Figure Skating
Those individuals who participate in figure skating definitely make the concept of ice skating look like it is very simple. The reality is that figure skating takes hours of practice each day to get to that point. People love to watch these individuals skate because they combine it with graceful movements, turns, leaps, spins, and jumps. Figure skating can be an individual sport or one that is done with a partner.
Figure skating is the most widely anticipated event of the Winter Olympic Games. There has been plenty of controversy in this even over the years for the Olympics though. Almost everyone is familiar with the events taking place where Tonya Harding hired someone to injury her toughest competition, Nancy Kerrigan during the 1994 Olympics.
Kerrigan was able to recover enough to compete in the Olympic games and she won the silver medal. However she retired from professional figure skating after that. Harding and those she hired for the attack were charged and the media attention about the attack continued for quite some time.
Another controversy took place in 2002 when a French judge for the figure skating competition was accused of being forced to give the Russian team a better score than they deserved. In return the a Russian judge would give favor to the French team in the Ice Dancing competition. Most everyone felt the Canadians earned the gold medal instead of the Russians during the competition.
The allegations could not be proven though and the Russians walked away with the gold medal. There have been reports to both ESPN and Time magazine that other judges from the figure skating came forward and said they were approached with similar deals but declined them.
The points system in figure skating is compiled from a variety of areas. The entire routine is judged for its level of difficulty. This is based on the various types of spins, leaps, and turns that the routine contains. They skaters are also judged on how well they execute each part of the routine. In figure skating there is always the risk of a back landing or something being done out of time even with all of the practice that has been done prior to the performance.
