1928 Winter Olympics / Figure Skating

Figure skating at the 1928 Winter Olympics
information
venue	St. Moritz
Competition venue	Kulm ice rink
Nations	11
Athletes	51 (23 , 28 )
date	14.-19. February 1928
decisions	3
← Chamonix 1924 Lake Placid 1932 →

Three figure skating competitions took place at the II. Olympic Winter Games in St. Moritz in 1928 . Originally, the Badrutts Park ice rink was intended as the venue, but the competitions were moved to the Kulm ice rink due to bad weather .

Balance sheet

Medal table

space	country				total
1	France	1	-	-	1
	Norway	1	-	-	1
	Sweden	1	-	-	1
4th	Austria	-	3	1	4th
5	Belgium	-	-	1	1
	United States	-	-	1	1

Medalist

competitor	gold	silver	bronze
Men's	Gillis Grafström	Willy Böckl	Robert Van Zeebroeck
Ladies	Sonja Henie	Fritzi Burger	Beatrix Loughran
Couples	Andrée Joly / Pierre Brunet	Lilly Scholz / Otto Kaiser	Melitta Brunner / Ludwig Wrede

Results

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

Men's

space	country	athlete	P	K	Pz	Pt.
1	SWE	Gillis Grafström	01	01	012	1630.75
2	AUT	Willy Böckl	02	02	013	1625.50
3	BEL	Robert Van Zeebroeck	03	03	027	1542.75
4th	AUT	Karl Schäfer	06th	04th	035	1463.75
5	TCH	Josef Slíva	05	05	036	1469.00
6th	FIN	Marcus Nikkanen	04th	08th	046	1480.00
7th	FRA	Pierre Brunet	07th	07th	050	1447.75
8th	AUT	Ludwig Wrede	10	06th	053	1368.75
9	GBR	John Page	08th	11	072	1424.00
10	United States	Roger Turner	09	12	067	1363.50
11	United States	Sherwin Badger	13	09	073	1324.00
12	GER	Paul Franke	14th	10	076	1326.00
13	CAN	Montgomery Wilson	11	16	092	1345.00
14th	GBR	Ian Bowhill	15th	14th	101	1202.75
15th	United States	Nathaniel Niles	16	13	103	1154.25
16	CAN	Jack Eastwood	17th	15th	106	1136.25
	GER	Werner Rittberger	withdrawn

Date: February 17, 1928

Gillis Grafström during the compulsory figures

The competition consisted of a compulsory and a five-minute freestyle. The performances were judged by seven judges. Among them was Eduard Engelmann jr. , the founder of the Vienna Ice Skating Club . One of 17 participants ( Werner Rittberger ) gave up because of illness.

Like four years before, the duel between Gillis Grafström and Willy Böckl took place . Despite a knee injury, Grafström won both compulsory and freestyle skills, thus defending his titles from 1920 and 1924 and thus becoming the only figure skater to date to win three Olympic titles in the men's competition.

Fourth was 18-year-old Karl Schäfer , who was to become Olympic champion the next two times. In the same year he also took part in the Summer Olympics in breaststroke.

Ladies

space	country	sportswoman	P	K	Pz	Pt.
1	NOR	Sonja Henie	01	01	008th	2452.25
2	AUT	Fritzi Burger	06th	02	025th	2248.50
3	United States	Beatrix Loughran	04th	04th	028	2254.52
4th	United States	Maribel Vinson	03	06th	032	2224.50
5	CAN	Cecil Smith	02	03	032	2213.75
6th	CAN	Constance Wilson	05	05	035	2173.00
7th	AUT	Melitta Brunner	07th	09	048	2087.50
8th	AUT	Use Hornung	10	07th	054	2050.75
9	GER	Ellen Brockhöft	08th	10	067	2003.00
10	United States	Theresa Weld	09	13	077	1970.25
11	FRA	Andrée Joly	17th	03	086	1910.00
12	GER	Margrit Bernhardt	14th	14th	091	1890.00
13	NOR	Edel Randem	13	15th	094	1880.75
14th	GBR	Kathleen Shaw	11	19th	095	1900.00
15th	GER	Else Flebbe	16	12	103	1833.50
16	NOR	Karen Simensen	12	18th	103	1811.75
17th	AUT	Grete Kubitschek	15th	17th	110	1778.50
18th	GER	Elaine Winter	18th	11	110	1765.75
19th	SUI	Elvira Barbey	19th	16	125	1648.75
20th	FRA	Anita de St. Quentin	20th	20th	140	1114.25

Date: February 17-18, 1928

Sonja Henie shows a pirouette

The competition consisted of a compulsory and a four-minute freestyle. The performances were judged by seven judges. The only discipline for women only had 20 participants.

Sonja Henie became the youngest winter Olympic champion in an individual discipline at the age of 15 and 315 days. This record was only taken from her in 1998 by the American Tara Lipinski (15 years and 225 days), also in figure skating. Fritzi Burger won the silver medal. The bronze medal went to the American Beatrix Loughran , who had already won silver four years earlier .

Couples

space	country	Pair	Pz	Pt.
1	FRA	Andrée Joly / Pierre Brunet	014.0	100.50
2	AUT	Lilly Scholz / Otto Kaiser	017.0	099.25
3	AUT	Melitta Brunner / Ludwig Wrede	029.0	093.25
4th	United States	Beatrix Loughran / Sherwin Badger	043.0	087.50
5	FIN	Ludowika Jakobsson / Walter Jakobsson	051.0	084.00
6th	BEL	Josy van Leberghe / Robert Van Zeebroeck	054.0	083.00
7th	GBR	Ethel Muckelt / John Page	061.5	079.00
8th	GER	Ilse Kishauer / Ernst Gaste	063.0	075.75
9	United States	Theresa Weld / Nathaniel Niles	079.5	069.00
10	CAN	Maude Smith / Jack Eastwood	095.5	067.25
11	SUI	Elvira Barbey / Louis Barbey	097.0	064.75
12	TCH	Libuše Veselá / Vojtěch Veselý	102.0	060.00
13	GBR	Kathleen Lovett / Proctor Burman	110.5	057.75

Date: February 19, 1928

Lilly Scholz and Otto Kaiser on the way to their silver medal

The competition consisted only of a five-minute freestyle. Among the seven judges was Heinrich Burger , who in 1908 had won the first Olympic pair skating victory with Anna Hübler . A total of 13 couples took part.

The French Andrée Joly and Pierre Brunet , who first became world champions in 1926 , became Olympic champions for the first time. Her biggest competitors were Lilly Scholz and Otto Kaiser . They won the silver medal. Bronze also went to an Austrian couple, namely Melitta Brunner and Ludwig Wrede . Wrede had become pairs skating world champion alongside Herma Szabó in 1925 and 1927 , but had to look for a new partner after their sudden resignation.

The Olympic champions of 1920 and Olympic runners-up in 1924 , Ludowika Jakobsson and Walter Jakobsson from Finland finished their careers in fifth place at the age of 43 and 46 respectively.

Web links

Commons : 1928 Winter Olympics / Figure Skating  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Figure skating at the 1928 Olympic Winter Games in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )