Stéphane Lambiel

Stéphane Lambiel
Country represented	Switzerland
Height	177 cm (5 ft 10 in)
Coach	Jean-Christophe Simond
Choreographer	Salome Brunner, Antonio Najarro
Skating club	Sudbury SC
Birthdate	April 2, 1985
Retired	October 16, 2008

Stéphane Lambiel (born April 2, 1985 in Martigny, Switzerland) is a Swiss figure skater. He is a two-time World Champion (2005–2006), the 2006 Olympic silver medalist, a two-time Grand Prix Champion (2005 and 2007) and an eight-time Swiss National Champion. Lambiel is known for his figure skater and is credited with popularizing some spin positions.

He announced his retirement from competitive skating on October 16, 2008.

Videos

Stephane Lambiel - Golden Skate Awards 2008	The bronze performance of the Stephane Lambiel in the 2007 Worlds in Tokyo (Japan).
Jeffrey Buttle & Stephane Lambiel-Stars on Ice Japan Tour 2009	2004 -Art on Ice- Stephane Lambiel-Edvin Marton´s Gipsy Dance

Quotes

Personal life

Lambiel performing a stag jump at the 2006 Skate Canada

Lambiel at the exhibition at the 2008 World Championships.

Lambiel(center) at the 2006 Skate Canada podium.

Lambiel grew up in Saxon, Switzerland. He has a sister, Silvia (born in 1982), and a brother, Christophe (born in 1989). Lambiel's mother is Portuguese. Lambiel lives in Lausanne, Switzerland and received his "maturité" (matura) in biology and chemistry in June 2004.

Lambiel speaks French, German (not Swiss German), English, and Portuguese fluently. He is learning Italian.

He has recurring injuries in both his knees, requiring him to miss exhibitions and training time. Unlike most figure skaters, Lambiel can spin and jump in both directions. He is able to do successive double axels, changing his rotation direction between each one. However, he has stopped training this.

Lambiel has many sponsors in Switzerland. In 2007, he designed a Swiss watch, called the Spin Master.

Lambiel's good luck charm is a ladybug.

In 2008 interview Alexei Mishin called him an "outstanding artist and spins genious" and added, that his retirement is an "immense loss". According to Mishin, Lambiel was "strangled by the modern figure skating regulations".

Career

Early career

As the Swiss novice men's champion, Lambiel performed an exhibition at the 1997 World Championships, held in Lausanne. The next year, he became Swiss junior men's champion and by 2000, he was the Swiss senior men's champion. He came in fifth at the 2001 World Junior Championships. The next season, Lambiel was age-eligible for senior international competition. The Swiss skating federation told him that they would send him to the figure skater in Salt Lake City if he placed in the top twelve at the European Championships. Lambiel placed fourth there and was sent to the Olympics, where he placed fifteenth. He then placed eighteenth at the Senior Worlds.

The following season, Lambiel placed fifth at Europeans and moved up a few places at Worlds. By 2004, he was sixth at Europeans and fourth at 2004 Worlds. Lambiel was forced to miss the 2004–2005 Grand Prix season due to injury, but recouped to place 4th at Europeans.

World Champion and beyond

At the 2005 World Championships in Moscow, Lambiel was ahead of Evgeni Plushenko after the qualifying round and short program. When Plushenko withdrew from the competition with an injury, Lambiel was suddenly in a position to win the title. He did, with a spectacular performance to the King Arthur soundtrack. He landed two figure skater in the free skate and was the only skater to do two at that event. It was the first time a Swiss man had been World Champion since Hans Gerschwiler in 1947.

Lambiel went into the 2006 Olympic season as the World Champion, but not as the favourite for the Olympic title. He won two silver medals on the Grand Prix circuit and won the Grand Prix Final. He came in second at Europeans, behind Plushenko, and went into the Olympics with a strong chance to medal. He was third after the short program, but pulled up to second to win the silver medal. Lambiel did not complete a triple axel at the Olympics. However, he did land a perfect quadruple-triple-double combination.

