The first international competition in men's figure skating was held in Vienna in 1882, and the first world championship was held in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1896. Women's singles were added as a discipline in 1906, and pairs began in 1908.
Figure skating as an Olympic sport actually predates the Winter Games, which were first held in Chamonix, France, in 1924. Figure skating was part of the 1908 London Summer Olympics and the 1920 games in Antwerp, Belgium. It was shifted when the International Olympic Committee decided to create a separate Olympics for sports played on ice and snow. Since its beginning as an Olympic sport, figure skating was contested in three disciplines: men's, women's, and pairs. Ice dancing was added to the 1976 Innsbruck (Austria) Winter Olympics, although World Championships have been held in that discipline since 1952.
Music often chooses you. Something catches a skater's ear, something that says, "I could skate to that," and then you're thinking about what the music says to you, how it makes you feel, something it reminds you of. Without realizing it, you're being inspired, you're becoming involved with the music and how you want to interpret it on the ice. You're hearing places for jumps - a cymbal crash - and another place that seems natural for a spin. Yeah, and this is a Spanish piece, so some sort of black-and-gold outfit, maybe a cropped top like a toreador's outfit!
If two skaters land the same number of jumps, but one had a triple loop and the other landed a triple Axel, the judges are going to give more credit to the skater doing the Axel because it's harder.
What makes an Axel an Axel and a Lutz a Lutz are the edges of the skate blade that the skater takes off and lands on and whether the skater gets takeoff assistance from the toe of the free skate, the one opposite the foot he leaps from. It takes a lot of experience and a keen eye, especially if you're watching on TV, to tell which edge a skater is using. Sometimes the judges aren't sure. But there are clues from a skater's entry into a jump that give away what he's going to do. It still takes practice to learn and recognize the clues, but using the clues is a much quicker way to figure out what's happening.
Let me break down the jumps into a systematic order that will allow you to spot them most of the time. The TV announcer won't tell you every jump, and you'll never hear a rundown in the arena. First of all, as I tell you in Chapter 7, the six basic jumps are classified into two types:
If you see turns, spins, or edge changes in between, you're witnessing a jump sequence, which is nice but not as difficult as a combination, so just score the jumps individually on your Cheat Sheet. Jump sequences are often planned in a long program. But a combination jump is a required element in the men's and ladies' short programs, so if one of the jumps in the combination isn't landed cleanly, or if you see turns, spins, or edge changes in between the jumps, the skater is missing a required element. Deduct two points.
Because all jumps are landed on a back outside edge, any succeeding jumps in a combination must be launched from a back outside edge. There are only two such jumps, the loop and the toe loop.
The toe loop is the easier of the two jumps because you have the extra assistance on the jump of the toe pick pole-vaulting you off the ice. Most skaters need that help because the stress of landing the first jump takes a great deal of strength out of the landing leg. Few women do triple-triple combinations, which is why Tara Lipinski's triple loop-triple loop was such a sensation when she won the 1996 U.S. and World Championships.
Well good luck, all you skaters out there! I hope these tips helped a little! :)