Is Ice Skating A Sport? - 2023, CrossFitWereld

Is Ice Skating A Sport
ice skating, the recreation and sport of gliding across an ice surface on blades fixed to the bottoms of shoes (skates). The activity of ice skating has given rise to two distinctive sports: figure skating, which involves the performance of various jumps, spins, and dance movements; and speed skating and short-track speed skating, both of which are forms of racing on ice skates.

Ice hockey is the best-known team sport that involves skating.
Read Scott Hamilton’s Britannica entry on figure skating.) Ice skating probably developed in Scandinavia as early as 1000 bce, the first skates being made from shank or rib bones of elk, oxen, reindeer, and other animals.
It is not known when the metal runner was introduced, but early Dutch prints depict skates with metal blades.

Until the middle of the 19th century the metal portion of the skate was fastened to a wooden base or footplate and the whole of the skate was fastened to the foot with leather thongs or straps. A major improvement came from the United States in 1850 when E.W.

Bushnell of Philadelphia introduced the all-steel skate, which replaced the cumbersome wooden footplate. The main developments in the figure skate after 1900 were the addition of the toe pick, a group of sawlike teeth located at the toe of the blade, which enabled skaters to obtain better purchase in the ice when doing certain jumps, and the innovation of the “closed-toe” blade of one-piece steel, which added strength to the skate and permitted a much lighter-weight blade.

The contemporary figure skate, which is the type best suited for general pleasure skating as well as for figure skating, is easily distinguished from other skates by the toe pick at the front of its blade. The blade itself is about 4 mm (about 0.157 inch) wide.

A hollow ridge along the blade emphasizes its two sharpened outer edges; these are the surfaces on which skating movements are made.
The blade is approximately the same length as the boot or shoe to which it is attached.
The boot, which is usually black for men and white for women, has a strong, reinforced arch support and a stiffening material around the heel and under the arch.

The speed skate is low-cut, allowing for freer movement of the ankle. Its blade is much longer than the shoe (usually between 42 and 46 cm long for men) and only 1 mm (0.039 inch) thick. The hockey skate is a hard, protective boot with a short blade that is curved at the ends to allow for quick turns.

As a recreation skating has been continuously practiced on the canals of the Netherlands since the Middle Ages by both males and females. Skating on the frozen ponds and fens was popular in England in the 17th century, and the first skating club was formed in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1742. In the 1740s British servicemen introduced ice skating to North America,

It was also popular at the French court about 1776; Marie-Antoinette was among the skaters. Napoleon Bonaparte skated at Auxerre in 1781. The development of refrigerated ice rinks started the transformation of ice skating from a seasonal pastime to a major sport and entertainment.

The first rink with artificially frozen ice, a private one, the Glaciarium, was opened in London in 1876. The first artificially frozen rink in the United States was installed in the old Madison Square Garden in New York City in 1879. Throughout the century more and more public rinks with artificially produced ice appeared.

The ability to create sheets of ice inside large arenas gave rise to both skating sports and ice shows, which became a popular family entertainment in the 20th century. It also allowed for ice skating to spread to regions with warm climates. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. Subscribe Now Sports involving ice skating alone were organized by the National Skating Association of Great Britain (1879), the National Amateur Skating Association of the United States (1886), and the Amateur Skating Association of Canada (1888).

These groups, with other national groups formed in the interim, founded in 1892 the International Skating Union (ISU), which thereafter became the world governing body for speed skating, ice dancing, and figure skating.
World championships had begun in the 1890s for speed skating (men only) and figure skating.

Women’s speed-skating world championships were first held in 1936. Figure skating for men, women, and pairs was included in the Olympic program at the 1908 Games in London, and other skating events were added later: speed skating for men in 1924 and for women in 1960; ice dancing in 1976; and short-track speed skating in 1992.

Is ice skating a sport yes or no?

