Ice-skating in its simplest form dates back many centuries, with skates made out of animal bones. It became fashionable in the 18th cent. and a London Skating Club was founded in 1842. Speed skating held its first international competition at Hamburg in 1885 and was admitted to the Olympics in 1924. Ice rinks were built in large numbers after one was opened in Manchester in 1877.
ice skating
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Ice Skating, a sport brought to North America from Europe in the 1740s, takes three basic forms. Figure skating, solo or in pairs, includes jumps and spins with varying degrees of difficulty, combined with movement and dance. Speed skating (and short-track speed skating) is racing on ice. Ice hockey is a team sport played on ice. In the mid-nineteenth century, skates were made of steel with straps and clamps to fasten them to shoes. Later in the century, the blade with the permanently attached shoe was developed by the American ballet dancer and vanguard figure skater Jackson Haines, who also introduced the elements of dance and music into the previously rigid form of figure skating.
British soldiers stationed in Canada introduced a game called "shinty," which combined field hockey with ice skates. The game was originally played with a ball, but in the 1860s a puck was introduced. Regulations and associations quickly developed to govern the popular and reckless sport, and in 1892 the Canadian governor general, Frederick Arthur, Lord Stanley of Preston, donated a cup to be given to the top Canadian team after an annual playoff. The Stanley Cup is still the object the National Hockey League (NHL) competes for in its championship games. Professional women's hockey debuted in the late 1990s.
The first recorded speed-skating race in England was in the Fens during 1814. World championships for speed skating (men only) began in the 1890s. In 1892, the world governing body of both speed and figure skating—The International Skating Union (ISU)—was founded. Six years later, the first ISU-sanctioned event was held. In 1914, pioneer figure skater George H. Browne organized the first International Figure Skating Championships of America under the sponsorship of the ISU of America. In 1921, the United States Figure Skating Association (USFSA) was formed to govern the sport and promote its national growth.
As an Olympic sport, figure skating (considered an indoor sport) debuted in the 1908 Olympic Summer Games in London, with competitions held for men, women, and pairs. It became a winter sport at the first-ever 1924 Winter Games in Chamonix, France. Originally, figure skating was executed in a stiff, formal style. Compulsory movements consisted of curves and turns, in or against the direction of movement, and executed to form several circle forms in a row. Although music, more fluid movements, pirouettes, spins, and ever-increasing athleticism were continually added to the performance roster, compulsory figures remained a part of Olympic competition until 1991. Ice hockey was included in the summer Olympics in 1920 and in the inaugural winter games of 1924, where men's speed skating was also an event. Women's speed-skating championships were first held in 1936 and included in the Olympics in 1960. Ice dancing, a figureskating discipline, became an Olympic event in 1976 and short-track speed skating in 1992.
American skaters have won more Olympic medals to date—forty by 2002—than competitors from any other country. The first American Olympic skating gold medal winner was Charles Jewtraw, who won the 500-meter speed-skating event in 1924. That same year, Beatrix Loughran took the silver medal for women's figure skating. The winning tradition continued through the turn of the twenty-first century, with Tara Lipinski winning the gold in 1998, and Sarah Hughes winning the gold in 2002. During the last decades of the twentieth centuries, many Olympic medallists such as Dorothy Hamill, Peggy Fleming, and Scott Hamilton enjoyed lasting popularity, and figure skating competitions became highly watched events.
Bibliography
Brennan, Christine. Edge of Glory: The Inside Story of the Quest for Figure Skating's Olympic Gold Medals. New York: Penguin, 1999.
Smith, Beverley. Figure Skating: A Celebration. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1994.
United States Figure Skating Association. The Official Book of Figure Skating. Introduction by Peggy Fleming. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1998.
| Columbia Encyclopedia: ice skating |
ice skating, gliding along an ice surface on keellike runners known as ice skates.
Skating as a Sport
Skating, besides being an important form of winter recreation and the essential skill in the game of ice hockey (see hockey, ice) has developed into three different sports-speed skating, figure skating, and ice dancing. All three are now features of the Winter Olympic games.
Speed Skating
In speed-skating events, racers may reach speeds as high as 30 mi (48 km) per hr. The Olympic races are around oval tracks at distances of 500, 1,000, 1,500, 5,000, and 10,000 meters for men and 500, 1,000, 1,500, 3,000, and 5,000 meters for women. Short-track skating features skaters in massed starts circling a small indoor oval. In the Olympics men compete in 500-, 1,000-, and 1,500-meter events, with a 5,000-meters relay; the women's races are at similar distances except for the relay (3,000 meters).
Figure Skating
Jackson Haines, an American, revolutionized figure skating in the 1860s, skating to music, bringing balletic movements to ice, and creating new ones. One of the most beautiful and graceful events in all sport, international figure skating requires skaters to perform a short program that includes mandatory jumps and skills, and then a longer program of free selection, both set to music. Judging is subjective and often controversial. Skaters also compete in pairs, seeking through the intricate synchronization of moves and the performance of lifts and jumps to impress the scoring judges.
Olympic gold medalist Sonja Henie did much to bring skating to wide public notice in the United States, and after she turned (1936) professional, the ice carnival became a popular American amusement. Since then traveling ice shows have continued to attract former Olympic skaters who have, since the 1970s, also competed in a series of professional competitions. In recent years, Americans have increasingly taken up competitive figure skating in the hope of repeating the successes of Olympic champions such as Peggy Fleming, Dorothy Hamill, Scott Hamilton, Brian Boitano, Kristi Yamaguchi, Tara Lipinski, and Sarah Hughes.
