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The demise and revival of compulsory figures occurred, respectively, in 1990, when the International Skating Union (ISU) removed compulsory figures from international single skating competitions, and beginning in 2015, when the first competition focusing entirely on figures took place. Compulsory figures, which is defined as the "circular patterns which skaters trace on the ice to demonstrate skill in placing clean turns evenly on round circles", dominated figure skating for the first 50 years of the sport, although they progressively declined in importance. Skaters would train for hours to learn and execute them well, and competing and judging figures would often take up to eight hours during competitions. Judging scandals and the broadcasts of figure skating on television have been cited as the reason for the decline of figures. The U.S. was the last country to include figures in their competitions, until 1999. The elimination of figures resulted in the increase of focus on the free skating segment and in the domination of younger girls in the sport. Most skaters stopped training with figures, although many coaches continued to teach figures and skaters continued to practice them because figures taught basic skating skills and gave skaters an advantage in developing alignment, core strength, body control, and discipline.
The World Figure Sport Society (WFSS) is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the revival of Figures and Fancy Skating and not just compulsory figures, which were formerly a segment of figure skating and gave the sport its name. Figures are the "circular patterns which skaters trace on the ice to demonstrate skill in placing clean turns evenly on round circles". For approximately the first 50 years of figure skating as a sport, until 1947, compulsory figures made up 60 percent of the total score at most competitions around the world. These figures continued to dominate the sport, although they steadily declined in importance, until the International Skating Union (ISU) voted to discontinue them as a part of competitions in 1990.
References
- 1 2 Johnson, David M. (March 11, 2013). "Former Olympic figure skater Karen Courtland Kelly to teach at Reform Pilates". The Saratogian. Archived from the original on April 11, 2013.
- ↑ "World Figure Sport Society #36". www.skatepsa.com. Archived from the original on 2018-02-26.
- Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Karen Courtland". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 2020-04-18.
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