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Figure Skating Disciplines—Synchronized Skating

Figure skating legend Dick Button is fond of saying that the goal of pairs figure skating is to have two figure skate as one. If this motto is further applied to synchronized skating, then the goal would be to have many skate as one. This fast-growing sport involves individually strong figure skaters coming together to perform formations and transformations as a group. Routines typically involve spins, step sequences, circle formations, kicklines, and pinwheels. Judges look for qualities such as unison, intricacy, and originality.

At the Senior level, teams are made up of 16 to 20 skaters. They perform two routines set to music during a competition. The short program, which lasts 2 minutes and 40 seconds, focuses on required elements. The free skate is four-and-a-half minutes long. Judges give scores for technical merit and presentation for both programs. No jumps of more than one revolution are allowed.

According to the United States Figure Skating Association, the first group of team skaters was assembled in 1954 in Ann Arbor, Michigan, to perform during breaks of the University of Michigan ice hockey games. Official national championships for synchronized skating began in the United States in 1984. Ten years later, the International Skating Union recognized synchronized skating as a discipline, paving the way for the first official World Synchronized Skating Championship in 2000. The event drew 21 teams from 16 countries. Athletes involved in the sport hope that the next step will be to include synchronized skating in the Olympics.

A team from Lexington, Mass., known as the Haydenettes won the U.S. Synchronized Team Skating Championship in 2004 and finished fourth at the worlds. This past October, The Haydenettes became the first synchronized skating team ever to be honored by SKATING magazine with the Reader's Choice Skater of the Year Award.

—Beth Braccio Hering

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