Jan Bucher

Jan Bucher
nation	United States
birthday	17th November 1957 (age 62)
place of birth	Salt Lake City , USA
job	Ski and ice skating trainer
Career
discipline	ballet
status	resigned
End of career	April 1991
Medal table
Olympic medals 0 × 0 × 0 × World championships 2 × 2 × 0 ×
winter Olympics silver Calgary 1988 ballet  Freestyle Skiing World Championships gold Tignes 1986 ballet silver Calgary 1988 ballet gold Oberjoch 1989 ballet silver Lake Placid 1991 ballet
Placements in the Freestyle Skiing World Cup
Debut in the World Cup January 7, 1980  World Cup victories 57  Overall World Cup 4. (1988/89)  Ballet World Cup 1. ( 1980 , 1980/81, 1981/82, 1982/83, 1983/84, 1985/86, 1988/89)
Podium placements 1. 2. 3.  ballet 57 29 5

Jan Bucher Carmichael [ ʤæn bu-ɜr ˈkɑrˌmaɪkəl ] (born November 17, 1957 in Salt Lake City , Utah ) is a former American freestyle skier . She specialized in the no longer played ballet (acro) discipline, but initially also competed on the moguls . In 1986 and 1989 she was world champion, and she won two silver medals. With 57 World Cup victories and seven times the discipline ranking, she is by far the most successful “ski ballerina” in history.

biography

Childhood and youth

Jan Bucher was born in Salt Lake City in 1957 . Her father, John Richard Bucher (1915-2016), immigrated from West Virginia and converted to Mormonism . After serving in the army , he worked for various restaurant chains. Her mother Beulah Bucher (born Sowards, 1914-2006) was a teacher. Jan grew up with three older siblings. Her eldest sister Gerrie Ann (1938–2009) danced for the San Francisco Ballet , sister Jyll is an opera singer and brother John Richard II is a criminal lawyer .

After spending a lot of time in the family's own swimming pool as a child , she began working towards a career in figure skating at the age of ten . At the age of 16, she was considered a young talent and was trained by Carlo Fassi alongside the later Olympic and world champion Dorothy Hamill , but increasing back pain caused her problems. In 1975 she fell off the ice rink and suffered a broken bone and torn ligaments in her right ankle , which meant that the prospect of participating in the Olympic Games in Innsbruck and continuing her career was gone.

Athletic career

At the age of 18, Bucher took a job as an ice skating instructor on the Salt Lake City track. There the student at the University of Utah happened to meet a group of ballet skiers who were looking for new tricks. Without ever having been on skis, she began freestyle and received financial support from her colleagues, for whom she returned the favor by teaching new tricks. After initially hiding this new career path from her parents, she rose to number one in the Western Division of the US Ski Association in her first year as an amateur. In 1978 she won the national amateur championship and qualified for the US ski team with a competitive win in British Columbia .

In 1979 Bucher played her first international season, which also took her to Europe for the first time in her life . Although she suffered food poisoning during the winter and internal injuries from a fall, she was able to celebrate six wins and take the overall standings. In January 1980 the FIS launched the Freestyle Skiing World Cup and Jan Bucher dominated the ballet from the start. She won the first five events and, with a perfect record, became the first discipline winner. In the next four winters, too, she decided the ballet rating for herself and put one winning streak after the other. Between January 16, 1982 and March 22, 1985, she finished on the podium 34 times in a row. Until February 1982 she also competed in the moguls discipline of Moguls, but never made it into the points with a best performance of two eleventh places.

Before the 1984/85 World Cup season, Bucher changed her choreographer and began to struggle with injuries. A tendonitis in her right hand was followed by a torn cartilage in her right knee, and her back pain also came back. So she had to admit defeat to the French Christine Rossi for the first time in the discipline classification . When her old choreographer returned, she was able to regain her title a year later. At the first World Championships in Tignes in 1986 , she lived up to her role as a favorite and won the gold medal ahead of Rossi. At the Olympic Games in Calgary , where the ski ballet was first held as a demonstration competition, she again had to be content with second place behind Rossi. After Bucher had lost the discipline ranking twice in a row to her endurance rival, she intensified strength and endurance training and was once again at the top of the world in 1988/89. In the absence of the resigned Rossi, she won eight of eleven World Cups, seven of them in a row, which she did for the first time in three years and for the fourth time in her career. In addition, she was crowned ballet world champion again at the world championships on Oberjoch . Bucher had to break off the winter of 1989/90 after only three competitions due to injury. In the following season she found an almost overwhelming opponent in Switzerland's Conny Kissling and finished the discipline classification after eight second places in a row - also at the World Championships in Lake Placid - in second place.

