Gillis Grafström

Gillis Grafström
File:Gillis Grafström 1924.jpg Gillis Grafström in 1924
Personal information
Full name	Gillis Emanuel Grafström
Born	(1893-06-07)7 June 1893 Stockholm, Sweden
Died	Potsdam, Germany
Medal record Men's Figure skating Representing Sweden Olympic Games 1932 Lake Placid Men's singles 1928 St. Moritz Men's singles 1924 Chamonix Men's singles 1920 Antwerp Men's singles World Championships 1929 London Men's singles 1924 Stockholm Men's singles 1922 Stockholm Men's singles

Gillis Emanuel Grafström (7 June 1893 – 14 April 1938) was a Swedish figure skater. He was born in Stockholm, Sweden. He won three successive Olympic gold medals in Men's Figure Skating (1920, 1924, 1928) as well as an Olympic silver medal in the same event in 1932, and three World Championships (1922, 1924, 1929). Together with Eddie Eagan he is the only athlete to have won a gold medal at both the Summer and Winter Olympic Games, having the further distinction of being the only person to have won an individual gold medal in both the Summer (1920) and Winter Olympics (1924, 1928), although Eagan remains the only one to have managed the feat in different disciplines. Grafstrom is one of the few athletes who have competed in both the Summer and Winter Olympic games.

Biography

In 1914, Grafstrom competed at the last World Championships before the First World War. After the war, Grafström won the Olympic gold medal three successive times (1920, 1924, 1928 and 1929) and the silver medal at the 1932 Winter Olympics (behind Karl Schäfer). He remains the only male figure skater to have won three Olympic gold medals (Sonja Henie and Irina Rodnina are other three-time Olympic Champions), and with his silver medal in 1932, is the most successful figure skater in Olympic history. He competed in and won three World Championships in 1922, 1924, 1929, competing only intermittently between editions of Olympic Games.

At his first Olympics in Antwerp one of his skates broke and he had to go to town to buy a new pair. Unfortunately only curly-toed skates were available. Despite this, he was still able to win.

At his last Olympics in 1932 in Lake Placid, he collided with a photographer on the ice and still managed to place second.

Grafström was one of the best skaters ever in compulsory figures. He also invented the Grafström-pirouette (on the back outside edge of the blade) and the flying sit spin. He skated very elegantly and was famous for his interpretation of music.

From 1925 to his death he lived in Potsdam, Germany. He trained on the Bornstedter See (Bornstedt Lake) when it was frozen or in Berlin on the artificial ice rink at the Volkspark Friedrichshain. Grafström studied architecture at the Technical University of Berlin (Technische Hochschule Berlin) and worked later as an architect. He collected graphics, paintings and sculptures about skating. This collection was continued by his wife Cecilie Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1898–1995). Today this collection belongs to the World Figure Skating Museum in Colorado Springs in the United States. Grafström was also a writer and an etcher.

Grafström died in 1938 in Potsdam, Germany at the age of 44 due to blood poisoning.

Today there is a street in Potsdam named after him. In 1976 he was admitted to the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame. Additionally, Grafström won the Svenska Dagbladet Gold Medal in 1929 (Shared with Sven Utterström).

Results

Event	1912	1913	1914	1915	1916	1917	1918	1919	1920	1921	1922	1923	1924	1925	1926	1927	1928	1929	1930	1931	1932
Summer Olympics									1st
Winter Olympics													1st				1st				2nd
World Championships			7th								1st		1st					1st
Nordic Championships									1st
Swedish Championships	2nd					1st	1st	1st

See also

• List of Olympic medalists in figure skating
• World Figure Skating Championships
• List of Olympians who won medals in the Summer and Winter Games

References

Preceded by Per-Erik Hedlund

Svenska Dagbladet Gold Medal with Sven Utterström 1929

Succeeded by Johan Richthoff