About Figure Skating
Figure skating, as its name suggests, involves skating "figures" on ice. The sport requires competitors to skate selected patterns, or figures, as part of their routines. Ice skating has developed from a practical way to get around on ice into the elegant mix of art and sport it is today.
What are the rules of figure skating?
Skaters must perform a set number of jumps in each routine in singles and pairs events and follow a set theme in ice dancing. Falls and other penalties are penalised with points deductions. The total score counts for the overall result.
How is figure skating scored?
There are two key parts to a figure skating score under the current ISU Judging System: technical elements (TES) and program components (PCS). In simple terms, TES measures the routine's technicality (such as jump difficulty and how well-executed each element—jumps, spins, et cetera—is performed) and PCS measures the routine's performance (such as music and choreography). The two parts combined determines the score for the segment (short program, rhythm dance, free skating, or free dance). A skater's final overall score is made up of the two different segment scores.
What are the different jumps in figure skating?
Single, double, triple, and quadruple jumps have been performed in figure skating. The jumps are: Axel, Euler (only single jumps, also known as a half loop), flip, loop (also sometimes called a Rittberger), Lutz, Salchow, and toe loop.
sports
NZ Fast facts
Olympic Games
- No. of athletes
- 1
- No. of games
- 1
- First appearance
- 2024
