Many people ice skate, but few have the equipment necessary to figure skate. The most important and donated piece of equipment anyone would need would be ice skates. Ice skates are the main function of this sport and with them you can jump, turn and slide on the ice. Another important piece of equipment would be costumes for shows. Women normally wear skirts and dresses, but have the option of wearing pants. Men must wear pants. With skirts, women should wear opaque or flesh-toned tights. The costumes are often very theatrical and heavily beaded. They can cost up to thousands of dollars. Although flesh-colored fabric is used to make a costume a little more revealing, repeated attempts have been made to ban costumes that give the impression of "excessive nudity". Although many people know that figure skating is an Olympic sport, few know its origin. Figure skating was born in the mid-19th century by American skater Jackson Haines. He became popular in Europe, but only in the United States after his death in 1875. The International Skating Union, also known as ISU, was founded in 1892. The first European Championship was held in 1891 and the first world championship followed in 1892. 1869. The first woman to compete, Madge Syers, won second place in 1902. The ISU then banned women from competing against men and established a separate "ladies" competition » in 1906. Pair skating was introduced to the World Championships at the same time as figure skating. at the 1908 Olympics. In the twenties and thirties, Sonja Henie dominated women's figure skating and also created the trend of female skaters wearing short skirts and white skates. The Second World War interrupted skating competitions. After the war, the United States and Canada started... middle of paper... and the edge, but not the foot. The three turn involves a change of direction and edge, but not foot. The rocker is similar to the entry of a three-turn combined with the exit of a rack. The counter turn is the exact opposite of the seesaw turn. The mohawk is very similar to the three turn except you change feet and do not go from an inside edge to an outside edge or vice versa. The choctaw turn is the two-legged form of the rocker and counter turns. A twizzle is like a slalom on ice rather than on a ski slope. I hope this essay taught you more about figure skating and gave you information you didn't know before. There is so much more to tell about figure skating, but even in the smallest font it wouldn't fit on ten pages of paper. Works Cited “Figure Skating”. Wikipedia. Np, June 20, 2010. Web. June 29 2010..