The Four Continents Figure Skating Championships (4CC) is an annual figure skating competition. The International Skating Union established it in 1999 to provide skaters representing non-European countries with a similar competition to the much older European Figure Skating Championships and a chance to win prize money. The four continents of the event's name refer to the Americas, Asia, Africa, and Oceania (four of the continents represented in the Olympic rings, omitting Europe). Skaters compete in the categories of men's singles, ladies singles, pairs, and ice dancing.

The 2013 event will be held February 6-11 in Osaka, Japan.

The 4CC has been historically dominated by just four countries (United States, Canada, China, and Japan), who have won a combined 130/132 possible medals. Uzbekistan and South Korea are the only other countries to have placed in the 4CC, winning a single medal each.

Skaters qualify for the Four Continents Championships by belonging to a non-European Member nation of the ISU. Each Member country can enter three skaters/teams in each discipline.

Europeans in the 16th century divided the world into four continents: Africa, America, Asia and Europe. Each of the four continents was seen to represent its quadrant of the world—Europe in the north, Asia in the east, Africa in the south, and America in the west. This division fit the Renaissance sensibilities of the time, which also divided the world into four seasons, four classical elements, four cardinal directions, four classical virtues, etc.

The four corners of the world refers to the Americas (the "west"), Europe (the "north"), Asia/Oceania (the "east"), and Africa (the "south").

Before the discovery of the New World a commonplace of classical and medieval geography had been the "three parts" in which, from Mediterranean and European perspectives, the world was divided: Europe, Asia and Africa. As Laurent de Premierfait, the pre-eminent French translator of Latin literature in the early fifteenth century, informed his readers:

Asia is one of the three parts of the world, which the authors divide in Asia, Africa and Europe. Asia extends towards the Orient as far as the rising sun ("devers le souleil levant"), towards the south it ends at the great sea, towards the occident it ends at our sea, and towards the north it ends in the Maeotian marshes and the river named Thanaus.

Daisuke Takahashi (髙橋 大輔, Takahashi Daisuke^?, born March 16, 1986) is a Japanese figure skater, notable as the 2010 Olympic bronze medalist, the 2010 World Champion, a two-time (2007, 2012) World silver medalist, a two-time (2008, 2011) Four Continents Champion, and a five-time (2006-2008, 2010, 2012) Japanese national champion.

Takahashi represented Japan at the 2006 Winter Olympics and at the 2010 Winter Olympics. His bronze medal at the 2010 Winter Olympics was the first Olympic medal for Japan in the men's singles event.

Born in Kurashiki, Okayama Prefecture, Japan, Takahashi began figure skating when he was 8 years old. When a skating rink was built near his house, he went with his mother to watch the skaters at the rink, and afterwards, enrolled in the figure skating club. His mother intended for him enroll in the ice hockey club, but he didn't like the protective gear of ice hockey, so he enrolled in the figure skating club, instead.

Takahashi had a successful junior career, winning the 2002 World Junior Championships, in his first, and only, appearance at that competition. Takahashi is the first Japanese man to have won the title.

Kanako Murakami (村上 佳菜子, Murakami Kanako^?, born November 7, 1994 in Naka-ku, Nagoya) is a Japanese figure skater. She is the 2010–2011 Grand Prix Final bronze medalist, 2010 World Junior Champion, 2009/2010 Junior Grand Prix Final champion, the 2010 Japanese junior national champion, and the 2009 Japanese junior bronze medalist.

In the 2005–2006 season, Murakami competed at the 2005–2006 Japan Novice Championships in the Novice B category, which is the lower of the novice levels. She won the silver medal. This silver medal earned her a trip to compete in the spring competition, the Gardena Spring Trophy, which she won on the novice level.

In the 2006–2007 season, Murakami competed at the 2006–2007 Japan Novice Championships in the Novice A category and placed 7th.

In the 2007–2008 season, Murakami comepted at the 2007–2008 Japan Novice Championships in the Novice A category and placed 5th.

Murakami debuted on the ISU Junior Grand Prix. She won the bronze medal at her first event in Madrid, Spain. At her second event, in Sheffield, England, she won the competition. She was the 4th qualifier for the 2008-2009 ISU Junior Grand Prix Final.

Jennifer Anne "Jenny" Kirk (born August 15, 1984) was an American competitive figure skater. She is the 2000 World Junior Champion and the 2002 Four Continents Champion. She is now retired from the sport.

Jennifer Kirk was born in Newton, Massachusetts. Prior to skating, she was a gymnast until the age of nine. She also studied ballet and once performed with the Boston Ballet. Kirk grew interested in skating and began training with coaches Evy and Mary Scotvold at the age of 10, at the Skating Club of Boston.

Kirk won gold at the 2000 World Junior Championships. In 2002, she captured the Four Continents title. After failing to make the U.S. Olympics Team in 2002, she moved to the Toyota Sports Center in El Segundo, California to train with Frank Carroll and Ken Congemi. In addition to single skating, she also briefly dabbled in pair skating with Fedor Andreev in the summer of 2003, describing it as fun but challenging.

Kirk won the bronze medal at the 2004 Nationals. She also won bronze at the 2005 Four Continents.