2006 Eastern Synchronized Team Skating Sectional Championships

What is Synchronized Skating?:

Synchronized Skating is a fast-growing discipline of figure skating. It is a highly technical form of figure skating characterized by speed, accuracy, intricate formations and breathtaking transitions performed by teams of 8–20 athletes. Synchronized skating competitions in the United States are governed under the auspices of U.S. Figure Skating, one of the strongest and fastest-growing governing bodies within the Olympic movement with more than 170,000 members.

Synchronized skating celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2004. What began with a group of skaters organized to perform at University of Michigan ice hockey games has since grown into a competitive discipline of figure skating with thousands of athletes participating all over the world.

In the past decade the number of teams and athletes participating in synchronized skating has been growing steadily. In the 2004 competitive season, 443 synchronized teams registered with U.S. Figure Skating, and 303 teams participated in the qualifying competitive system. There are approximately 8,000 synchronized skaters in the United States. 

U.S. Figure Skating divides the country into three competitive sections: Eastern, Midwestern and Pacific Coast. In 2004, 219 teams, or 50 percent of all teams, were registered in the Midwestern section. 164 teams, or 37 percent, were in the Eastern section.60 teams, making up 13 percent, were located in the Pacific Coast section. MICHIGAN contributed the largest number of teams from any state in the nation: 52.

For more information, please view the information on the U.S. Figure Skating web site.

Synchronized team skating is a highly technical form of team skating that is characterized by complex formations and intricate transitions performed by teams of 12 to 20 skaters. There are six development levels and eight competitive levels for synchronized skating teams within the U.S. Figure Skating structure. 

All teams skate a short program and the junior and senior level synchronized teams skate both a short program and a free skate. 

Short Program
The short program for synchronized skating (senior and junior) consists of a two (2) minute and forty (40) second program including five required elements. The order of elements is optional. The judges award two marks -- the first for required elements and the second for presentation.

Free Skate
A synchronized free skating program contains numerous elements linked together by a variety of transitions. The free skate has a time limitation of 4:30 minutes for seniors and 4:00 minutes for juniors. Teams are allowed to select their own music and theme for their program. There are no required elements in the free skate, however a well balanced free skate program must include a variety of circles, lines, blocks, wheels, intersections, movements in isolation and step sequences of an intricate variety used to enhance maneuvers and transitions. Senior teams must have at least three different hand holds and junior-level teams must include at least two different hand holds in the program. The emphasis of the free skate is on unison, accuracy of formations and synchronization of the team. Jumps with more than one revolution are prohibited. As in the short program, two marks are given -- for technical merit and presentation.