Special figures

Special characters were at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, a sub-discipline of figure skating. As with the duty here prescribed pattern had to be as exact as possible "drawn" into the ice. The skaters balanced it on only one skate, what a particularly good sense of balance presupposed.

While compulsory figures were standard patterns that were based on a figure in the form of an 8, the special characters were created by the skaters themselves, artful pattern. These included rosettes, stars, crosses and other frills, which were characterized by a high degree of symmetry.

Drawing of unusual patterns on the ice was characteristic of the American and British school. However, these were replaced in the early 20th century by the " International Style " of the free figure skating, who used the entire ice surface and more athletic, under painted by music elements included.

The special figures stood one single time on the Olympic program at the Olympic Summer Games 1908 in London. Olympic champion was the Russian Nikolai Panin - Kolomenkin.

• Figure skating