Figure Skating

Overview

Origin

19th century

Category

Winter

Olympic discipline

Yes

Paralympic discipline

No

Central pathway

Olympic (TOPS eligible)

Athlete profiles on SportSupport

8

Governance and status

Each field below is shown only where we hold a source for it; anything else reads “Not currently verified” rather than a guess. Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports recognition is granted year by year, so it is only ever shown with the year it applies to. Last reviewed: September 2026.

Indian governing/organising body

Ice Skating Association of India

Ministry recognition

Not currently verified

International federation

Not currently verified

Khelo India inclusion

Not currently verified

TOPS eligibility

In scope — TOPS covers Olympic medal prospects

Olympic status

On the Olympic programme

Paralympic status

Not a Paralympic discipline

Scholarships & Funding

Central, state and private scholarships available for figure skating athletes in India.

• Khelo India Talent Identification & Development (KITID)

  Monthly stipend (₹10,000 for selected Khelo India athletes), boarding, coaching and kit at accredited centres for talent identified through the Khelo India selection process (Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports). Applies only to disciplines on the official Khelo India Games list, and only to athletes it selects.

• Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS)

  Central government scheme covering training, foreign exposure, equipment and an out-of-pocket allowance (up to ₹50,000/month) for athletes inducted by the Mission Olympic Cell. TOPS covers a Core Group and a Development Group of disciplines rather than every Olympic sport, and induction is decided athlete by athlete; we hold no current list confirming whether figure skating is among the covered disciplines.

• National Sports Development Fund (NSDF)

  Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports fund used to sponsor elite athletes' training, foreign coaches and equipment. Allocations are made case by case; we hold no record of NSDF support specific to figure skating.

• Pension for Meritorious Sportspersons

  Lifetime monthly pension (₹20,000 for Olympic/World/Asian/CWG medallists; scaled by tier) for retired internationals who meet the scheme's medal criteria — Government of India.

• Ami ParekhIndia

  Ami Parekh (born January 10, 1988) is an Indian-American former competitive figure skater who represented India in international competitions. She is an eight-time Indian ladies' champion. In 2007, she became the first figure skater representing India to compete in a senior ISU event and has competed twice in the World Figure Skating Championships and three times at the Four Continents Figure Skating Championships.

• Anup Kumar YamaIndia

  Anup Kumar Yama (born 1 September 1984) is an Indian figure and roller skater. He won the Arjuna Award in 2015 by Indian Government (for outstanding achievement in National Sports). He has won several national titles.

• Avani PanchalIndia

  Avani Bharat Kumar Panchal (born 31 August 1991) is an Indian figure and roller skater. She hails from Vishakapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. She won a bronze medal at 2010 Asian Games held in Guangzhou, China in Pairs Skating with her partner Anup Kumar Yama.

• Hounsh MunshiIndia

  Hounsh Munshi (born 12 September 1993) is an Indian former figure skater. She is the 2007-2008 season Indian bronze medalist. Her family is from India, and Munshi has also lived in Sydney, Australia, before moving with her family to the United States.

• Nikhil PingleIndia

  Nikhil Pingle (born 29 June 1999) is an Indian figure skater. He started with recreational skating and transitioned into competitive speed skating for a duration of 4 years. His experiences with speed skating made leeway for artistic roller skating.

• Nishchay LuthraIndia

  Nishchay Luthra (born 9 March 1999) is an Indian figure skater. He has competed in men's singles and pairs. He has won four international medals for India and was a 9-time Indian national gold medalist.

• Tara PrasadIndia

  Tara Prasad (born 24 February 2000) is an American-born Indian figure skater who competes in women's singles skating. She is the 2024 Reykjavik International silver medalist, the 2024 Skate Celje silver medalist and 2025 bronze medalist, the 2025 Bosphorus Cup silver medalist, and a four-time Indian national champion (2022–23, 2025, 2026). She competed within the U.S. in the regionals before representing India internationally.

• Yoniko Eva WashingtonIndia

  Yoniko Eva Washington (born February 21, 1993) is an Indian-American former competitive figure skater. Born in Oman and raised in the United States, she represented India in international competitions. She is the 2008 Indian national silver medalist, and has competed twice at the World Figure Skating Championships.

Rules

Figure skating is judged under the ISU Judging System, where each element is assigned a base value and receives a Grade of Execution (GOE) from the judging panel, added to five Program Components scores (skating skills, transitions, performance, composition and interpretation) to produce the Total Segment Score. Senior singles skaters perform a short program and a free skate with prescribed required elements — jumps, spins and step sequences — within set time limits; pairs add lifts, throw jumps, twists and death spirals, while ice dance is contested as a rhythm dance and free dance with no throw jumps or overhead lifts above shoulder height. A technical panel identifies each element and applies calls for under-rotation, edge errors and falls; deductions are taken for falls, time violations, illegal elements and costume/prop infringements. Jump repetition and combination limits apply, and results are decided on total score across both segments.

Authoritative rulebook: Ice Skating Association of India. Age-group and school-level variations are published by SGFI and the state associations each season.

Positions

Typical roles across winter sports. These are category-level descriptions, not a sourced figure skating squad list.

