Figure skating at the 1972 Winter Olympics
The figure skating events at the 1972 Winter Olympics were held at the Makomanai Skating Rink and the Mikaho Indoor Skating Rink.[1]
| Figure skating at the XI Winter Olympics | |
|---|---|
| Type: | Olympic Games |
| Venue: | Makomanai Skating Rink Mikaho Indoor Skating Rink |
| Champions | |
Men's singles:  | |
Ladies' singles:  | |
Pair skating:  | |
| Previous: 1968 Winter Olympics | |
| Next: 1976 Winter Olympics | |
The results of both the men's and ladies' singles events were dominated by placements in the compulsory figures, which at the time were nominally worth 50% of the total score but in fact weighted more heavily than the free skating due to being judged using a wider range of marks.
In the men's event, Ondrej Nepela, the winner of the compulsory figures segment, took the gold in spite of placing only 4th in the free skating after falling on his triple loop jump. The free skating winner was Sergei Chetverukhin, who skated one of his best performances at this event to take the silver medal. Patrick Péra, second in the figures, had a poor free skating in which he fell on a triple salchow jump early in his program and then made other mistakes. Nonetheless the weight given to figures allowed him to take the bronze medal ahead of John Misha Petkevich, Kenneth Shelley, and Toller Cranston, who all skated dynamic programs with at least one cleanly landed triple jump apiece.[2]
The effect of the figures was even more pronounced in the ladies' competition, where gold medal winner Beatrix Schuba placed only 7th in the free skating, performing mostly single jumps. The free skating was won by Janet Lynn, who received a perfect mark of 6.0 despite falling on a flying sit spin. Lynn's skating captivated the Japanese audience, especially when she got up smiling from her fall. Lynn took the bronze while Karen Magnussen, second in the free skating with a strong performance, took the silver. The third place skater in the free skating, Sonja Morgenstern, included a triple salchow in her program, which at this time was very rare for a female skater. She placed 6th overall.[3]
The pairs competition was a tight battle between the two top Russian teams. Irina Rodnina / Alexei Ulanov did not skate their best, with Ulanov missing his required double salchow jump in the short program and Rodnina making an error in the jump combination at the beginning of their free skating. They eventually won a 6–3 decision over their teammates Liudmila Smirnova / Andrei Suraikin. The bronze medal team of Manuela Groß / Uwe Kagelmann made no major errors and received the highest technical merit marks from some of the judges for their program. Their elements included a throw double axel which at this time was rarely attempted.[4]
Medal table
| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 |
| 2 | | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| 4 |  | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 5 |  | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| Totals (7 nations) | 3 | 3 | 3 | 9 | |
Results
Men
| Rank | Name | Nation | CF | FS | Points | Places |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ondrej Nepela | | 1 | 4 | 2739.1 | 9 |
| 2 | Sergei Chetverukhin | | 3 | 1 | 2672.4 | 20 |
| 3 | Patrick Péra | | 2 | 8 | 2653.1 | 28 |
| 4 | Kenneth Shelley | | 5 | 3 | 2596.0 | 43 |
| 5 | John Misha Petkevich | | 6 | 2 | 2591.5 | 47 |
| 6 | Jan Hoffmann | | 4 | 10 | 2567.6 | 55 |
| 7 | Haig Oundjian |  | 9 | 7 | 2538.8 | 65 |
| 8 | Vladimir Kovalev | | 7 | 11 | 2521.6 | 80 |
| 9 | Toller Cranston | | 12 | 5 | 2517.2 | 80.5 |
| 10 | John Curry | | 8 | 12 | 2512.2 | 85 |
| 11 | Gordon McKellen | | 10 | 9 | 2511.0 | 89 |
| 12 | Yuri Ovchinnikov | | 15 | 6 | 2477.5 | 104.5 |
