Krisztina Czakó at the Europeans 1994 in Copenhagen |
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| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Country represented | Hungary | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | December 17, 1978 Budapest, Hungary |
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| Coach | Gyorgy Czakó | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Medal record
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Krisztina Czakó (born December 17, 1978 in Budapest, Hungary) is a former Hungarian figure skater, competing through most of the 1990s.
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Czakó's mother Klara was a speed skater, while her father and coach Gyorgy Czakó was himself a figure skater and a former Hungarian men's national champion. Gyorgy began teaching Krisztina how to skate before she was a year old, making her a pair of skates himself when none could be found that were small enough to fit her.[1]
Czakó was the youngest athlete to compete in the 1992 Winter Olympics, at age 13 years and 2 months. She was so young that she was still able to compete in the World Junior Championship in 1994 and 1995 (finishing second and third, respectively), despite her Olympic experience. She made her second Olympic appearance in Lillehammer, Norway in 1994, finishing 11th. She intended to compete in her third Olympics in 1998 and was considered a dark horse medal contender among figure skating fans, but had to withdraw due to injury.
Czakó earned a reputation early in her career as a strong technical and athletic skater who lacked artistic flair; thus she would earn high marks in her short program, but have trouble holding her position in the free skate where artistry is more important. She made an effort to overcome that weakness later in her career, and in 1997 she debuted her most famous and popular long program, skated to the music of The Addams Family. It paid off with a second place finish at the European Championships and a seventh place finish at the World Championships, both career bests. Her silver medal at Europeans was the first medal for Hungary in the European ladies' event since 1971.
As an amateur, Czakó was a seven-time Hungarian national champion (1992-1998), and represented her country in two Olympics, six World Championships, and six European championships, along with numerous other competitions. She is now retired from competitive skating, and was last known to be working as a preschool teacher in Budapest.
| Event | 1991-92 | 1992-93 | 1993-94 | 1994-95 | 1995-96 | 1996-97 | 1997-98 | 1999-00 |
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| Winter Olympic Games | 23rd | 11th | WD | |||||
| World Championships | 17th | 15th | 12th | 23rd | 11th | 7th | ||
| European Championships | 16th | 6th | 6th | 8th | 6th | 2nd | 5th | |
| Junior World Championships | 25th | 7th | 2nd | 3rd | ||||
| Hungarian Championships | 1st | 1st | 1st | 1st | 1st | 1st | 1st | |
| Skate Canada International | 4th | 1st | 7th | |||||
| Trophée Lalique | 7th | 6th | 5th | 5th | ||||
| Cup of Russia | 6th | |||||||
| Nations Cup | 5th | |||||||
| Finlandia Trophy | 3rd | |||||||
| Karl Schäfer Memorial | 8th | 1st | 2nd | 1st | 8th | 2nd | ||
| Ondrej Nepela Memorial | 1st | |||||||
| European Youth Olympic Festival | 3rd |
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