page_title: Ice skate
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Ice skate / History
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Eislaufverein Turnhalle Graz aufgenommen am 7. Feber 1909 mit Johann Oberhammer der durch Pfeil gekennzeichnet ist English: Ice skating in Graz, photograhed at the 7. of february 1909
context_page_description: Ice skates are metal blades attached underfoot and used to propel the bearer across a sheet of ice while ice skating.
  The first ice skates were made from leg bones of horse, ox or deer, and were attached to feet with leather straps. These skates required a pole with a sharp metal spike that was used for pushing the skater forward, unlike modern bladed skates.
  Modern skates come in many different varieties, which are chosen depending on the nature of the requirements needed for the skating activity. They are worn recreationally in ice rinks or on frozen bodies of water across the globe and are used as footwear in many sports, including figure skating, ice hockey, bandy, speed skating and tour skating.
context_section_description: According to a study done by Federico Formenti, University of Oxford, and Alberto Minetti, University of Milan, Finns were the first to develop ice skates some 5,000 years ago from animal bones. This was important for the Finnish populations to save energy in harsh winter conditions when hunting in Finnish Lakeland.  The earliest known skate to use a metal blade was found in Fennoscandia and was dated to 200 A.D., and was fitted with a thin strip of copper folded and attached to the underside of a leather shoe.
  William Fitzstephen, writing in the 12th century, described the use of bone skates in London. The following seems to be an Early Modern English translation of the Latin original:
  when the great fenne or moore (which watereth the walles of the citie on the North side) is frozen, many young men play upon the ice, some striding as wide as they may, doe slide swiftly... some tye bones to their feete, and under their heeles, and shoving themselves by a little picked staffe, doe slide as swiftly as birde flyeth in the aire, or an arrow out of a crossbow.
caption: Ice skating in Graz in 1909
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