U.S. Remains Key Market for International Skating Union

With the 2025 World Figure Skating Championships heading to Boston and the 2034 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games primed to be hosted in Salt Lake City, it only made sense the International Skating Union’s annual congress was held last week in Las Vegas.

The ISU, which oversees speed skating as well as figure skating, had more than 250 delegates from 65 countries in Nevada for multiple days of events and voting on initiatives for the international federation. With World Cup speedskating drawing big crowds in Salt Lake City in the winter and more to come throughout the country, ISU President Jae Youl Kim called the United States “one of the key partners of the ISU in producing top skaters but also graciously hosting many ISU events.”

“We are very happy to collaborate with the U.S. federations, our friends and colleagues,” Kim said. “I’m really excited about the World Championships in Boston, I was there in 2016 and the venue was packed, fans were very engaging and I’m sure we will have an even greater atmosphere this coming world championship because we have an American superstar in Ilia Malinin.”

Elected in 2022, Kim last week unveiled ISU Vision 2030 with a series of proposals and initiatives for the ice-skating sports landscape going forward. One of them will be a revamped ISU Short Track World Tour with six events packaged as one series.

“We believe the short track has such potential to develop it further beyond what it is now,” said ISU Director General Colin Smith. “It’s very exciting racing. We have six world cups and we believe there’s a much stronger story to tell by binding those six World Cups into a global tour. Some of the members are already requesting we expand that in the future … We’ve also had some new cities reach out to us already requesting us to come and make a tour stop in their city.”

Safeguarding was also highlighted by guest speakers including Gracie Gold, two-time U.S. figure skating champion and Olympic bronze medalist. Gold described the pressures and mental health struggles she underwent as in her career, having recently published the memoir “OutofShapeWorthlessLoser.”

“Mental health is as important as physical health and should be taken just as seriously,” Gold said. “For the younger generation, being educated about mental health and how it could manifest, particularly the effects after you leave a sport, can be a very big thing.”

The ISU congress approved a 20% increase in annual member contribution in developing and implementing athlete safeguarding initiatives in their own countries.

While ice-skating sports were not part of last summer’s Olympic Esports Series, the chance to potentially be part of the program for all international federations now looms with the IOC planning to vote at this summer’s Session in Paris on broadening its embrace of esports.

“Esports has gained a lot of traction throughout the world,” Kim said. “This is a good way to connect with the younger generation. We are constantly looking for better ways to connect with new generations of fans through esports.”