Figure Skating

Figure skating always attracts the highest TV ratings of any Winter Olympic sport and without doubt the winners will become household names (for a while) and there is always some drama.

Canadians had high hopes of a figure skating medal with 2008 World Champion Jeff Buttle. However the Torino 2006 Olympic bronze medallist retired unexpectedly in September 2008. He was the face of a lot of Games promotion until this time.

Figure skating has the longest Olympic history of all winter sports. It was on the Summer Olympic Games program in London in 1908 and Antwerp in 1920, and has been included on the Winter Games program since its inception in Chamonix in 1924. Men, ladies and pairs skating competitions were on the 1924 program, and in 1976 in Innsbruck, ice dancing was added.

The Americans and Russians are arch rivals and have dominated Olympic figure skating. In Torino however the Americans did not claim any gold. The Russians won three of the four and a surprise gold went to Japan in the ladies. Yevgeny Plushenko will look to defend his title in Vancouver.

For Australian Cheltzie Lee it is a tense wait to see if she will get to make her Olympic debut. After the qualifying events she is the third reserve for the ladies individual event. This is Australia’s only chance of fielding a competitor.

Australia and figure skating

Australians first competed in figure skating at Oslo 1952. Adrian Swan competed in the men’s individual and placed 10th. Nancy Hallam and Gweneth Molony both competed in the ladies individual placing 14th and 21st respectively. Cameron Medhurst represented Australia at three consecutive Winter Olympics, at Sarajevo 1984, Calgary 1988 and Albertville 1992, where he achieved his best of result of 16th in Albertville.

The brother/sister national pairs figure skating champions Stephen Carr and Danielle McGrath (Carr) also represented Australia at three consecutive Winter Olympics. At Albertville 1992, they placed 13th and then equalled the best performance by an Australian pair with 11th place at Lillehammer 1994. In Nagano 1998 they placed 13th.

Australia’s best Olympic results were achieved by Adrian Swan (Oslo 1952) and Anthony Liu (Salt Lake 2002) who both placed 10th in the men’s individual; Joanne Carter who placed 12th in the ladies individual at Nagano 1998; the pairs Stephen and Danielle Carr, who placed 11th at Lillehammer 1994, and Monica MacDonald and Rodney Clarke who placed 20th at Nagano 1998 in ice dancing.

Competition Format / Events

Men and Ladies Individual
Men’s and ladies’ competitions consist of a Short Program followed by a Free Skating program. The 24 best-placed competitors in the Short Program qualify for the Free Skating program.

The results in each segment consist of a technical score (elements) and a program component score (presentation). The judges’ points for the program components score are multiplied in the Short Program by a factor of 1.0 for the Men and 0.8 for the Ladies. The points in the Free Skating segment are multiplied by a factor of 2.0 for the Men and 1.6 for the Ladies.

The Short Program duration is a maximum of 2 minutes 50 seconds, but may be less. The Free Skating program duration is 4 minutes +/– 10 seconds for Ladies and 4 minutes 30 seconds +/– 10 seconds for Men.

Pairs
The Pairs competition consists of a Short Program followed by a Free Skating program. All entries proceed to the Free Skating program. The results in each segment consist of a technical score
(elements) and a program component score (presentation). The judges’ points for the program components score are multiplied by a factor of 0.8 in the Short Program and by a factor of 1.6 in the Free Skating program.

The duration of the Short Program is a maximum of 2 minutes 50 seconds, but may be less. The duration of the Free Skating program is 4 minutes 30 seconds +/– 10 seconds.

Ice Dance
The Ice Dance competition consists of a Compulsory Dance, an Original Dance and a Free Dance. All entries proceed to the Original and Free Dances.

The results in each segment consist of a technical score (sections — Compulsory Dance and elements in Original and Free Dance) and a program component score (presentation).

The Compulsory Dance is drawn and announced before the first official practice. It will be one
of the Compulsory Dances for the 2009/2010 season, as announced by the Ice Dance Technical Committee through a Communication in May 2009.

The duration of the program is 2 minutes 30 seconds +/– 10 seconds. The rhythm for the Original Dance is Folk/Country Dance. The list of required elements to be included in a well-balanced program for the Free Dance and the specific requirements for those elements are communicated to the skaters. The duration of the program is 4 minutes +/– 10 seconds.

Exhibition Gala

Once the competitive sessions are over, the top skaters will return to perform in an exhibition gala on February 27.