В начале февраля ISU (Международный союз конькобежцев) обнародовал Комьюнике 2370, в котором расширяются возможности получить техминимум (минимальная оценка за технику, TES) для участия в чемпионате мира 2020/21. Период, за который учитываются набранные баллы за технику, было расширено до трех сезонов (2018/19, 2019/20, 2020/21 включительно) - проверить текущие баллы в ISU можно по этой ссылке. Но самым важным нововведением стала возможность получить техминимум виртуально - отправив видео прокатов программ. Рассказываем подробности новой процедуры и нюансы подачи заявок.

У Києві завершився чемпіонат України з фігурного катання серед юніорів, який тривав з 2 до 4 лютого на льодовій арені «Шалетт». Одразу в трьох дисциплінах визначилися нові чемпіони й чемпіонки. Дебютний титул серед дівчат-одиночниць завоювала 11-річна Катерина Кононенко з Києва з сумою балів 146.92. Завдяки потужнішому стрибковому набору їй вдалося обіграти представницю Білої Церкви Марію Андрійчук, яка минулого року була третьою, а нині піднялася на друге місце з оцінкою 130.69. Бронза – в харків'янки Таїсії Спесівцевої (128.85). Дворазова чемпіонка України серед дорослих Анастасія Архипова, яка повернулася до змагань після 16-місячної перерви й боротьби з травмою ноги, отримала найвищий бал за компоненти (52.27), але посіла 4-те місце (124.88 у сумі). Її тезко й перший номер збірної Анастасія Шаботова участі в змаганнях не брала.

In this episode of Skate Ukraine Academy, an ISU judge Oleksiy Biletskyi gives us a chance to look at figure skating through the lens of a judge. And today he's talking about judging one of the most important components – Transitions. Oleksiy not just gives us insights into the figure skating judging, but also provides practical advice and examples of how to improve your programs, to achieve the better scores.

In this Skate Ukraine Academy episode we're talking about positive and abusive coaching with an olympic figure skater, 5-time national champion of Finland, 3-time European medalist, inspirational coach and positive psychology practitioner, Kiira Korpi (@kiira_korpi). Joining us from New York, where she study positive psychology, we talk about reasons behind why abusive coaching culture is so established, how it affects skaters and coaches. We look at the modern science-based approaches to coaching, explore what positive coaching is and some myths around it, and look into successful examples of this new way of coaching in figure skating and other sports.

On October 28, 2020 Skate Canada – Canadian figure skating governing body – announced the terminology change. They’re changing terms for figure skating steps “mohawk” and “choctaw” to “C Step” and “S Step” accordingly. The reason, as stated in the announcement, is “decolonizing terminology and improving equity, diversity and inclusion”. We're looking into the history of this terminology and explain why this change is needed.

A new partnership is formed between Yuliia Zhata and Berk Akalin – they'll represent Turkey in the ice dance discipline. Both are experienced ice dance partners who stood on national podiums with previous partners before.

In the previous article, "What's wrong with Ukrainian Figure Skating Federation?" we got to the bottom of the problem of sports organization systems and briefly mentioned the club system, popular in the developed countries. In this article, we'll take a deeper look into the club sports system, learn the major principles behind it, explore how it works (or how it doesn't) in other countries, and debunk some of the most popular myths about clubs in Ukraine .

UFSF governs figure skating in Ukraine and represents it in ISU. Its website boats about big achievements, Olympic champions, high moral standards, but if you look at statistics and listen to skaters, you'll be surprised how clear the degradation of figure skating under UFSF governance is. UFSF is often referred to as corrupt, rotten or outright "mafia". This article explores the topic and asks the core question – what's wrong with UFSF?

On March 20, 2020, Ukrainian figure skating community was deeply shocked and saddened to read the press release from the Ukrainian Figure Skating Federation (UFSF) on the ban and exclusion of Kateryna Dzytsiuk – Ivan Pavlov and their parents from its members. Furthermore, it was strongly recommended to ban them from access to any professional figure skating schools or ice rinks whatsoever. We explain how and why this is happened, and give you an update from skaters on their future plans.