Ice skating competition and federation management

Ice skating is the self-propulsion and gliding of a person across a flat ice surface, using metal-bladed ice skates. People skate for various reasons, including recreation (fun), exercise, competitive sports, and commuting. Ice skating may be performed on naturally frozen bodies of water, such as ponds, lakes, canals, and rivers, and on human-made ice surfaces both indoors and outdoors.

Natural ice surfaces used by skaters can accommodate a variety of winter sports which generally require an enclosed area, but are also used by skaters who need ice tracks and trails for distance skating and speed skating. Man-made ice surfaces include ice rinks, ice hockey rinks, bandy fields, ice tracks required for the sport of ice cross downhill, and arenas.

Various formal sports involving ice skating have emerged since the 19th century. Ice hockey, bandy, rinkball, and ringette are team sports played with, respectively, a flat sliding puck, a ball, and a rubber ring. Synchronized skating is a unique artistic team sport derived from figure skating. Figure skating, ice cross downhill, speed skating, and barrel jumping (a discipline of speed skating) are among the sporting disciplines for individuals.

Research suggests that the earliest ice skating happened in southern Finland more than 4,000 years ago. This was done to save energy during winter journeys. True skating emerged when a steel blade with sharpened edges was used. Skates now cut into the ice instead of gliding on top of it. The Dutch added edges to ice skates in the 13th or 14th century. These ice skates were made of steel, with sharpened edges on the bottom to aid movement.

The fundamental construction of modern ice skates has stayed largely the same since then, although differing greatly in the details, particularly in the method of binding and the shape and construction of the steel blades. In the Netherlands, ice skating was considered proper for all classes of people, as shown in many pictures from Dutch Golden Age painters.

Ice skating was also practiced in China during the Song dynasty, and became popular among the ruling family of the Qing dynasty. Ancient ice skates, made of animal bones, were found at the bronze age Gaotai Ruins in north west China, and are estimated to be likely 3,500 years old. Archeologists say these ancient skates are "clear evidence for communication between China and Europe" in the Bronze Age era, as they are very similar to bone skates unearthed in Europe.

In England "the London boys" had improvised butcher's bones as skates since the 12th century. Skating on metal skates seems to have arrived in England at the same time as the garden canal, with the English Restoration in 1660, after the king and court returned from an exile largely spent in the Netherlands. In London the ornamental "canal" in St James's Park was the main centre until the 19th century. Both Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn, the two leading diarists of the day, saw it on the "new canal" there on 1 December 1662, the first time Pepys had ever seen it ("a very pretty art"). Then it was "performed before their Majesties and others, by diverse gentlemen and others, with scheets after the manner of the Hollanders". Two weeks later, on 15 December 1662, Pepys accompanied the Duke of York, later King James II, on a skating outing: "To the Duke, and followed him in the Park, when, though the ice was broken, he would go slide upon his skates, which I did not like; but he slides very well." In 1711 Jonathan Swift still thinks the sport might be unfamiliar to his "Stella", writing to her: "Delicate walking weather; and the Canal and Rosamund's Pond full of the rabble and with skates, if you know what that is."

The first organised skating club was the Edinburgh Skating Club, formed in the 1740s; some claim the club was established as early as 1642.An early contemporary reference to the club appeared in the second edition (1783) of the Encyclopædia Britannica:

The metropolis of Scotland has produced more instances of elegant skaters than perhaps any country whatever: and the institution of a skating club about 40 years ago has contributed not a little to the improvement of this elegant amusement.From this description and others, it is apparent that the form of skating practiced by club members was indeed an early form of figure skating rather than speed skating. For admission to the club, candidates had to pass a skating test where they performed a complete circle on either foot (e.g., a figure eight), and then jumped over first one hat, then two and three, placed over each other on the ice.

On the Continent, participation in ice skating was limited to members of the upper classes. Emperor Rudolf II of the Holy Roman Empire enjoyed ice skating so much, he had a large ice carnival constructed in his court in order to popularise the sport. King Louis XVI of France brought ice skating to Paris during his reign. Madame de Pompadour, Napoleon I, Napoleon III, and the House of Stuart were, among others, royal and upper-class fans of ice skating.

The next skating club to be established was in London and was not founded until 1830. Members wore a silver skate hanging from their buttonhole and met on The Serpentine, Hyde Park on 27 December 1830.

By the mid-19th century, ice skating was a popular pastime among the British upper and middle classes. Queen Victoria became acquainted with her future husband, Prince Albert, through a series of ice skating trips. Albert continued to skate after their marriage and on falling through the ice was once rescued by Victoria and a lady in waiting from a stretch of water in the grounds of Buckingham Palace.

Early attempts at the construction of artificial ice rinks were made during the "rink mania" of 1841–44. As the technology for the maintenance of natural ice did not exist, these early rinks used a substitute consisting of a mixture of hog's lard and various salts. An item in the 8 May 1844 issue of Littell's 'L