Early 1900s – The International Skating Union was founded in 1892. The first European Figure Skating Championships were held in 1891 in Hamburg, Germany (won by Oskar Uhlig ), and the first World Figure Skating Championships were held in 1896 in Saint Petersburg, Russia (won by Gilbert Fuchs ).

Only men competed in the early events but in 1902 a woman entered the World Championships for the first time: British female skater Madge Syers competed in the men’s competition, finishing in second place behind Sweden’s Ulrich Salchow,
The ISU quickly banned women from competing against men, and established a separate “ladies” competition in 1906,

Pair skating was introduced at the 1908 World Championships, where the title was won by Anna Hübler and Heinrich Burger of Germany. Figure skating was the first winter sport contested at the Olympics; it made its Olympic debut at the 1908 Summer Olympics in London.

On March 20, 1914, an international figure skating championship was held in New Haven, Connecticut,
This event was the forerunner of both the United States and Canadian National Championships,
However, international competitions in figure skating were interrupted by World War I,
In the 1920s and 1930s, figure skating was dominated by Sonja Henie of Norway.

Henie turned competitive success into a lucrative professional career as a movie star and touring skater, also setting the fashion for female skaters to wear short skirts and white boots. The top male figure skaters of this period included Sweden’s Gillis Grafström and Austria’s Karl Schäfer,

Is skating a game or a sport?

Skating, sport in which bladelike runners or sets of wheels attached to shoes are used for gliding on ice or other surfaces.

Why is ice skating a sport?

The definition of a sport – Dictionary definition – So here is the dictionary definition of what a sport is – an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment. Well figure skating seems to fit that definition.

Is ice skating a sport or hobby?

Introduction – Ice skating is the skill of moving over the ice using ice skates. Ice skating is done on ice rink. An ice rink is a frozen body of water where people can skate or play winter sports. Skates, typically, have single blades. Ice skating is considered to be a tremendous sport and recreational activity with no age group restriction.

It has been seen that large group of people has false approach regarding this sport.
They consider it to be a dangerous sport but by paying a little attention one can be a master of ice skating.
A trained, professional skater have a firm grip over ice skating and can perform various complex moves on ice whereas a beginner skater is most likely to fall flat on ice more often than doing skating.

Ice skating can be done for many reasons. It can be for leisure purpose, sports, or even travelling. Ice skating can be of different types such as figure skating, ice hockey or speed skating, Rousette skating and Synchronized skating which are all part of Olympic sports.

Ice skating can be done on artificially prepared ice tracks or on naturally occurring frozen bodies such as a frozen river or water.
The artificial tracks can be indoor as well as outdoor.
Ice Skates Having most popular entertainment sports games like ice hockey, ice dancing and figure skating, ice skating has earn immense popularity all around like a wild jungle fire.

Ice skates are the most basic equipment needed for doing ice skating. What is an ice skate? They are boots having sharp blades connected to its bottom that helps a person to propel on an ice surface. Bottom of an ice skate contains a hollow crescent design two immense sharp edges.

Radius or dept of hollow is of numerous sizes depending upon the following elements: 1- Weight of skater 2- Strength of skater 3- Ability of skater 4- Style of sport 5- Nature of sport (type of skating).
Skates like touring skates and speed skate don’t have bottom which is hollow, that enables the person to make a smooth slide but they are unable to cut ice with ease.

Following are the few types of ice skates: 1- Figure skate 2- Recreational ice skates 3- Speed skates or racing skates 4- Hockey skates 5- Bandy Skates Types of Ice Skating There are numerous types of ice skating that includes Ice Figure Skating, Ice Speed Skating, Tour Ice Skating and Ice Hockey.

Why is ice skating not a sport?

But figure skating is a competition, not a sport, and it has nothing to do with how difficult or entertaining it is. It is simply a matter of how the winner is determined. It is the same for gymnastics, diving, beauty pageants or anything that chooses a champion solely by human judging.

What kind of sport is ice skating?

