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Figure Skating Resources
Learn Stuff
- @sywtwfs - start here, as So You Want To Watch Figure Skating has lots of useful basic info, plus competition times + how to watch them, as well as breakdowns of rule updates
- the-real-xmonster’s tech posts on jumps, spins, and steps (+spirals)
- illyria-and-her-pet’s detailed guide to steps and step sequence breakdowns
- Skate Guard Blog is a cornucopia of figure skating history posts
- ISU handbooks - sometimes you just gotta go to the source
- ice-dance.com has dance pattern information and charts, as well as a listing of compulsory/short/rhythm dances for each season back to 1968 ( shared by beautifulstorms - thanks!)
- And you know, there is always Wikipedia; usual caveats about it aside, it has articles on everything from the 6.0 system to fours skating to costumes to particular elements
Search Results and Technical Elements
- SkatingScores - searchable protocols and elements, stats, and score calculator
- Figure Skating Elements Search - search elements by skater/year/competition from 2003 to 2023. The site is Japanese, but the search form is in English, so it should be easy to figure out
- RinkResults - search competition results by skater/competition/competition series/country represented, as well as highest-scoring elements; also attempts to provide a video for every program on the same page as the score sheet (shared by aitlu, thanks!)
Search Costumes and Creative Commons Photos
- @figureskatingcostumes - Costumes tagged by skater, discipline, year, country, and sometimes other attributes like details or color.
- Wikimedia Commons - sorted by skater/year/costume color (here) /element (here)/etc. There are a couple of photographers who upload regularly
- Phantom Kabocha’s Photos - sorted by skater/competition, 2012-present. Many beautiful photos, and they are all CC-by!
Search Music
- If you are looking for a specific song, I would recommend using Wikipedia’s advanced search and doing a search in the ‘Figure skaters’ category
- Figure skating wiki - has most music used by the most popular skaters, typically more recent ones
- Frogs on Ice - music for well known skaters, 1992~1996
- Tadaaki Masuda’s list - music by season and sometimes by discipline, 1979~1997
- Maeno’s Skating Music Page - sorted by season/discipline/music source, 1997~2006, covers quite a few skaters
- Skate Music List - you can’t search any more now that it’s only on the Internet Archive, but the drop-downs by season/name/music source still get you to pages. 1976~2006 or so.
Selected Video Sources
- ISU - some technical videos and full replays of recent competitions, and as of this season, individual videos of skaters/pairs. You may need a VPN to access some replays depending on your country
- HD full Olympic replays
- Olympic Channel - popular Olympic programs (many under ‘Music Monday’) and some misc. things like fluff and Olympic compilations
- Olympic Channel Figure Skating - same type of content as above, except without all the other sports mixed in on the channel
- Mintaka Alnilam - HD videos from the 90s and early 2000s 🤩 Midori Ito (and many others!) in 1080p!
- Mintaka Alnilam Annex - other great historical videos that are less HD than on their main channel
- 3axel1996 - 1977 to 1998, early 2000s
- floskate - mostly 1960s to 1990s, but also some earlier footage
- Skate Guard Blog - the blog’s Youtube channel; mostly 90s but also things like recent Stars on Ice programs
- Hyacinth B. - mostly full US TV replays, mostly 90s and early 2000s
- GoldenAgeofFS - late 60s to early 2000s
- sabinfire - 2014 to 2017, good quality videos and some full replays
- On-Ice Perspectives - videos filmed on ice with the skaters
- The Skating Session - recent videos are mostly competition discussion, but I am recommending their archival videos from the 1980s~2000s, including some US nationals videos with alternate angles/no commentary
- germann1968 - has uploaded an old ISU training video series on what the different components are supposed to mean, including examples (there is a more modern one on the ISU channel as well)
