Friederike "Fritzi" Burger (6 June 1910 – 16 February 1999) was an Austrian figure skater. She was a two-time Olympic silver medalist (1928, 1932), a four-time World medalist (silver in 1929 and 1932, bronze in 1928 and 1931), the 1930 European champion, and a four-time Austrian national champion (1928–1931).
| Fritzi Burger | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Full name | Friederike Burger | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 6 June 1910 Vienna, Austria | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Died | 16 February 1999 (aged 88) Bad Gastein, Austria | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Figure skating career | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Country | Austria | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Retired | 1934 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Life and career edit
Burger was born on 6 June 1910 in Vienna.[1] Her family was Jewish.[2]
She won the first-ever contested European Championships, held in 1930. Sonja Henie, who held a monopoly in women's figure skating at the time, was not present at this championship and Burger never defeated her in competition. She placed second behind Henie at the 1928 and 1932 Winter Olympics, and in the 1929 and 1932 World Championships.
After the 1932 Olympics, Burger ended her skating career and went to London, where in 1935 she married Shinkichi Nishikawa, a grandson of the Japanese pearl tycoon Kōkichi Mikimoto.[3] She returned with her husband to Vienna, where she gave birth to her son in the summer of 1937, just before the Anschluss (annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany). She, her husband and her son moved to London in 1938 and a few years later moved to Tokyo, Japan, where Mr. Nishikawa was from.
In the 1990s, living in the United States, Burger was interviewed for several documentaries on the history of figure skating. She joked in a 1994 interview, "I had two husbands. [Sonja Henie] even beat me at that. She had three."[4] She died on 16 February 1999 in Bad Gastein, Austria.[1]
Results edit
| International | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Event | 1927 | 1928 | 1929 | 1930 | 1931 | 1932 | 1933 | 1934 |
| Winter Olympics | 2nd | 2nd | ||||||
| World Championships | 3rd | 2nd | 3rd | 2nd | ||||
| European Championships | 1st | 2nd | 2nd | 3rd | ||||
| National | ||||||||
| Austrian Championships | 3rd | 1st | 1st | 1st | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | |
See also edit
References edit
- ^ a b "Fritzi Burger". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 30 May 2017.
- ^ Taylor, Paul (2004). Jews and the Olympic Games: The Clash Between Sport and Politics : with a Complete Review of Jewish Olympic Medallists. Sussex Academic Press. ISBN 9781903900871.
- ^ "Milestones, Aug. 19, 1935". Time. August 19, 1935. Archived from the original on September 30, 2007. Retrieved May 3, 2010.
- ^ "1928 sports history". ESPN. Retrieved July 20, 2006.
External links edit
Book edit
- Carol Bergman (1999). Searching for Fritzi. Mediacs. ISBN 0-9673134-0-6.