Brian Boitano

Brian Boitano was born on October 22, 1963, in Mountainview, California. His brother and two sisters were never interested in skating, but young Brian, when he was eight, attended an "Ice Follies" show with his parents and subsequently fell in love with figure skating. With his parents supporting his ambition, he soon had Linda Leaver as a coach, which proved to be a wise choice—Linda has remained Brian's coach and personal manager through the nearly three decades of Brian's ice-skating career. "I thought he'd be great right away," Leaver told Sports Illustrated. "I used to keep charts on every student, with my predictions and expectations for them. Though Boitano was only eight, I went home and told my husband that one day he'd be the world champion."

Leaver was right. After winning nearly twenty regional medals by the time he hit his teens, Boitano captured the U.S. junior men's championship in 1978. As an amateur he competed in the World Figure Skating Championships throughout the early and mid-1980s. Then, in 1986, Brian won his first world title, defeating Canadian skater Brian Orser. That year he also won the United States Senior Men's Championships as well as taking first at the Olympic Festival.

In spite of the phenomenal success, however, Boitano felt his artistry was not up to par with his technical ability, and in 1987 he hired Sandra Bezic to coach him in this area. He introduced his new style in 1988 at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, collecting a fourth men's single title, going on to capture gold in the Winter Olympics (held in Calgary, Alberta, Canada) later that same year and fulfilling a personal goal. He returned to the winter Olympics in 1994, but finished a disappointing sixth.