Edi Scholdan

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Eduard "Edi" Scholdan (* 1911 or 1912 in Vienna ; † February 15, 1961 in Berg-Kampenhout , Belgium ) was an Austrian figure skater and figure skating coach.

Life

Scholdan was born in Vienna and took part in the 1933 World Championship as a figure skater , where he finished sixth in the victory of his famous compatriot Karl Schäfer . At the Austrian championships in 1933 he finished 4th and then began his coaching career. As a coach, however, Scholdan became far more famous. From 1945 he worked in this role at the Broadmoor Skating Club in Colorado Springs . His students included Eva Pawlik , Hayes Alan Jenkins , Davis Jenkins , James Grogan, and Ina Bauer . Because of his humor and because he liked to juggle on ice skates, he was called "the clown prince of Broadmoor".

As the trainer of Gregory Kelley and Stephanie Westerfeld , the two US runners-up in 1961, he was on board the Sabena flight 548 , which was to take them to the World Cup in Prague. The night flight was supposed to stop in Brussels . There, however, the pilot had to abort the landing approach and make another attempt to try another runway. The plane crashed on farmland in Berg-Kampenhout. All 72 passengers, the crew and a farmer on the ground were killed, including the entire eighteen-member US crew and their sixteen dependents. The world championship in Prague was canceled. Scholdan had two young children, Jimmy and Ruthie, at the time of his death. Jimmy was on board, Scholdan wanted to take him to Austria after the World Cup.

Scholdan was inducted into the Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 1976 . In 2011 he was also inducted into the national Hall of Fame, as was the entire US team that crashed in 1961. His successor in the Broadmoor Skating Club was Carlo Fassi .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Edi Scholdan ( Memento from January 14, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) on usfigureskating.org
  2. ↑ US Figure Skating Hall of Fame Members. In: worldskatingmuseum.org. World Figure Skating Museum & Hall of Fame, accessed January 17, 2016 .
personal data
SURNAME Scholdan, Edi
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Scholdan, Eduard (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian figure skating coach
DATE OF BIRTH 1911 or 1912
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH February 15, 1961
Place of death Berg Kampenhout