Figure skating originated in Britain in the 18th century, and then developed rapidly in Germany, the United States, Canada and other European and American countries.



In 1772, a treatise on skating, written by British artillery Lieutenant Robert Jones, was published in London. It is the first book on figure skating in the world. The figure skating competition held at that time was so-called "British style". It was old-fashioned and formal, which was far from modern figure skating.



In 1863, known as the "father of modern flower skating", American Jackson Haines integrated skating with dance art and performed in Europe, which enriched the content and form of figure skating. In 1868, Daniel mey and George mey of the United States performed double skating for the first time.



In 1872, Austria held the first figure skating competition. In 1896, the first World Men's single figure skating championship was held in Petersburg, Russia.



In 1906, the first World Women's single figure skating championship was held in Davos, Switzerland;



In 1924, it was listed as the first Winter Olympic Games, including men's and women's single skating (listed in 1924), double skating (listed in 1924) and ice dancing (listed in 1976).



In 1952, the first World Ice Dance Championship was held in Paris, France. The ice rink of figure skating is 56-61 meters long, 26-30 meters wide, and the thickness of ice is no less than 3-5 cm.



The development of figure skating in China



Skating has a long history in China, and the history of the Song Dynasty has already recorded "Bingxi". After the Yuan Dynasty, Bingxi became more popular. There are records of "ice bed, ice rub" in the Ming Dynasty's "Jisheng at the age of emperor Jing", which all refer to skating on frozen rivers and lakes. During the reign of Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty, a painting of Bingxi Fu by painter Shen Yuan shows such postures as big scorpion, Golden Rooster independence and Nezha exploring the sea. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, in the Beijing Beihai figure skating performance specially for Cixi, there were double action such as double flying swallow and butterfly loving flower, and single action such as morning stirrup and boy worshiping Buddha. At that time, folk ice performances included monkey holding peach, lying fish, kite flying, phoenix spreading wings, body shaking and so on.



Around 1930, Western figure skating spread to China. Some students took part in figure skating in schools in Beijing, Tianjin, Harbin, Changchun, Shenyang and other cities. In 1935, a figure skating competition was held in Beijing. In the winter of 1942, an ice sports meeting was held on the Yanhe River in Yan'an, performing figure skating and free skating.



Since the founding of the people's Republic of China, figure skating has been carried out in universities, middle schools and primary schools in some cities in northern China. Based on the extensive development of mass figure skating, the first national ice sports conference was held in Harbin in February 1953, and figure skating was listed as a competition event. From 1953 to 1980, 25 national figure skating competitions were held. In October 1979, Chinese figure skaters took part in the NHK Cup International Invitational Competition held in Japan. In February 1980, they took part in the figure skating competition of the 13th Winter Olympic Games. In March 1980, they took part in the 70th world figure skating championship.



In 1980, 28 Chinese ice skaters took part in the 13th Winter Olympic Games in Lake Placid, USA, including two time flower skaters who participated in men's and women's single skating competitions. Like other events, Chinese flower skaters are also uncompetitive. Xu Zhaoxiao, the male single skater, only ranks 16th in the 17th place, while Bao Zhenhua, the female single skater, ranks the bottom in the 22nd place. This is the family background of Chinese figure skating at that time.