Karen Magnussen
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Magnussen (right) at the 1972 Olympics
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| Full name | Karen Diane Magnussen-Cella | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Country represented | Canada | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born |
April 8, 1952 Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada |
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| Height | 160 cm (5 ft 3 in) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Former coach | Linda Brauckmann, Frank Carroll, Hellmut May | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Skating club | North Shore Winter Club | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Retired | 1977 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Medal record
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Karen Diane Magnussen, OC (born April 4, 1952) is a Canadian former competitive figure skater. She is the 1972 Olympic silver medalist and 1973 World champion.
Magnussen was Canada's Female Athlete of the Year in 1971 and 1972, and was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1973.
Magnussen was born into a middle-class family with a Swedish mother and Norwegian father in Vancouver, British Columbia. She has two sisters, Lori, three years younger, and Judy, six years younger.
Magnussen studied kinesiology at Simon Fraser University. In 1978, she married Tony Cella, the lead singer of a band. They lived in his hometown, Boston, for eleven years and then moved to Vancouver. They have two sons and a daughter.
After being introduced to the ice at age six and a half when her mother, a recreational skater, brought her to a general skating session, Karen Magnussen then kept asking for more opportunities to skate. Recalling lessons on pebbly curling ice at the Kerrisdale Arena, she commented, "The ice was anything but perfect, but I think that made you tough." Her first coach was Hellmut May. Linda Brauckmann became her coach in 1965.
Magnussen's career at the elite level of skating began when she won the Canadian national junior title in 1965. Moving up to the senior level the next year, she became known for her strong free skating ability, and was even compared to then-reigning world champion Petra Burka. Her march upwards in the rankings continued as she qualified to compete at the World Championships for the first time in 1967 and won her first Canadian title in 1968. She was sent to the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble, France, and placed seventh.
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