This once magnificent and wonderful sport, at least in the United States, is fading slowly but steadily. It's also not doing as well as it used to in Canada, where the world championships have frequently filled out massive arenas in Edmonton, Vancouver, and Calgary over the previous 17 years. In America, where figure skating is popular primarily with children and teenagers, it is suffering from reduced funding and popularity after being removed from the Olympics following the 1980 Moscow games. Figure skating has always been a young person's sport. When it was re-introduced by the Olympic Committee in 1892, it was included for men ages 20 to 30. Women were added four years later at the same age range. Back then, there were no age divisions; the only requirement was that you had to be aged 14 or older. In 1924, the age limit was lowered to 18 years old. This is when most people start to get interested in figure skating, because it is during these years that the best skaters are starting to come up through the ranks of the ISU ranking system. Afterward, it becomes more difficult to find good skaters because so many people have tried it out who haven't been able to maintain their interest due to the difficulty of the sport and the expense of going to competitions. The fact that figure skating is becoming less popular is a problem for the future survival of the sport.