1936 Winter Olympics / Figure Skating

Figure skating at the IV Winter Olympics
information
venue	Garmisch-Partenkirchen
Competition venue	Olympic ice stadium
Nations	17th
Athletes	84 (43 women, 41 men)
date	9-15 February 1936
decisions	3
← Lake Placid 1932 St. Moritz 1948 →

At the IV Olympic Winter Games in Garmisch-Partenkirchen in 1936 , three figure skating competitions took place. The venue was the Olympic ice stadium . For the first time, the jury made a public assessment.

Balance sheet

Medal table

space	country				total
1	Austria	1	1	1	3
2	German Empire	1	1	-	2
3	Norway	1	-	-	1
4th	United Kingdom	-	1	-	1
5	Sweden	-	-	1	1
	Hungary	-	-	1	1

Medalist

competitor	gold	silver	bronze
Men's	Karl Schäfer	Ernst Baier	Felix Kaspar
Ladies	Sonja Henie	Cecilia Colledge	Vivi-Anne Hultén
Couples	Maxi Herber / Ernst Baier	Ilse Pausin / Erik Pausin	Emília Rotter / László Szollás

Results

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

Men's

space	country	athlete	P	K	Pz	Pt.
1	AUT	Karl Schäfer	01	01	007th	422.7
2	GER	Ernst Baier	03	04th	024	400.8
3	AUT	Felix Kaspar	05	02	024	400.1
4th	CAN	Montgomery Wilson	04th	05	030th	394.5
5	GBR	Graham Sharp	02	06th	034	394.1
6th	GBR	Graham Sharp	08th	03	042	387.7
7th	FIN	Marcus Nikkanen	06th	09	054	380.7
8th	HUN	Elemér Terták	09	08th	056	379.0
9	HUN	Dénes Pataky	07th	11	060	374.8
10	GBR	Freddie Tomlins	11	10	077	364.2
11	AUT	Leopold Linhart	16	07th	080	364.2
12	United States	Robin Lee	13	13	080	363.0
13	United States	Alder rider	12	17th	095	352.9
14th	AUT	Hellmut May	14th	15th	096	354.8
15th	JPN	Toshikazu Katayama	17th	16	108	347.4
16	GBR	Geoffrey Yates	10	20th	110	348.7
17th	SUI	Lucian Büeler	15th	21st	119	343.6
18th	GER	Günther Lorenz	19th	12	119	343.5
19th	ROME	Roman Turuşanco	21st	14th	128	337.8
20th	JPN	Kazuyoshi Oimatsu	20th	19th	139	325.4
21st	JPN	Zenjiro Watanabe	23	18th	147	325.4
22nd	United States	George Hill	18th	23	148	325.1
23	JPN	Tsugio Hasegawa	24	22nd	162	314.6
24	TCH	Jaroslav Sadílek	22nd	24	161	305.0
25th	LAT	Verners Auls	25th	25th	175	222.6

Date: February 9-14, 1936

25 figure skaters from 12 nations took part, more than ever before.

The competition consisted of compulsory and a five-minute freestyle. The performances were judged by seven judges. Defending champion Karl Schäfer was the big favorite at the end of his career. Since 1929 he had won all European championships and since 1930 all world championships. He lived up to the role of favorite and had no trouble getting his second Olympic gold.

Contrary to the programming, the duty could already be ended on February 10th, whereby the weather change with cold and snowstorms could not influence the performance too much, since the stadium offered good wind protection. Although after the first figure (turn forwards inwards) Montgomery Wilson had worked out a slight lead over Schäfer, it soon became clear that the world champion was superior - in the total point he received an average of 5.6 (maximum score 6.0), Wilson's average was 5, 4, that of Sharp 5.3 and that of Baier 5.2. Before the freestyle, this resulted in Schäfer 250.9 ahead of Wilson (237.9), Sharp (237.7), Baier (237.0), Kaspar (234.1); the Swiss Lucian Büeler had 211.3 points and was 14th, Hellmut May was 15th with 211.0 points.

Schäfer ultimately won the competition with greater certainty than at the recently held European Championships in Berlin . While the best in pair skating and the women's competition hardly differed in performance, the Viennese won the title in a manner that was beyond discussion. It was still unmatched in elegance and execution. Smaller, insignificant errors are more likely to be attributed to the brittle ice, which was fatal for other runners and which had caused several falls.

Behind it it was much tighter. The local hero Ernst Baier , who celebrated his greatest successes in pair skating, won the silver medal, 0.7 points ahead of the second Austrian Felix Kaspar , who was to succeed Schäfer the following year. The German was rated a bit too high in both the compulsory and the freestyle, especially since he had run his freestyle significantly better at previous World and European Championships. Kaspar presented himself as the boldest jumper with Axel, Rittberger (including one with a double twist) and moon jumps; he jumped with such force that from jumping up and down there were deep tracks in the ice that had to be repaired.

