Pairs, Mixed

The French pair Andrée Joly/Pierre Brunet had emerged as one of the world’s leading figure skating pair after the 1924 Games, winning silver at the1925 World Championships and gold in 1926. Another strong contender was the newly composed Austrian pair Melitta Brunner/Ludwig Wrede. Now aged 33, Wrede had won two World titles together with single star Herma Szabo (1925 and 1927), but when Herma finished her career in 1927, Wrede had to look for a new partner. He found one in Melitta Brunner, 21, also from Vienna. Since Brunner/Wrede were skating their first season together, the silver medalists from the World Championships 1926 and 1927, Lilly Scholz/Otto Kaiser, were considered to be the best Austrian pair and the strongest opponents to Joly/Brunet.

It became a close contest, but six out of nine judges had Joly/Brunet as Olympic champions, two went for Scholz/Kaiser, who had to be content with silver. The ninth judge, a German, had the US pair Beatrix Loughran/Sherwin Badger in first place, but they ended as fourth in the final classification behind Brunner/Wrede. The Jakobssons ended their long and successful career by finishing in fifth place, Ludowika aged 43, Walter at 46. The Belgian bronze medal winner from the men’s singles, Robert Van Zeebroeck, participated in pairs together with Josy Van Leberghe. They performed some exciting and fresh moves, but )the inexperience of the woman cost them a bronze medal”, according to a contemporary source. Scholz/Kaiser went on to win the World Championships in 1929 with Joly/Brunet absent, but then ended their career.