Gilbert Fuchs

Gilbert Fuchs (1871–1952) was a German figure skater who won the first World Figure Skating Championships, held in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1896. He recaptured the world title ten years later in Munich.

Gilbert Fuchs

Personal information
Born	1871 (1871) Graz, Austria-Hungary
Died	1952 (aged 80–81) West Germany
Figure skating career
Country	Germany
Medal record Representing  Germany Men's Figure skating World Championships 1896 St. Petersburg Men's singles 1906 Munich Men's singles 1901 Stockholm Men's singles 1908 Troppau Men's singles 1898 London Men's singles 1907 Vienna Men's singles European Championships 1901 Vienna Men's singles 1907 Vienna Men's singles 1909 Budapest Men's singles 1895 Budapest Men's singles German Championships 1895 Bonn Men’s Singles 1896 Darmstadt Men’s Singles 1909 Munich Men’s Singles

Relations with his constant rival Ulrich Salchow were strained. In 1906, Salchow did not compete in Fuchs' hometown of Munich, because he expected that he would be judged unfairly. Likewise, Fuchs did not participate in the 1908 Olympics as he felt the judges favored Salchow. Only once did Fuchs place higher in a competition than Salchow, at the 1901 Europeans in Vienna; he did not win the event, however, finishing in second place to Gustav Hügel of Austria.

Fuchs mastered figure skating on his own, after learning gymnastics, weightlifting, and stone put. After finishing secondary school, he served in a cavalry regiment, later studying agriculture in Vienna. Still later, he moved to Munich in the German state of Bavaria, where he studied forestry. He practised figure skating on Germany's first artificial ice rink, "Unsöldsche Kunsteisbahn", which opened in 1892, and he represented Munich EV and Germany in competitions. Fuchs was a founding member of the Karlsruhe Ice Skating Club, founded in 1911. He wrote a book titled "Theory and Practice of Figure Skating" (German: "Theorie und Praxis des Kunstlaufes am Eise"), published in 1926.

Outside figure skating, Fuchs studied the morphology of the bark beetle (German: Borkenkäfer). In 1929, in his late fifties, he wrote his PhD thesis titled "European timber industry after the war" (German: "Europäische Holzwirtschaft der Nachkriegszeit") (the "war" referred to in the title is the First World War).

Results

Event	1895	1896	1897	1898	1899	1900	1901	1902	1903	1904	1905	1906	1907	1908	1909
World Championships		1st	^†	3rd			2nd					1st	3rd	2nd
European Championships	3rd						2nd						2nd		2nd
German Championships	1st	1st													1st

^† Did not enter after being injured in a hunting accident in the high mountains

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