Figure skating | History & Competitions (2024)

Pioneers of the sport

A Treatise on Skating (1772) by Robert Jones, an Englishman, is apparently the first account of figure skating. The sport had a cramped and formal style until American Jackson Haines introduced his free and expressive techniques based on dance movement in the mid-1860s. Although popular in Europe, Haines’s style (called the International style) did not catch on in the United States until long after he had died at the age of 35.

In the early 20th century, Americans Irving Brokaw and George H. Browne helped formalize the style created by Haines by demonstrating it to American audiences. Brokaw, the first American to represent the country at international competitions, participated in the 1908 Olympics, where he finished sixth. Browne, who organized the first U.S. championships in 1914 for men, women, and pairs, wrote two important books on skating and was involved in the establishment of a national skating organization.

Canadian Louis Rubenstein, a former student of Jackson Haines, was also instrumental in the development of figure skating. He led the effort to formalize competitions and tests by establishing governing bodies for skating in the United States and Canada. He helped organize the Amateur Skating Association of Canada (now called Skate Canada) and the National Amateur Skating Association of the United States. The latter organization and the International Skating Union of America (founded in 1914), which had American and Canadian members, were the predecessors of the United States Figure Skating Association (USFSA), founded in 1921. Established with only seven skating clubs across the nation, by the 21st century it oversaw more than 400 clubs with some 100,000 members.

The International Skating Union (ISU), founded in the Netherlands in 1892, was created to oversee skating internationally. It sanctions speed skating as well as figure skating and sponsors the world championships held annually since 1896. With more than 50 member nations, the ISU establishes rules about the conduct of skating and skating competitions.

Also notable for their important contributions to the sport of figure skating are Axel Paulsen, Ulrich Salchow, and Alois Lutz. Each man created a jump that is now named after him. Paulsen, a Norwegian equally expert in figure and speed skating, introduced his jump in Vienna in 1882 at what is generally regarded as the first international championship. The “axel” was later perfected by Swedish figure skater Gillis Grafström. Salchow of Sweden first performed his trademark jump (the “salchow”) in competition in 1909. In London in 1908 he also won the first Olympic gold medal given for figure skating. Lutz, an Austrian, invented his jump (the “lutz”) in 1913.

While the English diarist Samuel Pepys claimed to have danced on the ice during London’s hard winter of 1662, modern ice dancing most likely developed out of the Vienna Skating Club’s adaptation of the waltz in the 1880s. The sport grew rapidly in popularity during and after the 1930s. Although the first U.S. national championship for ice dancing was held in 1914, it did not become an Olympic sport until 1976.

20th-century champions

Figure skating currently contains more female than male participants, but this has not always been the case. At the first world championships, held in St. Petersburg in 1896, only a men’s event was skated. Pairs were not introduced until 1908 and ice dancing not until 1952. The first woman to participate in a world championship event, Madge Syers of Great Britain, did so in 1902. Because the rules did not specify the sex of participants, Syers entered the world championships held in London, and she finished second only to Salchow, who offered her his gold medal because he thought she should have won the event. The next year the ISU rules were changed to specify that women could not enter the event, but a separate women’s category, which Syers won for the first two years, was finally created three years later.

Twenty-one years later Sonja Henie emerged as the first major female skating star. She reigned as world champion from 1927 to 1936 and parlayed her fame into a Hollywood career. Winning her first world title at the age of 14, she was the youngest champion until Tara Lipinski won the world championship in 1997 at an age two months younger than Henie. Lipinski also dethroned Henie as the youngest female Olympic champion by winning the gold medal in 1998 when she was 15. Canadian Barbara Ann Scott, the first non-European to win a world championship, became a professional skater, as did both Henie and Lipinski, after she won an Olympic gold medal in 1948.

Dick Button was the first great American male star of the 20th century. Now regarded as the “voice of figure skating,” he won five world titles (from 1948 through 1952) and two Olympic gold medals (1948 and 1952) along with seven U.S. national championships (from 1947 through 1953). Button also completed a double axel at the 1948 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz, Switzerland, the first skater to land such a jump in competition. While Button’s success paved the way for the emergence of more multirevolution jumps in figure skating, other male skaters developed different aspects of the sport. Karl Schäfer, for example, introduced new elements into spinning by creating a “blur spin,” or scratch spin, where the skater rapidly spins on one foot in an upright position.

