birth_place article_title name birth_date
wanne-eickel , north rhine-westphalia , west germany rudi cerne
 rudi cerne 26 september 1958
rudi cerne

rudolf `` rudi '' cerne -lrb- born 26 september 1958 in wanne-eickel , north rhine-westphalia , germany -rrb- was a german figure skater and now works as a tv presenter .
his father , a figure skater himself , brought him onto the ice when he was six years old .
he skated for the club herner ev and represented west germany .
his coach was günter zöller .
in the early 80s he was part of west germany 's men 's figure skating team , which also consisted of norbert schramm and heiko fischer .
cerne was most known for his elegant style , which emulated that of john curry , and his strong edging .
his career started out strong , when he won the german figure skating championships in 1978 and 1980 .
then , in 1981 , a younger teammate , norbert schramm , emerged and went on to dominate not only the german nationals but also various international competitions .
schramm won two consecutive world silver medals in 1982 and 1983 while cerne could barely place in the top dozen , which prompted many to conclude that cerne 's career as the top west german male skater was over .
in 1984 , however , 26-year-old cerne entered the scene with a new attitude and consistent triple jumps due to intensive training .
most notably , cerne had mastered the triple lutz jump , which he needed in order to be technically competitive with schramm as well as other top skaters .
due to these improvements , he still just qualified the german nationals bronze medallist to qualify for the europeans , but continued to win the silver medal at the european championships behind alexandr fadeev of the soviet union .
then , he came in 4th at the olympics , although he had several errors in his free skate .
after the 1984 world championships , cerne turned professional and skated with `` holiday on ice '' .
he also became a figure skating coach .
after his figure skating career he became a tv journalist , working initially for the german public tv station ard , presenting sport shows from 1992 onwards .
since 1996 rudi cerne has worked for zdf , germany 's other public broadcaster .
he still presents sport shows but also presents `` aktenzeichen xy ... ungelöst '' , a show about unresolved crimes .
since 1987 rudi cerne has been married to his wife christiane , with whom he has one daughter .
