# 1972 European Figure Skating Championships

The 1972 European Figure Skating Championships was a senior-level international competition held at the Scandinavium in Gothenburg, Sweden on January 11–15. Elite senior-level figure skaters from European ISU member nations competed for the title of European Champion in the disciplines of men's singles, ladies' singles, pair skating, and ice dancing.

## Overview

The 1970 European bronze medalist, Günter Zöller, arrived in Gothenburg with the East German team but withdrew before the start of the event after going to the West German embassy to defect.
In the men's event, the top three after the compulsory figures held their placements for the medals. Ondrej Nepela completed triple salchow and toe loop jumps and finished first in the CF and the FS too. Sergey Chetverukhin finished second in CF and 3rd in FS, who skated with powerful, and elegance but fell on a triple salchow attempt. Patrick Péra won the bronze medal with no triples at all after he finished 3rd in the CF and 4th in the FS.. Yuriy Ovchinnikov placed second in the free skating but was unable to move up to the podium after placing 7th in the CF.
The ladies' title was again won by defending champion Beatrix Schuba, who built up such an overwhelming lead in the compulsory figures that she won by a huge margin despite placing 5th in the free skating. Afterwards a German newspaper mocked her as the "Champion Without a Double Axel". Rita Trapanese took the silver medal, while Sonja Morgenstern moved up to bronze medal position after winning the free skating with a performance for which she received a 6.0 mark for artistic impression.
In the pairs event, Irina Rodnina / Aleksey Ulanov also successfully defended their title in spite of some small mistakes. Lyudmila Smirnova / Andrey Suraykin won the silver with a performance that was considered more artistic, if less difficult, than that of the winners. The third-place team, Manuela Groß / Uwe Kagelmann, included two thrown double axels in their free skating, which at that time was one of the most difficult elements attempted by pair skaters, and unusual enough to draw comment. As Gross was only 14 years old at this time while her partner Kagelmann was a tall grown man of 21, they were one of the first of what later became known as "one-and-a-half" or "flea-and-gorilla" pair teams.
The dance event was the only discipline in which the title changed hands, as Angelika and Erich Buck unseated the defending champions Lyudmila Pakhomova / Aleksandr Gorshkov. The bronze medal went to the veteran British competitor Janet Sawbridge, now skating with Peter Dalby. It was Sawbridge's sixth medal at the European championships, achieved with three different partners.

## Results
### Men

| Rank | Name | Places |
| 1 | Ondrej Nepela | |
| 2 | Sergey Chetverukhin | |
| 3 | Patrick Péra | |
| 4 | Haig Oundjian | |
| 5 | John Curry | |
| 6 | Vladimir Kovalyov | |
| 7 | Yuriy Ovchinnikov | |
| 8 | Didier Gailhaguet | |
| 9 | Daniel Höner | |
| 10 | Zdeněk Pazdírek | |
| 11 | Bernd Wunderlich | |
| 12 | Josef Schneider | |
| 13 | Stefano Bargauan | |
| 14 | László Vajda | |
| 15 | Harald Kuhn | |
| 16 | Günther Hilgarth | |
| 17 | Gordon Andison | |
| 18 | György Fazekas | |
| 19 | Pekka Leskinen | |
| 20 | Peter Augustovič | |
| 21 | Thomas Öberg | |
| 22 | Zoran Matas | |
| 23 | John Ferdinandsen | |
| WD | Günter Zöller | DNS |

### Ladies

| Rank | Name | Places |
| 1 | Beatrix Schuba | |
| 2 | Rita Trapanese | |
| 3 | Sonja Morgenstern | |
| 4 | Zsuzsa Almássy | 30 |
| 5 | Christine Errath | |
| 6 | Charlotte Walter | |
| 7 | Jean Scott | |
| 8 | Maria McLean | |
| 9 | Dianne de Leeuw | |
| 10 | Yelena Aleksandrova | |
| 11 | Isabel de Navarre | |
| 12 | Liana Drahová | |
| 13 | Gerti Schanderl | |
| 14 | Anita Johansson | |
| 15 | Karin Iten | |
| 16 | Cinzia Frosio | |
| 17 | Sonja Balun | |
| 18 | Urszula Zielińska | |
| 19 | Hana Knapová | |
| 20 | Marie-Claude Bierre | |
| 21 | Steffi Knoll | |
| 22 | Iris Ebenwaldner | |
| 23 | Marina Sanaya | |
| 24 | Donna Walter | |
| 25 | Helena Gazvoda | |
| 26 | Manuela Bertelè | |
| 27 | Liv Egelund | |
| 28 | Kirsten Frikke | |

### Pairs

| Rank | Name |
| 1 | Irina Rodnina / Aleksey Ulanov |
| 2 | Lyudmila Smirnova / Andrey Suraykin |
| 3 | Manuela Groß / Uwe Kagelmann |
| 4 | Almut Lehmann / Herbert Wiesinger |
| 5 | Annette Kansy / Axel Salzmann |
| 6 | Irina Chernyayeva / Vasiliy Blagov |
| 7 | Marlies Radunsky / Rolf Österreich |
| 8 | Grażyna Osmańska / Adam Brodecki |
| 9 | Corinna Halke / Eberhard Rausch |
| 10 | Linda Connolly / Colin Taylforth |
| 11 | Florence Cahn / Jean-Roland Racle |
| 12 | Teresa Skrzek / Piotr Szczypa |
| 13 | Gabriele Cieplik / Reinhard Ketterer |
| 14 | Karin Künzle / Christian Künzle |
| 15 | Ursula Nemec / Michael Nemec |
| 16 | Pascale Kovelmann / Jean-Pierre Rondel |
| 17 | Miroslava Sáblíková / Pavel Komárek |
| 18 | Jayne Torvill / Michael Hutchinson |

### Ice dance

| Rank | Name |
| 1 | Angelika Buck / Erich Buck |
| 2 | Lyudmila Pakhomova / Aleksandr Gorshkov |
| 3 | Janet Sawbridge / Peter Dalby |
| 4 | Hilary Green / Glynn Watts |
| 5 | Tetyana Voytyuk / Vyacheslav Zhyhalyn |
| 6 | Yelena Zharkova / Gennadiy Karponosov |
| 7 | Diana Skotnická / Martin Skotnický |
| 8 | Rosalind Druce / David Barker |
| 9 | Teresa Weyna / Piotr Bojańczyk |
| 10 | Anne-Claude Wolfers / Roland Mars |
| 11 | Krisztina Regőczy / András Sallay |
| 12 | Matilde Ciccia / Lamberto Ceserani |
| 13 | Sylvia Fuchs / Michael Fuchs |
| 14 | Ewa Kołodziej / Tadeusz Góra |
| 15 | Brigitte Scheijbal / Walter Leschetizky |
| 16 | Silvia Bodmer / Beat Steib |
| 17 | Astrid Kopp / Axel Kopp |
| 18 | Světlana Marinovová / Miloš Buršík |
| 19 | Vivi Poulsen / Kurt Poulsen |