Hamill, who also placed second twice at the Worlds, was known for her “Hamill camel” — combination camel and sit spin. She is still celebrated on and off the ice and is a breast cancer survivor who has battled depression. Nationals and the youngest to become an Olympic and World champion in figure skating history. She won six ladies, nine pairs (with Nathaniel Niles) and six ice dance titles (with Niles). Championships between 1915 and 1919 due to the impacts of World War I.
Carol Heiss is the 1960 Olympic champion, the 1956 Olympic silver medalist and five-time World champion. Heiss, one of only three women to win five consecutive World Championships, became the first female figure skater to land a double Axel. After her retirement from the sport, she played the female lead in the 1961 film Snow White and the Three Stooges. The gold-medal winner at Albertville in 1992, Yamaguchi is one of the most recognizable figures in the history of international figure skating. In addition to her Olympic gold, Yamaguchi placed first at the world championships for ladies’ singles in 1991 and ’92.
When his competitive days ended, the four-time Canadian champ became one of the most sought after skating choreographers, working with the likes of Tara Lipinski, Evan Lysacek, Patrick Chan and Yuzuru Hanyu. Olympic figure-skating champion Tenley Albright was also a Harvard Medical School alumna and a qualified surgeon. A bout of mild polio in childhood couldn’t deter her spirit, and she ended up becoming the first female figure skater from the U.S. to win a gold medal at the Olympics. Known for her powerful jumps and spins, She became the first female skater to land two different triple jumps (toe loop and Salchow) in her free skate program. She is an Olympic bronze medalist, two-time World medalist, nine-time U.S. ladies champion and six-time U.S. pairs champion (four with partner George Hill).
- She is the first woman to complete a triple loop-triple loop combination, her signature jump element, in competition.
- Lipinski was also the first American woman to win the gold medal since Dorothy Hamill in 1976.
- In 1976, the creative and supremely talented Curry won gold at both the Olympics and the world championships.
- When his competitive days ended, the four-time Canadian champ became one of the most sought after skating choreographers, working with the likes of Tara Lipinski, Evan Lysacek, Patrick Chan and Yuzuru Hanyu.
- Perhaps the greatest female skater in U.S. history, Kwan never won Olympic gold but did capture silver in 1998 and the bronze in 2002.
Linda Fratianne’s powerful jumps and pioneering triple jumps paved the way for future generations. Debi Thomas, breaking racial barriers with Olympic bronze, became a symbol of resilience and inspiration. “I was just overwhelmed that I really did everything that you could want,” she told the Washington Post after her routine. Gold added, “I built a whole career of bombing shorts at nationals and not from a lack of training.”
Merrill became the second and final U.S. woman to win a medal at European Championships, which the following year allowed only skaters from European countries. When it comes to ice dancing, the conversation really must begin with the legendary pair of Great Britain’s Torvill and Dean. Ten years later, the four-time, world championship-winning pair returned to capture Olympic bronze at Lillehammer. In some circles, Dmitriev is considered to be the best male pairs skater of all time.
Witt made her first appearance in a major international competition at the 1979 European Championships, finishing 14th at the event. At the 1981 World Championships, she placed 1st in the short, 3rd in the long, and 2nd in the combined free skate, missing a medal due https://accounting-services.net/ to low placement in figures. She placed on a major podium for the first time in 1982, winning silver at both the European and World Championships. She had a great shot at winning the 1982 World Championships, which she only required winning the long program to do.
Kristi Yamaguchi, 50
There was skepticism Valieva was a victim of an institutional culture in Russian sports of doping and lack of duty of care to young athletes. She had competed in Beijing under the team acronym “ROC” — the third straight Olympics the country’s athletes could not be called “Russia” because of ongoing fallout from the state-backed famous ice skaters female doping program at the 2014 Sochi Games at home. The unusual circumstances, and Valieva’s status as a minor, persuaded a separate CAS panel in Beijing to let her continue skating in the individual women’s event. Valieva tested positive for trimetazidine in a sample taken on Dec. 25, 2021, at the Russian national championships.
Russian figure skaters set to get Olympic bronze ahead of Canada despite Valieva’s disqualification
A two-time Olympic champion (1948, ’52) and five-time world champ, Button was the youngest male skater to win Olympic gold (18 years, 202 days) and the only non-European competitor to win a European championship. He’s also noted for being the first skater to land a double axel and triple loop. For years Button was a staple as a television analyst, most notably for ABC. In 1984, Witt was voted “GDR Female Athlete of the Year” by the readers of the East German newspaper Junge Welt. She won the 1984 Olympic title in Sarajevo, with reigning World champion Rosalynn Sumners of the United States in second.
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Figure skaters are some of the most popular athletes in all of sports, on the ice and off. With that in mind, here’s a look at 25 of the best figure skaters — from singles to team competition — to ever take to a sheet of ice or the rink. It signaled a return to American dominance in the sport of women’s figure skating following the unprecedented tragedy of the 1961 Sabena plane crash. She is a two-time Olympic medalist, five-time World champion and nine-time U.S. champion (tied with Maribel Vinson Owen for the U.S. ladies record). Department of State’s first public diplomacy envoy, working with two presidents and three secretaries of state.
Performance
Had she placed 1st in the long program instead of 2nd (on a 5–4 split) to Sumners, she would have jumped to the silver over both Leistner and Vodorezova. Her free skate with a triple flip and five triples was technically superior to Sumners’, and many believed she should have taken the crucial 1st place in this phase. Here, she was solid and clean in all three phases, placing 3rd to her two main competitors, Kira Ivanova and Tiffany Chin, in the compulsory figures, convincingly winning the short program even over the clean skates of Ivanova and Chin. The judges left room for Chin to win the long program and event, but unfortunately she fell on a double axel and did not complete a triple salchow in her performance, settling for the bronze medal. Witt’s longstanding gold-medal dominance of the sport was finally disrupted when in an upset she placed second to American Debi Thomas, the new United States Champion, the following year. At those Worlds, she did win the long program over Thomas’s clean skate with identical content, scoring two 6.0s for artistic impression, but a combination miss which left her 4th in the short cost her the gold.
The only male singles skater to claim three Olympic gold medals, the Swede did it in 1920, ’24 and ’28. Grafström is also one of two athletes to win a gold medal at both the Winter and Summer Games (1920, reportedly with a pair of store-bought skates not fit for competition). Meryl Davis is the 2014 Olympic champion, 2010 Olympic silver medalist, two-time World champion, and six-time U.S. champion in ice dance alongside partner Charlie White. Davis and White also led the U.S. to the 2014 Olympic bronze medal in the inaugural team event.
In the newly updated Beijing result, Canada still gets eight points out of 10 from the women’s short program and free skate sections, where its skater was Madeline Schizas. Japan still gets nine points each for originally finishing second to Valieva — Wakaba Higuchi in the short program and Kaori Sakamoto in the free skate. The 18-year-old Sendai native, who won bronze at last year’s Four Continents, landed her triple flip-triple toe loop combination cleanly to start her routine, followed by the double Axel. While her triple Lutz was judged to have been on an unclear edge, no-one else could top her score. The next two events that will crown their champion will be ice dance and pairs, both with their long programs on Saturday. Jason Brown, the former Olympian and 2015 U.S. champion, was another fan favorite from the men’s side.