The Relationship Between Program Structure and Score in Figure Skating

This study examines the influence of a figure skater's program on the skater's final score. The present research uses two clustering algorithms to categorize programs by structure, using data from Intermediate Plus-level programs at the Excel Nationals competitions from 2024 to 2026. Results show that programs which feature difficult elements in the middle third typically yielded better scores. However, this finding is complicated by the variety of program structures that yielded high scores.