Beatrix "Trixi" Schuba (born 15 April 1951) is an

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

n former competitive figure skater who competed in ladies' singles. She is a six-time Austrian national champion (1967–1972), a two-time European champion ( 1971 and

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using mean solar tim ...

), a two-time

World champion A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

( 1971 and

), and 1972 Olympic champion. She is considered to be one of the best compulsory figure skaters ever.

Early life

Schuba was born in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

. After her father died when she was thirteen, she went to trade school and eventually took over the bookkeeping of her family's lumber business in Vienna; mornings were given to skating and afternoons to work.

Competitive career

Schuba's interest in figure skating began as a young child in 1955 when she happened to see an American competition on the television bought by her parents to watch performances of the

Vienna State Opera The Vienna State Opera (, ) is an opera house and opera company based in Vienna, Austria. The 1,709-seat Renaissance Revival venue was the first major building on the Vienna Ring Road. It was built from 1861 to 1869 following plans by August ...

and the Burgtheater. She was coached by Helmut Seibt from 1955 to 1962, and then by Leopold Linhart. Her first major success was winning the ladies' singles portion of the Austrian Championships at the age of sixteen in 1967; she would go on to defend her title five straight times. Schuba steadily improved throughout the end of the 1960s and the early 1970s, placing in the top five several times and eventually taking first twice each at the European Championships and the World Championships in 1971 and 1972. Schuba's greatest success came in 1972 at the Winter Olympics at

Sapporo ( ain, サッ・ポロ・ペッ, Satporopet, lit=Dry, Great River) is a city in Japan. It is the largest city north of Tokyo and the largest city on Hokkaido, the northernmost main island of the country. It ranks as the fifth most populous cit ...

when she won the gold medal. She is the first Austrian lady since Herma Szabo in 1924 to win gold and is the most recent. Schuba, the dominant compulsory figures skater, placed first in the figures and Janet Lynn of the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

, the top free skater, placed first after the free skate. As the scoring system used at the time placed more weight on figures, Schuba won the gold medal and Lynn won the bronze behind silver medalist

Karen Magnussen Karen Diane Magnussen, OC (born April 4, 1952) is a Canadian former competitive figure skater. She is the 1972 Olympic silver medallist and 1973 World champion. She was Canada's Female Athlete of the Year in 1971 and 1972, and was made an Offi ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. The

International Skating Union The International Skating Union (ISU) is the international governing body for competitive ice skating disciplines, including figure skating, synchronized skating, speed skating, and short track speed skating. It was founded in Scheveningen, N ...

, the governing body of the sport, would over the ensuing years decrease the weight given the figures portion before finally eliminating it in 1990. After winning gold at Sapporo, Schuba did the same the next month at the World Championships, successfully defending against silver medalist Magnussen and bronze medalist Lynn. At the end of the year, sportswriters named her

Athlete of the Year Athlete of the Year is an award given by various sports organizations for the athlete whom they have determined to be deserving of such recognition. Definition of "athlete" *In many nations, an "athlete" primarily refers to someone who participat ...

for 1972.

Later career

Retiring from amateur skating, Schuba appeared over the succeeding six years in the professional shows

Ice Follies The Ice Follies, formerly known as the Shipstads & Johnson Ice Follies, is a touring ice show featuring elaborate production numbers, similar in concept to Ice Capades. It was founded in 1936 by Eddie and Roy Shipstad, and Oscar Johnson. In later ...

and

Holiday on Ice Holiday on Ice is an ice show currently owned by Medusa Music Group GmbH, a subsidiary of CTS EVENTIM, Europe's largest ticket distributor, with its headquarters in Bremen, Germany. History Holiday on Ice originated in the United States in Decem ...

, after which she began a career in the insurance industry which she continues to the present. In addition to her career in insurance, Schuba is involved in various sports organizations in Austria. She is a former president of the Austrian Ice Skating Association, the first woman to hold that position, and she sat on the board of the Austrian Olympic Committee from 2004 to 2009. Schuba has served as president of the International Panathlon Club Wien since 2007, on the board of the

Austrian Paralympic Committee The Austrian Paralympic Committee (german: Österreichische Paralympische Committee, OPC) was founded in 1998. Since April 2009 the former Austrian Minister of Health, Youth and Family and former NPC Vice President Maria Rauch-Kallat was elected ...

since 2009, and as vice president of the

Graz Skating Association Graz (; sl, Gradec) is the capital city of the Austrian state of Styria and List of cities and towns in Austria, second-largest city in Austria after Vienna. As of 1 January 2021, it had a population of 331,562 (294,236 of whom had principal-re ...

since 2010.

Results

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Schuba, Beatrix 1951 births Austrian female single skaters Olympic figure skaters of Austria Figure skaters at the 1972 Winter Olympics Olympic gold medalists for Austria Figure skaters from Vienna Living people Olympic medalists in figure skating World Figure Skating Championships medalists European Figure Skating Championships medalists Medalists at the 1972 Winter Olympics