Sport popularized in the 1930s by the Olympic championships and performances in ice shows and films of Norwegian Sonja Henie, who deviated from the staid dress and mannered skating style of her predecessors. Tenley Albright became the first American Olympic gold medal winner in 1956; her achievement increased the popularity of the sport in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The first American skater to gain national attention (both in the rink and in the world of advertising), Dorothy Hamill, combined athletic prowess with the grace and musicality of a dancer. Hamill challenged assumptions about women’s athleticism in her 1976 Olympic triumph and created the spin known as the “Hamill Camel”—now standard in women’s competitions. But, while able to perform triple jumps in practice, Hamill was the last woman to win an Olympic gold medal without triple jumps.

Men’s figure skating, marked until recently for its accentuation of athleticism over grace, has never matched the popularity of women’s skating. In the 1980s, however, the ascendancy of Olympic medallists Scott Hamilton and Brian Boitano on a tide of patriotic fervor brought attention to the sport. Pairs figure skating and ice dancing have been dominated until recently by Russian skaters, and the best American skaters, perhaps lacking enthusiasm for the ballroom style of dancing, have steered clear.

The growth of commercialism in the sport has been very noticeable in the 1990s, with multimillion dollar advertising and professional contracts offered to those who win major amateur competitions. Quite strict divisions between amateurs and professionals remain in the sport (so that only the former are eligible to perform in the Olympics), while sports like soccer, basketball and hockey have eased up in this regard. Skaters generally therefore, use the amateur competition as a stepping stone to riches to be gained from a professional contract, which includes traveling competitions as well as more thematic ice shows—Disney on Ice, Grease on Ice, Icecapades, etc. In 1991 and 1992, Kristi Yamaguchi won the World Championship and the Olympics and then turned professional, while the notorious assault on Nancy Kerrigan in 1994 was prompted by the desire of Tonya Harding’s handlers to benefit from the possibility that she might win a medal at the upcoming Olympics. Michelle Kwan is one American skater who has held back from turning professional. Losing out on a gold medal at the Nagano Winter Olympics in 1998, she has waited for 2002. Meanwhile, Tara Lipinski, the fifteenyear-old star who surpassed Kwan, immediately turned professional.