Wilson, who had won the bronze medal four years earlier, finished fourth. Behind them were the British Graham Sharp and Jack Dunn . The latter made a strong impression, with which he was able to work his way up in the classification. Elemér Terták competed under the pseudonym Tardonvlvy. Günther Lorenz , who started in the previous year as a junior, was very popular as the second German; he betrayed the school of his compatriot Baier.

The Japanese had not yet become dangerous to the runners of the "old world", neither in compulsory nor in freestyle. Some of them ran excellently to music, their strength being the well-centered pirouettes. Since they had only really started skating after the Games four years ago, they had already reached a surprising average. The masters of the arts are the westerners, who they could watch and study in films, which of course meant that you hardly ever saw any new figures or combinations with them.

Lucian Büeler was the next starter after Schäfer. The Swiss ran at a fluid pace and received a fairly high average of 4.5 points each. Verners Auls , who clearly lacked the class and averaged only three points, landed quite clearly in last place.

Ladies

space	country	sportswoman	P	K	Pz	Pt.
1	NOR	Sonja Henie	01	01	07.5	424.5
2	GBR	Cecilia Colledge	02	02	13.5	418.1
3	SWE	Vivi-Anne Hultén	04th	04th	028	394.7
4th	BEL	Liselotte Landbeck	03	06th	032	393.3
5	United States	Maribel Vinson	06th	07th	039	388.7
6th	AUT	Hedy Stenuf	08th	03	040	387.6
7th	AUT	Emmy Putzinger	09	04th	049	381.8
8th	GER	Victoria Lindpaintner	07th	10	051	381.4
9	AUT	Grete Lainer	10	11	065	373.4
10	JPN	Etsuko Inada	13	09	077	368.1
11	GBR	Mollie Phillips	12	12	078	366.2
12	United States	Audrey Peppe	18th	08th	085	363.3
13	SUI	Angela Other	15th	16	101	355.4
14th	AUT	Bianca Schenk	16	14th	102	356.4
15th	HUN	Éva from Botond	11	17th	106	356.1
16	GBR	Belita Jepson-Turner	14th	18th	107	352.6
17th	TCH	Věra Hrubá	20th	13	111	353.3
18th	BEL	Yvonne De Ligne	19th	15th	118	348.2
19th	SUI	Hertha Frey-Dexler	17th	19th	129	345.4
20th	TCH	Fritzi Metznerová	21st	21st	141	339.2
21st	United States	Louise Weigel	22nd	20th	140	336.4
22nd	United States	Estelle Weigel	23	22nd	151	324.5
23	LAT	Alise Dzeguze	24	23	161	280.9
	GBR	Gweneth Butler	05	withdrawn
	CAN	Constance Wilson-Samuel	withdrawn
	NOR	Nanna Egedius	withdrawn

Date: February 11-15, 1932

For weeks there had been no more tickets available for this event, even for the highest prices. Sonja Henie, who had not lost a competition for nine years, won her third Olympic title in a row, an achievement in women's figure skating that has never been achieved to this day (2018). In the men's area, this feat was only achieved by the Swede Gillis Grafström at the Olympic Games in 1920 , 1924 and 1928 .

The 15-year-old British Cecilia Colledge won the silver medal in an impressive manner. Shortly before, she had been the first woman to perform a double jump, a double salchow at the European Championships and had also invented the camel spin and the layback spin.

After the compulsory figures, Henie and Colledge were only three points apart. Sandra Stevenson reported in her April 21, 2008 article in The Independent : “… the scarcity angered Henie, who, when the result for this section was posted on the panel wall, took the piece of paper and tore it into small pieces. The draw for the freestyle came under suspicion, as Henie had the best position as the last starter, while Colledge had to start second of 26 starters. This early start was seen as a disadvantage, as the audience was not yet in the rhythm of a storm of applause and the judges were known to be more generous in giving higher ratings the longer the competition lasted. Years later, a fairer, staggered draw was introduced to counter this fact. "

The Swiss Hertha Frey-Dexler was the first runner to take part in the freestyle. She delivered a pretty, flowing presentation which, however, seemed in need of technical improvement. Colledge in a silver lamé dress showed all the troubles there was, but looked a little nervous. After a salchow she had to lightly touch the ground with one hand. But overall it was a balanced performance, maybe the distribution of places could have been even better. Jepson-Turner fell right at the beginning while jumping three. The Austrian champion Putzinger brought a smooth and harmonious performance; although the major difficulties were absent, the performance seemed a little undervalued. The program of the Swiss woman Other was nice, but it could have been worked through better. The freestyle of the German champion Lindpaintner was well structured, the pirouettes could have been extremely pleasing, only the jumps should have been a little softer. The compulsory fifth butler could not take part due to illness.

The second highlight after Colledge was the performance of the Viennese Stenuf, in which all jumps were sitting, the pirouettes were done with great swing and a great musical feeling could be determined. Etsuko Inada also met with great applause, even though her performance was not yet ripe, which one could not expect from an eleven year old. Vivi-Anne Hultén's freestyle revealed the highest art . The elegance of her movements was not easy to surpass, her running style was accompanied by a light dance touch. Only the difficulties of the program did not represent the highest achievable. With bronze she won the last Olympic medal in figure skating for Sweden to date (February 2018). Maribel Vinson ran technically well, but a little hastily; although there were repetitions in their pirouettes, the overall performance was impressive.

