Figure Ice Skating

Figure skating is one of the most popular spectator sports in America. In the 1993 National Sports Study II, considered by the Associated Press as the largest study of spectator sport popularity in America, ladies' figure skating was the 2nd most popular spectator sport in America, just behind NFL football out of over 100 sports surveyed. The 1993 study found that three figure skaters – Dorothy Hamill, Peggy Fleming, and Scott Hamilton were among the eight most popular athletes in the United States, out of over 800 athletes surveyed. In fact, Dorothy Hamill was statistically tied with Mary Lou Retton as the most popular athlete in America.
During the height of the Tonya Harding scandal in 1994, the first night of the ladies' figure skating competition in the 1994 Winter Olympics achieved higher TV Nielsen ratings than that year's Super Bowl and was the most watched sports television program of all-time, to that date.