# Figure skating at the 1972 Winter Olympics

The figure skating events at the 1972 Winter Olympics were held at the Makomanai Skating Rink and the Mikaho Indoor Skating Rink.
The results of both the men's and ladies' singles events were dominated by placements in the compulsory figures, which at the time were nominally worth 50% of the total score but in fact weighted more heavily than the free skating due to being judged using a wider range of marks.
In the men's event, Ondrej Nepela, the winner of the compulsory figures segment, took the gold in spite of placing only 4th in the free skating after falling on his triple loop jump. The free skating winner was Sergei Chetverukhin, who skated one of his best performances at this event to take the silver medal. Patrick Péra, second in the figures, had a poor free skating in which he fell on a triple salchow jump early in his program and then made other mistakes. Nonetheless, the weight given to figures allowed him to take the bronze medal ahead of John Misha Petkevich, Kenneth Shelley, and Toller Cranston, who all skated dynamic programs with at least one cleanly landed triple jump apiece.
The effect of the figures was even more pronounced in the ladies' competition, where gold medal winner Beatrix Schuba placed only 7th in the free skating, performing mostly single jumps. The free skating was won by Janet Lynn, who received a perfect mark of 6.0 despite falling on a flying sit spin. Lynn's skating captivated the Japanese audience, especially when she got up smiling from her fall. Lynn took the bronze while Karen Magnussen, second in the free skating with a strong performance, took the silver. The third place skater in the free skating, Sonja Morgenstern, included a triple salchow in her program, which at this time was very rare for a female skater. She placed 6th overall.
The pairs competition was a tight battle between the two top Russian teams. Irina Rodnina / Alexei Ulanov did not skate their best, with Ulanov missing his required double salchow jump in the short program and Rodnina making an error in the jump combination at the beginning of their free skating. They eventually won a 6–3 decision over their teammates Liudmila Smirnova / Andrei Suraikin. The bronze medal team of Manuela Groß / Uwe Kagelmann made no major errors and received the highest technical merit marks from some of the judges for their program. Their elements included a throw double axel which at this time was rarely attempted.

## Medal table

| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
| 1 | Soviet Union | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 |
| 2 | Austria | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 2 | Czechoslovakia | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 4 | Canada | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 5 | East Germany | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 5 | France | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 5 | United States | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Totals (7 entries) | Totals (7 entries) | 3 | 3 | 3 | 9 |

### Participating NOCs

Eighteen nations participated in figure skating at the 1972 Games.
* Austria
* Canada
* Czechoslovakia
* East Germany
* France
* Great Britain
* Hungary
* Italy
* Japan
* Netherlands
* Poland
* Romania
* South Korea
* Soviet Union
* Sweden
* Switzerland
* United States
* West Germany

## Results
### Men

| Rank | Name | Nation | CF | FS | Points | Places |
| 1 | Ondrej Nepela | Czechoslovakia | 1 | 4 | 2739.1 | 9 |
| 2 | Sergei Chetverukhin | Soviet Union | 3 | 1 | 2672.4 | 20 |
| 3 | Patrick Péra | France | 2 | 8 | 2653.1 | 28 |
| 4 | Kenneth Shelley | United States | 5 | 3 | 2596.0 | 43 |
| 5 | John Misha Petkevich | United States | 6 | 2 | 2591.5 | 47 |
| 6 | Jan Hoffmann | East Germany | 4 | 10 | 2567.6 | 55 |
| 7 | Haig Oundjian | Great Britain | 9 | 7 | 2538.8 | 65 |
| 8 | Vladimir Kovalev | Soviet Union | 7 | 11 | 2521.6 | 80 |
| 9 | Toller Cranston | Canada | 12 | 5 | 2517.2 | 80.5 |
| 10 | John Curry | Great Britain | 8 | 12 | 2512.2 | 85 |
| 11 | Gordon McKellen | United States | 10 | 9 | 2511.0 | 89 |
| 12 | Yuri Ovchinnikov | Soviet Union | 15 | 6 | 2477.5 | 104.5 |
| 13 | Didier Gailhaguet | France | 11 | 13 | 2440.9 | 114 |
| 14 | Jacques Mrozek | France | 13 | 14 | 2401.3 | 126 |
| 15 | Günter Anderl | Austria | 14 | 16 | 2313.6 | 138 |
| 16 | Yutaka Higuchi | Japan | 16 | 15 | 2309.7 | 140 |
| 17 | Gheorghe Fazekas | Romania | 17 | 17 | 2094.0 | 153 |
Referee:
* Sonia Bianchetti
Assistant Referee:
* Masao Hasegawa
Judges:
* Monique Georgelin
* Helga von Wiecki
* Donald B. Cruikshank
* Mollie Phillips
* Walter Malek
* Emil Skákala
* Goro Ishimaru
* Dora May Coy
* Tatiana Danilenko
* Maria Zuchowicz (substitute)

