In our Figure Skating Factsheets we gave a list of the Olympic figure skaters who have competed in both singles and pairs at the same Olympic Winter Games, since World War II.
In that list we noted that it used to be much more but it has been done only 12 times since 1948, and only three times since 1972, the last by Australian Stephen Carr in 1994. It has not been done by a woman since West German Tina Riegel in 1980, and prior to that, the last women did it in 1952
But prior to World War II it did occur a bit more often. In all it has been achieved 44 times, 19 by women and 25 by men. Here is the entire list of figure skaters who have competed in singles and pairs at the same Olympic Winter Games, all-time.
Year Gdr Name NOC ###
1908 F Madge Syers GBR 1
1920 F Theresa Weld-Blanchard USA 1
1920 F Phyllis Johnson GBR 1
1924 F Theresa Weld-Blanchard USA 2
1924 F Andrée Brunet-Joly FRA 1
1924 F Ethel Muckelt GBR 1
1924 F Cecil Smith CAN 1
1928 F Elvira Barbey SUI 1
1928 F Theresa Weld-Blanchard USA 3
1928 F Melitta Brunner AUT 1
1928 F Andrée Brunet-Joly FRA 2
1928 F Beatrix Loughran USA 1
1932 F Constance Wilson-Samuel CAN 1
1936 F Maribel Vinson USA 1
1948 F Grazia Barcellona ITA 1
1948 F Suzi Morrow CAN 1
1948 F Yvonne Sherman USA 1
1952 F Sissy Schwarz AUT 1
1980 F Tina Riegel FRG 1
1920 M MacDonald Beaumont GBR 1
1920 M Nathaniel Niles USA 1
1920 M Basil Williams GBR 1
1924 M Pierre Brunet FRA 1
1924 M Nathaniel Niles USA 2
1924 M Jack Page GBR 1
1924 M Melville Rogers CAN 1
1928 M Sherwin Badger USA 1
1928 M Pierre Brunet FRA 2
1928 M Jack Eastwood CAN 1
1928 M Nathaniel Niles USA 3
1928 M Jack Page GBR 2
1928 M Robert Van Zeebroeck BEL 1
1928 M Ludwig Wrede AUT 1
1932 M Bud Wilson CAN 1
1936 M Ernst Baier GER 1
1936 M George Hill USA 1
1948 M Wallace Diestelmeyer CAN 1
1948 M Carlo Fassi ITA 1
1948 M Ede Király HUN 1
1948 M Helmut Seibt AUT 1
1952 M Kurt Oppelt AUT 1
1972 M Ken Shelley USA 1
1994 M Stephen Carr AUS 1
It has never happened that an ice dancer has competed in singles at the Winter Olympics. If we suspect the above combination of singles / pairs may never happen again, I’ll state categorically that no figure skater will ever compete in singles and dance at the Olympics – the dancers don’t do enough jumps.
In the above list two skaters did this 3 times and they were partners – Nathaniel Niles and Theresa Weld-Blanchard skated pairs at the 1920/1924/1928 Winter Olympics, and both also competed in singles at those Olympics. This was also done twice by the husband/wife team of Pierre Brunet and Andrée Brunet Joly at the 1924 and 1928 Winter Olympics.
Finally British skater Jack Page did this twice as well in 1924 and 1928, skating both times with Ethel Muckelt. Muckelt competed in singles in 1924 but not in 1928.
A most unusual scenario, however, has occurred more recently in the case of Japanese-American figure skater Rena Inoue. Born in Japan, Inoue competed in both singles and pairs in her native country. She skated pairs at the 1992 Winter Olympics alongside Tomoaki Koyama, placing 14th. Inoue then returned to the Olympics at Lillehammer in 1994, but competed in singles, finishing 18th. She moved to the United States in 1996 at her father’s urging after he had been diagnosed with lung cancer. Inoue herself developed cancer in 1998 but it was cured by chemotherapy and she returned to figure skating in 2000. In 2006, by then skating with John Baldwin, Inoue competed in her third Olympics, again in pairs, and they finished 7th. Baldwin and Inoue became engaged in 2008 and later married.
Don’t look to see anything like this happening in Sochi. But hey, they gave the singles skaters a team trophy for 2014 so they’ll have something else to do.