Now somewhere between art and sport, skating on ice was, for hundreds of years, a rapid form of transportation across frozen lakes, rivers and canals, and the oldest form of skate (a length of bone attached to sandals) dates back to 20,000 years B.C.
The Dutch were early pioneers and as far back as the 13th century, maintained communication by skating from village to village along frozen rivers and canals. Skating spread across the channel to England and soon the first clubs and artificial rinks had begun springing up across the country. The first officially recorded competitions were staged in Britain in January 1763.
Skating has been an Olympic sport since 1908.
The Olympic Winter Games present three disciplines of skating:
Skating in Russia
For a long time, skating was the only winter sport in Russia. Russia's first association of skaters, established in St.Petersburg in 1864 had a peculiar name — the Rusty Skate Society.
In various Russian cities, sport organizations were set up which functioned independently of one another. After 1905, small sport organizations started to merge into larger ones. This resulted in the creation of the Moscow Skating League in 1913 which published rules of international competitions. In 1916, the Russian Skaters' Union was established.