Figure Skating at the 1936 Garmisch-Partenkirchen Winter Games:

Karl Schäfer was a heavy favorite to take his second Olympic gold medal in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. The Austrian was unbeaten in European Championships since 1929 and World Championships since 1930. At the European Championships in Berlin three weeks before the Olympics, he was clearly ahead of his nearest rivals, Englishman Graham Sharp and the German home favorite, Ernst Baier. Of the North Americans, Canadian bronze medalist Montgomery Wilson was expected as a strong medal contender.

Schäfer was unchallenged and defended his Olympic gold easily. Two weeks after the Olympics, he went to Paris and won his last international title, the World Championships. He then withdrew from the amateur ranks and went to the United States to pursue a career as a figure skating coach.

To the satisfaction of the home crowd, Ernst Baier, a veteran of 30, secured the silver medal. He had lived in the shadow of Schäfer during the first half of the 1930s, coming second to the Austrian on five championships occasions. After 1936 he concentrated, with success, on pair skating. The bronze medal was won by the 21-year-old Viennese Felix Kaspar, who in the late 1930s took over the men’s figure skating throne after Schäfer, winning two World and three European Championship titles before the outbreak of the Second World War. Kaspar was especially famous for his high jumps.