- Jan Hoffmann
Jan Hoffmann (*
26 October 1955 inDresden ) is a German figure skater, two-time World Champion and silver medallist at the1980 Winter Olympics .Biography
Jan Hoffmann's first coach was
Annemarie Halbach inDresden . He changed later to coachJutta Müller inKarl-Marx-Stadt (todayChemnitz ). He represented the formerEast Germany in competition.In 1974, Hoffmann won the World and European Championships for the first time. After that he had a surgery of his
meniscus , which slowed down his career and caused him to miss the entire 1975 season. He won his second World Championshiptitle in 1980 at the end of his skating career.Hoffmann competed at 4 Olympic Games. At the
1968 Winter Olympics he was just 12 years old. At the 1972 Games he finished 6th, at the1976 Winter Olympics he was 4th, and he won the silver medal in 1980. At these OlympicsRobin Cousins (GBR) won gold andCharles Tickner (USA) won bronze. Jan Hoffman also won the European Championship four times.Hoffmann studied medicine after his figure skating career and is today an
orthopaedic specialist. He is still active in figure skating as a judge and was also a member of the managing board of theDeutsche Eislauf-Union (German Figure skating Union).In spite of his other achievements in skating, in the
United States Hoffmann is unfortunately probably best known as the judge singled out byCBS television as being responsible forOksana Baiul winning overNancy Kerrigan at the1994 Winter Olympics , allegedly owing to his commonEastern bloc background with the Ukrainian Baiul. In fact, there were four other judges who also placed Baiul first, and the decision required a majority of the panel. CBS figure skating commentator Scott Hamilton strongly objected to this attempt to paint Hoffmann's judging as biased and politically motivated, but was overruled by the event producers. Four years later, Hoffman also judged the ladies competition at the1998 Winter Olympics and gave his first-place ordinal toMichelle Kwan .Jan Hoffmann is married and has one daughter.
Competitive highlights
ee also
*
World Figure Skating Championships References
* Scott Hamilton, "Landing It". ISBN 1-57566-466-6.
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Persondata
NAME=Hoffmann, Jan
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION=German figure skater
DATE OF BIRTH=October 26 1955
PLACE OF BIRTH=Dresden ,Saxony ,Germany
DATE OF DEATH=
PLACE OF DEATH=
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