Ondrej Nepela

Ondrej Nepela
nation	Czechoslovakia
birthday	January 22, 1951
place of birth	Bratislava
date of death	February 2, 1989
Place of death	Mannheim
Career
discipline	Single run
Trainer	Hilda Múdra
End of career	1973
Medal table
Olympic medals 1 × 0 × 0 × World Cup medals 3 × 2 × 0 × EM medals 5 × 0 × 3 ×
winter Olympics gold Sapporo 1972 Men's  World figure skating championships silver Colorado Springs 1969 Men's silver Ljubljana 1970 Men's gold Lyon 1971 Men's gold Calgary 1972 Men's gold Bratislava 1973 Men's  European figure skating championships bronze Bratislava 1966 Men's bronze Ljubljana 1967 Men's bronze Västerås 1968 Men's gold Garmisch-Partenkirchen 1969 Men's gold Leningrad 1970 Men's gold Zurich 1971 Men's gold Gothenburg 1972 Men's gold Cologne 1973 Men's

Ondrej Nepela (born January 22, 1951 in Bratislava , † February 2, 1989 in Mannheim , Germany ) was a Czechoslovak figure skater who started in a single run . He is the Olympic champion from 1972 , the world champion from 1971 to 1973 and the European champion from 1969 to 1973 .

life and career

He started figure skating at the age of seven. His trainer was Hilda Múdra . Under her direction he was eight-time champion of Czechoslovakia, five-time European champion from 1969 to 1973 , three-time world champion from 1971 to 1973 and Olympic champion in 1972 .

Following his amateur career, he went professional and appeared on Holiday on Ice for 13 years . He also acquired a trainer license and worked in Germany. Until his death, he trained Claudia Leistner in Mannheim, who became European champion under Nepela's supervision.

Ondrej Nepela was homosexual. He died at the age of 38 from complications from AIDS . He was buried in the Slávičie údolie ( German  Valley of the Nightingales ) cemetery.

In December 2000 he was voted Slovak Athlete of the 20th Century in Slovakia.

In his honor, the ice rink in his hometown was named Zimný štadión Ondreja Nepelu .

successes

Competition / year	1964	1965	1966	1967	1968	1969	1970	1971	1972	1973
Olympic games	22nd				8th.				1.
World championships	17th	16.	8th.	6th	6th	2.	2.	1.	1.	1.
European championships		8th.	3.	3.	3.	1.	1.	1.	1.	1.
Czechoslovak Championships		1.	1.	1.	1.	1.		1.	1.	1.

Nepela won the Golden Skate in Prague in December 1964

Web links

• Ondrej Nepela in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Peter-Philipp Schmitt: Homosexual athletes - lonely top. In: faz.net , Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, January 7, 2010, accessed on September 12, 2013.
2. ↑ knerger.de: The grave of Ondrej Nepela