1964 Winter Olympics / Figure Skating

Figure skating at the 1964 Winter Olympics
information
venue	innsbruck
Competition venue	Olympic ice stadium
Nations	15th
Athletes	88 (41 , 47 )
date	January 29 to February 6, 1964
decisions	3
← Squaw Valley 1960 Grenoble 1968 →

With the IX. During the 1964 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck , three figure skating competitions were held. The venue was the Olympic ice stadium .

Balance sheet

Medal table

space	country				total
1	Germany	1	1	-	2
2	Netherlands	1	-	-	1
	Soviet Union	1	-	-	1
4th	Canada	-	1	1	2
5	France	-	1	-	1
	Austria	-	1	-	1
6th	United States	-	-	2	2

Medalist

competitor	gold	silver	bronze
Men's	Manfred Schnelldorfer	Alain Calmat	Scott Allen
Ladies	Sjoukje Dijkstra	Regine Heitzer	Petra Burka
Couples	Lyudmila Belousova / Oleg Protopopov	Marika Kilius / Hans-Jürgen Bäumler Debbi Wilkes / Guy Revell	Vivian Joseph / Ronald Joseph

preview

In figure skating, the current European champions from Grenoble (January 14th to 18th) were to be classified as the most likely Olympic champions , according to the Sport Zürich preview in its January 29, 1964 edition . Despite different judges, the judicial practice would take effect, "to let someone be something".

According to experts, Manfred Schnelldorfer and Scott Allen were the only ones who could possibly deprive Alain Calmat of victory. Schnelldorfer was known as a very good compulsory runner who, however, could not come close to Calmat in the freestyle. All you can read about Allen is that he was 14 years old and had received brilliant reviews at the US championships. The Olympic runner-up Karol Divín was injured too often in recent years and therefore not as badly as in 1960 in Squaw Valley. Emmerich Danzer would also be rated as high as him . In the women’s category, neither Regine Heitzer nor Nicole Hassler would be able to prevent Sjoukje Dijkstra from winning the gold medal ; they are the first contenders for silver and bronze. The Canadian Wendy Griner could possibly intervene in this duel.

For Marika Kilius and Hans-Jürgen Bäumler, the Soviet couple Lyudmila Belousova and Oleg Protopopov were terrified of pair skating - both pairs should have the same chance. In Grenoble the point difference between them was only two points, in the freestyle presentation even smaller. And here in Innsbruck there is no obligation. Bronze is also practically awarded with Tatjana Schuk / Alexander Gawrilow . The only question that remained was how the two Canadian couples (including Debbi Wilkes / Guy Revell ) would fare, while the Swiss representatives Gerda Johner / Ruedi Johner were predicted to come in fifth or sixth.

Results

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

Men's

space	country	athlete	P	K	Pz	Pt.
1	EUA	Manfred Schnelldorfer	01	01	013	1916.9
2	FRA	Alain Calmat	03	05	022nd	1876.5
3	CAN	Scott Allen	04th	04th	026th	1873.6
4th	TCH	Karol Divin	02	09	032	1862.8
5	AUT	Emmerich Danzer	05	03	042	1824.0
6th	United States	Thomas Litz	13	02	077	1764.7
7th	AUT	Peter Jonas	09	06th	079	1752.0
8th	JPN	Nobuo Sato	08th	10	088	1746.2
9	CAN	Donald Knight	07th	11	085	1746.6
10	United States	Monty Hoyt	06th	12	081	1755.5
11	EUA	Ralph Borghard	10	07th	090	1742.2
12	EUA	Sepp Schönmetzler	12	08th	092	1743.1
13	CAN	Charles Snelling	16	15th	117	1705.5
14th	ITA	Giordano Abbondati	11	16	131	1688.4
15th	AUT	Wolfgang Schwarz	17th	13	127	1695.9
16	CAN	William Neale	19th	14th	143	1667.7
17th	FRA	Robert Dureville	14th	19th	148	1660.0
18th	GBR	Hywel Evans	15th	22nd	159	1640.1
19th	SUI	Markus Germann	20th	23	186	1578.0
20th	GBR	Malcolm Cannon	18th	24	187	1587.5
21st	HUN	Jenő Ébert	22nd	18th	188	1586.9
22nd	TCH	Ondrej Nepela	23	17th	190	1590.1
23	FRA	Philippe Pélissier	21st	21st	189	1573.8
24	SUI	Peter Grütter	24	20th	208	1517.2
	URS	Valery Meshkov	withdrawn
	NED	Wouter Toledo	withdrawn

Mandatory: February 4th
Freestyle: February 6th

The performances were judged by nine judges. In contrast to the previous Olympic Games , there was no clear favorite in the men's competition. After the Second World War , all Olympic champions in the men's competition came from the USA. The 1961 plane crash that wiped out an entire generation of American figure skaters prevented the US from continuing its dominance. The world champions of the past two years, the Canadians Donald Jackson and Donald McPherson , had already ended their careers. The reigning vice world champion Alain Calmat from France was thus slightly favored. After compulsory duty, Manfred Schnelldorfer led with number 17 and 1027.1 points ahead of the compulsory specialist Karol Divín (20 / 1018.6). Calmat was in third place (23 / 1008.3) ahead of Scott Allen (32 / 990.8) and Emmerich Danzer (49 / 941.2).