Speed skating, said to have originated from Scandinavia, is usually done on a hockey rink (File photo credit: Wikimedia commons) Ice skating is essentially skating on ice – by moving the skates on the ice, one can move around the rink (or lake) either for exercise, leisure, traveling or various sports.

Ice skating is a very generic term for four main types of sports – figure skating, short track skating, speed skating and ice skating. Figure Skating Figure skating is a branch of ice skating where individuals, duos, or groups perform on figure skates on ice. The interesting thing about figure skating is their skates.

Unlike Ice hockey, figure skates have a large set of jagged “teeth” in the front of the blade called toe picks. These are generally used for jumping and not for spins. The term “professional” in skating refers not to skill level but competitive status. A picture depicting the blades used for figure skating (file photo credit: wikimedia commons) Speed Skating Speed skating is said to originate from Scandinavia, Northern Europe and the Netherlands. According to the history books, the natives added bones to their shoes so that they could travel accross frozen rivers, canals and lakes with ease.

It wasn’t until the 16th century, that people started thinking of skating as fun.
This is the origin of the sporting we know today.
Speed skating is a competitive form of ice skating in which the skaters race each other certain distance on skates.
There are three main types of speed skating are long track speed skating, short track speed skating, and marathon speed skating.

Does ice skating burn calories?

The average person burns 640-850 calories per hour skating on the ice. The number of calories burned skating will depend on your weight and the intensity of your skate. A 150-pound (68kg) person doing a slow 5.5mph (9kmh) skate will burn 394 calories per hour. A 200-pound (90.8kg) person doing an ice dancing routine will burn the same amount in 17 minutes.

What sport is like ice skating?

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Winter sports or winter activities are competitive sports or non-competitive recreational activities which are played on snow or ice, Most are variations of skiing, ice skating and sledding, Traditionally, such games were only played in cold areas during winter, but artificial snow and artificial ice allow more flexibility.

Playing areas and fields consist of either snow or ice. Artificial ice can be used to provide ice rinks for ice skating, ice hockey, para ice hockey, ringette, broomball, bandy, rink bandy, rinkball, and spongee in a milder climate. The sport of speed skating uses a frozen circular track of ice, but in some facilities the track is combined in an enclosed area used for sports requiring an ice rink or the rink itself is used.

Alternatively, ice cross downhill uses a track with various levels of elevation and a combination of bends. Long distance skating ( a.k.a. “marathon skating”) such as tour skating is only performed outdoors and uses the available natural ice from frozen lakes, ponds, and marshes.

Tour skating at times includes speed skaters, though tour skates are more common. Common individual sports include cross-country skiing, alpine skiing, snowboarding, ski jumping, speed skating, figure skating, luge, skeleton, bobsleigh, ski orienteering and snowmobiling, Common team sports include ice hockey, ringette, broomball (on either an indoor ice rink, or an outdoor ice rink or field of snow), curling, rinkball, and bandy,

Based on the number of participants, ice hockey is the world’s most popular winter team sport, followed by bandy. Winter sports at times have their own multi-sport events, such as the Winter Olympic Games and the Winter Universiade,

Do ice skates melt the ice?

The Chemistry of Water: Ice Skating | NSF – National Science Foundation Speed skater glides on ice. Ice skating works because metal skate blades glide with very little friction over a thin layer of water on the ice surface. At one time, scientists thought skaters created the water layer by melting the surface layers of ice through the pressure of their body weight.

Why do people ice skate?

5 Reasons to Take Your Family to the Rink This Winter – Ice-skating is an increasingly popular way to workout in the winter. With proper training, you can learn the right technique to avoid injury and maximize your aerobic workout. Ice-skating is a fun form of intense cardiovascular exercise which improves balance and builds muscle in your legs and core.

Can ice skating be a hobby?

Itching to pick up a new hobby as your 2022 New Year’s Resolution? Call us biased, but we’ve put together this post to highlight 7 reasons why we think you should give ice skating a try. As an international ice skate manufacturer going strong for over 75 years, we’re proud to offer a wide selection of boots and blades for skaters on any level – beginner, intermediate, and expert.

