page_title: Figure skating
section_title: Other disciplines
hierarchical_section_title: Figure skating / Disciplines / Other disciplines
caption_attribution_description: English: The Haydenettes, the 21-time US Synchronized Skating National Champions at the Senior Level. The Haydenettes, who skate out of Lexington, MA, are the only team in the World which has won a medal at the past four World Championships.
context_page_description: Figure skating is a sport in which individuals, pairs, or groups perform on figure skates on ice. It was the first winter sport to be included in the Olympic Games, when contested at the 1908 Olympics in London. The four Olympic disciplines are men's singles, ladies' singles, pair skating, and ice dance; the non-Olympic disciplines include synchronized skating, Theater on Ice, and four skating. From intermediate through senior-level competition, skaters generally perform two programs, which, depending on the discipline, may include spins, jumps, moves in the field, lifts, throw jumps, death spirals, and other elements or moves.
  The blade of a figure skate has a groove on the bottom creating two distinct edges: inside and outside. Judges prefer that skaters glide on one edge of the blade and not on both at the same time, which is referred to as a "flat edge". Skates used in singles and pair skating have a set of large, jagged teeth called a "toe pick" on the front of each blade. The toe picks are mainly used to help launch the skater into the air for the take-off when performing jumps. Ice dance blades have smaller toe picks than blades used for the other disciplines.
context_section_description: Synchronized skating, formerly known as "precision skating", is for mixed-gender groups of between twelve and twenty figure skaters. This discipline resembles a group form of ice dance, with additional emphasis on precise formations of the group as a whole and complex transitions between formations. The basic formations include wheels, blocks, lines, circles, and intersections. The close formations, and the need for the team to stay in unison, add to the difficulty of the footwork performed by the skaters in these elements. Formal proposals have been put forward by the ISU to include synchronized skating in the 2022 Winter Olympics, but so far these efforts have been unsuccessful.
  Ice theatre, also known as "Theatre on Ice" (or "Ballet on Ice" in Europe), is a form of group skating that is less structured than synchronized skating and allows the use of theatrical costuming and props.
  Four skating is a discipline in which a team of four skaters, consisting of two men and two women, perform singles and pairs elements in unison, as well as unique elements that involve all four skaters.
  Special figures is the tracing of elaborate original designs on the ice. This was a common discipline in the early days of figure skating (hence the name of the sport) and appeared once at the Olympics, in 1908.
  Adagio skating is a form of pair skating most commonly seen in ice shows, where the skaters perform many acrobatic lifts, but few or none of the other elements that are performed by competitive pair skaters.
  Acrobatic skating, also known as "Acrobatics on ice" or "Extreme skating", is a combination of circus arts, technical artistic gymnastics skills, and figure skating.
caption: Lifts performed by the Haydenettes, 26-time U.S. national synchro champions
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