Thursday, Feb. 25, 2010
Linda Fratianne and Anett Poetzsch
The United States boycotted the 1980 summer Olympics in Moscow—a response to the Soviet Union's 1979 invasion of Afghanistan—but the winter competition took place in Lake Placid, New York. East Germany's Anett Poetzsch got the gold in women's figure skating, and American Linda Fratianne, the reigning world champion, came in second.
In previous years, Fratianne and Poetzsch had traded the world champ title back and forth, and the Olympic results were not without controversy. Fratianne's coach Frank Carroll blamed the judges, saying the outcome was rigged. Fratianne had scored better in the short program and free-skating, but she lagged in compulsory figures, which were eliminated a decade later.