We even have a casual series with matching styles for kids and adults,
Stick around to read some perks about your new hobby! #1 Stay Active (Especially During Winter Months) Let’s face it, for those of us living in colder climates, it’s much easier to hunker down with a cup of cocoa and your softest blanket during the winter months.

Ice skating provides a reason to stay active a few days a week (or more). That said, if you want to take it easy, it’s possible to skate without much strain. So, it’s a win-win! Speaking of staying active, ice skating is a fun way for parents to promote exercise for children.

Imagine you’re a kid for a moment. What sounds more exciting: Do you want to go exercise? or Do you want to go ice skating? #2 A Hobby for the Whole Family It’s never too late to learn how to skate. Ice skating is a great hobby whether you’re six years old or sixty years old. That means children, parents, and grandparents alike can go out and enjoy gliding through the elements with minimal physical strain.

Meanwhile, you’re building memories that will last a lifetime. #3 Training Resources Are Everywhere From online groups to local education opportunities, you’re in no short supply of lessons and tips for learning how to skate. That goes for amateur skaters as well as professionals.

So, once you’ve mastered the basics, you should find no trouble taking your skills to the next level. #4 Skating Rink Accessibility Depending on your climate, you don’t have to go far to find an ice-skating rink. You can also build your own without much trouble if you have the room on your land. And even in warmer cities, a quick Google search should lead you to an indoor facility without much trouble.

#5 It’s Relatively Inexpensive Maintaining ice skating as a hobby is lower in cost when you compare it to other hobbies. Initially, you’ll spend a few bucks on skates and perhaps lessons. But in the long-term, as long as you take care of your boots and blades, you won’t have to spend much.

Many local community ice skating rinks are free to use unless you want to reserve ice time. But odds are it won’t come to that. #6 The Ice-Skating Community Is Vast & Supportive This activity has been around for millennia. Online community groups on social apps like Facebook or Instagram are a great way to get connected with people on your level – and those who are willing to help out.

New hobbies = new opportunities for making friends and connecting with people on another level. #7 It’s Fun! Finally, perhaps the most important reason to pick up ice skating as your new hobby: it’s a blast! Once you get your skating legs, it doesn’t require much effort on your part to hit the ice and feel the wind in your face.

Some hobbies require a little work to get going and in some respects, that’s certainly true about ice skating, but it’s totally worth it! You Work on Your Craft, We’ve Got Your Ice Skates Covered At Riedell, our ice skate catalog is packed with quality boots and blades. Whether you’re looking for competitor ice skates or something casual for your first pair, our hand-crafted ice skates are expert-designed for comfort and functionality.

Looking to stand out among the crowd? We also offer custom options so you can build the skates of your dreams. Find your local dealer or contact us today to learn more,

How is skating a sport?

What is skateboarding? – Skateboarding, now an Olympic sport, is also a recreational activity, of riding and performing tricks on a skateboard. Riders stand on a flat board, commonly made of wood, with four rollers attached beneath to either showcase skills or commute. A skateboard is primarily made of a flat board, trucks and wheels. (2004 Getty Images)

Is ballet considered a sport?

Is Ballet A Sport? – Ballet Arizona Blog We have all heard the argument, whether or not ballet is a sport? Ballet is an art form and sport, which may be shocking to many. In this form of physical activity, similar to other sports, it requires the participants to go through physical exertion, difficult skills, and the long practice of discipline.

Ballet has strict rules to follow, many of these rules have to deal with posture and form. With this, it helps prevent injury in these artists/athletes. While taking a step back, and forgetting our preconceptions about sports and art, we can see that they are extremely similar. The two require practice and discipline, rehearsals to improve their skills, and mastering their technique through years of dedication.

