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| Event type

Singles, Women

Date28 – 29 January 1924
StatusOlympic
LocationStade Olympique, Chamonix
Participants8 from 6 countries
FormatEach judge ranked each skater by Ordinal Placement from first through last place. The Ordinal Placement for each judge was based on Total Points awarded by that judge to the skaters. The points were based on 60% for Compulsory Figures and 40% for Free Skating. Final placement was determined by a Majority Placement rule. Thus, if a skater was ranked first by a majority of the judges, that skater was placed first overall, and the process was repeated for each place. If no absolute majority for a place existed, the tiebreakers were, in order: 1) Total Ordinals, 2) Total Points, 3) Compulsory Figure Points.
Judge #1Josef FellnerAUT
Judge #2Walter JakobssonFIN
Judge #3Henry YglesiasGBR
Judge #4Ernst HerzAUT
Judge #5Louis MagnusGBR
Judge #6René JapiotFRA
Judge #7Georges WagemansBEL

Among the 8 participants, two of them had participated in Antwerp four years earlier, US skater Theresa Weld-Blanchard winning a bronze medal, and the British veteran, now 38-year-old Ethel Muckelt, placing fifth in Antwerp. The heavy favorite was Austrian Herma Planck-Szabo, world champion in 1922 and 1923. Among the entrants was an 11-year old Norwegian girl, Sonja Henie. Originally the Norwegians had decided not to enter any figure skaters for Chamonix, but when Sonja’s father Wilhelm Henie, a wealthy furrier, offered to pay all the expenses for Sonja and himself as her coach, the Norwegian authorities reluctantly gave in.

Herma Planck-Szabo won with ease. She was definitely the figure skating queen of the 1920s, winning five world championships in a row (1922-1926). She was also an excellent pair skater, together with her partner Ludwig Wrede she was world champion in the event in 1925 and 1927, in addition to a bronze medal in 1926. In the World Championships in Oslo 1927 she would have to be satisfied with a silver medal, beaten by the new rising star, Sonja Henie. Of the five judges, three from Norway had Henie as the winner, the two others, from Germany and Austria, had the Austrian ranked first. After that, the International Skating Union decided that in future championships, there would be only one judge from each country. Planck-Szabo retired from active skating after the 1927 season. She is said to be the first figure skater to wear short skirts during competition. Beatrix Loughran, second after Weld-Blanchard in the US Championships 1922 and 1923, won the silver, and Muckelt won the bronze medal by a scant margin ahead of Weld-Blanchard. Ethel Muckelt participated as a pair skater in the 1928 games, at age 42. Sonja Henie was last in eighth place. It is told that she skated over to the side of the rink several times during her program to ask her father for directions.

PosSkaterNOCMaj. PlacementsOrdinalsPointsReducedJudge #1Judge #2Judge #3Judge #4Judge #5Judge #6Judge #7
1Herma Planck-SzaboAUT7×1+7.02,094.25299.18313.00 (1)329.50 (1)289.00 (1)300.25 (1)284.50 (1)287.25 (1)290.75 (1)Gold1
2Beatrix LoughranUSA7×2+14.01,959.00279.86286.25 (2)319.50 (2)280.50 (2)284.75 (2)244.50 (2)273.75 (2)269.75 (2)Silver2
3Ethel MuckeltGBR6×4+26.01,750.50250.07263.25 (4)295.75 (3)245.25 (3)258.00 (4)210.00 (4)249.00 (3)229.25 (5)Bronze
4Theresa BlanchardUSA5×4+27.01,746.75249.54263.50 (3)294.50 (4)234.00 (4)265.00 (3)207.00 (5)238.50 (5)244.25 (3)3
5Andrée JolyFRA5×6+38.01,623.50231.93236.75 (6)271.00 (6)182.75 (7)257.25 (5)212.50 (3)223.50 (7)239.75 (4)4
6Cecil SmithCAN4×6+44.01,615.25230.75247.50 (5)269.75 (7)228.25 (5)247.75 (8)205.00 (6)228.25 (6)188.75 (7)
7Kathleen ShawGBR5×7+46.01,547.00221.00220.50 (7)268.25 (8)194.75 (6)253.25 (6)187.75 (7)242.25 (4)180.25 (8)
8Sonja HenieNOR7×8+50.01,426.75203.82210.75 (8)288.00 (5)110.25 (8)249.75 (7)180.00 (8)195.50 (8)192.50 (6)
DNSSvea NorénSWE
DNSZ. PandakovićYUG

