Ice skating is traveling on ice with skates that are boots having blades attached at the bottom. Ice skating is said to have started in Sweden around twelve hundred years ago. In the 18th century however, ice skating developed into a sport and the Dutch made skates with bigger blades.

Ice skating requires appropriate costumes as well as good figure skates to glide smoothly over the ice. An ice skating dress is made of stretch Lycra fabric, which allows the skater maximum amount of movement while skating. The ice skating dress involves dresses and skirts for women. Tights may also be worn during competition with the usual dress and skirt for extra warmth, and aesthetic characteristics. Women generally wear flesh colored leggings, which make the costumes less revealing than they initially seem to appear. Tight fitting and flexible pants or leggings are worn by both sexes, during the ice skating competitions, which might be dramatic and revealing. The dress worn for competitions can also have heavy beading, and sequence of designs.

Interestingly Ice dancing/skating is the only Olympic sport, which allows vocal music along with lyrics. Ice skating has spins, jumps, steps, and turns. Other types of ice skating include Adagio skating, which is a kind of pair skating frequently seen in ice shows, and Acrobatic skating also called 'Extreme skating', which joins many sporting worlds.