Vivian Joseph

Vivian Joseph (born 7 March 1948 in [[Chicago, Illinois)^[1] is a female American figure skater.

Skating career

Vivian and her older brother Ronald Joseph began skating together as children, attended Highland Park High School,^[2] and competed for the Broadmoor Skating Club of Colorado.

The two siblings entered their first regional competition, the Midwest Skating Championship, in 1957, when Vivian was nine years old. They finished in 2nd place.

In 1961 the pair won the Junior National Skating Championship. In 1962 they finished third in the US National Championship; in 1963 and 1964 they finished second in the US National Championship, and in 1965 they won the US National Championship. In 1965 they also won the North American Skating Championship.^[3]

A plane crash in 1961 claimed the lives of the entire U.S. World Figure Skating Team en route to the world championships in Czechoslovakia (which caused the 1961 world championships to be canceled that year),^[4] and the Josephs were thrust into the spotlight.

The pair entered three World Skating Championships:

• 1963, held at Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy - they finished 8th
• 1964, held at Dortmund, Germany - they finished 4th
• 1965, held at Colorado Springs, Colorado (USA) - they finished 2nd.

Olympics; Bronze Medal awarded, and then taken away

The pair competed in the pairs figure skating event at the 1964 Winter Olympics Games.^[5] They finished in 4th place. But in 1966 the silver medal-winning team of Hans-Jurgen Baumler and Marika Kilius of Germany were stripped of their medals, after they were alleged to have signed a professional contract prior to the games. The Josephs were then moved up to 3rd place, and awarded bronze medals.

In 1987, however, the Germans were officially reinstated by the IOC, and the original results were restored. The Josephs, who had held the bronze medal for over 20 years, were moved back to 4th place. The USOC does not recognize them as medalists.

References

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