Compulsory Figures (28 January 1924 — 9:30)

Judge #1Josef FellnerAUT
Judge #2Walter JakobssonFIN
Judge #3Henry YglesiasGBR
Judge #4Ernst HerzAUT
Judge #5Louis MagnusGBR
Judge #6René JapiotFRA
Judge #7Georges WagemansBEL
Attendance1,176
PosOrdSkaterNOCMaj. PlacementsOrdinalsReducedJudge #1Judge #2Judge #3Judge #4Judge #5Judge #6Judge #7
1Herma Planck-SzaboAUT6×1+8.01,260.25180.04190.00 (1)203.50 (1)175.00 (2)186.25 (1)170.50 (1)164.25 (1)170.75 (1)
2Beatrix LoughranUSA7×2+13.01,224.00174.86181.25 (2)199.50 (2)181.50 (1)176.75 (2)154.50 (2)162.75 (2)167.75 (2)
3Ethel MuckeltGBR4×3+23.51,063.50151.93167.25 (3)184.75 (3)149.25 (3)162.00 (4)120.00 (=3)144.00 (3)136.25 (4)
4Theresa BlanchardUSA7×4+25.51,029.75147.11155.50 (4)177.50 (4)135.00 (4)163.00 (3)120.00 (=3)139.50 (4)139.25 (3)
5Cecil SmithCAN4×5+38.0934.25133.46145.50 (5)164.75 (6)129.25 (5)151.75 (5)109.00 (5)120.25 (6)113.75 (6)
6Kathleen ShawGBR6×6+41.0944.00134.86145.50 (6)172.25 (5)122.75 (6)151.25 (6)106.75 (6)134.25 (5)111.25 (7)
7Andrée JolyFRA5×7+49.0864.50123.50131.75 (8)160.00 (8)80.75 (7)149.25 (7)98.50 (7)109.50 (7)134.75 (5)
8Sonja HenieNOR7×8+54.0796.75113.82132.75 (7)162.00 (7)68.25 (8)141.75 (8)96.00 (8)99.50 (8)96.50 (8)

Free Skating (29 January 1924 — 13:30)

Free Skating points computed by multiplying Free Skating score by 12.0.

Judge #1Josef FellnerAUT
Judge #2Walter JakobssonFIN
Judge #3Henry YglesiasGBR
Judge #4Ernst HerzAUT
Judge #5Louis MagnusGBR
Judge #6René JapiotFRA
Judge #7Georges WagemansBEL
Attendance1,638
PosOrdSkaterNOCMaj. PlacementsOrdinalsReducedJudge #1Judge #2Judge #3Judge #4Judge #5Judge #6Judge #7
1Herma Planck-SzaboAUT5×1+8.0834.00119.14123.00 (1)126.00 (=1)114.00 (1)114.00 (1)114.00 (=1)123.00 (1)120.00 (1)
2Andrée JolyFRA5×3+20.5759.00108.43105.00 (=3)111.00 (6)102.00 (2)108.00 (=2)114.00 (=1)114.00 (2)105.00 (=2)
3Beatrix LoughranUSA6×4+25.0735.00105.00105.00 (=3)120.00 (3)99.00 (=3)108.00 (=2)90.00 (=4)111.00 (3)102.00 (4)
4Theresa BlanchardUSA4×4+31.0717.00102.43108.00 (2)117.00 (4)99.00 (=3)102.00 (=5)87.00 (6)99.00 (7)105.00 (=2)
5Cecil SmithCAN4×5+38.0681.0097.29102.00 (5)105.00 (7)99.00 (=3)96.00 (=7)96.00 (3)108.00 (=4)75.00 (7)
6Ethel MuckeltGBR6×6+41.0687.0098.1496.00 (6)111.00 (5)96.00 (6)96.00 (=7)90.00 (=4)105.00 (6)93.00 (6)5
7Sonja HenieNOR5×7+39.5630.0090.0078.00 (7)126.00 (=1)42.00 (8)108.00 (=2)84.00 (7)96.00 (8)96.00 (5)6
8Kathleen ShawGBR7×8+49.0603.0086.1475.00 (8)96.00 (8)72.00 (7)102.00 (=5)81.00 (8)108.00 (=4)69.00 (8)