Henie, who wore a purple silk dress, clearly won the freestyle. It showed that she was still out of reach. Although she started a little nervous and tense, she quickly found herself and captivated the audience until the end. Her moon combination, the soft jumps, the pirouettes carried out with swing, the posture, all that could only be given by her.

Couples

space	country	Pair	Pz	Pt.
1	GER	Maxi Herber / Ernst Baier	011.0	11.5
2	AUT	Ilse Pausin / Erik Pausin	019.5	11.4
3	HUN	Emília Rotter / László Szollás	032.5	10.8
4th	HUN	Piroska Szekrényessy / Attila Szekrényessy	038.5	10.6
5	United States	Maribel Vinson / George Hill	046.5	10.4
6th	CAN	Louise Bertram / Stewart Reburn	068.5	09.8
7th	GBR	Violet Cliff / Leslie Cliff	056.5	10.1
8th	GER	Eva Prawitz / Otto Weiss	074.5	09.5
9	ITA	Anna Cattaneo / Ercole Cattaneo	093.0	09.1
10	GBR	Rosemarie Stewart / Ernest Yates	102.5	09.0
11	United States	Grace Madden / James Madden	095.0	09.1
12	CAN	Audrey Garland / Fraser Sweatman	105.0	08.7
13	ROME	Irina Timcic / Alfred Eisenbeisser	102.0	09.0
14th	AUT	Eleanore Bäumel / Fritz Wächtler	113.0	08.8
15th	NOR	Randi Bakke / Christen Christensen	132.5	08.2
16	BEL	Louise Contamine / Robert Verdun	138.5	08.2
17th	LAT	Hildegarde Švarce / Eduards Gešels	149.0	07.5
18th	EST	Helene Michelson / Eduard Hiiop	161.0	06.8

Date: February 13, 1936

The competition consisted of a five-minute freestyle. The performances were judged by eight judges, one of them a lady. She was from Finland and rated more strictly than her colleagues - if they reached for 5 or even 6, she took 4.5. She was whistled once when she rated the Canadians Bertram / Reburn only with 3.5 (the men had drawn 4.9 to 5.3). The 18 couples who took part included five siblings. The Swiss couple (Pierette and Paul Dubois), who had become Swiss champions for the first time this year, were missing. But by the time this result was established, the registration deadline for the Olympic Games had already passed.

Maxi Herber and Ernst Baier became Olympic champions in front of their home crowd. Baier had already won the silver medal in the individual run, making him only one of two athletes (and the only man) who could win two medals in figure skating at the same Olympic Games, both in individual skating and in pair skating. The silver medal went to the Austrians Ilse and Erik Pausin , bronze like four years earlier to the Hungarians Emília Rotter and László Szollás .

With the exception of Erik Pausin, who took the possible risk of misinterpretation by the jury and competed in a navy blue jacket (although this was more appropriate because his sister wore a sky blue suit), the other 17 men competed in black. Almost half of them had chosen Johann Strauss (son) 's Waltz . Even if the “voices of spring” could be heard four times, it only sounded really voices of spring with the Viennese couple Pausin. Exceptions were the German master couple Baier / Herber with their own background music, which sounded like a short symphonic creation and was precisely tailored to the lecture. The Canadians Bertram / Reburn had chosen a melancholy tango.

Four of the 16 couples stood out: the European champions Herber-Baier, the Viennese siblings Pausin and the Hungarian couples Rotter / Szollás and Szekrényessy. The style initiated by Herber-Baier last year, which dispenses with acrobatics in the air, instead enriches the program with difficult combinations of steps and difficult figures that have been run separately, had a stimulating effect. At the request of Austria, new regulations had been included in the competition rules, according to which it was not permitted for the partner to leave the ice for a long time without their own strength, and all couples adhered to these changes.

Like Herber / Baier, the US pair Vinson / Hill embodied two excellent individual runners who also started in the individual competition. Although they ran the most difficult program with individually jumped axles, Rittbergers, salchows and pirouettes, the purity of the execution and the interplay were far from reaching the four top pairs. They were rated too high in execution with an average of 4.8.

Web links

• Figure skating at the 1936 Winter Olympics in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The compulsory running of the figure skaters. In: Sport Zurich. No. 20 of February 12, 1936, page 3, from column 3, below.
2. ^ "Karl Schäfer again Olympic champion" in "Sport Zurich" No. 23 of February 15, 1936, pages 3 and 4
3. ^ "Sonja's third gold medal" in "Sport Zürich", No. 24 of February 17, 1936, page 4
4. ^ "The Olympic pair running" in "Sport Zürich", No. 22 of February 14, 1936, pages 2 and 3
5. ^ "In the sign of the five rings" with the subtitle "Olympic pair running" in "Sport Zürich", No. 24 of February 17, 1936, page 8.