Ice skating, the recreation and sport of gliding across an ice surface on blades fixed to the bottoms of shoes (skates), has a history spanning thousands of years. But for centuries, blades on boots weren’t just for sports and leisure-they were the only way some people had to travel in winter.
The activity of ice skating has given rise to two distinctive sports: figure skating, which involves the performance of various jumps, spins, and dance movements; and speed skating and short-track speed skating, both of which are forms of racing on ice skates. Ice hockey is the best-known team sport that involves skating.
Ice skating party in Warsaw in the 1880s
Origins and Early Development
Research suggests that the earliest ice skating happened in southern Finland more than 4,000 years ago. According to a study done by Federico Formenti, University of Oxford, and Alberto Minetti, University of Milan, Finns were the first to develop ice skates some 5,000 years ago from animal bones. This was important for the Finnish populations to save energy in harsh winter conditions when hunting in Finnish Lakeland.
Finland has about 187,888 lakes, which separated villages from each other. Scholars trace the origins of ice skating to Finland over 4,000 years ago, although ice skating was also common in China only 500 years later. Ancient ice skates, made of animal bones, were found at the bronze age Gaotai Ruins in north west China, and are estimated to be likely 3,500 years old.
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Bone skates-generally made from the shin bones of cattle and horses-have been found throughout particularly flat and wet regions of Hungary, Scandinavia, Germany and elsewhere. “Making bone skates is not an elaborate task,” says Küchelmann. He should know: He once made a pair himself in an effort to understand the Bronze Age experience. First he had to source the bone, by contacting the director of the Sofia Zoo in Bulgaria, who offered him horse remains from the lions’ den. Finally, he gave them a try.
The first skates were made of bone. The earliest known skate to use a metal blade was found in Fennoscandia, and was dated to 200 AD.
Evolution of Ice Skates
The Advent of Metal Blades
True skating emerged when a steel blade with sharpened edges was used. Skates now cut into the ice instead of gliding on top of it. The Dutch added edges to ice skates in the 13th or 14th century. In the 15th century Netherlands, the most common way to travel in cold months was by skates, says Federico Formenti, a physiologist and sports scientist at King’s College London who has studied the evolution of ice skates. “They were as popular there as cars are in America today,” Formenti says.
His results showed the dramatic effect that the 13th century introduction of the metal blade had on skate dynamics. The metal blade-made from iron embedded in wood-nearly doubled the speed of skates, from about 2.5 miles per hour to 4 miles per hour. “The metal blade allows control of the skate, and then you increase that control by having the skate tightly bound to your feet,” says Formenti.
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In the 13th and 14th centuries wood was substituted for bone in skate blades, and in 1572 the first iron skates were manufactured.
Until the middle of the 19th century the metal portion of the skate was fastened to a wooden base or footplate and the whole of the skate was fastened to the foot with leather thongs or straps. A major improvement came from the United States in 1850 when E.W. Bushnell of Philadelphia introduced the all-steel skate, which replaced the cumbersome wooden footplate.
In England "the London boys" had improvised butcher's bones as skates since the 12th century. Skating on metal skates seems to have arrived in England at the same time as the garden canal, with the English Restoration in 1660, after the king and court returned from an exile largely spent in the Netherlands. In London the ornamental "canal" in St James's Park was the main centre until the 19th century.
Skate Design and Functionality
No matter their design, all skates work by the same common principle: as the blade travels over ice, it melts a thin layer of water that allows the skater to glide. The speed and function of a skate, however, depends on the shape and size of the blade and boot. Blade thickness and boot sturdiness impact speed. And a long blade makes for a generally faster skate, Formenti says. “Having a long blade means that your weight is distributed over a wider area,” he explains.
Since the 15th century, however, skates have gained new baubles, innovations and overall designs meant to improve more than speed. Figure skaters now sport toe picks to help them spin, while hockey players have double-edged blades for sharper stops.
