1924 Winter Olympics / Figure Skating

Figure skating at the I. Winter Olympic Games
information
venue	Chamonix
Competition venue	Stade Olympique
Nations	11
Athletes	29 (13 women, 16 men)
date	29.-31. January 1924
decisions	3
← Antwerp 1920 St. Moritz 1928 →

The figure skating was already at the 1908 Summer Olympics in London and the Olympic Summer Games 1920 in Antwerp as part of so-called winter sports week on the program of the Olympic Games . At the 1st Olympic Winter Games in Chamonix in 1924 , competitions were held for men and women as well as in pairs. The venue was the Stade Olympique (Olympic Stadium) in the town center. There were two natural ice rink surfaces, each 50 × 60 m in diameter, in the curve areas of the 400 m speed skating rink. Since the ice hockey tournament took place at the same time as the figure skating competitions, the spectators were also in the stadium because of the ice hockey games.

Balance sheet

Medal table

space	country				total
1	Austria	2	1	-	3
2	Sweden	1	-	-	1
3	Finland	-	1	-	1
4th	United States	-	1	-	1
5	France	-	-	1	1
	United Kingdom	-	-	1	1
	Switzerland	-	-	1	1

Medalist

competitor	gold	silver	bronze
Men's	Gillis Grafström	Willy Böckl	Georges Gautschi
Ladies	Herma Szabó	Beatrix Loughran	Ethel Muckelt
Couples	Helene Engelmann / Alfred Berger	Ludowika Jakobsson / Walter Jakobsson	Andrée Joly / Pierre Brunet

Results

• K = freestyle
• P = compulsory
• Pz = place number
• Pts = points

Men's

Gillis Grafström at the 1924 Winter Olympics

space	country	athlete	P	K	Pz	Pt.
1	SWE	Gillis Grafström	1	2	10	367.89
2	AUT	Willy Böckl	2	1	13	359.82
3	SUI	Georges Gautschi	3	4th	23	319.07
4th	TCH	Josef Slíva	5	3	28	310.77
5	GBR	John Page	6th	5	36	295.36
6th	United States	Nathaniel Niles	4th	9	46	274.47
7th	CAN	Melville Rogers	7th	8th	51	269.82
8th	FRA	Pierre Brunet	9	6th	54	268.61
9	BEL	Frédéric Mésot	8th	7th	54	266.16
10	GBR	Herbert Clarke	10	11	70	219.75
11	FRA	André Malinet	11	10	77	202.46

Competition: January 29, 1924 at 9:30 a.m. (compulsory) and January 30, 1924 at 3:00 p.m. (freestyle)

11 figure skaters from 9 countries took part

Spectators: 555

The competition consisted of a duty - six figures had to be shown - and a five-minute freestyle. The world champion from 1923, Fritz Kachler from Austria , and the Hungarian champion Andor Szende were absent here, so that in the run-up to the fight for gold only Gillis Grafström and Willy Böckl were considered. When the two of them met earlier, the Swede always left the ice rink as the winner. Grafström was an excellent runner of compulsory figures and was considered an extremely elegant dancer with an enormous feeling for music. He ran the best duty, finished second in the freestyle and successfully defended his title from 1920 . The Wiener Although Willy Böckl ran the best free program for all participants, but the points were not enough for the Olympic title. Curiously, four of the six judges found that Gillis Grafström, despite a fall, was better than Böckl and put the Swede in first place.

John Page , Nathaniel Niles , Melville Rogers and Pierre Brunet also competed in pair skating. For Gillis Grafström and Nathaniel Niles it was the second Olympic figure skating competitions after 1920.

