Single skater
 |
|
| Highest governing body | International Skating Union |
|---|---|
| Characteristics | |
| Team members | Individuals |
| Equipment | Figure skates |
| Presence | |
| Olympic | Part of the Summer Olympics in 1908 and 1920; Part of the first Winter Olympics in 1924 to today |
Single skating is a discipline of figure skating in which male and female skaters compete individually. Men's singles and ladies' singles are both Olympic disciplines and are both governed by the International Skating Union, along with the other Olympic figure skating events, pair skating and ice dancing. Single skaters perform jumps, spins, step sequences, spirals, and other moves in the field as part of their competitive programs.
Single skating competitions consist of a short program and free skating (often called the "long program"), usually performed within a day or two of each other. At some large competitions, including the World Figure Skating Championships and European Figure Skating Championships, there is a cut after the short program and a skater must perform well enough in the short program to advance to the free skating portion of the competition. Skaters are separated into warm-up groups, and generally there is a draw to decide the skating order. For the long program, the warm-up groups are organized according to a skater's placement after the short program, making skating in the "final group" (or the top six skaters after the short program) a goal of many competitors.
Short programs at the senior and junior levels are two minutes and fifty seconds long. Skaters are penalized if they skate over that time limit.
Skaters must perform certain required elements as part of the program. These elements have varied over the years. The short program is the more exacting of the programs because all the required elements must be completed.
International Skating Union (ISU) regulations state:
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