Peggy Fleming
| Peggy Fleming | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Country represented | USA | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born |
July 27, 1948 San Jose, California, United States |
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| Height | 5 ft 4 in (163 cm) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Former coach | William Kipp, Carlo Fassi | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Skating club | Arctic Blades FSC, Lake Arrowhead Broadmoor Skating Club, Colorado Springs |
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| Retired | 1968 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Medal record
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Peggy Gail Fleming (born July 27, 1948) is an American former figure skater. She is the 1968 Olympic Champion in Ladies' singles and a three-time World Champion (1966–1968). Fleming has been a television commentator in figure skating for over 20 years, including several Winter Olympic Games.
Fleming was born in San Jose, California, the daughter of Doris Elizabeth (née Deal) and Albert Eugene Fleming, a newspaper journalist and former US Marine. She began skating at age nine when her family moved to Cleveland and soon began skating in earnest on the advice of her father. In 1961, when Peggy was twelve years old, her coach William Kipp was killed in the crash of Sabena Flight 548 along with the rest of the United States figure skating team while en route to the 1961 World Figure Skating Championships. Fleming was subsequently coached by Carlo Fassi. Her unusual style led to five U.S. titles, three World titles and the gold medal in the 1968 Olympics in Grenoble, France. Her award in Grenoble was singularly important for the American athletes and the nation as a whole, for this was the only gold medal that the U.S. Olympic team won in the 1968 Winter Games. It signaled a return to American dominance in the sport of women's figure skating following the unprecedented tragedy of the 1961 plane crash.
After becoming an Olympic champion, Fleming turned professional, performed on TV shows including the 1974 Perry Como Christmas Special and toured with many skating shows, like Ice Capades. During the Cold War, Fleming had filmed a TV show in USSR and skated to Butterfly Lovers' Violin Concerto in China. Since 1981, she has been a skating commentator for ABC Sports. In 1993, the Associated Press released results of a national sports study. Fleming was ranked as the 3rd most popular athlete in America, behind fellow Olympians Mary Lou Retton and Dorothy Hamill.
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