Ladies

space	country	sportswoman	P	K	Pz	Pt.
1	AUT	Herma Szabó	1	1	07th	299.17
2	United States	Beatrix Loughran	2	3	14th	279.85
3	GBR	Ethel Muckelt	3	7th	26th	250.07
4th	United States	Theresa Weld	4th	4th	27	249.53
5	FRA	Andrée Joly	7th	2	38	231.92
6th	CAN	Cecil Smith	5	5	44	230.75
7th	GBR	Kathleen Shaw	6th	8th	46	221.00
8th	NOR	Sonja Henie	8th	6th	50	203.82

Competition: January 28, 1924 at 9:00 a.m. (compulsory) and January 29, 1924 at 1:30 p.m. (freestyle)

8 figure skaters from 6 countries took part

Spectators: 720

The competition consisted of a duty (six figures) and a four-minute freestyle. Among the judges were Walter Jakobsson (Finland) and Georges Wagemans (Belgium), who both competed in pair skating as well. Defending champion Magda Julin and Svea Norén (both Swedes) were missing two big favorites, so that Herma Szabó - world champion in 1922 and 1923 - almost effortlessly ran as the best in the compulsory and freestyle series to win the Olympic gold. Like Willy Böckl, she belonged to the Vienna Ice Skating Club and won the first Olympic gold medal for Austria in winter sports competitions. On the other hand, Beatrix Loughran from New York appeared like Phoenix from the ashes and surprisingly won silver. Loughran had traveled to Chamonix as US runner-up. Actually, her compatriot Theresa Weld was given a medal. However, this narrowly missed bronze with only one place more to the British Ethel Muckelt .

Eighth of the competition was Sonja Henie from Norway , who with her 11 years and 295 days was the youngest participant in these winter games . At the beginning of her freestyle she fell, said, embarrassed, "Oops!" And started again. Since then, the press has lovingly called her Miss Oops . Sonja Henie later became three times Olympic champion between 1928 and 1936. Ethel Muckelt, Theresa Weld, Andrée Joly and Cecil Smith also competed in pair skating. For Muckelt and Weld it was the second Olympic Games after 1920.

Couples

space	country	Pair	Pz	Pt.
1	AUT	Helene Engelmann / Alfred Berger	09.0	10.64
2	FIN	Ludowika Jakobsson / Walter Jakobsson	18.5	10.25
3	FRA	Andrée Joly / Pierre Brunet	22.0	09.89
4th	GBR	Ethel Muckelt / John Page	30.5	09.93
5	BEL	Georgette Herbos / Georges Wagemans	37.0	08.82
6th	United States	Theresa Weld / Nathaniel Niles	39.0	09.07
7th	CAN	Cecil Smith / Melville Rogers	41.0	09.11
8th	GBR	Mildred Richardson / Thomas Richardson	57.0	07.68
9	FRA	Simone Sabouret / Charles Sabouret	61.0	07.15

Competition: January 31, 1924 at 3 p.m. (freestyle)

At the start were 9 couples (18 figure skaters) from 7 countries

Spectators: 347

The competition consisted of a five-minute freestyle. The couples were accompanied by a brass band. Almost all of the world's top pair skaters were at the start. Only the Norwegians Alexia and Yngvar Bryn were missing. The pair skating turned out to be one of the most exciting decisions. At the top there was a duel between Ludowika and Walter Jakobsson - world champion 1923 - from Helsinki and Helene Engelmann and Alfred Berger - world champion 1922 - from Vienna . Classic meets popular. The Finnish defending champions of 1920 turned out to be bad losers. They accused the winning couple Engelmann / Berger of having beguiled the judges with acrobatics that were not part of the classic art run. Born in Potsdam, Ludowika Jakobsson was the only German female athlete in Chamonix and, at 39 years and 188 days, also the oldest medalist at the Winter Olympic Games. Her husband Walter Jakobsson was 41 years and 358 days old.

Embarrassing mistake: after minutes of standing ovation, the press believed the Canadian couple Cecil Smith and Melville Rogers as the winner and the French journalists wired this “sensation” to their newspapers a little too quickly. In fact, they only came in seventh. Of the total of nine couples, five were at the Olympics for the second time.

Web links

• Figure skating at the 1924 Winter Olympics in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Official report of the 1924 Olympic Games (PDF; 87.6 MB)