Ice skating is traveling on ice with skates, narrow (and sometimes parabolic) blade-like devices moulded into special boots (or, more primitively, without the boots, tied to regular footwear). People usually skate on frozen rivers and lakes and at skating rinks. It is mainly done for recreation and as a sport. Many musicals like Starlight Express have been performed on ice. The exact time and process by which humans first learned to ice skate is not known, though archaeologists believe the activity was widespread. The convenience and efficiency of ice skating to cross large, icy areas is shown in archaeological evidence by the finding of primitive animal bone ice skates in places such as Russia, Scandinavia, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Germany, and Switzerland. The runners were made from bones of animals such as horse, cattle and reindeer. They were ground down until they formed a flat gliding surface, and thongs tied them to the feet. The skates were not used like contemporary skates. Instead they were used by straddling a pole which was used to push the user along. While only averaging 2.5 mph (4 kph) it used far less energy than trying to walk across frozen lakes. By comparison, modern skates use only about 25% of the energy of these primitive bone skates.  Another study by Federico Formenti of the University of Oxford suggests that the earliest ice skating happened in Southern Finland some 4000 years ago.

ATEK Skating Rink
20,Chestyakovskaya Street, Kiev
Bolshevik Skating Rink
6, Getmana Street, Kiev
Pioneer Skating Rink
1, Dneprovsky spusk, Kiev
Website: http://www.ice-club.com.ua/