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Gillis Grafström
Gillis Grafström
	Gillis Grafström in 1924
Full name	Gillis Emanuel Grafström
Born	7 June 1893; Stockholm, Sweden
Died	14 April 1938 (aged 44); Potsdam, Germany
Medal record
Men's Figure skating
Representing Sweden
Olympic Games
World Championships

Gillis Emanuel Grafström (7 June 1893 – 14 April 1938) was a Swedish figure skater. He was born in Stockholm, Sweden.^[1] 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).^[2] Grafström is one of the few athletes who have competed in both the Summer and Winter Olympic games.^[3] He and Eddie Eagan are the only athletes to have won gold medals at both the Summer and Winter Olympic Games, although Eagan remains the only one to have managed the feat in different disciplines. He is one of the oldest figure skating Olympic champions.

Biography

Grafström was born in Stockholm; his younger brother Lars Grafström was also a competitive figure skater and Swedish national champion. Gilis Grafström competed in his only European Championships in 1912 and won the "senior men's" category, separate from the European champion category. He began studying at KTH Royal Institute of Technology that same year.^[4] In 1914, Grafström competed at the last World Championships before the first world war.^[5] He came in seventh place after falling and hitting his head.^[4] While the war was ongoing, he won the men's competition at the 1917 Nordic Games.^[2]^[4]

After the war, Grafström won the Olympic gold medal for the first of three successive times (1920, 1924 and 1928) and the silver medal at the 1932 Winter Olympics.^[6] As of the 2022 Olympics, he remains the only male figure skater to have won three individual 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. 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.^[7]

He competed in and won three World Championships in 1922, 1924, 1929, competing only intermittently between editions of Olympic Games. At his first World Championships in 1922, he fell during the compulsory figures. However, he performed so well in the free program that he was able to move into first place.^[4] In 1924, he traveled to the location of the competition, Manchester, at the last minute and skated in an exhibition before competing. Although he had won, when he needed money afterward, the Swedish federation refused his request for help; Grafström informed his club that at future competitions, he would enter as an individual rather than as a representative of Sweden.^[4]

Grafström intended to compete at the 1926 World Championships. However, a document he needed to compete there was only approved by a narrow 3-2 vote, and he decided not to enter. Ulrich Salchow was unhappy with this decision, and Grafström was banned from both competitions and exhibition skating for one year. He continued training despite the ban and entered the 1928 Winter Olympics. Although he had an injured knee, he was second after the compulsory figures and won with his free skate.^[4]

In 1929, he was awarded the Svenska Dagbladet Gold Medal, shared with skier Sven Utterström.^[8]

At his last Olympics in 1932 in Lake Placid, he collided with a photographer on the ice and still managed to place second.^[1] He later coached Norwegian figure skater Sonja Henie.^[9]

Grafström was one of the best skaters ever in compulsory figures^[10] and also had an interest in special figures.^[5] Despite the fact that they were no longer competed after WWII, he created more than fifty special figure designs, some of which were used for English figure tests.^[11] He also invented the Grafström-pirouette (on the back outside edge of the blade) and the flying sit spin. He was known for very elegant skating and was famous for his interpretation of music.^[1]^[11]

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 Technische Hochschule in Charlottenburg (now Technische Universität 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.^[5] Grafström was also a writer and an etcher.^[7]

Grafström married in February 1938. Just two months later, he died in Potsdam, Germany, at the age of 44, of heart muscle inflammation, although his cause of death has often been reported as blood poisoning.^[12]

Today there is a street in Potsdam named after him.^[12] In 1976 he was admitted to the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame.^[13]

Results

Event	1912	1914	1917	1918	1919	1920	1922	1924	1928	1929	1932
Summer Olympics						1st^[14]
Winter Olympics^[14]								1st	1st		2nd
World Championships		7th					1st	1st		1st
Nordic Championships						1st
Swedish Championships	2nd		1st	1st	1st

References

^ ^a ^b ^c Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Gillis Grafström". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 24 January 2011.
^ ^a ^b "Gillis Grafström". Olympedia. Retrieved 13 August 2021.
^ Gall, Jonnie (18 December 2013). "Who's competed in the summer and winter Olympics?". GrindTV. Archived from the original on 22 February 2014. Retrieved 18 February 2014.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Kluge, Volker (2018). "Gillis Grafström – the Artist among the Figure Skaters" (PDF). Journal of Olympic History. 26 (2): 24–33.
^ ^a ^b ^c Hines, James R. (2006). Figure skating: a history. University of Illinois Press. p. 105. ISBN 978-0-252-07286-4. OCLC 59149288.
^ "Olympic Winter Games Figure Skating Results" (PDF). International Skating Union. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 May 2013. Retrieved 24 January 2011.
^ ^a ^b Smith, Beverley (1994). Figure skating: a celebration. McClelland & Stewart. pp. 19–20. ISBN 978-0-7710-2819-9. OCLC 30974224.
^ "Minns du bragderna?". Svenska Dagbladet (in Swedish). ISSN 1101-2412. Retrieved 9 February 2024.
^ "Gillis Grafström". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 28 January 2021.
^ Künzle-Watson, Karin; DeArmond, Stephen J. (1996). Ice Skating: Steps to Success. Vol. 1. Human Kinetics. p. 113. ISBN 978-0-87322-669-1. To this day, there are two individuals considered the best at this art: Gillis Grafström of Sweden, who was the men's Olympic champion in 1920, 1923, and 1928, and Beatrix "Trixi" Schuba of Austria, who was the women's Olympic champion in 1972.
^ ^a ^b Wright, Benjamin (May 1943). "Grafstrom and His Special Figures" (PDF). Skating. pp. 5–6. Retrieved 29 February 2024.
^ ^a ^b Berg, Guido (5 June 2010). "Sommerwind auf dem Eis". Der Tagesspiegel Online (in German). ISSN 1865-2263. Retrieved 9 February 2024.
^ "Hall of Fame Members". World Figure Skating Hall of Fame. Archived from the original on 9 July 2011. Retrieved 24 January 2011.
^ ^a ^b Hines, James R. (2011). Historical Dictionary of Figure Skating. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. p. xxiii. ISBN 978-0-8108-6859-5.