When you think of guy figure skaters, you probably don't think of some of the world's toughest athletes. I mean if it came down to a cage match between a linebacker and a figure skater - you probably wouldn't be picking the guy who skates. But World Champion figure skater, Elvis Stojko, is an exception to that rule. Sure he's one of the best at all that jumping and dancing stuff, but Elvis also has a black belt in karate, is a kick-butt dirt bike rider and rides jet skis. There's even a rumor that he beat the crap out of Eric Lindros one time when the two got into an argument. That's right, the E-Train vs. Elvis - and Elvis the figure skater came out on top.
Elvis was born in Ontario, Canada. His parents named him after Elvis Presley - a rock n'roll star who was popular with old people hundreds of years ago. That's why Stojko often performs his skating routines to rock n' roll music, rather than classical music like a lot of those other figure skaters. He started figure skating when he was five years old and became hooked. By the time Elvis was a teenager, he was being recruited by the top figure skating coaches in Canada.
When he was 11, Elvis started taking karate. He was a huge martial arts fan and he figured the training would help him be mentally stronger for when he needed to land all those difficult triple twists. He also thought it would be cool if he started putting some of his martial arts moves into his skating performances. His training paid off. When Elvis was 17, he competed in the World Championships for the first time and finished 9th. Two years later, he became the first figure skater to land a quadruple jump (that's four turns in the air) during a competition. His career took off from there. He won the World Championships in '94, '95 and '97. He also won silver medals at the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway in 1994 and in Nagano, Japan in 1998. Since then Elvis hasn't been skating so well because of a knee injury. But he was definitely be a favorite at the World Figure Skating Championships in Vancouver, in March. The King is back.
Who's your favorite figure skater? what figure skaters you'd like to know more about.
To see more pictures of Elvis and other figure skaters head to www.scratchspin.com