### Ladies

In the ladies' event, American skater Janet Lynn won not only a bronze medal, but also tremendous popularity among Japanese audiences because of her artistic free program, as to make appearance on the cover of "Olympic Winter Games, Sapporo 1972" photo books published in Japan, and even on Japanese TV commercials later.
| Rank | Name | Nation | CF | FS | Points | Places |
| 1 | Beatrix Schuba | Austria | 1 | 7 | 2751.5 | 9 |
| 2 | Karen Magnussen | Canada | 3 | 2 | 2673.2 | 23 |
| 3 | Janet Lynn | United States | 4 | 1 | 2663.1 | 27 |
| 4 | Julie Lynn Holmes | United States | 2 | 8 | 2627.0 | 39 |
| 5 | Zsuzsa Almássy | Hungary | 5 | 4 | 2592.4 | 47 |
| 6 | Sonja Morgenstern | East Germany | 8 | 3 | 2579.4 | 53 |
| 7 | Rita Trapanese | Italy | 6 | 6 | 2574.8 | 55 |
| 8 | Christine Errath | East Germany | 11 | 5 | 2489.3 | 78 |
| 9 | Charlotte Walter | Switzerland | 7 | 13 | 2467.3 | 86 |
| 10 | Kazumi Yamashita | Japan | 10 | 10 | 2449.9 | 93 |
| 11 | Jean Scott | Great Britain | 9 | 11 | 2436.8 | 101 |
| 12 | Suna Murray | United States | 13 | 9 | 2426.2 | 102 |
| 13 | Catherine Irwin | Canada | 12 | 12 | 2383.4 | 116 |
| 14 | Isabelle de Navarre | West Germany | 16 | 14 | 2340.0 | 128 |
| 15 | Anita Johansson | Sweden | 14 | 15 | 2349.3 | 131 |
| 16 | Dianne de Leeuw | Netherlands | 15 | 16 | 2298.7 | 143 |
| 17 | Sonja Balun | Austria | 17 | 17 | 2260.6 | 148 |
| 18 | Marina Sanaya | Soviet Union | 19 | 18 | 2198.6 | 160 |
| 19 | Chang Myung-su | South Korea | 18 | 19 | 2117.0 | 171 |
Referee:
* Karl Enderlin
Assistant Referee:
* Kinuka Ueno
Judges:
* Michele Beltrami
* Valentin Piseev
* Walburga Grimm
* Ingegärd Lago
* Han Kutschera
* Joan MacLagan
* Marcella Willis
* Ryuchi Obitani
* Klára Kozári
* Pamela Davis (substitute)

### Pairs

| Rank | Name | Nation | SP | FS | Points | Places |
| 1 | Irina Rodnina / Alexei Ulanov | Soviet Union | 1 | 1 | 420.4 | 12 |
| 2 | Liudmila Smirnova / Andrei Suraikin | Soviet Union | 2 | 2 | 419.4 | 15 |
| 3 | Manuela Groß / Uwe Kagelmann | East Germany | 3 | 3 | 411.8 | 29 |
| 4 | JoJo Starbuck / Kenneth Shelley | United States | 4 | 4 | 406.8 | 35 |
| 5 | Almut Lehmann / Herbert Wiesinger | West Germany | 5 | 6 | 399.8 | 52 |
| 6 | Irina Cherniaeva / Vasili Blagov | Soviet Union | 6 | 5 | 399.1 | 52 |
| 7 | Melissa Militano / Mark Militano | United States | 8 | 7 | 393.0 | 65.5 |
| 8 | Annette Kansy / Axel Salzmann | East Germany | 7 | 8 | 392.6 | 68 |
| 9 | Sandra Bezic / Val Bezic | Canada | 9 | 9 | 384.9 | 84 |
| 10 | Corinna Halke / Eberhard Rausch | West Germany | 10 | 10 | 381.1 | 87 |
| 11 | Grazyna Kostrzewinska / Adam Brodecki | Poland | 11 | 11 | 377.8 | 95.5 |
| 12 | Barbara Brown / Douglas Berndt | United States | 12 | 13 | 366.9 | 114 |
| 13 | Florence Cahn / Jean Roland Racle | France | 13 | 12 | 364.5 | 116 |
| 14 | Linda Connolly / Colin Taylforth | Great Britain | 14 | 14 | 360.6 | 126 |
| 15 | Mary Petrie / John Hubbell | Canada | 15 | 15 | 358.5 | 129 |
| 16 | Kotoe Nagasawa / Hiroshi Nagakubo | Japan | 16 | 16 | 345.5 | 144 |
Referee:
* Elemér Terták
Assistant Referee:
* Donald H. Gilchrist
Judges:
* Valentin Piseev
* Joan MacLagan
* Walburga Grimm
* Maria Zuchowicz
* Marcella Willis
* Kikuko Minami
* Pamela Davis
* Erika Schiechtl
* Monique Georgelin
* Walter Malek (substitute)