Sonia Bianchetti

Italy’s Sonia Garbato-Bianchetti was a figure skating trailblazer for 40 years. She broke barriers as the first woman to be elected to offices in the male-dominated International Skating Union (ISU). For 25 years she was a top-ranked skating official, rule maker, and Olympic referee, serving as a member and chair of the ISU figure skating committee from 1967-88 and then as a member of the Council for four years, from 1988-92. In 2015, she was inducted into the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame.

During her time with the ISU, in addition to officiating at several championships every year and at the Olympic Winter Games, she moderated judges’ seminars all over the world. She fought against corruption in judging, taking severe actions against those who were caught cheating or acting improperly.

Bianchetti led the modernization of the sport over the years, urging the deletion of the compulsory figures, which finally occurred in 1990, and she introduced the short program as a third part of the men’s and women’s events, changing the scoring system. She also fought for more democracy and transparency, and for more fairness and accountability in the conduct of the ISU. ¬ Her book, written in 2004 Cracked Ice: Figure Skating’s Inner World (published in Italy under the title: Crepe nel ghiaccio) was the first book to go behind the scenes with stories about the powerful decision makers in of the sport of figure skating; it was the first true insider’s look at those who rule the sport and its money.