Jeannette Altwegg

Updated：2008-05-12 10:17 | Source：

St Moritz, 8 February 1948, Olympic stadium: medal ceremony for women's figure skating  event: (L-R) Jeannette ALTWEGG from Great Britain, 3d, Barbara-Ann SCOTT from Canada, 1st, and Eva PAWLIK from Austria, 2d.  Credit: IOC Olympic Museum Collections

Other names: ALTWEGG, Jeannette Eleanor

Born: 8 September 1930

Birthplace: Liverpool (Great Britain)

Nationality: Great Britain

Sport: Skating

ATTENDANCE AT THE OLYMPIC GAMES

St. Moritz 1948

Oslo 1952

AWARDS

Olympic medals:

Gold: 1

Bronze: 1

Other results:

World Championships

Gold: 1 (51)

Silver: 1 (50)

Bronze: 1 (49)

European Championships

Gold: 2 (51, 52)

Silver: 1 (50)

Bronze: 1 (49)

A medal was all the gold she needed

Jeannette Altwegg was an accomplished tennis player who made it to the junior finals at Wimbledon in 1947. However her real sporting strength was figure skating.

She first competed in the Winter Olympics in 1948, when she was eighteen years old.

In St. Moritz, she earned a bronze medal behind Barbara Ann Scott of Canada and Eva Pawlik of Austria.

By 1951, Altwegg had risen to become European and world champion. The following year, just eight days before the 1952 Winter Olympics, she defended her European championship. At the Oslo Games, Altwegg built a huge lead during the compulsory figures and then held on to win the gold medal despite placing fourth in the free-skating, as she earned the overall first-place votes of six of the nine judges.

As an Olympic champion, Jeannette Altwegg was offered large sums of money to turn professional and perform in ice shows. Instead she retired from skating, moved to Switzerland and took a low-salary job working with war orphans.

(Credit: IOC. Click here for further information.)

Editor : LiuAnqi