| 13 | Didier Gailhaguet | | 11 | 13 | 2440.9 | 114 |
| 14 | Jacques Mrozek | | 13 | 14 | 2401.3 | 126 |
| 15 | Günter Anderl | | 14 | 16 | 2313.6 | 138 |
| 16 | Yutaka Higuchi | .svg.png){kind=small} | 16 | 15 | 2309.7 | 140 |
| 17 | Gheorghe Fazekas | .svg.png){kind=small} | 17 | 17 | 2094.0 | 153 |
Referee:
Assistant Referee:
Judges:
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Ladies
In the ladies' event, American skater Janet Lynn won not only a bronze medal, but also tremendous popularity among Japanese audiences because of her artistic free program, as to make appearance on the cover of "Olympic Winter Games, Sapporo 1972" photo books published in Japan, and even on Japanese TV commercials later.[5]
| Rank | Name | Nation | CF | FS | Points | Places |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Beatrix Schuba | | 1 | 7 | 2751.5 | 9 |
| 2 | Karen Magnussen | | 3 | 2 | 2673.2 | 23 |
| 3 | Janet Lynn | | 4 | 1 | 2663.1 | 27 |
| 4 | Julie Lynn Holmes | | 2 | 8 | 2627.0 | 39 |
| 5 | Zsuzsa Almássy |  | 5 | 4 | 2592.4 | 47 |
| 6 | Sonja Morgenstern | | 8 | 3 | 2579.4 | 53 |
| 7 | Rita Trapanese |  | 6 | 6 | 2574.8 | 55 |
| 8 | Christine Errath | | 11 | 5 | 2489.3 | 78 |
| 9 | Charlotte Walter |  | 7 | 13 | 2467.3 | 86 |
| 10 | Kazumi Yamashita | | 10 | 10 | 2449.9 | 93 |
| 11 | Jean Scott | | 9 | 11 | 2436.8 | 101 |
| 12 | Suna Murray | | 13 | 9 | 2426.2 | 102 |
| 13 | Catherine Irwin | | 12 | 12 | 2383.4 | 116 |
| 14 | Isabelle de Navarre |  | 16 | 14 | 2340.0 | 128 |
| 15 | Anita Johansson |  | 14 | 15 | 2349.3 | 131 |
| 16 | Dianne de Leeuw |  | 15 | 16 | 2298.7 | 143 |
| 17 | Sonja Balun | | 17 | 17 | 2260.6 | 148 |
| 18 | Marina Sanaya | | 19 | 18 | 2198.6 | 160 |
| 19 | Chang Myung-su | .png){kind=small} | 18 | 19 | 2117.0 | 171 |
Referee:
Assistant Referee:
Judges:
Pairs
| Rank | Name | Nation | SP | FS | Points | Places |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Irina Rodnina / Alexei Ulanov | | 1 | 1 | 420.4 | 12 |
| 2 | Liudmila Smirnova / Andrei Suraikin | | 2 | 2 | 419.4 | 15 |
| 3 | Manuela Groß / Uwe Kagelmann | | 3 | 3 | 411.8 | 29 |
| 4 | JoJo Starbuck / Kenneth Shelley | | 4 | 4 | 406.8 | 35 |
| 5 | Almut Lehmann / Herbert Wiesinger | | 5 | 6 | 399.8 | 52 |
| 6 | Irina Cherniaeva / Vasili Blagov | | 6 | 5 | 399.1 | 52 |
| 7 | Melissa Militano / Mark Militano | | 8 | 7 | 393.0 | 65.5 |
| 8 | Annette Kansy / Axel Salzmann | | 7 | 8 | 392.6 | 68 |
| 9 | Sandra Bezic / Val Bezic | | 9 | 9 | 384.9 | 84 |
| 10 | Corinna Halke / Eberhard Rausch | | 10 | 10 | 381.1 | 87 |
| 11 | Grazyna Kostrzewinska / Adam Brodecki | .svg.png){kind=small} | 11 | 11 | 377.8 | 95.5 |
| 12 | Barbara Brown / Douglas Berndt | | 12 | 13 | 366.9 | 114 |
| 13 | Florence Cahn / Jean Roland Racle | | 13 | 12 | 364.5 | 116 |
| 14 | Linda Connolly / Colin Taylforth | | 14 | 14 | 360.6 | 126 |
| 15 | Mary Petrie / John Hubbell | | 15 | 15 | 358.5 | 129 |
| 16 | Kotoe Nagasawa / Hiroshi Nagakubo | | 16 | 16 | 345.5 | 144 |
Referee:
Assistant Referee:
Judges:
References
- "Figure Skating at the 1972 Winter Olympics". Olympedia. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
- Figure Skating at the 1972 Sapporo Winter Games: Men's Singles Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine. sports-reference.com
- Figure Skating at the 1972 Sapporo Winter Games: Women's Singles. sports-reference.com
- Figure Skating at the 1972 Sapporo Winter Games: Mixed Pairs Archived 3 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine. sports-reference.com
- Litsky, Frank. (26 October 2003) FIGURE SKATING - Rewards Become Focus Of Scoring Experiment. NYTimes.com. Retrieved on 2016-07-18.
External links
- Official Olympic Report
- results
- "XI Olympic Winter Games", Skating magazine, Apr 1972