After winning her last of three US championship titles, Bucher retired from competitive sports in April 1991 at the age of 33.

Private life

At the end of 1978, during her first international season, Bucher met the Canadian freestyle skier Peter Judge , whom she married in 1985. After Judge ended his active career in 1984, he took over the post as head coach of the Canadian freestyle team, which he held until 1997. Because he had to spend a lot of time in Ottawa while Jan was still racing in the World Cup, the two had a long-distance relationship for a long time . Bucher was later married to the successful Mughal skier Nelson Carmichael from Steamboat Springs , Colorado , with whom they have a son. She now lives in White Salmon , Washington , where she looked after her father until his death in 2016.

Style and reception

Jan Bucher ran a summer training camp at Mount Hood for many years

Jan Bucher is now regarded as a pioneer of ski ballet. Thanks to her background in figure skating, she was able to bring new elements of acrobatics to the sport of freestyle. For example, she took on the tricks of pirouette, pirouette and splay jump and performed them regularly during her two-minute routines. The biggest difference to ice skating is the longer ski edges compared to the runners of the skates , which gave it more stability. In addition, she brought a better feeling for the movement to the beat of the music than most of her competitors and thus ensured more aesthetics.

“They gave me short skis and it was a major flat surface. So I started spinning right away - you realize immediately where your edges are - and pulled around into a 180 and then a 360, and I wanted to keep going. "

“They gave me short skis and it was very flat terrain. So I started to turn right away - you can tell immediately where the edges are - and turned 180 and then 360 degrees, and wanted to continue. "

- Jan Bucher

In the early years of her World Cup career, Jan Bucher began directing a freestyle summer camp lasting several days on Palmer Glacier on Mount Hood in Oregon . She was supported by athletic companions such as Frank Beddor , Hilary Engisch or Bob Howard . In addition, she was forced to continue to teach ice skating and perform as a figure skater herself until the US Ski Association promised sufficient funds for the sport of freestyle. Like many other freestylers, Bucher struggled with the acceptance of their sport at the beginning of their career. For example, she was mocked as “Doggie” or “Hot Dogger” (at that time a common insult for freestyle skiers) and once even thrown dog treats at her during training .

Bucher contested 102 World Cups in her career and was on the podium 91 times. Only once (January 9, 1982 in Blackcomb ) was she in twelfth outside the top ten. With 57 wins she also clearly surpassed the US record previously held by Phil Mahre in an FIS sport (27 wins). Her own national record was only broken in 2012 by Lindsey Vonn . Within the Freestyle Skiing World Cup, she is the second most successful athlete behind Conny Kissling and the one with the most victories in an individual discipline. Because of these successes, the specialist magazine Snow Country called her in 1991 the “grande dame of ballet”.

successes

Olympic games

• Calgary 1988 : 2nd Ballet (Demonstration Competition)

World championships

• Tignes 1986 : 1st ballet
• Calgary 1988 : 2nd Ballet
• Oberjoch 1989 : 1st ballet
• Lake Placid 1991 : 2nd Ballet

World Cup ratings

season	total		ballet
	space	Points	space	Points
1980	7th	32	1.	32
1980/81	6th	48	1.	48
1981/82	5.	48	1.	48
1982/83	9.	12	1.	60
1983/84	8th.	12	1.	72
1984/85	7th	11	2.	80
1985/86	6th	12	1.	60
1986/87	5.	12	2.	70
1987/88	5.	11	2.	80
1988/89	4th	12	1.	84
1989/90	30th	5	9.	31
1990/91	7th	11	2.	99

World Cup victories

Bucher achieved 91 podium places in the World Cup, including 57 victories:

