The slipperiness of ice is well known while, for ice skating, its mechanism still needs further investigation, where the complex interactions including the thermal conduction of the skate–meltwater–ice system, the ploughing and the frictional melting of ice to the friction force are still unclear. This study presents a theoretical framework and a simplified analytical solution to unveil the friction mechanism when a curved skate sliding on ice. The theory is validated by experiments and the effects of these various factors, including the sliding velocity, the ice temperature, the supporting weight, and the geometry of the skate blade to the friction are revealed in detail. This study finds that the contribution of friction force from the ploughing deformation through skate indentation and that from the fluid friction through the shear motion of the meltwater layer is comparable with each other, which thus clarifies how the ploughing deformation of the ice substrate together with its frictional melting regulates the friction during skating.