By Scott Mammoser, Team FSO staff writer
Photos from Getty Images and Elaine Zayak (Instagram)
Editor’s Note: Team FSO staff writer Scott Mammoser caught up with Elaine Zayak, the 1982 World champion and 1981 U.S. Champion. Zayak also competed at the 1984 Winter Olympics, placing 6th. This is Scott’s first article in his 2025 off-season series catching up with former World and Olympic competitors.
Not many people can correlate with how Alysa Liu felt after winning the World Championship this March in Boston. Elaine Zayak is one of those few. The 1982 world champion actually was at the TD Garden in Boston when Liu ended the 19-year gold medal drought for American women in the event.
“I felt like I was back at Worlds again in my competition days,” Zayak said in a Zoom call from her home in River Vale, N.J. “For me, it reminded me of when I won. It was a surprise, for me, coming from seventh after the short, then to first and winning. When you win like that, nothing will ever replace that one win. When you see that in person, it brings back so many memories. I was in shock.”
Zayak’s gold medal from the World Championships in Copenhagen in 1982 represents one of the great come-from-behind stories. Since she was seventh after the short program, the 16-year-old skated in the second-to-last group. There were no cell phones to keep track of results or leader’s couch next to the kiss and cry area in those days. Thus, Zayak waited in the ABC Sports control truck, where they were tallying up the scores.
“There were 11 skaters after me, and I watched every single one in that box,” she said. “I wanted to see Katarina Witt skate, and then I felt really excited because I felt if I beat her, I might really win. Then there were three skaters left, and I knew I would be first, second or third. I ran down to the ice side, and people were congratulating me, and I was in shock. Alysa Liu said the same thing when I congratulated her. I said I knew that feeling really well. You never think that day is going to happen.”
1979 World junior champion
You could say Zayak started skating by accident. On the advice of her doctors, she began figure skating to help with her balance after she lost three toes at the age of three in a lawn mower accident.
Her tragic early childhood quickly turned into a fairy tale. It was at the 1979 World Junior Championships in Augsburg, West Germany, where Zayak broke into the international scene.
“At 13 years old, it felt like if I wasn’t going to win, I was going to disappoint myself,” Zayak remembered. “I knew I had the program that had many triples in it. In those days, nobody was doing five triples. They were maybe doing one triple in their program. So I knew I could win if I did everything.”
Zayak had the jumps to win Junior Worlds, but the rest of her body wasn’t cooperating.
“The day before my long program,” she continued, “I had a major nose bleed in practice. They told me to stop, and other skaters were leaving the ice. Nobody knows about that, but they couldn’t get my nose to stop bleeding for a couple hours. They wanted me to go to the emergency room at the hospital, but we wanted to wait until the morning to see what happens. When I went home, I had my nose cauterized. There are certain tissues in there that you can burn. That was the story of the Junior World Championships though! I went out and won the next day.”
In her first senior season, Zayak placed fourth at Nationals and was an alternate to skate at the 1980 Winter Games in Lake Placid. U.S. Figure Skating did send her to Dortmund, West Germany for the 1980 Worlds, and she mentioned that is where her friendship began with Katarina Witt, as they were both 14 and the youngest in the field.
In 1981, the 15-year-old Zayak won the U.S. Championship in San Diego, Calif. That year, Hartford, Conn., hosted World Championships, and Zayak claimed the silver medal behind Denise Biellman of Switzerland. She would forever cement her name in skating history with the gold medal in the Danish capital of Copenhagen one year later.
“They made me a specific parade down the Main Street in Paramus, New Jersey,” Zayak recalled the aftermath of winning the World Championship. “It was kind of a little parade, but you know how many people really cared about you. This person from this little town in New Jersey won the Worlds, and I think that is what Alysa is going to see. Even people from this day come up to me and say ‘Are you the skater from New Jersey from the eighties? I remember you.’”
Sixth in Sarajevo
Following a bronze medal at Nationals in 1984, next for Zayak was the 1984 Olympics in Sarajevo. After taking part in the Opening Ceremony, Zayak felt frustrated waiting nearly two weeks for the beginning of the women’s figure skating competition, which Witt ultimately won.
