Julie Lynn Holmes (born March 23, 1951, in

North Hollywood, California North Hollywood is a neighborhood and district in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, California. The neighborhood contains the NoHo Arts District, El Portal Theater, several art galleries, and the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Th ...

) is an American former

figure skater Figure skating is a sport in which individuals, pairs, or groups perform on figure skates on ice. It was the first winter sport to be included in the Olympic Games, with its introduction occurring at the 1908 Olympics in London. The Olympic d ...

. She won one silver medal and one bronze medal at the

World Figure Skating Championships The World Figure Skating Championships are an annual figure skating competition sanctioned by the International Skating Union (ISU). The first World Championships were held in 1896 in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and they have been held e ...

and competed in the

1972 Winter Olympics The 1972 Winter Olympics, officially the and commonly known as Sapporo 1972 (), were a winter multi-sport event held from February 3 to 13, 1972, in Sapporo, Hokkaido Prefecture, Japan. It was the first Winter Olympic Games to take place outside ...

. She was coached initially by Nancy Rush and then by Carlo Fassi. She skated generally in the shadows of fellow American

Janet Lynn Janet Lynn Nowicki (born April 6, 1953) is an American figure skater. She is the 1972 Olympic bronze medalist, a two-time world championships medalist, and a five-time senior Ladies U.S. national champion. Amateur career Lynn began to skate a ...

, although Holmes had considerably better luck on the world stage than at her own country's championships. She was known for her skill at performing

compulsory figures Compulsory figures or school figures were formerly a segment of figure skating, and gave the sport its name. They are the "circular patterns which skaters trace on the ice to demonstrate skill in placing clean turns evenly on round circles". For ...

. She generally was beaten by both

Karen Magnussen Karen Diane Magnussen, OC (born April 4, 1952) is a Canadian former competitive figure skater. She is the 1972 Olympic silver medallist and 1973 World champion. She was Canada's Female Athlete of the Year in 1971 and 1972, and was made an Offic ...

and

in free skating portions, but placed over both in compulsory figure portions, which sometimes allowed her to defeat them. She generally beat

Trixi Schuba Beatrix "Trixi" Schuba (born 15 April 1951) is an Austrian former competitive figure skater who competed in ladies' singles. She is a six-time Austrian national champion (1967–1972), a two-time European champion (1971 and 1972), a two-time Wo ...

handily in free skating portions but was behind in compulsory figure portions, and always too far behind to be able to defeat Trixi despite her weaker free skating. Gabriele Seyfert regularly placed above her in both compulsory figure and free skating portions while still competing up until 1970. Despite never defeating Lynn at the U.S. Championships, and thus never winning a U.S. National title, she beat her and Karen Magnussen to win bronze at the 1970 World Championships and silver in 1971. At the 1972 Winter Olympics, she was well positioned to win silver due to a strong lead (apart from Schuba who she trailed by a near insurmountable margin) after figures, but a rare disastrous long program where she placed only 8th and fell a couple times dropped her to 4th behind Trixi Schuba, Karen Magnussen, and Janet Lynn, off the podium. She was criticized by some for copying too closely the exact style of

Peggy Fleming Peggy Gale Fleming (born July 27, 1948) is a retired American figure skater. She is the 1968 Winter Olympic Champion in the ladies' singles, being the only American gold medalist at these Games, and a three-time World Champion (1966–1968) in ...

, perhaps in part due to being coached by the same person- Carlo Fassi. Holmes retired from competitive skating after the Olympics and toured with

Ice Capades The Ice Capades were traveling entertainment shows featuring theatrical ice skating performances. Shows often featured former Winter Olympic Games, Olympic and United States Figure Skating Championships, US National Champion figure skating, figur ...

. She also skated on the Donny & Marie television series. She currently works as a part-time skating coach.

Results

References

* "Holmes Newman puts faith and family first", ''Skating'', October 2007 {{DEFAULTSORT:Holmes, Julie Lynn American female single skaters Olympic figure skaters for the United States Figure skaters at the 1972 Winter Olympics 1951 births Living people World Figure Skating Championships medalists Figure skaters from Los Angeles 20th-century American sportswomen