Brian Boitano

Brian Boitano
Full name	Brian Anthony Boitano
nation	United States
birthday	October 22, 1963
place of birth	Mountain View , California
Career
discipline	Single run
status	resigned
End of career	1994
Medal table
Olympic medals 1 × 0 × 0 × World Cup medals 2 × 2 × 1 ×
winter Olympics gold Calgary 1988 Men's  World figure skating championships bronze Tokyo 1985 Men's gold Geneva 1986 Men's silver Cincinnati 1987 Men's gold Budapest 1988 Men's

Brian Anthony Boitano (born October 22, 1963 in Mountain View , California ) is a retired American figure skater who started in a single run . He is the Olympic champion of 1988 and the world champion of 1986 and 1988 .

life and career

In 1982, Boitano became the first American to land a triple axel . He was runner-up at the national championships in 1984, which secured him a place on the Olympic team. At his first Olympic Games he was sixth in Sarajevo . In 1985 he won his first of four national championships. At the first world championship after the resignation of his compatriot Scott Hamilton , he won his first world championship medal with bronze behind Alexander Fadejew and Brian Orser . Just one year later, Brian Boitano became world champion in Geneva , ahead of Orser and Fadejew. In 1987 he presented the jump that was to become his trademark, the "Tano Triple Lutz", a triple Lutz in which he raised his left arm above his head. In the 1986/87 season and later at the 1988 World Cup , he attempted a four-fold jump, but did not land it cleanly, twice he came to stand on both feet. In 1987 Boitano had a home game at the World Championships in Cincinnati , but fell while attempting his quadruple toe loop and had to let Brian Orser go first. The event added much to the rivalry between Boitano and Orser, which culminated in the 1988 Olympic Games in the "Battle of the Brians". At the beginning of his career, Boitano was mainly known as a jumper and helped to bring the sport to a higher technical level. It was only when he failed to defend his world championship title in 1987 that he concentrated more on improving his artistic skills. After this home defeat, Boitano and his trainer Linda Leaver decided that something had to be changed if Boitano wanted to become Olympic champion in 1988. In order to improve his artistic skills, he hired the choreographer Sandra Bezic to design a program for the Olympic season for him. Bezic created a program with clean lines that accentuated the 1.80 m tall Boitano's running skills. The short program was based on Giacomo Meyerbeer's ballet Les Patineurs and the freestyle on the film music for Napoleon. The program was well received and Boitano and his trainer and choreographer were so convinced of the strength that they decided not to risk a quadruple toe loop. At the national championships, Boitano got a 6.0 from eight of the nine judges. His freestyle was flawed, but he won and went to the Olympic Games as a national champion, as did his big competitor Brian Orser for Canada . The 1988 Olympic Games in Calgary , which resulted in the "Battle of the Brians", as the media called the spectacle, were the highlight of Boitano's career. Boitano finished the compulsory figures in second before Orser, Orser won the short program before Boitano and so the two were almost equal before the freestyle. Boitano won the freestyle and thus the gold medal, with five to four judges votes in his favor. After the Olympic Games, Boitano and Orser took part in the world championship and here, too, Boitano was able to defeat the Canadian.

After that, he ended his amateur career and turned professional. He dominated the professional competitions, winning ten of them in a row, including five world championships. In 1990 Boitano appeared in the dance film Carmen on Ice ; for his portrayal of Don José he received an Emmy in the category Outstanding Performance in Classical Music / Dance Programming . For the 1993/94 Olympic season, Boitano was reamateurised. To make this possible, the ISU passed a clause, the “Boitano Rule”, according to which professionals could be reamateurised again. In the national championships, Boitano Scott Davis had to admit defeat, but managed to be nominated for the Olympic Games in Lillehammer . In the short program, he missed his triple Axel combination for the first time in his career and had no chance of a medal. He still ran a good freestyle and finished the tournament in sixth. Then he switched back to the professionals. Together with Katarina Witt, he began the three-year successful US tour Witt and Boitano Skating , when the tickets in Madison Square Garden were sold out. In 1996, Boitano was inducted into the United States Figure Skating Hall of Fame and the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame.

In December 2013, Barack Obama named him a member of the official US delegation to the Sochi Winter Olympics . Brian Boitano took this as an opportunity to come out as homosexual. He is quoted as saying in a statement published by USA Today :

“I am a son, a brother, an uncle, a friend, an athlete, a cook, an author. And being gay is just another part of me. "

reception

In the episode The Spirit Of Christmas 2 of the cartoon series South Park , he solves the problem of who is more important at Christmas: Jesus or Santa Claus. In the movie South Park: The Movie - Bigger, Longer, Unedited , the song “What Would Brian Boitano Do?” (German: “What would Brian Boitano do?”) Is dedicated to him.

Results

Competition / year	1982	1983	1984	1985	1986	1987	1988	1994
winter Olympics			5.				1.	6th
World championships		7th	6th	3.	1.	2.	1.
American championships	4th	2.	2.	1.	1.	1.	1.	2.

Filmography

• Blades of Glory , 2007 (USA)
• Brian Boitano: Canvas of Ice , 1988 (USA), together with Katarina Witt
• Carmen on Ice , 1990 (Germany), together with Katarina Witt and Brian Orser

Web links

• Brian Boitano in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Brian Boitano in the Internet Movie Database (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Brian Boitano US figure skater comes out before visiting Sochi , queer.de, December 19, 2013
2. ↑ Boitano, Brian (b. 1963) ( Memento of the original from May 2, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , glbtq.com, May 2014 edition  
3. ↑ figure skating-figure skating-olympic champion-boitano-outet-himself at focus.de from sid