Special figures
Special figures were a sub-discipline of figure skating at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century . As with the obligation , the given patterns had to be "drawn" as precisely as possible into the ice. The ice skater balanced on only one skate blade, which required a particularly good sense of balance.
While mandatory figures were standard patterns based on a figure in the shape of an 8, the special figures were artistic patterns created by the ice skater himself. These included rosettes, stars, crosses and other flourishes that were characterized by a high degree of symmetry .
Drawing fancy patterns on the ice was characteristic of the American and British schools. At the beginning of the 20th century, however, these were replaced by the "international style" of free figure skating, which used the entire ice surface and included more athletic elements accompanied by music.
The special figures were only featured on the Olympic program, at the 1908 Summer Olympics in London . The Olympic champion was the Russian Nikolai Kolomenkin-Panin .