Synchronized skating

Synchronized skating, often called synchro, is a fun and exciting ice skating sport. Teams of 8 to 20 skaters work together to move as one smooth group at high speed. They do special moves and steps on the ice, making beautiful shapes and patterns.

This sport began in 1956. It was first named "precision skating" because it needs careful formations and timing from every skater. Today, synchronized skating is popular in many European countries. Their teams often win big international competitions. By 2022, there were over 600 synchro teams in the United States.

Synchronized skating is judged like other ice skating sports. Judges look at skills, movement, and how hard the moves are. A synchronized skating program has many shapes and formations, like blocks, triangles, and lines. Skaters move across the ice and turn. Teams compete at different levels, from beginner to senior.

The best teams skate in the short program and a longer free skate. Junior teams compete in the Junior World Synchronized Skating Championships, and senior teams compete in the World Synchronized Skating Championship.

Synchronized skating is not an Olympic sport yet, but there are hopes it could join the Olympics soon. In 2007, it was part of the Universiade or World University Games as a demonstration sport. Teams from many countries competed in Turin, Italy, with Sweden, Finland, and Russia doing the best.

Judging in synchronized skating is special. Every move in the performance has a level of how hard it is and a basic point value. Judges watch each move and give a grade for how well it was done. The very highest and very lowest grades are taken away, and the rest are averaged and added to the basic points. All these scores make up the Technical Elements score.

Judges also look at three parts of the whole performance: skating skills, how well the team shows feeling and understanding of the music, and how well the moves work together. These scores are averaged and used to balance the technical score. The technical score and the performance scores are added to get the segment score. The scores from all parts are added to find the total competition score. The team with the highest score wins. If there is a tie, the team with the highest free program score wins.