I Was A Nationally-Ranked Pair Figure Skater. Here Are 7 Things People Don't Know About The Sport

I competed successful brace skating with my older member for respective years. Along the way, I was injured aggregate times and learned the hard mode precisely however unsafe fig skating tin be.

I person heavy respect for the Olympic brace skaters and the risks they are taking retired connected that slippery aboveground portion balancing connected blades that are lone 4mm wide. So, yes, I’ll beryllium watching the Olympic brace skating events passim the 2026 Winter Olympics. I’ll besides beryllium stress-sweating and grinding my teeth the full time.

Here are immoderate things you whitethorn not cognize astir this unthinkable sport, from idiosyncratic who utilized to compete:

1. Despite its morbid name, the alleged Death Spiral is the slightest unsafe of beauteous overmuch each the different elements.

2. Ice is slippery but truthful are hands and those spandex costumes.

3. All of these gravity-defying tricks person been mastered disconnected the crystal archetypal and are portion of a full cumulative progression.

4. Women's brace skaters get wounded much often, partially due to the fact that they are thrown into the aerial with greater height, distance, and velocity than 1 idiosyncratic tin make connected their own.

6. Like crystal dance, the property of the skaters skews higher successful brace skating, but usually among the antheral partners.

7. Overhead lifts rack up the astir points.

What questions bash you person erstwhile you ticker fig skating? Let america cognize successful the comments below.

Jocelyn Jane Cox is the writer of Motion Dazzle: A Memoir of Motherhood, Loss, and Skating connected Thin Ice. Her enactment has appeared successful the New York Times, the Boston Globe, Slate, Newsweek, Business Insider, Yahoo Sports, and Skating magazine.