Figure skating was first contested as an Olympic sport at the 1908 Summer Olympics, in London, United Kingdom. As this traditional winter sport could be conducted indoors, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) approved its inclusion in the Summer Olympics program. It was featured a second time at the Antwerp Games, after which it was permanently transferred to the program of the Winter Olympic Games, first held in 1924 in Chamonix, France.
In London, figure skating was presented in four events: men's singles, women's singles, men's special figures, and mixed pairs. The special figures contest was won by Russian Nikolai Panin, who gave his country its first ever Olympic gold medal. He remains the event's sole winner, as it was subsequently dropped from the program. Once a demonstration event at Grenoble 1968, ice dancing has been an official medal-awarding Olympic figure skating event since it was introduced in 1976.
Swedish figure skater Gillis Grafström (3 gold, 1 silver) and Russian figure skater Evgeni Plushenko (Russia) (2 gold, 2 silver) are the champions and the most successful figure skaters in the sport's history, they have won four Olympic medals in four Olympics Games in a row, this is an absolute record for number of medals won by one skater at the Olympics. (ISU). Eleven figure skaters have won three medals: Sonja Henie (Norway) and Irina Rodnina (Soviet Union), winners of three consecutive titles in the ladies' singles (1928–1936) and pairs (1972–1980) events, respectively; Pierre Brunet and wife Andrée Brunet (France), 1928–1932 pairs champions; Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo (China), the 2010 pairs gold medalists; ice dancers Marina Klimova and Sergei Ponomarenko (Soviet Union and Unified Team); Artur Dmitriev (Unified Team and Russia); Beatrix Loughran (United States), medalist in both singles and pairs; ice dancers Meryl Davis and Charlie White (United States); ice dancers Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir (Canada).