• Alpine / cross-country / snowboard
  Timed and judged snow disciplines under FIS rules.
• Skating & ice hockey
  Speed skating, figure skating and ice hockey under ISU / IIHF.
• Sliding sports
  Bobsleigh, luge and skeleton contested on ice tracks.

Equipment

Standard kit and infrastructure required to train and compete in figure skating at a federation-recognised event.

• Figure skating boots with screw-mounted blades (toe picks for singles/pairs; shorter-tailed dance blades for ice dance)
• Blade guards, soakers and a sharpening/honing kit
• Competition costume meeting ISU modesty and decoration rules; practice thermals and gloves
• Off-ice training aids: jump harness, spinner board, off-ice jump boots, stretching and strength equipment
• Access to an ISU-standard ice rink with music playback and judging stand

Governing/organising body

Major Indian Events

Domestic competitions we hold a source for in figure skating.

• Indian Figure Skating Championships

  Held annually since 2003 by the Ice Skating Association of India (ISAI, founded March 2002, affiliated to the International Skating Union from 2003 and the Asian Skating Union, with 23 state/UT associations and 4 clubs). Contested across men's and ladies' singles, pairs and ice dancing, and across age categories from Juvenile (under 10) through Senior (19+). The championships have been disrupted several times — no competition was held in 2006-07, 2009-10, 2020-21 or 2023-24.

• National Speed & Figure Skating Championships

  Now in its 19th+ edition, held at iSKATE by Roseate, Gurugram, drawing skaters from 12 states and UTs and judged by ISU-certified officials.

International Events

Continental and world-level competitions we hold a source for in figure skating.

• World Figure Skating Championships

  Ami Parekh became the first figure skater representing India to compete in a senior ISU event (2007) and competed twice at Worlds; Yoniko Washington also competed twice (2009, 2010).

• Four Continents Figure Skating Championships

  Tara Prasad, a three-time Indian national champion, has reached the final segments in 2022, 2023 and 2025 — India's most consistent recent presence at this level.

• Asian Winter Games / Asian Open Figure Skating events

  Nikhil Pingle, from Nashik, competed at the 2017 Asian Winter Games in Sapporo. Nishchay Luthra, a nine-time Indian national gold medallist, won four international medals including bronze at the 2013 Asian Figure Skating Championship in Hong Kong.

• Recent international results

  Tara Prasad won silver at the 2024 Reykjavik International, silver at Skate Celje 2024 (bronze 2025) and silver at the 2025 Bosphorus Cup.

Leagues

No dedicated professional league is currently catalogued for figure skating. The national championship under Ice Skating Association of India remains the top domestic competition.

International Players

Globally recognised figure skating athletes to know outside India.

The international federation for figure skating maintains the current world ranking — check the federation site for the up-to-date top names.

Career Options

Ways to build a career in figure skating — on the field, on the sidelines and behind the scenes.

• A genuine structural pattern worth noting: much of India's senior international figure skating representation has come from diaspora skaters born and trained abroad — Ami Parekh (New Jersey), Yoniko Washington (born Oman, raised Georgia) and Tara Prasad (born Iowa, trains in Colorado Springs) all represented India while based in the US
• Home-grown skaters have typically come up through roller skating before transitioning to ice — both Nishchay Luthra and Nikhil Pingle followed this route, reflecting India's limited ice rink infrastructure
• India's competitive ice infrastructure centres on a handful of rinks, notably iSKATE at Ambience Mall, Gurugram, plus natural-ice venues in Shimla, Gulmarg and Ladakh
• Playing pathway through ISAI's state associations and national championships; top national finishers are selected to represent India at ISU and Asian Skating Union events
• Post-competition pathways include coaching and, as with Ami Parekh — now a sports medicine physician in the US — careers built on the sport's physical and medical grounding

No figure skating academies are catalogued in the directory yet. Browse the full academy list or list your academy to appear here.

FAQs

Common questions about figure skating in India.

Figure Skating in every state & UT

Dedicated pages for Figure Skating in each Indian state and Union Territory — academies, schemes, athletes and how to start.

• Figure Skating in Andhra Pradesh
• Figure Skating in Arunachal Pradesh
• Figure Skating in Assam
• Figure Skating in Bihar
• Figure Skating in Chhattisgarh
• Figure Skating in Goa
• Figure Skating in Gujarat
• Figure Skating in Haryana
• Figure Skating in Himachal Pradesh
• Figure Skating in Jharkhand
• Figure Skating in Karnataka
• Figure Skating in Kerala
• Figure Skating in Madhya Pradesh
• Figure Skating in Maharashtra
• Figure Skating in Manipur
• Figure Skating in Meghalaya
• Figure Skating in Mizoram
• Figure Skating in Nagaland
• Figure Skating in Odisha
• Figure Skating in Punjab
• Figure Skating in Rajasthan
• Figure Skating in Sikkim
• Figure Skating in Tamil Nadu
• Figure Skating in Telangana
• Figure Skating in Tripura
• Figure Skating in Uttar Pradesh
• Figure Skating in Uttarakhand
• Figure Skating in West Bengal
• Figure Skating in Andaman & Nicobar Islands
• Figure Skating in Chandigarh
• Figure Skating in Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu
• Figure Skating in Delhi
• Figure Skating in Jammu & Kashmir
• Figure Skating in Ladakh
• Figure Skating in Lakshadweep
• Figure Skating in Puducherry