A sport is an activity, that helps improves endurance, muscular strength, and power. Some sports, like ballet and gymnastics, also increase flexibility and agility. Sometimes dancers will additionally take extra physical conditioning classes, not only to strengthen their bodies, but to correct their form and technique as well.

How some sports are played on a team or individual, ballet has solo and core group opportunities for preforming as well. Everything is rehearsed, as if they are going over a game plan. Being a team evert, their performance is only as good as everyone else’s performance. Everyone has to be in sync when turning or another movement, if not it can throw everyone off or create an injury.

Depending what you are looking for, you can treat ballet how some artists may, with reverence and discipline. Or you can practice ballet, and other forms of dance, as a physical fitness activity. If you or someone you know, are interested in ballet classes, click the button below! : Is Ballet A Sport? – Ballet Arizona Blog

Is skating a white sport?

The sound of the gritty plastic wheels of skateboards rolling on smooth cement echoes throughout Coleman Skate Park just below Chinatown in New York City. The park brims with skaters of all nationalities, including 19-year-old Brooklyn-born Duron. As Duron skates, he performs a “manual,” a trick where the skateboarder rides on the two back wheels of his board, one foot pushing down on the tail and the nose of the board in the air.

Duron has high ambitions of one day turning pro and sees skateboarding as a chance to open new doors.
I got the most grief from other brothers and sisters — from other blacks.” – Ray Barbee This melting pot scene at Coleman Skate Park is emblematic of the world of professional skateboarding, where people of color are increasingly being welcomed by the industry and accepted in skateboarding communities.

These days black skaters are visible in skateparks, suburbs and inner city streets from New York to New Orleans, But diversity in skating wasn’t always the case. Pro-skateboarder Ray Barbee experienced the beginning of that cultural shift. In an interview with The Huffington Post, he said that it was a lack of access, mainly due to economic inequality, that kept skateboarding as a racially homogenous sport for decades.

In the fall of 1983, Barbee went back to middle school after spending the summer learning how to ride a skateboard in San Jose, California. He spent time after school shredding the backyard quarter pipe with a motley skateboarding crew and afterwards jammed in his friends’ punk rock band. Barbee had found a passion and a brotherhood, but he couldn’t escape the flack that came from being a black skater.

“I got the most grief from other brothers and sisters – from other blacks,” Barbee told HuffPost. “And they were always like, ‘Why are you trying to be white?’ And I was like, ‘I’m just riding a skateboard, I love what I’m doing – I hope you dig what what you’re doing.'” Although culturally diverse skaters such as Barbee have gained more exposure since the ’80s, skateboarding started out as a white suburban activity.

The sport has integrated over the last three decades as it’s grown more mainstream in popular culture.
Black celebrities who also skate, such as Lil Wayne, Lupe Fiasco and Pharrell, have changed the assumption of who skaters can be and what they can look like through their presence in the extreme sports.

Skateboarding was pioneered by surfers, which, according to Barbee, was an economically stratified sport. The expenses needed to live near or travel to coastal cities and purchase surfboards and other costly equipment made the sport less inclusive to people of color. Is Ice Skating A Sport Courtesy Vans “You think the ’70s and the park era, and there’s definitely people of color that were skating in the parks,” Barbee said. “But again because the tone was set early on for the practitioners that got into skateboarding from surfing it became predominantly a white thing – that’s just the reality of it.” In the ’70s, private investors built skateparks that mimicked the swimming pool skate bowls, but they didn’t last for long.

“The skateboards and equipment people used at the time weren’t particularly safe and you ended up with a number of injuries,” said Miki Vuckovich, Executive Director for The Tony Hawk Foundation. Many of the skateparks shut down when private companies couldn’t support the cost of insurance, ushering in the backyard wooden ramp era when skaters built structures up to 12 feet wide at their homes.

