Alena Vrzáňová

Alena Vrzáňová
Alena Vrzáňová on February 24, 2008
nation	Czechoslovakia
birthday	May 16, 1931
place of birth	Prague
date of death	30th July 2015 (age 84)
Place of death	New York, USA
Career
discipline	Single run
society	VŠ Praha
Trainer	Arnold Gerschwiler
Medal table
World Cup medals 2 × 0 × 0 × EM medals 1 × 1 × 1 ×
World figure skating championships gold Paris 1949 Ladies gold London 1950 Ladies  European figure skating championships bronze Prague 1948 Ladies silver Milan 1949 Ladies gold Oslo 1950 Ladies

Alena "Ája" Vrzáňová (born May 16, 1931 in Prague ; † July 30, 2015 in New York City , USA ) was a Czechoslovak figure skater . She was the world champion of 1949 and 1950 and the European Champion of 1950 .

Vrzáňová started winter sports at the age of three when her parents bought her skis. The family spent every winter in the Giant Mountains . This tradition was interrupted because of the Second World War. So she started figure skating. The conditions for this were not easy as the blackout regulations meant that she could only train in the dark on early winter mornings. The training sessions took place in the open winter stadium Štvanice ( Zimní stadión Štvanice ), before the training time of the ice hockey players, or on the club's own tennis courts, which were flooded and then the water was frozen. In addition to figure skating training, she attended ballet school and played the piano.

In 1946 she became Czechoslovak youth champion in figure skating. In the fall of that year she moved to London to train with Arnold Gerschwiler . In 1947 she won the national senior championships for the first time and took part in the European and World Championships for the first time, where she was able to place sixth and seventh respectively. After the Communist Party came to power in Czechoslovakia, Vrzáňová was criticized for training in London.

At the European Championships in 1948 in Prague, she won her first international medal with bronze behind Barbara Ann Scott and Eva Pawlik . At the World Championships in Davos , as well as at the Olympic Games in St. Moritz , she finished fifth, both times behind her compatriot Jiřina Nekolová .

In 1949 she became vice European champion in Milan behind last year's Olympic runner-up , Eva Pawlik, who was also the favorite at the 1949 World Figure Skating Championships in Paris. However, the reigning European champion from Austria could no longer compete in the freestyle because of a broken heel of her ice skate. Alena Vrzáňová seized this opportunity and won her first World Cup gold.

After spending the winter of 1949 at home in Czechoslovakia, her father advised her not to return after the upcoming World Cup. She agreed, resigned during the 1950 World Cup in London and was granted political asylum. Her mother followed her in March under dramatic circumstances. Your plane has been hijacked. Their father, a professional cello player , visited the two of them several times but never chose to stay with them or leave his country. Vrzáňová himself did not return to Prague until 1990. In 1950 she won her fourth and last national championship title in a row and was European champion in Oslo as well as world champion in London.

After her amateur career, Vrzáňová moved to the USA and ran for ice shows such as Ice Follies and Ice Capades. She has also appeared on television and in commercials. In 1969 she married the native Czech Pavel Steindler and they adopted two children. They ran the Duck Joint Restaurant in New York City and later the Czech Pavilion. After her husband's death, she worked for Ice Capades and ran New York City's largest public ice rink, the Wollman Rink .

Results

Competition / year	1947	1948	1949	1950
winter Olympics		5.
World championships	7th	5.	1.	1.
European championships	6th	3.	2.	1.
Czechoslovak Championships	1.	1.	1.	1.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Zemřela krasobruslařská legenda Ája Vrzáňová
2. ↑ Figure skating: "Favored to win, Eva Pawlik was forced to withdraw." In: Life Magazine, March 14, 1949
3. ^ Susan D. Russell, "Eva Pawlik and Rudi Seeliger", In: International Figure Skating Magazine, Jan / Feb 2008
4. ^ Matthias Hampe, The genesis of figure skating. Dissertation at the University of Potsdam, 2010. Page 218

Web links

Commons : Alena Vrzáňová  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Alena Vrzáňová in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )