Karol Emil Divín, born Finster, nickname "Karcsi", (born February 22, 1936, Budapest

Budapest

Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...

, Hungary

Hungary

Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

) is a former Chechoslovak figure skater who represented Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...

 in the late 1950s and early 1960s. He is the 1960 Winter Olympics

1960 Winter Olympics

The 1960 Winter Olympics, officially known as the VIII Olympic Winter Games, were a winter multi-sport event held between February 18 and 28, 1960 in Squaw Valley, California, United States. In 1955 at the 50th IOC meeting, the organizing committee made the surprise choice to award Squaw Valley as...

 silver medalist, 1958-1959 European champion

European Figure Skating Championships

The European Figure Skating Championships is an annual figure skating competition in which figure skaters compete for the title of European Champion...

 and the 1962 World silver medalist. Shortly after finishing his competitive skating, he married a fellow Czech pair skater Olga Reinisova. They have a son, Peter, who with his wife Outi and four children live in Surrey, BC, Canada.

His mother was Czech and father was Hungarian of German descent. He grew up in Bratislava, Slovakia. At young age he showed interest in ball games, soccer and tennis, but his father led and kept him to figure skating. His father was his coach since childhood. Since 1959 Karol
started to work under coach Ivan Mauer.

For many years, he was coaching figure skating in North Bay, Ontario, Canada. In the late 1960s his best student there was Doug Leigh, who later coached World Champions Brian Orser and Elvis Stojko. Karol, as an expert in compulsory figures, was helping Brian Orser from 1983 to 1987 to win his World title. In 1984, Karol married his second wife Mirka. He also has two stepdaughters, Renata and Jana. Nowadays, Karol alternates his residency between Surrey, BC, Canada and Brno, Czech Republic.

Results

Event	1954	1955	1956	1957	1958	1959	1960	1961	1962	1963	1964
Winter Olympics Winter Olympic Games The Winter Olympic Games is a sporting event, which occurs every four years. The first celebration of the Winter Olympics was held in Chamonix, France, in 1924. The original sports were alpine and cross-country skiing, figure skating, ice hockey, Nordic combined, ski jumping and speed skating...			5th				2nd				4th
World Championships World Figure Skating Championships The World Figure Skating Championships is an annual figure skating competition sanctioned by the International Skating Union in which elite figure skaters compete for the title of World Champion...		5th	6th		6th	5th			2nd	4th	3rd
European Championships European Figure Skating Championships The European Figure Skating Championships is an annual figure skating competition in which figure skaters compete for the title of European Champion...	3rd	3rd	3rd	2nd	1st	1st	WD		2nd		3rd
Czechoslovakian Championships Czechoslovakian Figure Skating Championships The Czechoslovakian Figure Skating Championships were a figure skating national championship held annually to determine the national champions of Czechoslovakia prior to the dissolution into the Czech Republic and Slovakia...	1st	1st	1st	1st	1st	1st	1st	1st	1st	1st	1st

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