answers: 1908
context: Figure skating Figure skating is a sport in which individuals, duos, or groups perform on figure skates on ice. It was the first winter sport included in the Olympics, in 1908. The four Olympic disciplines are men's singles, ladies' singles, pair skating, and ice dance. Non-Olympic disciplines include synchronized skating, Theater on Ice, and four skating. From novice through senior-level competition, skaters generally perform two programs (short and free skating) which, depending on the discipline, may include spins, jumps, moves in the field, lifts, throw jumps, death spirals, and other elements or moves. The blade has a groove on the </s> ice skates in the 13th or 14th century. Skating was used as a means of transportation because the waterways which connected Dutch towns sometimes froze for months on end, hampering the economy. In 1962, Sjoukje Dijkstra became the first World ladies' champion from the Netherlands. She would win three consecutive World titles. The first ISU Championships held in Norway were the 1898 European Championships in Trondheim. Sonja Henie was the first Norwegian woman to become a World figure skating champion and the most successful ladies' singles skater in history. She won three consecutive Olympics (1928, 1932, 1936), ten consecutive World </s> to the Olympics. The competition included men's singles, ladies' singles, pairs, and special figures. The largest public ice rink in the world, the Sportpalast in Berlin, opened in the 1910s. The rink had an area of 2,400 m (25,800 ft), with dimensions of 60 m by 40 m (197 ft by 131 ft). The new rink increased both the public interest in figure skating as well as the number of people who practiced the sport. Many new figure skaters came from Germany, among them Werner Rittberger and Charlotta Oelschägel. Rittberger invented another jump, at first named eponymously, but eventually changed
question: what year did figure skating become an olympic sport