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Whereas modern skates with blades travel only forward and backward, bone skates lie flat and can glide in all directions. “In the modern day skates, you have this blade and you make a kind of scissor-like movement and you push yourself, you propel yourself by pushing your leg to the side,” says Küchelmann.
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Types of Skates
Modern skates come in many different varieties, each suited to specific conditions or activities.
Figure Skates: The contemporary figure skate, which is the type best suited for general pleasure skating as well as for figure skating, is easily distinguished from other skates by the toe pick at the front of its blade. The blade itself is about 4 mm (about 0.157 inch) wide. The base of the figure-skate blade is slightly concave, or "hollow ground".
Figure Skate Blade
Speed Skates: The speed skate is low-cut, allowing for freer movement of the ankle. Its blade is much longer than the shoe (usually between 42 and 46 cm [16.5 and 18 inches] long for men) and only 1 mm (0.039 inch) thick. Racing skates have a completely flat bottom. There is no hollow, only a squared off bottom with two edges.
Hockey Skates: The hockey skate is a hard, protective boot with a short blade that is curved at the ends to allow for quick turns. Sharpening ice hockey skates plays a key factor in a player's ability to skate and players will sharpen their skates hundreds of times throughout their career.
Hockey Skates
Bandy Skates: The boot style for bandy skates is lower than the ice hockey version and often doesn't cover the ankles. The bandy skate is designed with the intention of preventing them from causing injury to an opponent due to its long, and relatively sharp angled blades.
Touring Skates: Touring skates (or Nordic skates) are long blades that can be attached, via bindings, to hiking or cross-country ski boots and are used for long distance tour skating on natural ice.
Ice Skating as a Recreation and Sport
As a recreation skating has been continuously practiced on the canals of the Netherlands since the Middle Ages by both males and females. Skating on the frozen ponds and fens was popular in England in the 17th century, and the first skating club was formed in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1742. In the 1740s British servicemen introduced ice skating to North America. It was also popular at the French court about 1776; Marie-Antoinette was among the skaters. Napoleon Bonaparte skated at Auxerre in 1781.
Ice skating was also practiced in China during the Song dynasty, and became popular among the ruling family of the Qing dynasty.
When the waters froze, skating matches were held in towns and villages all over the Fens. The winners of local matches were invited to take part in the grand or championship matches, in which skaters from across the Fens would compete for cash prizes in front of crowds of thousands.
Artificial Ice Rinks
The development of refrigerated ice rinks started the transformation of ice skating from a seasonal pastime to a major sport and entertainment. The first rink with artificially frozen ice, a private one, the Glaciarium, was opened in London in 1876. The first artificially frozen rink in the United States was installed in the old Madison Square Garden in New York City in 1879. Throughout the century more and more public rinks with artificially produced ice appeared.
Interior of the Glaciarium in 1876
The ability to create sheets of ice inside large arenas gave rise to both skating sports and ice shows, which became a popular family entertainment in the 20th century. It also allowed for ice skating to spread to regions with warm climates.
The International Skating Union
The International Skating Union was founded in 1892 as the first international ice skating organisation in Scheveningen, in the Netherlands. The Union created the first codified set of figure skating rules and governed international competition in speed and figure skating.
The Physics of Ice Skating
A skate can glide over ice because there is a layer of ice molecules on the surface that are not as tightly bound as the molecules of the mass of ice beneath. These molecules are in a semiliquid state, providing lubrication. It had long been believed that ice is slippery because the pressure of an object in contact with it causes a thin layer to melt.
Whatever the origin of the water layer, skating is more destructive than simply gliding. A skater leaves a visible trail behind on virgin ice and skating rinks have to be regularly resurfaced to improve the skating conditions. It means that the deformation caused by the skate is plastic rather than elastic.
Safety Considerations
A person's ability to ice skate depends on the roughness of the ice, the design of the ice skate, and the skill and experience of the skater. A significant danger when skating outdoors on a frozen body of water is falling through the ice into the freezing water underneath. Death can result from shock, hypothermia, or drowning.