The U.S. figure-skating community was devastated in 1961 by a plane crash that killed the entire U.S. team. The team was on its way to Prague for the world championships when the plane crashed on approach to Brussels. The championships were canceled. Although the United States had lost such potential world champions as Laurence Owen, American skating returned to world prominence in 1966 when Peggy Fleming, renowned for her elegance and grace, won the women’s world title in Davos, Switzerland, and an Olympic gold medal two years later in Grenoble, France. Fleming followed in the footsteps of such great American Olympic champions as Tenley Albright (1956) and Carol Heiss (1960). Janet Lynn, an Olympic bronze medalist in 1972 in Sapporo, Japan, and Dorothy Hamill, an Olympic gold medalist in 1976 at Innsbruck, Austria, were also part of the ascension of women’s skating in the United States. New coaches who went to the United States included Carlo Fassi, an Italian singles champion in the 1940s and ’50s. He coached Americans Fleming and Hamill as well as British Olympic champions John Curry and Robin Cousins.

Katarina Witt of East Germany, dominating women’s singles in a manner that had not been seen since Henie, won Olympic gold medals at both the 1984 (Sarajevo, Yugoslavia) and 1988 (Calgary, Alberta) Winter Games. American Scott Hamilton (see Sidebar: Scott Hamilton: Training for Olympic Gold) won four world championships (1981–84) as well as an Olympic gold medal in 1984. Earlier, American brothers Hayes and David Jenkins had won successive Olympic gold medals at the 1956 and 1960 Games. Brian Boitano continued the American Olympic dominance by winning the gold medal in 1988.

While the United States continued to produce singles champions, the Soviet Union was the master of pairs. French pairs skaters Andrée and Pierre Brunet won Olympic gold medals in both 1928 and 1932, but the dominance of the Soviet Union became apparent in the 1960s and lasted into the 21st century. Lyudmila Belousova and Oleg Protopopov won Olympic gold medals at the 1964 (Innsbruck) and 1968 (Grenoble) Games. Irina Rodnina won three Olympic gold medals (from 1972 through 1980) with two different partners, Aleksey Ulanov and Aleksandr Zaytsev. This dominance continued into the 1980s when Yelena Valova and Oleg Vassilyev won the gold in 1984 (Sarajevo). Yekaterina Gordeeva and Sergey Grinkov won the gold twice (1988 and 1994), as did Artur Dmitriyev (1992 and 1998) with two different partners, Natalya Mishkutenok and Oksana Kazakova. The 2002 Olympic gold medal was shared by two pairs because of a judging controversy—Yelena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze of Russia and Jamie Salé and David Pelletier of Canada.

Ice dancing was introduced as an Olympic event in 1976, and Soviet teams dominated the sport. Teams from that country won an Olympic gold medal in 1976 (Lyudmila Pakhom*ova and Aleksandr Gorshkov), 1980 (Natalia Linichuk and Gennady Karponosov), 1988 (Natalia Bestemianova and Andrey Bukin), 1992 (Marina Klimova and Sergey Ponomarenko), and 1994 and 1998 (Oksana Grichuk and Yevgeny Platov). However, Great Britain’s Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean took the gold in 1984, and Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat of France placed first in 2002, winning France’s first gold medal in figure skating since 1932.

Theories vary on the reason for the dominance of the former Soviet Union. One school of thought says the political and cultural forces in the country emphasized group accomplishments over individual achievement. The cultural emphasis on dance and ballet may also have been a factor, as well as the inclination of pairs and dance teams to stay together, since athletes were rewarded handsomely under the Soviet regime. Furthermore, the top singles coaches resided not in Russia but in western Europe and the United States. With the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, however, many Russian coaches and their skaters moved to the United States to take advantage of its superior training facilities. European and American pairs and dance teams benefited from Russian coaching, and the gap between Russia and the rest of the world began to close. At the same time, the Russians began to produce better singles skaters, partially because of access to American facilities and coaching and partially because they used different training techniques, which set them apart. Russians began to dominate men’s figure skating in 1992 when Viktor Petrenko won the Olympic gold medal. In 1994 Aleksey Urmanov won the Olympic gold medal, while Ilya Kulik won it in 1998 and Aleksey Yagudin in 2002.