ICE SKATING

Three types of skates A figure skate (centre) has a high boot and a wide blade the recreation and sport of gliding across an ice surface on blades fixed to the bottoms of shoes (skates). The sport of ice skating has three main divisions: figure skating, which involves the performance of various jumps, spins, and dance movements; speed skating and short-track speed skating, both of which are forms of racing on ice skates; and ice dancing. Ice hockey is the best-known team sport that involves skating. Ice skating probably developed in Scandinavia as early as 1000 BC, the first skates being made from shank or rib bones of elk, oxen, reindeer, and other animals. Metal was eventually introduced for skate blades, and improvements in skate design during the 19th century resulted in the modern skate. The figure skate, which is the type best suited for general pleasure skating as well as for figure skating and ice dancing, is easily distinguished from other skates by the serrations, or "teeth," at the front of its blade. The blade itself is about 4 mm (about 3/16inch) wide and has a curvature corresponding to that of a circle having a six-foot radius. The blade has a hollow ridge, thereby emphasizing its two sharpened outer edges; these are the surfaces on which skating movements are made. The blade is slightly longer than the boot or shoe to which it is attached. The boot, which is usually black for men and white for women, has a strong, reinforced arch support and a stiffening material around the heel and under the arch. The speed skate is low cut, allowing for freer movement of the ankle. Its blade is much longer than the shoe (usually between 42 and 46 cm [16.5 and 18 inches] long for men) and only 1 mm thick. The hockey skate is a hard, protective boot with a short blade that is curved at the ends to allow for quick turns. As a recreation skating has been continuously practiced on the canals of The Netherlands since the Middle Ages by both males and females. It was popular in England in the 17th century, and the first skating club was formed in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1742. In the 1740s British servicemen introduced ice skating to North America. It was also popular at the French court about 1776, Marie-Antoinette being among the skaters. Napoleon Bonaparte skated at Auxerre in 1781. The first known speed-skating race in England was in the Fens during 1814, and the first race for amateurs took place in 1823. The London Skating Club (for figure skating) was founded in 1842. The first all-steel ice skate that clipped onto the boot was invented by E.W. Bushnell of Philadelphia in 1848. The first American skating club was formed a year later in Philadelphia, and in the mid-1860s American dancing master Jackson Haines demonstrated in Europe a technique incorporating dance movements. The Vienna Skating Club, founded in 1867, used Haines's ideas and developed a Viennese school of skating that resulted in the modern international school of figure skating. The first rink in Canada was opened at Toronto in 1868, and a rink opened at Davos, Switzerland, in 1877. The first rink with artificially frozen ice, a private one, the Glaciarium, was opened in London in 1876, and throughout the century larger and public rinks with artificially produced ice appeared. Crude team games played on ice are mentioned as early as the 2nd century AD, but only in the 19th century did such goal-scoring sports on skates as bandy, shinty, and ice hurling appear in northern Europe. Sports involving ice skating alone were organized by the National Skating Association of Great Britain (1879), the National Amateur Skating Association of the United States (1886), and the Amateur Skating Association of Canada (1888). These groups, with other national groups formed in the interim, founded in 1892 the International Skating Union (ISU), which thereafter became the world governing body for speed skating, ice dancing, and figure skating. World championships had begun in the 1890s for speed skating (men only) and figure skating. Women's speed-skating world championships were first held in 1936. Figure skating for men, women, and pairs was included in the Olympic program at the 1908 Games in London, and other skating events were added later: speed skating for men in 1924 and for women in 1960; ice dancing in 1976; and short-track speed skating in 1992. The rise in popularity of ice hockey from mid-19th-century beginnings coincided with that of pure skating in the 1920s. Ice hockey appeared in the Summer Olympics in 1920 and was included in the Winter Games upon their inauguration in 1924. In 1998 the Olympic competition was opened to include professionals from the National Hockey League (NHL), and women's hockey made its debut. The increasing number of rinks with artificially produced ice throughout the 20th century spread the popularity of recreational ice skating. Ice skating on the Rideau Canal, Ottawa, Canada. Wolfgang KaehlermCorbis ice skating Three types of skates A figure skate (centre) has a high boot and a wide blade that is curved gently all along its length. A hockey skate (left) has a boot that is low in front and high in back to protect the Achilles tendon; its blade is flat in the middle, curved on both ends, and about the same length as the boot itself. A speed skate (right) has a low boot and a thin blade that is essentially flat all along its length; a short-track speed skate has a higher blade, to help the skater maneuver around sharp turns, and a higher boot. Encyclopdia Britannica, Inc. iceberg floating mass of freshwater ice that has broken from the seaward end of a glacier or a polar ice sheet. Icebergs are typically found in open seas, especially around Greenland and Antarctica. They form mostly during the spring and summer, when warmer weather increases the rate of calving (separation) of icebergs at the boundaries of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets and smaller outlying glaciers. In the Northern Hemisphere, for example, about 10,000 icebergs are produced each year from the West Greenland glaciers, and an average of 375 flow south of Newfoundland into the North Atlantic shipping lanes, where they are a hazard to navigation. Thomas F. Budinger The Editors of the Encyclopdia Britannica