Schnelldorfer was also able to win the freestyle and thus became Olympic champion, as the first German in the men's competition. Calmat won the silver medal with the fifth best freestyle. He had never been defeated by Schnelldorfer before and hardly anyone had expected the Munich man to do a flawless freestyle. But while all of his competitors had not remained flawless (Calmat with two falls), there was no doubt after his freestyle. Black fell in a double yosua, but he did not delete anything from his planned program. Divín was slightly injured; he touched a triple Rittberger and he showed no double axel and double-layer. Although he performed better than at the European Championship, the medal chances were gone.

The nerves of Calmat, who was considered to be hypersensitive, did not hold. Nonetheless, it was rated highly, which triggered "shouting calls" from the well-represented German viewers. Danzer fell in the triple Rittberger, otherwise he jumped twice and safely, but did not come close to his performance from the European Championships in Grenoble. In addition, he had to do without the triple Rittberger, as a strain he suffered a week ago had hampered him. After Divín's idea, everyone had a better chance and he could use them, even though he had to use his second foot as a support for the triple salchow.

Schnelldorfer jumped the double axel very confidently, also the double duck very nicely, after that he didn't risk too much. But the audience did not agree with the high grade and threw mandarins and oranges into the arena. Overall, the judges were heavily criticized. In the number of places Schnelldorfer came on 13, Calmat on 22 and Allen on 26. The German team management had hoped for victory, but did not expect that Schnelldorfer would also receive the best freestyle mark. Thomas Litz came up with a superb performance (2nd place in the freestyle), and 13-year-old Ondrej Nepela also surprised with a remarkable performance.

Ladies

space	country	sportswoman	P	K	Pz	Pt.
1	NED	Sjoukje Dijkstra	01	01	009	2018.5
2	AUT	Regine Heitzer	02	05	022nd	1945.5
3	CAN	Petra Burka	03	02	025th	1940.0
4th	FRA	Nicole Hassler	05	04th	038	1887.7
5	JPN	Miwa Fukuhara	04th	09	050	1845.1
6th	United States	Peggy Fleming	08th	06th	059	1819.6
7th	United States	Christine Haigler	06th	15th	074	1803.8
8th	United States	Albertina Noyes	09	07th	073	1798.9
9	AUT	Helli Sengstschmid	18th	03	085	1782.1
10	CAN	Wendy Griner	13	08th	091	1775.3
11	GBR	Sally-Anne Stapleford	07th	19th	108	1757.9
12	CAN	Shirra Kenworthy	10	16	104	1756.3
13	JPN	Kumiko Ōkawa	15th	11	136	1725.4
14th	EUA	Inge Paul	17th	12	139	1720.3
15th	TCH	Hana Mašková	19th	10	142	1714.8
16	GBR	Carol-Ann Warner	12	22nd	162	1692.9
17th	HUN	Zsuzsa Almássy	20th	14th	159	1702.2
18th	GBR	Diane Clifton-Peach	11	25th	152	1711.7
19th	EUA	Gabriele Seyfert	21st	17th	177	1685.1
20th	AUT	Ingrid Ostler	16	20th	171	1684.8
21st	SWE	Ann-Margreth Frei-Käck	26th	13	191	1661.1
22nd	JPN	Junko Ueno	14th	26th	170	1685.0
23	SUI	Franziska Schmidt	22nd	21st	193	1662.8
24	EUA	Uschi Keszler	25th	18th	213	1642.3
25th	TCH	Jana Mrázková	23	24	205	1646.4
26th	ITA	Sandra Brugnera	27	23	221	1612.5
27	SUI	Monika Zingg	28	28	248	1568.9
28	NOR	Anne Karin Dehle	24	30th	248	1571.9
29	FRA	Geneviève Burdel	29	27	255	1542.0
30th	NOR	Berit Unn Johansen	30th	29	265	1524.9

The podium of the women's competition, from left: Heitzer, Dijkstra, Burka

Mandatory: January 30th,
Freestyle: February 2nd

The performances were judged by nine judges. Already the first two figures of the compulsory program resulted in the order Dijkstra before Heitzer and Burka. The intermediate result after compulsory was: 1. Dijkstra (place number 9.5 / 1113.2 points), 2. Heitzer (20.0 / 1074.6), 3. Burka (27.5 / 1050.2).

