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.
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.
Pick two names from this sport’s all-time list. The larger number in each shared stat is highlighted.
| Stat | Yuzuru Hanyu | Sonja Henie |
|---|
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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.
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 is no single answer, because the sport has been rebuilt twice. On championship count the leaders are clear: Ulrich Salchow and Sonja Henie each won ten world titles, Irina Rodnina won ten in pairs and three Olympic golds while going undefeated for twelve years, and Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir hold the record of five Olympic medals.
The ISU Congress voted in June 2022 to raise the senior minimum age from 15 to 17, phased in at 16 for 2023-24 and 17 from 2024-25. The trigger was the Kamila Valieva case at the Beijing Olympics, where a fifteen-year-old competed while a positive doping sample was unresolved; the Court of Arbitration for Sport imposed a four-year ban in January 2024. The underlying concern was broader.
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