Plushenko chose not to go to Worlds, leaving Lambiel as the favourite to defend his title. Lambiel was first after the qualifying round and maintained his lead through the short and the long programs, allowing him to successfully defend his title and become the first Swiss skater ever to be a two-time World Champion.

Lambiel began the 2006–2007 season by coming back from the short program to win the gold medal at Skate Canada International, where he finished seventh in the short program and first in the free skate. Lambiel had also been assigned to the NHK Trophy, but he withdrew before the event, citing health reasons. He recovered in time to skate at the Swiss Championships, where he won his seventh national title. However, on January 16th, Lambiel withdrew from the European Championships, citing burnout. He competed again at the 2007 World Championships in Tokyo where he fell on his triple axel and tripled his intended quad-triple combination in the short program and placed 6th. He came back in the long program where he landed two quads and a triple axel and finished in 2nd on the night and 3rd overall.

In 2007, he finished 3rd at the Cup of China and 2nd at the Cup of Russia. He then went on to win the Grand Prix Final for a second time in his career with 239.10 points, only 0.16 points over Daisuke Takahashi. At the 2008 in Zagreb, he had a disappointing short program where he fell on his triple axel and only did a triple-double combination and placed 4th. He finished 2nd in the long program where he landed a quad-double toeloop-double loop combination and earned 80 points in program components score for his exquisite flamenco. He won his second Silver European medal, while Czech Tomas Verner won the Gold.

At the 2008 in Gothenborg, Sweden, Lambiel fell on his triple axel and put his hand down on a quad toe loop in the short program, putting him in fifth place going into the free skate. In the free skate, he stepped out of his triple axel attempt, put his hand down again on the quad toe in his combination, and then stepped out on his solo quad toe. He finished in fifth place overall.

Lambiel was originally assigned to the 2008 and the 2008. He withdrew from them both in early October 2008. On October 16, 2008, he retired from competitive skating, citing an injury to the adductor muscle in his left leg that kept him from training at full capacity. During his retirement announcement, he said he plans to skate in exhibitions.

Coaching changes

Lambiel trained from 1995 through the 2007–2008 season with coach Peter Grütter, with a brief stop in 2004. He trained in Geneva and Lausanne and as most Swiss rinks close in the summer, he also trained in Germany (Oberstdorf sometimes) during that time. His choreographer has long been Salomé Brunner. He designs his own costumes.

On June 6, 2008, Lambiel announced that he would be leaving coach Peter Grütter and moving to New Jersey to work with Viktor Petrenko and Galina Zmievskaya. They coached him from June until his retirement in October.

Competitive highlights

Post-2003

Event	2003–2004	2004–2005	2005–2006	2006–2007	2007–2008
Winter Olympic Games			2nd
World Championships	4th	1st	1st	3rd	5th
European Championships	6th	4th	2nd	WD	2nd
Swiss Championships	1st	1st	1st	1st	1st
Grand Prix Champion			1st		1st
Cup of China			2nd		3rd
Cup of Russia	5th		2nd		2nd
Skate Canada International				1st

• WD = Withdrew

Pre-2003

Event	1997–1998	1998–1999	1999–2000	2000–2001	2001–2002	2002–2003
Winter Olympic Games					15th
World Championships					18th	10th
European Championships				9th	4th	5th
World Junior Championships			10th	5th
Swiss Championships	1st J.	1st J.		1st	1st	1st
Ondrej Nepela Memorial						1st
Trophee Lalique					6th
Finlandia Trophy					11th
Les Etoiles de la Glace						1st
Junior Grand Prix, Mexico				2nd
Junior Grand Prix, Norway			7th
Junior Grand Prix, Norway			3rd
Junior Grand Prix, France		8th
Junior Grand Prix, France		8th
figure skater		2nd J.
Triglav Trophy	3rd N.

• N = Novice level; J = Junior level

External links

• Official Website