The Swiss champion Franziska Schmidt opened the freestyle in front of a crowded house (part of the audience was sitting on the concrete steps), Sengstschmid concluded the first group and showed the third best freestyle. Of the leaders, Burka was number 22 first. Her first double axel worked great, after Axel left and Axel right there was a little creative break. Her second double axel was torn open, but that was her only mistake. With No. 26 it was Heitzer's turn. After a well-done double she had difficulties with the following double axel, two double jumps were flawless and successful pirouettes and dance steps followed. Although she was only fifth in the freestyle, her lead from duty was sufficient or she got second place five times, burqa only four times. The Olympic champion came on the ice with No. 28: For the time being, a not entirely flawless double cut, which she repeated, however, and thus corrected the lapse. She lined up jump after jump, pirouette after pirouette, impressed with strength and safety and was undisputedly the best. Dijkstra received number 1 from all judges.

Couples

space	country	Pair	Pz	Pt.
1	URS	Lyudmila Belousova / Oleg Protopopov	013.0	104.4
2	EUA	Marika Kilius / Hans-Jürgen Bäumler	015.0	103.6
2	CAN	Debbi Wilkes / Guy Revell	035.5	098.5
3	United States	Vivian Joseph / Ronald Joseph	035.5	089.2
5	URS	Nina Schuk / Stanislaw Schuk	045.0	096.6
6th	SUI	Gerda Johner / Ruedi Johner	056.0	095.4
7th	United States	Judianne Fotheringill / Jerry Fotheringill	069.5	094.7
8th	United States	Cynthia Kauffman / Ronald Kauffman	074.0	092.8
9	TCH	Agnesa Wlachovská / Peter Bartosiewicz	084.0	091.8
10	TCH	Milada Kubíková / Jaroslav Votruba	097.0	088.9
11	EUA	Brigitte Wokoeck / Heinz-Ulrich Walther	103.5	088.8
12	AUT	Gerlinde Schönbauer / Wilhelm Bietak	108.0	087.7
13	EUA	Margit Senf / Peter Göbel	113.5	087.9
14th	CAN	Faye Strutt / Jim Watters	122.5	085.3
15th	AUT	Ingeborg Strell / Ferdinand Dedovich	129.0	083.6
16	CAN	Linda Ward / Neil Carpenter	128.5	084.2
17th	SUI	Monique Mathys / Yves Aellig	147.5	081.5

Date: January 29th

The performances were judged by nine judges.

The decision actually wanted 20,000 visitors, especially those from the Federal Republic of Germany with the great hope of gold for Kilius / Bäumler, to experience, but there was only 12,000 space in the ice rink. Nevertheless, they managed to accommodate 13,000 who sat for three hours on concrete in the corridors on stairs.

Since Kilius / Bäumler had signed a professional contract before the Olympic competition and thus violated the amateur statute, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) stripped them of their silver medal . The silver rank then remained vacant for over three decades. In December 1987, the IOC overturned this judgment and restored the original result. Since the medals were not returned by the couples who had meanwhile placed second and third, the IOC decided in 2014 that two couples would receive the silver medal and one couple the bronze medal.

Web links

• Figure skating at the 1964 Winter Olympics in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Medal award on the website of the IOC

Individual evidence

1. ↑ "Danzer: Bronze Chance"; Courier Vienna of February 5, 1964, page 9.
2. ^ "Calmat failed and was only second, Danzer is fifth" in Kurier Wien on February 7, 1964, page 10.
3. ↑ «Schnelldorfer has now made it! Bad luck for Alain Calmat: Two falls »in Kronen-Zeitung of February 7, 1964, page 18.
4. ^ "Schnelldorfer with flawless freestyle: Calmat was his first congratulator" in Kronen-Zeitung of February 8, 1964, page 16.
5. ^ "Gold medal for the German Schnelldorfer" and "... sobbing silver and bronze together" in Kleine Zeitung Graz No. 32 of February 8, 1964, pages 14 and 17.
6. ^ «Dijkstra: Defend Europe! . After duty: burqa threatens Heitzer »; Courier Vienna of February 1, 1964, page 8.
7. ↑ «Heitzer with number 26»; Courier Vienna of February 1, 1964, page 8, column 1.
8. ^ "Silver for our Regine Heitzer!"; Courier Vienna from February 3, 1964.
9. ^ "Sjoukje wants to dance many more winters" and "Silver for Regine Heitzer after a hard fight"; Kleine Zeitung Graz No. 28 of February 4, 1964, pages 15, 16 and 18
10. ↑ "German gold dream of Russians destroyed"; Kleine Zeitung Graz No. 25 of January 31, 1964, page 13.
11. ↑ Kilius / Bäumler rivals now receive Olympic bronze after all. Focus , November 26, 2014, accessed June 17, 2018 .