Evolution of Figure Skating in the People's Republic of China

The paper is focused on studying the evolution of figure skating in China. In countries of Europe and North America this winter sport has been developing for a long period of time. However, in China figure skating began to develop only in the second half of the 20th century. The study is aimed to reveal factors which contribute to the development of figure skating in China, analyze the problems and predict the future trends of development of this sport until the Winter Olympic Games in 2022 in Beijing. To conduct the research, a number of methods were used, among them are content analysis of sources and comparative analysis of the videos of skaters’ performances. The analysis revealed that international cooperation with high-qualified figure skating coaches is one of the most significant factors which contributed greatly to the evolution of Chinese figure skating and showed a strong positive trend in this sport development which means that the representatives of China are likely to win medals, including gold ones, on the next Olympic Games. Keywords: Chinese figure skating, Winter Olympic Games 2022, international cooperation