“Again it’s accessibility,” Barbee said of the newer underground culture. “Now to skate a half-pipe you got to know the dude that owns the ramp. To have to a half-pipe your parents most likely had to have bought their home, have enough property to house a ramp and be able to pay for a ramp.” Is Ice Skating A Sport Aaron Barksdale/Huffington Post While Barbee mentions not encountering discrimination directly from white skaters, he did experience instances of being uncomfortable with undertones of racist iconography in skating counterculture. “It was like everybody was into skateboarding and we indulged in all of the creative aspects of the culture whether it was playing music, making videos, you name it, that stayed pretty undiluted, if you will, that stayed pretty true, and I didn’t have to battle with racism in that aspect.” According to Barbee, street skating in the early ’90s prompted a radical shift that opened the floodgate of diversity. Is Ice Skating A Sport Aaron Barksdale/Huffington Post The industry became more mainstream with the first X-Games in 1995, the first Tony Hawk pro skater video game in 1999, and the extreme sport cartoon Rocket Power, all of which popularized the sport in communities of color where access might be limited.

These watershed moments in the sport made way for new pro-street skaters like Nike’s Theotis Beasley, Baker’s Cyril Jackson and former BET reality TV skater Terry Kennedy. Kennedy, 29, grew up in Long Beach, California where it was difficult to find places to skate. “We just kept skating, pushing each other, meeting up and then eventually starting to progress,” Kennedy told HuffPost.

“From there we ended up getting a skatepark in our city.” In the past decade, skateparks have resurfaced as publicly owned facilities like city ballfields or athletic courts. The Tony Hawk Foundation has been instrumental in building these establishments where youth can have a place to skate safely and legally for free, particularly in low income and marginalized neighborhoods. Is Ice Skating A Sport “The Tony Hawk Foundation works with local advocates and city administrations to help them through some of steps, and to make sure that they’re asking the right questions, and making the right decisions, and creating a good compelling skatepark that’s actually going to attract kids get them to use them,” Vuckovich told Huff Post. Is Ice Skating A Sport

Is ice skating the most difficult sport?

Is ice skating one of the hardest sports? – Ice skating is one of the hardest sports to learn, but it’s also one of the most popular. It takes a lot of strength and balance to skate on thin ice without falling.

Why is figure skating not popular?

FS: Why Figure Skating Will Never be Mainstream Popular I wrote this blog entry awhile ago and decided not to post it. But today, after I saw what the ISU is planning to do with the Scale of Values (SoV) which becomes effective July 1, 2018, this blog entry became more relevant to how I feel, frustrated.

I will be writing a blog entry about my thoughts on the other new rule changes once the decisions are officially published next month but for now, here are my thoughts on why figure skating will never be a huge sport, and in fact, why I think the sport destined to remain only a once in every 4 years popular Olympic event.

As much as I love the sport of figure skating, it will never be mainstream popular with the masses like team sports. Is it trying to be? Perhaps no. The addition of the team event at the Olympics is meant to draw more viewers, however, it does not attract any additional people to become fans of the sport year round, it is just another medal event once every 4 years.

Aside from during the Olympics, the sport of figure skating just doesn’t have the power of mass appeal behind it.
Sure, inside skater fandoms you have fans who live and breathe every moment of the athletes lives, but these are not the masses.
Now, my opinion may be a bit biased because I am based in North America and where I’m from, the most popular sports are major league team sports,

Ice Hockey (NHL), Football (NFL), Basketball (NBA), and Baseball (MLB) are the premium sporting events (and soccer of course). In a rare event, a sport will get a diamond like a Yuzuru Hanyu who has mass appeal. However, as popular as Yuzu is, both in Japan and worldwide, you still cannot say that Yuzu has helped popularize the sport.

Sure, Yuzu has attracted and increased the size of his own personal fanbase, but a lot of these fans are fleeting and follow Yuzu (the skater), not the sport of figure skating itself. Will these band wagon fans stick around once Yuzu retires? I suspect not as many have said as much. The spike in the interest in figure skating will continue to be generated only once every 4 years when the Winter Olympics roll around.