“That wasn’t my favorite competition,” she remembered about Sarajevo, where she finished sixth. “It was the Olympics, and I had a great time, and I wanted to come out of that competition never regretting that I didn’t skate well. That was an accomplishment for me. In my mind, I kept saying, ‘If I mess up here, it’s going to be with me for the rest of my life.’ But I was sad that I didn’t win a medal. The politics in the compulsory figures played a part. I think the Americans were the best skaters, but if it went into the East (Germany) judges and West (Germany) judges, it went into that favor of that country.”
Zayak noted the month after Sarajevo, she went out and completed her collection of medals, first, second and third from both Worlds and Nationals. She secured the bronze behind Witt and Anna Kondrashova at her final Worlds in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. While the medals are proudly displayed at her home, some of her former costumes are exhibited at the National Polish American Sports Hall of Fame and the Sports Hall of Fame of New Jersey.
Zayak said she felt like she could have competed more after the 1984 Olympics, but she had contracts with Dick Button and Ice Capades that turned her into a professional.
Being from New Jersey, Zayak felt a special bond with Dick Button, who passed away in January at age 95.
“I think that’s why Dick Button and I were such good friends,” she added. “He was like a father figure to me. He put me on TV at 13 years old. He was from New Jersey, and he actually had a daughter a little younger than me, and he said I remind him of her, every time he saw me skate.”
Comeback attempt
A decade removed from her competition days came the announcement that professionals would be eligible to skate at the 1994 Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway.
“I wanted to do things no one else did,” she added. “I wanted to do it and do it right, and when they said everyone who is a professional wants to come back, they can.”
Zayak said she originally brought up her comeback as a joke. After her coaches doubted her, it gave her motivation to attempt it for real. There was also some help from the media. A writer from the New York Times wanted to do an article, while she was still unsure.
“I was like, I think I am going to have to do this for real,” she admitted. “Why Not?!”
At 28, she headed for Austria in the fall of 1993 and placed 13th in the Vienna Cup.
“It was scary being out there the year before the comeback,” she added. “So many people wanted me to do it and do it well, so it was more nerve racking. It opened up a lot of doors for older skaters who want to come back.”
Zayak placed a respectable fourth at the 1994 Nationals and was named an alternate for the 1994 Olympics team. Although she wouldn’t be going to Lillehammer, it was a fitting conclusion to a career filled with determination that remains inspirational to this day.
Zayak was inducted into the U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 2003 and the New Jersey Sports Hall of Fame in 2004. In 2013, she was elected into the National Polish-American Sports Hall of Fame.
Present day Elaine
These days, Zayak divides her time between her native New Jersey and Sarasota, Fla., where she spends three winter months near her 87-year-old mother, Jeri.
“I love being on the water,” said Zayak, who turned 60 in April. “It reminds me of being on the ice. I get up in the morning and do water aerobics, and then I swim. It’s like skating because once you get it, you keep going, so I have this addiction of being out there.
Zayak is also a proud mom. Her and her husband, John Berg, will celebrate their son, John (Jack)’s graduation from Tufts University this spring with a degree in computer science. Zayak will miss watching him play goalie on the lacrosse team there, but glows with pride that he will begin working for P/E Investments in Boston this July.
“He has my determination of wanting to be perfect,” she added. “I wanted to land every jump. If I missed one, it was never good enough. He always had that in him.”
Upon the conclusion of her competitive career, Zayak coached at the Ice House in Hackensack, New Jersey. Although she is not coaching regularly anymore, Zayak recently taught novice students at the Jump On It camp in Colorado Springs. She also has continued her involvement with the Lawn Mover Accident Survivors Association, working with disabled children who have lost limbs.
In addition, when she’s not on the golfing green with 1984 Olympic silver medalist Kitty Carruthers, Zayak is an entrepreneur. She is starting to produce a perfume for athletes to wear while they compete, plus some accessories.
“We are developing jewelry for athletes,” she noted. “It’s an Olympic spirit of gems and stones. We’re creating different gems and stones for different personalities of people to give them strength. I thought of something coming up for the Olympics for skaters to wear to help them empower themselves.”
