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Perhaps
the most notable child prodigy in figure skating since Sonja
Henie, Elaine Zayak became U.S. and World Junior Champion
at the age of 13. Moving into the senior ranks, she was 4th
in 1980 but replaced the injured Sandy Lenz at the World's
and placed 11th. In 1981, she became the U.S. Ladies' Champion
and was the Silver Medallist at the World's behind Denise
Biellmann of Switzerland. Falling to 3rd place at the Nationals
in 1982 behind Rosalynn Sumners and Vikki de Vries, she took
the World Championships by storm, winning the Gold Medal over
Katarina Witt with a program that included seven triple jumps.
Zayak's
rise to the top of the skating world was remarkable not only
because of her age but also because she was missing two toes
on her right foot as a result of a childhood accident with
a lawn mower. It was to help her learn to deal with her disability
that doctors recommended she take up figure skating in the
first place. But after winning the World Championship at 16,
her career hit some rough spots.
In
1983, she was again beaten by Rosalynn Sumners for the national
title and was forced to withdraw from the World Championships
because of an injury. In 1984 she was 3rd at the Nationals
behind Sumners and Tiffany Chin. There was also a roadblock
to success in international skating: The year before, the
World Championship committee instituted what became known
as "the Zayak rule," limiting women skaters to five triple
jumps, thus effectively removing two weapons from her athletic
arsenal. At the Olympics she had a difficult outing and was
6th, but she came back to win the Bronze Medal at the World
Championships, behind Katarina Witt and Anna Kondrashova of
the Soviet Union. (Olympic Silver Medallist Rosalyn Sumners
did not compete.)
Zayak
then turned professional, skating with a number of ice-show
tours. She applied for reinstatement as an amateur for 1994,
and although she finished only 4th at the U.S. Championships,
she was accorded a standing ovation for her pluck in returning
to competition as an "old lady" of 28.
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