Overview

The World Figure & Fancy Skating Championships (WFFSC) connects figure skating with art in unique and meaningful ways. At this auspicious international event, skating and art combine to create a diverse series of components within this exceptional five-day event. There truly is nothing else like it on Earth.

With skating performances on black ice, these World Championships offer a blend of skating and the art of the fancy, artistic figures created on the ice by skaters’ blades.

Schedule

World Figure & Fancy Skating Championships on black ice events

Wednesday, October 7th

9:00am – 9:00pm: Black Ice Practice – Workshops and Private Skating lessons
9:00am – 9:00pm: Pop-up Museum open to the public in the 1932 Hallway and Art Gallery & Contest, available Wednesday through Sunday.
9:00am – 9:00pm: Attire and Accessories: Figures in Fashion Art Contest. Art entries can be submitted here

Thursday, October 8th

9am to 3:50pm: Black Ice Practice – Workshops and Private Skating lessons, and resumes after World Competition at 6:30pm.
4:00pm: Round 1 World Competition Ladies
4:00pm: World Skating Artists will perform and compete the following patterns:

  • Circling Compass
  • Lofty Loops
  • Winged Swedish Cross Cut
  • Double Sized Maltese Cross
  • 3 Bracket Combo

6:30pm to 9:00pm: Filming of Creative Artworks and Skating Exams

Friday, October 9th

9:00am to 4:00pm: Black Ice Practice, Lessons & Workshops for all levels
5:00pm: Round 1 World Competition Men’s
6:30pm to 9pm: Film Creative Figures + continue practice lessons, workshops, exams
7:30pm to 9pm: Fancy Skating review practice possibly in the USA Rink

Saturday, Oct. 10th:

9:00am – 12:50pm: Black Ice Practice, Lessons, Festival Competition & Workshops for all levels
2:00pm: World’s Round 2
2:00pm: Creative Artworks
4:00pm: World Jr. Men’s Round
5:00pm: Fancy Skating Warm-up
6:30pm: World Jr. Men’s Round 2
7:00pm – 9:00pm: World’s Final Round – Fancy Skating & Red Carpet Award Ceremony

Sunday, October 11th
World Jr. Figure & Fancy Skating Championships  – Ladies + International Open, Team Fancy Skating & Inclusive Skating, Fancy Skating Exams, World Record Attempts, Red Carpet Award Ceremony, Gala & Filming

9am – 10:50am: Black Ice Practice, Lessons, Festival Competition & Workshops for all levels
11am: World Juniors Ladies Artworks Round 1
12:30pm: International Open Practice
1:00pm: International Open Round 1
2:15pm: World Junior Ladies – Final Round Fancy Skating
3:00pm: International Open Final Round
4:00pm: Team Fancy Skating
5:00pm: Fancy Skating Exams and World Record Attempts
6:00pm: Award Ceremony
7:00pm: 9:00pm – Video Filming

Event Offerings

Within it, the words “Figures” and “Fancy Skating” are the historically accurate, original terms for artistic (or freestyle or free) skating and the figures (or patterns) that were a component of figure skating in the late 1800s and early 1900s. These terms and performances are both a professional skating legacy that originated in this Belle Epoque of skating as reflected in the designs of jewels and art of this period.

Since its much-celebrated debut in Lake Placid in 2015, the World Figure Sport Society (WFSS) has served to elevate the art of skating by uniting it with fine arts, with music and the performing arts, with decorative arts and the art of jewelry. This amazing event also includes as central features the following components:

  • a fine decorative art and recording art exhibit
  • a day of practice and filming of competitors and their works on black ice
  • lessons and workshops for skaters of all levels
  • a day of accessible family skating that welcomes people of all abilities
  • a Saturday finals competition
  • a fancy Sunday evening ball that blends the event’s historical aspects with modernity
  • Tiffany Awards, bestowing jeweled antique skate blades to winners

All these components of WFFSC together are the legacies of Sonja Henie’s extravagant ice shows and Dick Button’s professional competitions, which are what make Lake Placid such a befitting home for this event.

culture, art, and sport

WFSS is an organization that serves skating artists as well as culture, fine arts, and sport. Through this major world level event, they provide modern skating artists a platform that propels the greatest of them upward with major world level competition titles.

The event is also a unifying force that brings together culture, art, and sport. Acting as a balance to the sport of figure skating, which is so highly visible around the world, WFFS and this championship event serve to lift the art of skating and elevate the celebrity of skating artists while also bringing recognition of fancy figure skating to audiences around the world.

At the World Figure & Fancy Skating Championships on black ice, the WFFS supports skating artists of all ages, levels, and nationalities and advocates for their participation in the most artistic activity on Earth. Through scholarships, WFSS provides skating experiences for everyone regardless of life challenges. Among those experiences are rare and thrilling opportunities to skate with “The Legends of The Lake” and other Lake Placid skating luminaries. Through these occasions, they pass on the skills and knowledge from elite artists of the past.

Past, Present, and Future

WFSS has stepped up to provide leadership needed to unite the world’s artists to create something unique. Skating legends from the past and performing artists from the present all come together at the World Fancy and Figure Skating Championships for an event that is, at once, historic and contemporary, paving the way for figure and fancy skating to continue to be enjoyed around the world.

Join the world skating community in Lake Placid and be a part of the greatest festival of skating, jewels, and art in the world at the 2026 World Figure & Fancy Skating Championships on black ice from October 7th – 11th. 

The event is open to the public. Donations are accepted at the door and online to further WFFS’s scholarships and benevolence.