| 1972 European Championships | |
|---|---|
| Type: | ISU Championship |
| Season: | 1971-72 |
| Location: |  Gothenburg,Sweden |
| Venue: | Scandinavium |
| Champions | |
Men's singles: Ondrej Nepela | |
Ladies' singles: Beatrix Schuba | |
Pairs: Irina Rodnina /Aleksey Ulanov | |
Ice dance: Angelika Buck /Erich Buck | |
Navigation | |
| Previous: 1971 European Championships | |
| Next: 1973 European Championships | |
The1972European Figure Skating Championships was a senior-level international competition held at theScandinavium inGothenburg,Sweden from 11 to 15 January. Elite senior-levelfigure skaters from EuropeanISU member nations competed for the title of European Champion in the disciplines ofmen's singles,[1]ladies' singles,[2]pair skating,[3] andice dancing.[4]
The 1970 European bronze medalist,Günter Zöller, arrived inGothenburg with the East German team but withdrew before the start of the event after going to the West German embassy to defect.[5][6]
In the men's event, the top three after thecompulsory 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.[7]
The ladies' title was again won by defending championBeatrix 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, whileSonja 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.[7]
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.[7][8]
The dance event was the only discipline in which the title changed hands, asAngelika andErich Buck unseated the defending championsLyudmila Pakhomova /Aleksandr Gorshkov. The bronze medal went to the veteran British competitorJanet Sawbridge, now skating withPeter Dalby. It was Sawbridge's sixth medal at the European championships, achieved with three different partners.[7]
