Gillis Grafström

Gillis Emanuel Grafström (7 June 1893 – 14 April 1938) was a Swedish figure skater. He was born in Stockholm, Sweden. 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). He and Eddie Eagan are the only athletes to have won a gold medal at both the Summer and Winter Olympic Games. Grafström has the further distinction of being the only person to have won an individual gold medal in both the Summer (1920) and Winter Olympics (1924, 1928), although Eagan remains the only one to have managed the feat in different disciplines. Grafström is one of the few athletes who have competed in both the Summer and Winter Olympic games. 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. In 1914, Grafström competed at the last World Championships before the first world war. He came in seventh place after falling and hitting his head. While the war was ongoing, he won the men's competition at the 1917 Nordic Games.

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. 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.

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. 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.

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.

In 1929, he was awarded the Svenska Dagbladet Gold Medal, shared with skier Sven Utterström. At his last Olympics in 1932 in Lake Placid, he collided with a photographer on the ice and still managed to place second. He later coached Norwegian figure skater Sonja Henie.

Grafström was one of the best skaters ever in compulsory figures and also had an interest in special figures. 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. 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.

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 Technical University of Berlin (Technische Hochschule 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. Grafström was also a writer and an etcher.

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.

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