Irving Brokaw was the first American to compete in a Winter Olympic sport when he competed in figure skating in 1908. He won early championships in the United States in both 1906 and 1908. Brokaw was later elected as an Honorary President of the US Figure Skating Association, and made large contributions to skating techniques, being credited with introducing what was termed the international style. He also wrote a popular book on figure skating, The Art of Skating. Brokaw attended Princeton, where he ran track, placing second in the 440 yards at the 1893 IC4A Meet. He later graduated from New York Law School in 1907, and was admitted to the New York bar, but never practiced law as a profession. He was also a well-known artist, mostly in water colors, and a member of The Salons of America, an art society, and also of the Huguenot Society. One of his paintings, Skating Girl, hangs in the Luxembourg Museum in Paris. Brokaw was born into a wealthy family, as his father and brother had started Brokaw Brothers Clothing. His brother, George Brokaw, married quite famously twice, first to Clare Booth Luce, and then to Frances Ford Seymour, an heiress who after George’s death, married Henry Fonda, and was the mother of Jane and Peter Fonda.
United States