01 May 2008 22:18:09

Death of World Professional Figure Skating Championships, Part1

The first professional championship was held in 1973 in Landover, Maryland. Skaters competed in three disciplines: men's singles, ladies' singles, and pair skating. However the competition was not held again until 1980. It was held again from 1980 to 1982 as a two-team competition. In 1983 individual competition once again resumed alongside continued team competition. 1983 also marked the first year in which ice dancing was contested. Team competition was discontinued in 1986. The last professional championship was held in 2000. The professional championships were held in Landover, Maryland every year until 1997, when it moved to the MCI Center in Washington, D.C. Beginning in 1990, the championship started taking the name of its sponsor. Thus the 1990 competition was called the "NutraSweet World Professional Championships". Other sponsors have included Durasoft Colors, Equal, Metabolife, and Hallmark. In 1998, the competition was sanctioned by the International Skating Union (ISU) as an "international open" or pro-am event. Because the ISU restricts the use of the title "Championships" to refer to ISU Championship events, that year the event was formally known simply as the "Equal Sweetener World Pro". In 1999, Button's Candid Productions was acquired by SFX, which was in turn acquired by ClearChannel a year later. At the same time, public interest in professional skating competitions was declining, more elite skaters were choosing to retain their competition eligibility by participating only in sanctioned events, and networks were shifting towards a time-buy model which made skating events less lucrative for producers. All of these factors contributed to the competition's demise. In 2001 of this tournament did not become and instead of him other firm has led "Hallmark Skater's Championship" under the same scheme. In 2002 this tournament has received the open status, but experiment have considered unsuccessful and was last tournament of such status. Since 2003 World Professional Figure Skating Championships are not held The last Professional champions were 2002: - Yuka Sato - Alexei Yagudin - Salé & Pelletier - Anissina & Peizerat source wikipedia.org