History
The earliest skates (c.9th cent.), made of bone, were found in Sweden. Wooden skates with iron facings appeared in the 14th cent. Skates made entirely of iron were introduced in the 17th cent. Steel skates, with straps and clamps to fasten them to the shoes, were sold in the 1850s, and later came the skate permanently attached to the shoe. Skating has long been a means of travel in countries with long, cold winters, such as Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia, and especially Holland. There are references to skating in English books as early as the 12th cent. By the 18th cent. skating was not only a means of travel but also a well-established sport. European colonists introduced it early into America and Canada.
Bibliography
See J. M. Petkevich, The Skater's Handbook (1984).
| WordNet: ice skating |
Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words.
The noun has one meaning:
Meaning #1:
skating on ice
| Wikipedia: Ice skating |
Ice skating is moving on ice by use of ice skates. It can be done for a variety of reasons, including leisure, traveling, and various sports. Ice skating occurs both on specially prepared indoor and outdoor tracks, as well as on naturally occurring bodies of frozen water such as lakes and rivers.
Contents |
History
A study by Federico Formenti of the University of Oxford suggests that the earliest ice skating happened in Southern Finland about 4000 years ago.[1] Originally, skates were merely sharpened, flattened bone strapped to the bottom of the foot. Skaters did not actually skate on the ice, but rather glided on top of it. True skating emerged when a steel blade with sharpened edges was used. Skates now cut into the ice instead of gliding on top of it. Adding edges to ice skates was invented by the Dutch in the 13th or 14th century. These ice skates were made of steel, with sharpened edges on the bottom to aid movement. The construction of modern ice skates has stayed largely the same.
In the Netherlands, ice skating was considered proper for all classes of people to participate in, as shown in many pictures by the Old Masters. James II of England came to the Netherlands in exile, and he fell for the sport. When he went back to England, this "new" sport was introduced to the British aristocracy, and was soon enjoyed by people from all walks of life. It is said that Queen Victoria got to know her future husband, Prince Albert, better through a series of ice skating trips; meanwhile Fenland agricultural workers became masters of speed skating. However, in other places, participation in ice skating was limited to members of the upper classes. Emperor Rudolf II of the Holy Roman Empire enjoyed ice skating so much he had a large ice carnival constructed in his court in order to popularise the sport. King Louis XVI of France brought ice skating to Paris during his reign. Madame de Pompadour, Napoleon I, Napoleon III, and the House of Stuart were, among others, royal and upper class fans of ice skating.
How it works
Ice skating works because the metal blade at the bottom of the skate shoe can glide with very little friction over the surface of the ice. However, slightly leaning the blade over and digging one of its edges into the ice ("rock over and bite") gives skaters the ability to increase friction and control their movement at will. In addition, by choosing to move along curved paths while leaning their bodies radially and flexing their knees, skaters can use gravity to control and increase their momentum. They can also create momentum by pushing the blade against the curved track which it cuts into the ice. Skillfully combining these two actions of leaning and pushing— a technique known as "drawing"— results in what looks like effortless and graceful curvilinear flow across the ice. How the low-friction surface develops is not known exactly, but a large body of knowledge does exist. These are explained below. Experiments show that ice has a minimum kinetic friction at −7°C (19°F), and many indoor skating rinks set their system to a similar temperature. The low amount of friction actually observed has been difficult for physicists to explain, especially at lower temperatures. On the surface of any body of ice at a temperature above about −20°C (−4°F), there is always a thin film of liquid water, ranging in thickness from only a few molecules to thousands of molecules. This is because an abrupt end to the crystalline structure is not the most entropically favorable possibility. The thickness of this liquid layer depends almost entirely on the temperature of the surface of the ice, with higher temperatures giving a thicker layer. However, skating is possible at temperatures much lower than −20°C, at which temperature there is no naturally occurring film of liquid. When the blade of an ice skate passes over the ice, the ice undergoes two kinds of changes in its physical state: an increase in pressure, and a change in temperature due to kinetic friction and the heat of melting.
Dangers
The first main danger in ice skating is falling on the ice, which is dependent on the quality of the ice surface, the design of the ice skate, and the skill and experience of the skater. While serious injury is rare, a number of (short track) skaters have been paralysed after a fall when they hit the boarding. An additional danger of falling is injury caused by the skater's own metal blades or those of other skaters. Falling can be fatal if a helmet is not worn to protect against serious head trauma. Accidents are rare but most common with collisions or pairs skating.
The second, and more serious, danger is falling through the ice into the freezing water underneath when skating outdoors on a frozen body of water. This can lead to serious injury or death due to shock, hypothermia or drowning. It is often difficult or impossible for skaters to climb out of the water back onto the ice due to the ice repeatedly breaking, the skater being weighed down by skates and thick winter clothing, or the skater becoming disoriented under water. The skater may even not be able to find the hole he fell through. This may result in drowning or hypothermia, but the rapid cooling can also create a state in which someone can be revived up to hours after having fallen in the water. For safety, one should always bring nails or ice-claws when one is skating on a lake or river. They can help a disoriented skater get a grip on the ice when the skater is in the water. With them, you can pull yourself out of the water.
Communal games on ice
A number of recreational activity games can be played on ice.
- Ice Hockey
- Rousette skating is a recreational event based on ice skating.
- Various tag games with different rules.
- Curling involves sliding heavy, polished granite stones down a strip of ice towards a target.
- Synchronized skating is a team sport involving four to twenty skaters per team.
Synthetic ice
Synthetic ice uses a hard polymer skating surface that can be set up anywhere in any climate. It does not require water, cold weather, chilling equipment, or maintenance equipment. Major strides in synthetic ice technology have been made in recent years, which have brought synthetic ice surfaces from some manufacturers with skating characteristics that are very close to that of real ice.
See also
References
Formenti F. and Minetti A.E. (2008) The first humans travelling on ice: an energy saving strategy?ice skating.
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