Having same-sex pairs would have to force the ISU to either alter its rules about lifts or create new competitions. There have been movements in the past to try and get the ISU to change its rules.

While pairs have been stagnant on quad elements the last several seasons, lifts are growing ever more complicated, with difficult entries and exits, as well as one-arm variations, required to obtain ...

Figure skating is the oldest sport in the Winter Olympics program but it can still be hard to tell the difference between the ice dancing discipline and pairs skating discipline at first glance.

The simplest way to identify the pairs skating competition is to watch for the powerful lifts and jumps. Female skaters are held high over their partners heads in overhead lifts.

Like most lifts in pairs skating, the man is not dead-lifting the woman. Instead, he tries to get underneath the momentum of her jump and boost her beyond where she would reach on her own.

Figure skating is the oldest sport in the Winter Olympics program but it can still be hard to tell the difference between the ice dancing discipline and pairs skating discipline at first glance ...

Figure skating is the oldest sport in the Winter Olympics program but it can still be hard to tell the difference between the ice dancing discipline and pairs skating discipline at first glance ...

Pairs skating has been an Olympic sport much longer than ice dancing and is more similar to the men’s and women’s singles competitions. All three of these disciplines have been Winter Olympics ...

Both pairs figure skating and ice dancing feature a man and a woman competing together to music, but that’s where the similarities mostly stop. Skip Navigation. Share on Facebook; ...