Figure Skating

Back in the 1990's a rivalry was heating up between three equally talented young ladies whose sole desire was to be the best figure skater on ice that the world had ever known. They competed against each other in every major competition, but the results never seemed to change, unless one of them fell on a jump, stumbled on the turns, or slipped out of a rotation. None of it changed, that is until one figure skater's boyfriend attacked another skater. He used a crow bar to hit her on the knee. The damage was so horrible; she could not skate for a few years, let alone complete the competition. At the time, the assailant was not linked to the other skater because he fled and was not caught by police until a few days later.

Sadly, the rivalry was put to rest that day by a decision that would haunt all parties involved to this day. The third skater was not injured in the attack, but she went on to secure her place in the Winter Olympics of that era for the United States team. These three skaters were Kristi Yamaguchi, Nancy Kerrigan, and Tonya Harding. Although Harding insisted that she was innocent in the attack on Kerrigan, she was banned for life from the skating world and has rarely been seen since. Kerrigan had a long road to recovery after her knee was damaged. Yamaguchi went on to do well in the Olympics and still remains a prominent figure skater today.

Figure skating was not always this brutal or competitive. It began in the middle of the 17th century with a group of Scottish skaters who began their own skating club, which was the first of its kind. Not much is known about this club, but it gave birth to other clubs that focused on figure skating. America's first figure skating club was formed in 1849 and was named Philadelphia Skating Club and Humane Society. The goal of this society had four parts: correctly use rescue equipment when skaters fell through the ice, give instruction on how to skate, provide constructive feedback on how to improve one's skating, and create and maintain a friendly feeling among the skaters. In 1870, Mr. Jackson Haines was the first figure skater to combine dance moves, specifically ballet moves, with skating. This routine was set to music. Because of this marriage of dance moves and music, Mr. Haines is credited with being the father of modern figure skating. The International Skating Union (ISU) was formed in 1892 to create and regulate the rules and judging of skating. The 1908 Olympics saw the debut of figure skating and it has evolved to the modern day version of today.

This year, the Olympics will feature many figure skaters, both individual and team skaters. There will be the traditional skaters who will incorporate dance moves, jumps, spins, and flips into their routines, and then there will be the ice dancing teams, which will not have their skates leave the ice. The fact that figure skating has branched out so effortlessly and so beautifully to ice dancing leaves the sport open to new interpretations of the sport and perhaps in a few decades, a new branch of this sport will emerge to be added into the history books.