Edi Scholdan

Eduard " Edi" Scholdan ( born 1911 or 1912 in Vienna, † February 15, 1961 in Mountain Kampenhout, Belgium) was an Austrian figure skater and figure skating coach.

Scholdan was born in Vienna and took part as a figure skater in the world championship in 1933, where he finished sixth in the victory of his illustrious compatriot Karl Schäfer. As a coach, but Scholdan was far more famous. From 1945 he worked in this capacity in the Broadmoor Skating Club in Colorado Springs. His students included Eva Pawlik, Hayes Alan Jenkins, Davis Jenkins, James Grogan and Ina Bauer. Because of his humor and because he likes to juggle on skates, he was called " the clown prince of Broadmoor ".

As a coach of Gregory Kelley and Stephanie Westerfeld, the two U.S. vice champions of 1961 in a single run, he was on board the Sabena flight 548, which was to take them to the World Championships in Prague. The night flight should stop over in Brussels. There, however, the pilot had to take break and new start-up, to try it on a different runway landing approach. Here, the plane crashed on farmland in mountain Kampenhout. All 72 passengers, the crew and a farmer on the ground were killed, including the entire 18- member U.S. team and their 16 relatives. The World Cup in Prague was canceled. Scholdan had at the time of his death two young children, Jimmy and Ruthie. Jimmy was on board, Scholdan wanted to take him to the World Cup with Austria.

Scholdan was inducted into the Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 1976. His successor in the Broadmoor Skating Club was Carlo Fassi.