Women's Figure Skating Olympic Gold Medalists Quiz

The 1908 London Olympics was the first to feature figure skating, even though it was a summer games (the Winter Olympics didn't commence as a separate event until 1924). English woman Madge Syers first competed internationally at the 1902 World Figure Skating Championship; there wasn't a separate woman's division, so she competed against men and took second place to the legendary Swedish skater, Ulrich Salchow.

Besides taking the gold medal at the inaugural women's figure skating event at the Olympics, she also took the bronze medal in pairs skating with her husband Edgar Syers.

Norwegian skater Sonja Henie first competed at the 1924 Chamonix games, placing eighth (and last) at the age of 11. But she improved, winning the gold medal at the 1928 St Moritz, 1932 Lake Placid, and 1936 Garmisch-Partenkirchen games. After retiring from competition, she used her popularity to embark on a career in Hollywood and to promote ice skating revues.

Barbara Ann Scott won her Olympic gold medal at the 1948 St Moritz games, the first winter games following World War II. Known as "Canada's Sweetheart", the Ottawa native was the first North American woman to win the Olympic gold medal in figure skating.

She retired from skating after a short professional career, but her status as a Canadian sporting legend led to her being a torch bearer for the 1988 Calgary and 2010 Vancouver games, and she was one of the Olympic flag bearers at the latter games.

Tenley Albright led a one-two punch for U.S. women at the 1956 Cortina d'Ampezzo games, when she won the gold medal, with Carol Heiss taking the silver (Heiss would go on to win the gold at the 1960 Squaw Valley games). Albright had previously competed at the 1952 Oslo games where she won the silver behind Jeannette Altwegg of Great Britain.

At the age of 11, Albright had contracted polio and used skating as part of her rehabilitation; perhaps it was this earlier medical complication that inspired her to become a surgeon, graduating from Harvard medical school in 1961.

Peggy Fleming had the distinction of winning the only gold medal for the U.S. at the 1968 Grenoble games. She famously competed in a chartreuse-colored dress that her mother had sewn, hoping that it would gain her some favor with the audience as Grenoble was in the Chartreuse Mountain region; Fleming later stated that no one made the connection. Fleming's win was a victory for the U.S. skating program that was still recovering from the 1961 plane crash that took out U.S. skating team (including Fleming's then-coach William Kipp) on their way to the World Championships.

Dorothy Hamill won the gold medal at the 1976 Innsbruck games, the last female skater to win Olympic gold without a planned triple jump. Her winning performance included her signature move, a Hamill Camel, where she transitioned from a camel spin to a sit spin. Hamill became a fashion-setter in the mid 1970s with her wedge haircut and oversize glasses becoming popular, and she went on to perform professionally with ice shows, being an owner of the Ice Capades show.

Competing for East Germany, Katarina Witt won gold at both the 1984 Sarajevo and 1988 Calgary games. Reigning World Champion Rosalynn Sumners of the U.S. was the favorite going into the 1984 games, but Witt took the win when Sumners didn't complete all of her planned jumps.

The 1988 games were the "Battle of the Carmens", as both Witt and 1986 World Champion Debi Thomas of the U.S. were skating to excerpts from Bizet's "Carmen". Neither performed to expectations, with Canadian Elizabeth Manley actually winning the long program, but Witt had enough of an overall lead to take the gold medal. Witt returned to Olympic competition at the 1994 Lillehammer Olympics, in which professionals were allowed to compete. Competing for the reunited German team, she ended up in seventh place.

Ukrainian Oksana Baiul won the gold medal at the 1994 Lillehammer games, which were perhaps better remembered for the Nancy Kerrigan/Tonya Harding controversy. Kerrigan, considered the favorite leading into the 1994 games, was attacked in a plot allegedly hatched by Harding's then-husband. Harding was cleared to compete at the 1994 games but ended up in eighth place.

But back to Oksana Baiul. An orphan who lived with her skating coach, Baiul had won the 1993 World Championships, so she was a contender for the gold, even though the focus was on Kerrigan.

But in the free skate, Baiul pulled the upset with a lively performance that included a couple of ad-hoc jumps to give her the narrow win.

Yuna Kim became the first South Korean to win an Olympic medal in figure skating when she took the gold medal at the 2010 Vancouver games. Kim became a favorite for the gold medal after winning her first World Championship in 2009, where she became the first female skater to surpass 200 points in the ISU judging system.

Her dominating win over Japan's Mao Asada at the 2010 games was by over 23 points. Kim returned to compete in the 2014 Sochi games but had to settle for silver to Russia's Adelina Sotnikova; it was a controversial decision with allegations of bias and incorrect scoring, and while the South Korean Olympic committee lodged protests, the International Skating Union stated that protests were not filed in a timely manner.

California-born Alysa Liu won the gold medal at the 2026 Milano-Cortina games, becoming the first U.S. woman to do so since Sarah Hughes at the 2002 Salt Lake City games. Liu was a two-time U.S. champion by age 14, and she competed at the 2022 Beijing Olympics (rejecting the attempted recruitment to compete for China) where she finished in 6th place. Returning to skating in 2024 following a two-year retirement, Liu won the 2025 World Championship, making her a favorite for the 2026 games.

She skated to a personal-best score to take the gold over Japan's Kaori Sakamoto and Ami Nakai.