⛸️Teams

There are exactly six, and the only difference is how the skater leaves the ice. Three are toe jumps, launched by planting the free foot's toe pick: the toe loop from a back outside edge, the flip from a back inside edge, and the Lutz from a back outside edge after a long counter-rotated glide, usually into a corner. Three are edge jumps, launched from the blade alone: the Salchow from a back inside edge, the loop from a back outside edge with feet crossed, and the Axel from a forward outside edge. Because the Axel takes off facing forwards it contains an extra half turn, so a triple Axel is three and a half rotations. Base values rise in that same order.

Each skater's segment score has two halves. The Technical Element Score adds up every jump, spin and step sequence: each has a published base value, adjusted by a grade of execution that judges award from minus five to plus five as a percentage of that base value. A separate technical panel confirms what was performed, assigns levels from B to 4 for spins and steps, and applies calls for underrotation, downgrade or a wrong take-off edge. The Program Component Score then rates Composition, Presentation and Skating Skills from 0.25 to 10.00, multiplied by a factor. Deductions for falls, time violations and illegal elements are subtracted last. The short program and free skate scores are added, and the highest total wins.

The short program is 2 minutes 40 seconds and prescribes exactly seven elements: three jumping passes including a required Axel-type jump and a combination, three spins of different families, and a step sequence. Anything extra earns nothing, and a missed element cannot be replaced, so it is a compliance test under pressure. The free skate runs 4 minutes and allows up to twelve elements, including seven jumping passes, with the skater free to choose content and order. It carries roughly twice the available points and includes the second-half bonus, which multiplies the base value of the last three jumping passes by 1.1 if they start after the halfway mark. Ice dance uses a rhythm dance and free dance instead.

A quadruple Axel is four and a half rotations, because the Axel is the only jump taken off facing forwards, which adds half a turn to whatever the skater completes in the air. It carries a base value of 12.50, the highest of any element in the sport, more than a triple Axel and a double Axel combined. Ilia Malinin of the United States landed the first ratified quadruple Axel at the US International Classic in Lake Placid on 14 September 2022, aged seventeen, after decades in which the jump was assumed to be beyond human capability. He has since made it a routine part of his free skate, and no other skater had landed one in competition as of the 2024-25 season.

For nearly two centuries skaters traced precise geometric patterns on clean ice and were judged on the marks left behind, which is where the name figure skating comes from. Figures once accounted for the majority of a competition's score, but they were slow to judge, impossible to televise, and consumed enormous amounts of ice time in training. The short program was introduced in 1973 to give broadcasters something watchable and reduce the weight of figures, and their share of the score fell repeatedly through the 1980s. The 1990 World Championships in Halifax were the last to include them. Critics argue their loss cost the sport a generation of edge quality; supporters point out that no audience ever paid to watch someone trace a circle.

Pairs is a jumping discipline performed by two people. It includes throw jumps, in which one partner launches the other into multiple rotations; twist lifts; overhead lifts in five permitted groups; the death spiral, in which one partner circles the ice with their head inches above it; and side-by-side jumps and spins judged on unison. Ice dance forbids nearly all of that. There are no throws, no jumps of more than one revolution, and no lift in which the man's hands rise above his head. Ice dance is scored on pattern dance sections with key points, twizzles, step sequences in and out of hold, dance spins and time-limited lifts. In short, pairs is about flight and ice dance is about edges.