John Misha Petkevich

John Misha Petkevich

Personal information
Full name	John Misha Petkevich
Country represented	United States
Born	March 3, 1949 (1949-03-03) (age 62) Minneapolis
Height	174 cm (5.71 ft)
Former coach	Arthur Bourke Gustave Lussi
Skating club	Great Falls FSC
Medal record Competitor for United States Men's Figure skating North American Championships Gold 1971 Peterborough Men's singles Bronze 1969 Oakland Men's singles

John Misha Petkevich (born March 3, 1949 in Minneapolis) is an American former figure skater. He won the 1971 United States Figure Skating Championships in men's singles and the North American Figure Skating Championship in the same year. He placed 6th at the 1968 Winter Olympics and 5th at the 1972 Winter Olympics. His best finish at the World Figure Skating Championships was 4th in 1972; he placed 5th in 1969, 1970, and 1971.^[1]

Petkevich was coached by Arthur Bourke and Gustave Lussi. He was known as a particularly dynamic free skater for his time.^[2][3][4] His emphasis on freer musical expression and less rigid body lines set him apart from most other men's singles competitors of his era.^[5] He has also been credited with innovating fashion for male competitors by wearing a more athletic costume of a jumpsuit and turtleneck sweater rather than the more formal suit-and-tie outfit that was otherwise universal in the 1960s. By the early 1970s, many other skaters had emulated Petkevich's costume style.^[6][7]

In 1970, while a student at Harvard University, Petkevich founded An Evening with Champions, a long-running annual ice show that raises money to benefit the Jimmy Fund and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.^[8]

Petkevich was the recipient of an unusual trophy. At the 1947 World Figure Skating Championships, Ulrich Salchow was particularly impressed by Dick Button's skating, and gave him one of his own trophies. Following the 1972 Olympics, Button passed on Salchow's trophy to Petkevich, who has stated that he also intends to keep up the tradition by presenting it to another young skater someday.

Following his competitive career, Petkevich attended University of Oxford as a Rhodes scholar, earning a Ph.D. in cell biology. Later he pursued a career in investment banking.

Petkevich is the author of Figure Skating: Championship Techniques (ISBN 0-452-26209-7), one of the standard reference works on figure skating technique. He has also served as a figure skating analyst for NBC, CBS, and ESPN.

Results

Event	1965	1966	1967	1968	1969	1970	1971	1972
Winter Olympics				6th				5th
World Championships					5th	5th	5th	4th
North American Championships					3rd		1st
U.S. Championships	5th J.		4th	3rd	2nd	2nd	1st	2nd

References

1. ^ "John Misha Petkevich". Olympic Sports. Sports Reference LLC. http://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/pe/john-misha-petkevich-1.html. Retrieved August 4, 2011. 
2. ^ USFSA, The Official Book of Figure Skating, ISBN 0-684-84673-X
3. ^ Toller Cranston, When Hell Freezes Over, ISBN 0-7710-2336-7
4. ^ "Wood Attributes Rise to Hard Work, Maturity", The Owosso Argus-Press, Feb 17 1968
5. ^ "An Interview with Petkevich", Skating magazine, May 1971
6. ^ "Nationals", Skating magazine, April 1971
7. ^ "John Misha Petkevich". Montana Kids. Montana Office of Tourism. http://montanakids.com/cool_stories/Famous_Montanans/Petkevich.htm. Retrieved August 4, 2011. 
8. ^ http://www.aneveningwithchampions.org/ An Evening with Champions web site

• Past U.S. Champions - SeniorPDF (123 KiB)
• Sports-reference profile

Persondata
Name	Petkevich, John Misha
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	March 3, 1949
Place of birth	Minneapolis
Date of death
Place of death