Karen Magnussen

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Olympic medal record
Figure skating
Silver	1972 Sapporo	Ladies' singles

Karen Diane Magnussen (born April 4, 1952 in Vancouver, British Columbia)^[1] is a Canadian figure skater. She won the silver medal at the 1972 Winter Olympics,^[1] and is 1973 World Champion.^[1] In 1973 she was made an Officer of the Order of Canada ^[2].

Although overshadowed in the American media by her rival, Janet Lynn of the United States, Magnussen was one of the greatest figure skaters of her era, dominating both Canadian and international events in the early 1970s by winning five Canadian National titles, three World Championship medals, and an Olympic medal.^[1] Magnussen's 1972 Olympic silver medal and 1973 World Championship gold medal made her a Canadian cover girl and media darling, a girl-next-door in the tradition of Barbara Ann Scott, Canada's original skating sweetheart.

Like her contemporary Lynn, Magnussen possessed a short but sturdy frame that propelled a tremendous freestyle skating ability.^{[citation needed]} Indeed, both she and Lynn, who took the top two spots in the free skating portion of the ladies' figure skating event at the 1972 Olympics, are largely credited for fuelling a movement to reduce the significance of compulsory figures, or school figures, in the sport, which at the time counted for 50 percent of the overall score.

While both were competent at the compulsory figures, they were outshone by Beatrix Schuba, the great Austrian skater and 1972 Olympic Champion in Ladies' Figure Skating, who is acknowledged to be the best practitioner of the compulsory figures in the entire history of the sport. Schuba, who was a satisfactory — if unscintillating — free skater, commanded such a lead after the figures component that even a seventh-place finish in the free skate failed to make a dent in her overall first-place standing at the Olympics, leaving Magnussen and Lynn, who had finished second and third behind her in the figures while claiming the top two spots in the free skate, to win the silver and bronze overall.

The uproar from television audiences worldwide, who had largely seen only the free skate and not the dull, lengthy, and tedious-to-watch compulsory figures component, catalyzed a growing dissatisfaction within the sport's governing body over the prominence of the school figures. At the time, the figures component of major events involved the tracing of six different figures, with the most difficult figures traced six times, making that portion of the competition quite lengthy. Indeed, it was often a two-day marathon, with each athlete on the ice or rinkside for several hours. ^{[citation needed]}

As the sport sought greater appeal to a wider television audience, it was felt that the compulsory figures confused and turned off the potential viewing audience, who would tune in to see a free skating component of a competition, only to see the best free skaters place behind others who had excelled in the school figures. Such had been the case in the Sapporo Olympics, where worldwide audiences had watched the breathtaking double axels and split leaps of Magnussen and Lynn fall short of Schuba's overall score.

In an effort to reduce the importance of the figures, the 1973 skating season saw the introduction of the short program — a free skated component with required jumping, spinning and footwork elements — which accounted for 20 percent of the overall score, with the free skating 'long program' still counting for half the total score, and figures reduced to 30 percent of the total mark.

In the first world championships under this new system, in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia in 1973, Magnussen handily won her first world title,^[1] producing a near-flawless short program (which included a magnificent double axel)^{[citation needed]} to beat Lynn, who struggled in the short program, falling twice to place twelfth in that portion of the competition, and settled for the silver medal overall. Magnussen, who had claimed bronze and silver at the 1971 and 1972 world championships, now added the gold to complete her medal collection.

Magnussen, who enjoyed a successful career as a professional skater after her 1973 World Championship win, is now a leading figure skating coach in her hometown of North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.^[3] Although Canada has gone on to produce many notable female skaters, such as Elizabeth Manley and Josée Chouinard, no other Canadian has claimed the world title since Magnussen.^[3]