date	place	country	discipline
January 9, 1980	Poconos	United States	ballet
January 10, 1980	Poconos	United States	ballet
March 1, 1980	Oberjoch	Germany	ballet
March 13, 1980	Tignes	France	ballet
March 29, 1980	Whistler	Canada	ballet
17th January 1981	Livigno	Italy	ballet
February 9, 1981	Seefeld	Austria	ballet
February 14, 1981	Oberjoch	Germany	ballet
February 28, 1981	Mont Sainte-Anne	Canada	ballet
March 14, 1981	Poconos	United States	ballet
March 15, 1981	Poconos	United States	ballet
March 21, 1981	Calgary	Canada	ballet
January 3, 1982	Snoqualmie	United States	ballet
January 22, 1982	Angel Fire	United States	ballet
January 26, 1982	Poconos	United States	ballet
February 6, 1982	Mont Sainte-Anne	Canada	ballet
February 27, 1982	Sella Nevea	Italy	ballet
March 6, 1982	Adelboden	Switzerland	ballet
March 13, 1982	Livigno	Italy	ballet
March 20, 1982	Oberjoch	Germany	ballet
January 3, 1983	Mariazell	Austria	ballet
January 20, 1983	Tignes	France	ballet
January 29, 1983	Oberjoch	Germany	ballet
February 2, 1983	Livigno	Italy	ballet
March 11, 1983	Squaw Valley	United States	ballet
March 17, 1983	Angel Fire	United States	ballet
20th January 1984	Breckenridge	United States	ballet
3rd February 1984	Courchevel	France	ballet
February 28, 1984	Ravascletto	Italy	ballet
March 3, 1984	Oberjoch	Germany	ballet
March 20, 1984	Halls	Sweden	ballet
March 27, 1984	Tignes	France	ballet
January 12, 1985	Mont Gabriel	Canada	ballet
January 25, 1985	Breckenridge	United States	ballet
March 22, 1985	Halls	Sweden	ballet
17th December 1985	Zermatt	Switzerland	ballet
January 10, 1986	Mont Gabriel	Canada	ballet
January 23, 1986	Breckenridge	United States	ballet
January 24, 1986	Breckenridge	United States	ballet
February 28, 1986	Oberjoch	Germany	ballet
March 8, 1986	Voss	Norway	ballet
January 9, 1987	Mont Gabriel	Canada	ballet
January 22, 1987	Breckenridge	United States	ballet
January 31, 1987	Calgary	Canada	ballet
March 6, 1987	Oberjoch	Germany	ballet
December 12, 1987	Tignes	France	ballet
January 15, 1988	Lake Placid	United States	ballet
March 11, 1988	La Clusaz	France	ballet
January 6, 1989	Mont Gabriel	Canada	ballet
January 14, 1989 *	Lake Placid	United States	ballet
January 20, 1989	Calgary	Canada	ballet
January 27, 1989	Breckenridge	United States	ballet
February 10, 1989	La Clusaz	France	ballet
March 10, 1989	Voss	Norway	ballet
March 22, 1989	Suomu	Finland	ballet
December 8, 1989	Tignes	France	ballet

* ex-aequo with Conny Kissling

More Achievements

• 3 American championship titles (ballet 1988, 1989 and 1991)
• American amateur champion 1978
• 6 international victories in the pre-World Cup era

Awards

• 1983: Carrera Award
• 1983: US Ski Association Freestyle Championship Award
• 1987 and 1989: US Freestyle Skier of the Year
• 1988: Induced into the Utah Sports Hall of Fame
• 1989: International Freestyle Skier of the Year
• 1991: Ann Hansen Award
• 1993: Induction into the US Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame
• 2014: Induction into the Hall of Fame of the World Acrobatics Society

Web links

• Jan Bucher in the database of the International Ski Federation (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b} Obituary of John Richard Bucher. Gardner Funeral Home, January 2016, accessed February 8, 2020 . 
2. ↑ Obituary: Beulah Sowards books. Deseret News , December 8, 2006, accessed February 8, 2020 . 
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j} Demmie Stathoplos: Cutting the Mustard. In: Sports Illustrated . January 27, 1988. Online , accessed February 8, 2020.
4. ↑ ^{a b c d} Nicholas Howe: High-Style. In: Skiing. December 1990, pp. 196-198. Online , accessed February 8, 2020.
5. ^ ^{A b} Ray Grass: Bucher-Judge Turned to Skiing by Accident. In: Deseret News , November 13, 1988 edition. Online , accessed February 8, 2020.
6. ↑ Freestyle USA Today In: Skiing. January 1981, p. 68 (English).
7. ↑ Peter Judge. Canadian Ski Museum, accessed February 8, 2020 . 
8. ↑ Julie Barton Tarasovic: The Slopes of Summer. In: Ski. May / June 1995, p. 103 (English).
9. ^ Ski camps. In: Skiing. Spring 1985, p. 97 (English).
10. ↑ ^{a b} Ballerina Bucher: Freestyle Superstar. In: Snow Country , Volume 2, No. 7 (July 1989), p. 62 (English).
11. ↑ Bruce Stoff: The World Beaters - America's Freestyle Team. In: Snow Country. May / June 1991, p. 78 (English).
12. ↑ Jan Bucher - Hall of Fame Class of 1993. US Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame, accessed on February 8, 2020 (English). 
13. ^ Hall of Fame 1980s. Utah Sports Hall of Fame Foundation, accessed February 8, 2020 . 
14. ↑ 2017 US Ski & Snowboard Awards Manual. (PDF) US Ski & Snowboard, accessed February 8, 2020 . 
15. ↑ Summer Newsletter Part II. (PDF) World Acrobatics Society, 2014, accessed on February 8, 2020 (English).