISU) officially recognized synchronized figure skating as the fifth discipline in figure skating. In 1996 , the first synchronized figure skating world cup was held in Boston, USA. The first world championship under the auspices of the International Skating Union took place in 2000 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Since the founding of the competition, the leading positions have been held by the teams of Sweden and Finland . ^[7] . This sport is most popular in Canada , USA , Sweden , Finland , Great Britain , France .