Karen Magnussen

Karen Diane Magnussen (born April 4, 1952) is a Canadian figure skater. Olympic silver medalist, 1972 Winter Olympic Games. Gold medalist, 1973 World Championships.

In 1973 she was made an Officer of the Order of Canada.

Although overshadowed in the American media by her rival, Janet Lynn of the United States, Karen 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. Magnussen's 1972 Olympic silver medal and 1973 World Championship gold medal made her a Canadian covergirl and media darling, a girl-next-door in the tradition of Barbara Ann Scott, Canada's original skating sweetheart.

Like her contemporary Janet Lynn, Magnussen possessed a short but sturdy frame that propelled a tremendous freestyle skating ability. 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 fueling 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 school figures in the entire history of the sport. Schuba, who was a satisfactory-if-unscintillating freeskater, commanded such a lead after the figures component that even a seventh-place finish in the freeskate 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 freeskate, to win the silver and bronze overall.

The uproar from television audiences worldwide, who had largely seen only the freeskate and not the dull, lengthy, and tedious-to-watch school 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.

As the sport sought greater appeal from a wider television audience, it was felt that the school figures confused and turned off the potential viewing audience, who would tune in to see a freeskating component of a competition, only to see the best freeskaters 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 freeskated component with required jumping, spinning and footwork elements - which accounted for 20 percent of the overall score, with the freeskating '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, producing a near-flawless short program (which included a magnificent double axel) 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 proudly added the gold to complete her hardware 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 Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Although Canada has gone on to produce many notable female skaters, such as Elizabeth Manley and Josee Chouinard, no other countrywoman has claimed the world title since Magnussen.