In light of the upcoming ISU Rule Changes expected during the 57th ISU Ordinary Congress meetings June 5-8, I personally don’t think that any of the changes that the ISU decides to make will increase the appeal of the sport to new fans. In my opinion, the proposed changes will do nothing to attract new figure skating fans, only aggravate existing long time fans like myself.

Number of games/events:

Team sports generally have many games in a season in which fans can follow their progress. This frequency generates rivalries and interest in the sport.

NHL: 82 games plus preseason per team MLB: 162 games plus preseason per team NBA: 82 games plus preseason per team NFL: 16 games plus preseason per team

The figure skating Grand Prix series consists of 6 Grand Prix events which culminate in the Grand Prix Final where only 6 skaters in each discipline make the final. Skaters generally only attend 2 of the GP events in hopes to make the final. While Figure Skating is not a league with tons of games (home and away), how does a regular person become a fan of the sport when they barely get to see it? Only 1, maybe 2 GP events per year are within a reasonable time zone to watch. Not enough for fans to develop a serious interest in the sport.

Availability of mediums to watch the sport:

The International Skating Union (ISU) – while the ISU does provide live streams of their events, the key issue with their live streaming is the geo blocking. Due to television rights in certain countries, the ISU streams are not available if your country televises some of the events.

Sports channels in North America do not show the entire event on tv. I understand in the case of the World Championships, trying to televise a 5-6 hour event (SP or LP) is cost prohibitive for them and a bit boring, however generally the tv coverage only shows last 2 groups of skaters. Then, to add insult to injury, sometimes the events are tape delayed and shown a week later. How is showing a live sporting event taped delayed, effective in growing the viewership?? I do not want to watch the Stanley Cup final or the Superbowl Championship a week later! The tv channels in my country have slowly started to increase the amount of live streaming they provide, finally showing both the short and long programs. However, this usually happens only in the couple of years leading up to the Olympics. My point is, if you don’t show the entire event on tv, and if the tv rights contract impacts the ISU streaming access for your country, then I believe that the tv stations that hold those rights should have to provide the streaming for the full event in lieu. Note: CBC is getting better on this – hopefully they keep moving forward with this during all the non-olympic years. Time zones in a global sport are an issue. Casual or aspiring fans are not yet invested enough or do not want to stay up until 3am to watch the events live. This is where I might understand tape delayed broadcasts, however the tv stations could still televise the event live if it is early morning programming with low viewership anyways. With most people having PVR’s they could record and watch at their leisure. The final alternative for aspiring fans is to watch videos on Youtube. Yet tv stations are pulling videos off of Youtube for copyright infringements, again limiting the amount of availability and exposure for new and existing fans. Not enough promotion. With the exception of Japan, the only time I have ever seen real promotion for skating events in North America is during the Olympics. However in between Olympic years, the events are not heavily promoted and unless you are part of the sport, you would not know about the events. The ISU (and it’s member nations) have to wake up and start working with major media networks worldwide (not just in Asia) to develop interest (or recapture lost interest) and promote visibility of the sport!! Even in non-Olympic years, there are plenty of interesting narratives they could build and promote! Educate the viewers, promote your athletes and fans may watch the sport more often!!

Complexity of the sport:

New fans have a lot to learn in order to understand figure skating, a lot more than other sports. This is a pretty big barrier to becoming a new fan of figure skating. Technical elements (jumps, spins, footwork etc) are straight forward if you grew up with them. However, the elements of figure skating (edges, takeoffs and landings) are a lot harder to decipher for a casual viewer, than say a touchdown in football, or a home run in baseball. The judging system is very complex. Trying to understand Base Values, and Grades of Execution are one thing, but the problem is that judging is that it is very subjective. The base values of elements are currently being changed, and to add more confusion to potentially new fans, the ISU is now telling potential viewers and future fans that the difficulty of doing a quad axel is only worth a single point more than a quad lutz. How does this help attract fans when such ridiculous statements in the scoring system are adopted?

