Peggy Gail Fleming is an American figure skater. She is the 1968 Olympic Champion in Ladies' singles and a three-time World Champion . Fleming has been a television commentator on figure skating for over 20 years, including several Winter Olympic Games. Fleming was born in San Jose, California, the daughter of Doris Elizabeth and Albert Eugene Fleming, a newspaper journalist. She began skating at age nine when her family moved to Cleveland and soon began skating in earnest on the advice of her father. In 1961, when Fleming was twelve years old, her coach William Kipp was killed in the crash... of Sabena Flight 548 along with the rest of the United States figure skating team while on route to the 1961 World Figure Skating Championships. Fleming was subsequently coached by Carlo Fassi. Her unusual style led to five U.S. titles, three World titles and the gold medal in the 1968 Olympics in Grenoble, France. Her award in Grenoble was singularly important for the American athletes and the nation as a whole, for this was the only gold medal that the U.S. Olympic team won in the 1968 Winter Games.
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