Page "Ice skating" Paragraph 5

A study by Federico Formenti of the University of Oxford suggests that the earliest ice skating happened in southern Finland about 4000 years ago.

Originally, skates were merely sharpened, flattened bone strapped to the bottom of the foot.

Skaters did not actually skate on the ice, but rather glided on top of it.

True skating emerged when a steel blade with sharpened edges was used.

Skates now cut into the ice instead of gliding on top of it.

Adding edges to ice skates was invented by the Dutch in the 13th or 14th century.

These ice skates were made of steel, with sharpened edges on the bottom to aid movement.

The construction of modern ice skates has stayed largely the same since then.