Team members Individuals | Equipment Figure skates | |
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Highest governing body International Skating Union Olympic Part of the Summer Olympics in 1908 and 1920;
Part of the first Winter Olympics in 1924 to today | ||
Single skating is a discipline of figure skating in which male and female skaters compete individually. Men's singles and ladies' singles are both Olympic disciplines and are both governed by the International Skating Union, along with the other Olympic figure skating events, pair skating and ice dancing. Single skaters perform jumps, spins, step sequences, spirals, and other moves in the field as part of their competitive programs.
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Competitions
Single skating competitions consist of a short program and free skating (often called the "long program"), usually performed within a day or two of each other. At some large competitions, including the World Figure Skating Championships and European Figure Skating Championships, there is a cut after the short program and a skater must perform well enough in the short program to advance to the free skating portion of the competition. Skaters are separated into warm-up groups, and generally there is a draw to decide the skating order. For the long program, the warm-up groups are organized according to a skater's placement after the short program, making skating in the "final group" (or the top six skaters after the short program) a goal of many competitors.
Short program
Short programs at the senior and junior levels are two minutes and fifty seconds long. Skaters are penalized if they skate over that time limit.
Skaters must perform certain required elements as part of the program. These elements have varied over the years. The short program is the more exacting of the programs because all the required elements must be completed.
Free skating
International Skating Union (ISU) regulations state:
Free skating consists of a well balanced program of free skating elements, such as jumps, spins, steps and other linking movements executed with a minimum of two footed skating in harmony with music of the competitor's choice.
The free skating programs are 4 1⁄2 minutes for men, 4 minutes for ladies. Skaters are allowed a time margin of +/- 10 seconds, and are penalized for going outside that range.
Judging
Figure skaters competing in an ISU-sanctioned event are judged under the ISU Judging System.
Music, clothing, and skates
Competitors often choose music in consultation with their coach and choreographer. For long programs, skaters generally search for music with different moods and tempos. In competitive programs, vocal music is allowed only if it contains no lyrics or words, however, judges do not always penalize violations. At the 2011 World Championships, Florent Amodio's long program music included words but an insufficient number of judges voted to penalize it. In June 2012, the International Skating Union voted to allow music with words in competitive programs beginning in the 2014–15 season.
Figure skates for single skaters possess a larger set of jagged teeth called toe picks on the front of the blade than skates used by ice dancers. The toe picks are used primarily in jumping and footwork. The inside edge of the blade is on the side closest to the skater; the outside edge of the blade is on the side farthest from the skater. In figure skating it is always desirable to skate on only one edge of the blade, never on both at the same time (which is referred to as a flat). The apparently effortless power and glide across the ice exhibited by elite figure skaters fundamentally derives from efficient use of the edges to generate speed.
Skaters and family members may design their own costumes or turn to professional designers.