Demise and revival of compulsory figures

Compulsory figures (or school figures) were formerly a segment of figure skating, and gave the sport its name. They are the "circular patterns which skaters trace on the ice to demonstrate skill in placing clean turns evenly on round circles".^[3] Until 1967, compulsory figures made up 60 percent of the total score at most competitions around the world.^[4] These figures continued to dominate the sport, although they steadily declined in importance, until the International Skating Union (ISU) voted to discontinue them as a part of competitions in 1990.^[1][5] Learning and training in compulsory figures instilled discipline and control; some in the figure skating community considered them necessary to teach skaters basic skills.^[6][7] Skaters would train for hours to learn and execute them well, and competing and judging figures would often take up to eight hours during competitions.^[8][9]

The number of figures skaters were required to trace in competition was first lowered from twelve to six in 1946.^[4] Compulsory figures began to be progressively devalued in 1967 when the values of both compulsory figures and free skating were changed to 50 percent.^[5] In 1973, the number of figures was decreased again from six to three, and their overall weight was decreased to 30 percent, to make room for the introduction of the short program. In 1977, the pool of possible figures from which those used in a competition were drawn decreased to six, while the number skaters competed remained at three.^[1][10][11]

Hines states that the decrease in the importance of compulsory figures was due to "the unbalanced skating"^[12] of women skaters such as Beatrix "Trixi" Schuba of Austria, whom Hines called "the last great practitioner of compulsory figures".^[12] Schuba won several medals in the late 1960s and early 1970s based upon the strength of her figures, despite her lower results in free skating. As Hines states, "she could not be defeated under a scoring system that gave preference to figures".^[12] Before Schuba, discrepancies between a skater's ability in the figures and the free skating rarely attracted much notice; during her career, however, she defeated skaters such as Janet Lynn, who were more skilled in free skating, which viewers often found confusing. At the 1971 World Championships, for example, Schuba was 7th in the free skate and won the gold medal, while Lynn was first in the free skate but only fifth in the figures, which meant that mathematically she could not win a medal despite scores ranging from 5.8 to 6.0 for her free skate. The crowd booed the results at the victory ceremony.^[13]

Hines also credited television coverage of figure skating, which helped to increase the popularity of the sport, with the eventual demise of compulsory figures. Television audiences were not exposed to the compulsory figures segments of competitions, so they did not understand why the results contradicted what they saw in free skating segments.^[11] Sports writer Sandra Loosemore agreed, stating that television was "the driving force"^[10] for the rule changes regarding figures in 1968 and the years following. Figures were not televised because they were not exciting enough, so viewers "found it incomprehensible that competitions could be won by skaters who had built up huge leads in the figures portion of the event but gave mediocre performances in the part of the competition shown on TV".^[10] They were also difficult to capture on camera; while pieces on them were created for the 1980, 1984, and 1988 Olympics, capturing figures required camera operators to shoot from above, and the tracings were not always visible, especially on white ice.^[13]

Loosemore attributed the decrease in the importance of figures to a "lack of public accountability"^[10] from the judges of international competitions and other discrepancies in judging, which Loosemore called "dirty judging".^[10] She speculated that television coverage of the sport, which brought more attention to how it was judged, was also responsible, and "since figures competitions weren't televised, fans could not be certain that the judges were on the level".^[10]

Loosemore also speculated that "the relative scarcity of rinks and practice ice for figures in Europe as compared to North America"^[10] ultimately made the difference in the removal of figures from competitions. Kestnbaum agreed, stating that the elimination of figures was motivated by finances, with countries with an affluent middle class or government-supported training for athletes having more of a competitive advantage over less affluent and smaller countries with fewer ice rinks and resources to spend the time necessary to train for proficiency in figures.^[14] In 1991, Kashio Takizawa, then-president of the Japan Skating Federation, noted that Japanese skaters struggled with figures because there were few rinks in the country and skaters rarely had ice clean enough to see their tracings to practice on.^[15] By the late 1970s and into the 1980s, there were discussions about eliminating them from international competitions.^[14]

In 1988, the ISU voted to remove compulsory figures from international single skating competitions, for both men and women, starting in the 1990–1991 season.^[1] Louise Radnofsky of The Wall Street Journal called the decision "a crowd-pleasing change".^[2]

Of 31 voting national associations, only the U.S., Canada, Britain, and New Zealand voted against the decision.^[1] The last two seasons that compulsory figures were competed at an international competition were in 1989 and 1990; only two figures were skated, and they were worth only 20 percent of the competitors' overall scores.^[10][14] Željka Čižmešija from Yugoslavia skated the last compulsory figure in international competition, at the World Championships in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on 7 March 1990.^[16]

The U.S. created a separate track for figures instead of immediately eliminating them as most other countries did, and was the last skating federation to include figures at its national championships, at the 1999 U.S. Figure Skating Championships. Its governing council, due to dwindling participation in figures since the ISU ended them in international competitions, finally voted to end them, even at the lower levels of its competitions and for their proficiency tests, in the summer of 1997. Canada also voted to end figures for their proficiency tests in 1997.^[10] According to Loosemore, the U.S.' decision to replace the remaining figure proficiency test requirements for competition eligibility in the mid-1990s with moves in the field to test skating proficiency "killed figures as a separate competition discipline".^[10] Sports writer Randy Harvey of the Los Angeles Times predicted that the free skate would become the focus in international competitions.^[9] Hines, quoting Italian coach Carlo Fassi, predicted in 2006 that the elimination of figures would result in younger girls dominating the sport, a statement Hines called "prophetic".^[17]

According to Loosemore, after figures were no longer required, most skaters stopped doing them, resulting in rinks cutting back on the amount of time they offered to skaters who wanted to continue to practice them and a reduction in the number of judges capable of scoring them.^[10] Despite the apparent demise of compulsory figures from figure skating, coaches continued to teach figures and skaters continued to practice them because figures gave skaters an advantage in developing alignment, core strength, body control, and discipline.^[6] Proponents stated that figures taught basic skating skills, insisting that if skaters did not become proficient in figures, they would not be able to perform well-done free skating programs.^[7][9] American champion and figure skating writer John Misha Petkevich disagrees, stating that the skills needed for proficiency in figures were different than what was needed for free skating, and that the turns and edges learned in figures could be learned in free skating as easily and efficiently.^[18]