Elaine Zayak
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| Full name | Elaine Kathryn Zayak | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Country represented |
 United States
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| Born |
April 4, 1965 Paramus, New Jersey |
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| Height | 1.57 m (5 ft 2 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Former coach | Peter Burrows Marylynn Gelderman |
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| Skating club | Skating Club of New York | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Medal record
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Elaine Kathryn Zayak (born April 4, 1965) is an American former figure skater. She is the 1982 World champion and 1981 U.S. national champion. She competed at the 1984 Winter Olympics, placing 6th.
Zayak was born and raised in Paramus, New Jersey. At age two, she lost three toes on her left foot as a result of a lawn mower accident. On the advice of her doctors, she began figure skating as physical therapy. Her left boot was stabilized with a wood mold to compensate for the irregularity in the shape of her left foot. Zayak attended Paramus High School and was awarded the Dial Award for the national high-school scholar-athlete of the year in 1982.
Zayak is married and has a son, Jack.
Zayak was coached jointly by Peter Burrows and Marylynn Gelderman throughout her amateur and professional career. She won gold at the 1979 World Junior Championships. The next season, she began competing on the senior international level. Zayak stood atop the podium at the 1979 Skate Canada and Prague Skate and then appeared at her first senior World Championships. She was included in the first trip to China by American skaters, in 1980.
Zayak was the first woman to consistently land many triple jumps in her programs. At the 1982 World Championships, she landed six triple jumps to win the title, although four of them were triple toe loops. While she also had triple salchows and loops in her repertoire, they were less consistent. Zayak's skating contributed to the creation of what became informally known as the Zayak Rule, enacted at the 1982 ISU Congress, which states that a skater may not perform the same kind of triple jump more than twice, and for it to be given full credit on both occasions, one of the two triples must be incorporated into a combination or sequence. The rule encouraged skaters to display a greater variety of skills.
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