It is a judged sport

People want something tangible to support, not just something that is so subjective. When a hockey game is over, the winning team won because they scored more goals than the other team did. In Basketball, the winning team sunk more baskets that the other team and in Baseball, the winning team drove in more players across home plate. In figure skating, every judge has an opinion of whether they liked a skater or not. Not everyone can agree since it’s based on a persons’ likes/dislikes and taste. As long as figure skating is a judged sport, there will continue to be controversies, and no changes in rules will make any difference. What looks amazing to one person doesn’t appeal to another. This is the root of the problem. All fans, all people have different preferences.

Ease of participating in the sport

I once read a question that made me stop and think: why isn’t the NHL as huge as Soccer, NBA, NFL and MLB?? The answer was: because you need an extra skill, you need to be able to skate. This is very much the same problem with figure skating. People get interested in a sport that they can be involved in, in some shape or form. Many fans become fans through having families or close friends involved in the sport. For sports like soccer, baseball, and basketball, all you need are a pair of running shoes, and generally, every kid in the world can participate and enjoy themselves. If you cannot skate, or do not have a local ice rink to go to, then sports like figure skating and hockey are a bit out of reach.

Rule changes:

The proposed changes; Reducing the length of programs, limiting the number of quad jumps, etc., definitely will not draw in new fans. Changing the GOE ranges from +/-3 to +/-5 will not attract new fans. What drives me insane is that the ISU is not looking at the root cause of the problem, the subjective nature of judging (for example, PCS marks are inherently subjective). Changing the minimum age is not a the key problem the ISU needs to address!!!! They are concerning that the young kids are scoring too high, well, take a look at the actual issue, the judging. Issuing a high PCS score for a technically strong program that has no skating skill is the problem, not the age of the skater! If I was a new fan and not invested in the sport yet, these inconsistencies in judging would drive me to stop watching. Seriously. I’m not saying that crazy rule changes are only made in figure skating. Other major league sports have rule changes and those are controversial as well. But when a sport is fighting for a fan base, the impact of any changes are amplified. Changes need to make sense. When they don’t, a sport runs the risk of driving away more fans!

Moving Forward (my venting is over for now): Bottom line – if you want to grow a sport, you have to make it accessible to the people you are trying to reach. You have to make it exciting to watch. Limiting the skaters potential in every aspect of the sport will not achieve this goal!! I think figure skating is just destined to be a very popular Olympic sport with nothing in between. : FS: Why Figure Skating Will Never be Mainstream Popular

What is the 2nd hardest sport in the world?

Degree of Difficulty: Sport Rankings
SPORT	END	RANK
Boxing	8.63	1
Ice Hockey	7.25	2
Football	5.38	3

What kind of sport is ice skating?

Ice skating is a very generic term for four main types of sports – figure skating, short track skating, speed skating and ice skating.
Figure Skating Figure skating is a branch of ice skating where individuals, duos, or groups perform on figure skates on ice.
The interesting thing about figure skating is their skates.

It wasn’t until the 16th century, that people started thinking of skating as fun. This is the origin of the sporting we know today. Speed skating is a competitive form of ice skating in which the skaters race each other certain distance on skates. There are three main types of speed skating are long track speed skating, short track speed skating, and marathon speed skating.

All short track skaters are required to have speed skates, a spandex skin suit (made of kevlar and is cut proof), a protective helmet, protective eyewear with strap, hard shin pads, specific skating gloves, knee pads (in suit), neck guard (bib style) and ankle protection. Crossing the track of another skater while changing his or her own lane, is grounds for disqualification.

When was ice skating a sport?

The sport was first introduced in the 1908 Summer Olympic Games and moved to become part of the Winter Games in 1924. It was one of the first sports with a category for women and the only Winter Olympic sport with women competitors until 1936.

Is figure skating a girl sport?

In 1924, figure skating became the first sport in the Winter Olympics to allow women to compete. But though the men competed under categories for ‘men,’ women could only compete under ‘ladies.’