History of Skating Timeline
1000 A.D. • Around
this time, Scandinavians perfected the art of skating by strapping
blades made of deer or elk bones to their boots.
1250 • The Dutch
replaced bone skates with iron blades, leading to the discovery of the
Dutch Roll—a simple skating step still used today.
1572 • The
Battle of Ijsselmeer takes place in Amsterdam. The Dutch surprise the
more powerful Spaniards by skating the frozen canals for combat.
1696 • Wilson
Blades was founded in Sheffield, England after King Charles II
requested that Wilson, a noted tool maker, make a pair of skate blades
for him. Today the company is still the leading manufacturer of skate
blades.
1742 • The first
known skating club is established in Edinburgh, Scotland.
1830 • The First
figure skating organization—The Skating Club—is founded in London.
1841 • Queen
Victoria instructs Wilson Skates to make her and Prince Albert a pair
of ice skates.
1848 • The
strapless skate with the blades clipped right to the boot is invented
in Philadelphia. This revolutionizes skating because for the first time
skaters can twist, turn, spin, and leap without losing their blades.
1849 • On
December 21, the first American figure skating club is founded in
Philadelphia. Today there are more than 535 skating clubs across the
U.S. and Canada.
1876 • The first
refrigerated sheet of artificial ice is laid in London’s Glaciarium.
Today, there are more than 1800 indoor rinks across North America.
1908 • Figure
Skating is designated as an Olympic sport.
1927 • Sonia
Henie wins the first of her record ten consecutive World Championship
titles. She also wins three Olympic gold medals.
1945 • Paul
Riedell founds Riedell Shoes Inc. in Red Wing, Minnesota, offering
high-quality, comfortable and affordable ice skates across the
continent.
1955 • Synchro
(or Precision) skating was first developed in the Midwest. Today it has
attracted new participants and now involves more than 10,000 skaters
nationwide.
1960 • The first
televised Olympic figure skating event.
1961 • On
February 15, an airplane carrying the entire U.S. World Championship
team crashes and kills all on board. The subsequent World Championships
are canceled.
1988 •
Four-time World Champion Kurt Browning is the first athlete to
successfully complete a quadruple jump at the World Championships in
Budapest, Hungary.
1994 • Tonya
Harding and Nancy Kerrigan bring skating into mainstream media, adding
real-life drama to the Olympics.
1998 • The 1998
World Championships are held just 60 miles from the Riedell factory in
Minneapolis, where Riedell sponsors a unique public skating plaza that
attracts Kurt Browning, Katerina Gordeeva and Michelle Kwan.
1999 • Riedell
launches the new www.riedellskates.com as the ultimate skating
resource. The site provides product information, skating tips and
skater spotlights to visitors worldwide—an amazing change from the
first use of skates 1000 years ago.
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