Figure Skating

Toe jumps are launched by tapping the toe pick of one skate into the ice, and include (in order of difficulty from easiest to hardest):

1) Toe loops, which take off from the back outside edge of the right foot and are launched by the left toe pick (toe walleys are similar, but take off from the back inside edge of the right foot);

2) Flips, which take off from the back inside edge of the left foot and are launched by the right toe pick;

3) Lutzes, which take off from the back outside edge of the left foot and are launched by the right toe pick.

Edge jumps use no toe assist, and include:

4) Salchows, which take off from a left back inside edge. Swinging the right leg around helps launch the jump.

5) Loops, which take off from a left back outside edge and land on the same edge.

6) Axels, which are the only jump to take off from a forward edge (the left outside edge). Because they take off from a forward edge, they include one-half an extra rotation and are considered the hardest jump of the six.

The number of rotations performed in the air for each jump determines whether the jump is a single, double, triple, or quad. Most elite male skaters perform triples and quads as their main jumps, while most elite female skaters perform all the triples except the axel, which is usually double. Only a handful of female skaters have successfully landed triple axels in competition.

In addition to jumps performed singly, jumps may also be performed in combination or in sequence.

For a set of jumps to be considered a combination, each jump must take off from the landing edge of the previous jump, with no change of edge in between jumps. This limits all jumps except the first to toe loops and loops (which take off from the right back outside edge on which the basic six jumps are landed.) In order to use other jumps on the back end of a combination, jumps such as a half loop (which lands on a right back inside edge) can be used, enabling the skater to put a salchow or flip at the end of the combination.

Jump sequences are sets of jumps which may involve changes of edge between the jumps.

The International Skating Union - ISU is the governing body for international competitions. The ISU oversees the World Championships and the figure skating events at the Winter Olympic Games. On March 20, 1914 an international figure skating championship was held in New Haven, Connecticut which was the ancestor of both the United States and Canadian national championships.

The marks for each program run from 0.0 to 6.0 and are used to determine a preference ranking separately for each judge; the judges' preferences are then combined to determine placements for each skater in each program. The placements for the two programs are then combined, with the long program placement weighted more heavily than the short program. The highest scoring individual is declared the winner.

Skaters used to perform compulsory figures, on which they were judged as well. This part of a competition was rarely televised and is no longer a part of major competitions.

For the season of 2004, the ISU has launched a new judging system called the Code of Points. This judging system fundamentally changes the criteria by which skaters are judged. Each individual element within a program is worth a predetermined number of points and the elements are judged based on their execution. As of this writing, there is a great deal of uncertainty related to the execution, merits, an value of the new judging system. Three of the primary criticisms of the new judging system are that the judges mark are anonymous, the system was launched prior to robust testing, and a heavy reliance on technology that has no inherit "checks and balances" built into the system.

Figure skating is a very popular part of the Winter Olympic Games, with the elegance of both the competitors and the movements they perform attracting many spectators. Unsurprisingly, the best skaters show many of the same physical and psychological attributes as gymnasts. Many of the best skaters are from Russia and the United States. The United States is a traditional power in singles skating, in recent years especially dominant in the Ladies' event. Russia and the Soviet Union are dominant in the Ice Dancing and Pairs competitions.

The sport is closely associated with show business, such as "spectaculars" where performers skate unjudged, and the crowd pleasing routines at the end of competition held at many tournaments. Many skaters both during and after their competitive careers also skate in ice-skating exhibitions.

Many fans of more traditional sports find the judging procedures incomprehensible and the universal practice of judges attending competitors' practice sessions dubious in the extreme. It is also generally believed that judges often judge the competitors performance over many competitions rather than just the performance in the competition at hand - competitors must "pay their dues" by consistent performances before they are rewarded by the judges in major meetings. Disputes over judging are not uncommon - most recently, the pairs competition at the 2002 Olympic Winter Games ended in controversy when the Russian competitors edged out a Canadian pairing despite a major error and similar technical difficulty in the routines.

A related but separate event, ice dancing, removes the aerobatic stunts permissible in figure skating and concentrates on the aesthetics of dancing on ice.

• Brian Boitano
• Kurt Browning
• Dick Button
• Steven Cousins
• Robin Cousins
• Scott Davis
• Todd Eldredge
• Tim Goebel
• Scott Hamilton
• David Liu
• Brian Orser
• Axel Paulsen
• Victor Petrenko
• Ulrich Salchow
• Emmanuel Sandhu
• Michael Shmerkin
• Karl Schafer
• Elvis Stojko
• Paul Wylie

Women

• Tenley Albright
• Chen Lu
• Josee Chouinard
• Peggy Fleming
• Dorothy Hamill
• Tonya Harding
• Carol Heiss
• Sonja Henie
• Sarah Hughes
• Midori Ito
• Nancy Kerrigan
• Michelle Kwan
• Tara Lipinski
• Karen Magnusson
• Elizabeth Manley
• Maribel Vinson Owen
• Lucinda Ruh
• Irina Rodnina
• Yuka Sato
• Beatrix Schuba
• Barbara Ann Scott
• Katarina Witt
• Kristi Yamaguchi

Pairs

• Jamie Sale & David Pelletier
• Christine Hough & Doug Ladret
• Barbara Wagner & Bob Paul
• Isabelle Brasseur & Lloyd Eisler
• Ludmilla Protopopov & Oleg Protopopov

Ice Dancing

• Shae-Lynn Bourne & Victor Kraatz
• Marina Klimova & Sergei Ponomarenko
• Jayne Torvill & Christopher Dean

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