Figure skating at the 1972 Winter Olympics

Figure skating at the XI Winter Olympics
Type:Olympic Games
Venue:Makomanai Skating Rink
Mikaho Indoor Skating Rink
Champions
Men's singles:
Czechoslovakia Ondrej Nepela
Ladies' singles:
Austria Beatrix Schuba
Pairs:
Soviet Union Irina Rodnina / Alexei Ulanov
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1968 Winter Olympics
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1976 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]

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

[edit]
RankNationGoldSilverBronzeTotal
1 Soviet Union1203
2 Austria1001
 Czechoslovakia1001
4 Canada0101
5 East Germany0011
 France0011
 United States0011
Totals (7 entries)3339

Participating NOCs

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Eighteen nations participated in figure skating at the 1972 Games.

Results

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Men

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Rank Name Nation CF FS Points Places
1 Ondrej Nepela  Czechoslovakia 1 4 2739.1 9
2 Sergei Chetverukhin  Soviet Union 3 1 2672.4 20
3 Patrick Péra  France 2 8 2653.1 28
4 Kenneth Shelley  United States 5 3 2596.0 43
5 John Misha Petkevich  United States 6 2 2591.5 47
6 Jan Hoffmann  East Germany 4 10 2567.6 55
7 Haig Oundjian  Great Britain 9 7 2538.8 65
8 Vladimir Kovalev  Soviet Union 7 11 2521.6 80
9 Toller Cranston  Canada 12 5 2517.2 80.5
10 John Curry  Great Britain 8 12 2512.2 85
11 Gordon McKellen  United States 10 9 2511.0 89
12 Yuri Ovchinnikov  Soviet Union 15 6 2477.5 104.5
13 Didier Gailhaguet  France 11 13 2440.9 114
14 Jacques Mrozek  France 13 14 2401.3 126
15 Günter Anderl  Austria 14 16 2313.6 138
16 Yutaka Higuchi  Japan 16 15 2309.7 140
17 Gheorghe Fazekas  Romania 17 17 2094.0 153

Referee:

Assistant Referee:

Judges:

Ladies

[edit]

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  Austria 1 7 2751.5 9
2 Karen Magnussen  Canada 3 2 2673.2 23
3 Janet Lynn  United States 4 1 2663.1 27
4 Julie Lynn Holmes  United States 2 8 2627.0 39
5 Zsuzsa Almássy  Hungary 5 4 2592.4 47
6 Sonja Morgenstern  East Germany 8 3 2579.4 53
7 Rita Trapanese  Italy 6 6 2574.8 55
8 Christine Errath  East Germany 11 5 2489.3 78
9 Charlotte Walter  Switzerland 7 13 2467.3 86
10 Kazumi Yamashita  Japan 10 10 2449.9 93
11 Jean Scott  Great Britain 9 11 2436.8 101
12 Suna Murray  United States 13 9 2426.2 102
13 Catherine Irwin  Canada 12 12 2383.4 116
14 Isabelle de Navarre  West Germany 16 14 2340.0 128
15 Anita Johansson  Sweden 14 15 2349.3 131
16 Dianne de Leeuw  Netherlands 15 16 2298.7 143
17 Sonja Balun  Austria 17 17 2260.6 148
18 Marina Sanaya  Soviet Union 19 18 2198.6 160
19 Chang Myung-su  South Korea 18 19 2117.0 171

Referee:

Assistant Referee:

Judges:

Pairs

[edit]
Rank Name Nation SP FS Points Places
1 Irina Rodnina / Alexei Ulanov  Soviet Union 1 1 420.4 12
2 Liudmila Smirnova / Andrei Suraikin  Soviet Union 2 2 419.4 15
3 Manuela Groß / Uwe Kagelmann  East Germany 3 3 411.8 29
4 JoJo Starbuck / Kenneth Shelley  United States 4 4 406.8 35
5 Almut Lehmann / Herbert Wiesinger  West Germany 5 6 399.8 52
6 Irina Cherniaeva / Vasili Blagov  Soviet Union 6 5 399.1 52
7 Melissa Militano / Mark Militano  United States 8 7 393.0 65.5
8 Annette Kansy / Axel Salzmann  East Germany 7 8 392.6 68
9 Sandra Bezic / Val Bezic  Canada 9 9 384.9 84
10 Corinna Halke / Eberhard Rausch  West Germany 10 10 381.1 87
11 Grazyna Kostrzewinska / Adam Brodecki  Poland 11 11 377.8 95.5
12 Barbara Brown / Douglas Berndt  United States 12 13 366.9 114
13 Florence Cahn / Jean Roland Racle  France 13 12 364.5 116
14 Linda Connolly / Colin Taylforth  Great Britain 14 14 360.6 126
15 Mary Petrie / John Hubbell  Canada 15 15 358.5 129
16 Kotoe Nagasawa / Hiroshi Nagakubo  Japan 16 16 345.5 144

Referee:

Assistant Referee:

Judges:

References

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  1. ^ "Figure Skating at the 1972 Winter Olympics". Olympedia. Archived from the original on 3 July 2020. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
  2. ^ Figure Skating at the 1972 Sapporo Winter Games: Men's Singles Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine. sports-reference.com
  3. ^ Figure Skating at the 1972 Sapporo Winter Games: Women's Singles. sports-reference.com
  4. ^ Figure Skating at the 1972 Sapporo Winter Games: Mixed Pairs Archived 3 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine. sports-reference.com
  5. ^ Litsky, Frank. (26 October 2003) FIGURE SKATING - Rewards Become Focus Of Scoring Experiment. NYTimes.com. Retrieved on 2016-07-18.
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