Pavel Roman

Pavel Roman
Pavel Roman
	Eva Romanova and Pavel Roman, 1962
Born	January 25, 1943
Died	January 30, 1972 (aged 29); Pressmen's Home,Tennessee
Figure skating career
Country	Czechoslovakia
Medal record
Representing Czechoslovakia
Figure skating
Ice dancing
World Championships
European Championships

Pavel Roman (January 25, 1943 - January 30, 1972) was a Czech figure skater. Together with his sister Eva Romanová he won four World Figure Skating Championships titles in ice dancing.

Career

Demonstrations in figure skating at the Jaap Eden baan in Amsterdam, with a.o. Manfred Schnelldorfer; Olympic and world champion 1964, Eva Romanová/Pavel Roman, and Sjoukje Dijkstra doing her program.

The Romans started their competitive careers in pair skating rather than ice dance, placing third at the Czechoslovakian championships in 1957 and second in 1958 and 1959. They won the ice dancing title at the Czech championships in 1959, the first year that discipline was competed in Czechoslovakia. They competed in both disciplines at the 1959 European Figure Skating Championships, placing 7th in dance and 12th in pairs. After that they focused on ice dancing.^[1]

In 1962 they won their first World Championship in their home city of Prague, defeating their greatest rivals, Christian and Jean Paul Guhel of France. Eva was only 16 and Pavel 19.

One year later they won the silver medal at the European Championships, behind Linda Shearman and Michael Phillips. After this competition they won every event they entered, winning the European title in 1964 and 1965, and World titles from 1962 to 1965. (Ice dancing was not an Olympic sport in those times.)

After retiring from competition they skated in the professional revue Holiday on Ice.

Roman died in a car crash a short time after his 29th birthday.