David Jenkins (USA) - 8th Winter Olympic Games Squaw Valley 1960 - ISU Archives

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David Jenkins competed with his brother and after the retirement of Hayes Alan from skating he continued the success of the Jenkins' family of skaters. His first great success was his win at the 1953 U.S. junior championships. in 1954 the family moved from Cleveland to Colorado Springs where they were able to practice all year round under the leadership of Edi Scholdan.
David spend the first years of his career in the shadow of his brother Hayes, Ronald Robertson and James Grogan. David first competed in the 1954 World Championships in Oslo, where he finished in 4th place after Alain Giletti.

He won the bronze medal in 1955 in Vienna. It was at these championships that the audience witnessed the triumph of American Figure Skating. The gold medal was won by Hayes Alan Jenkins, and silver by Ronald Robertson who performed the best Free Skating program. A year later in 1956 at Garmisch-Partenkirchen the situation was exactly the same: the gold medal was won by Hayes Alan Jenkins, the silver again by Ronald Robertson with the best free skating program. The bronze was won by David Jenkins.

David won the 1957 World Championships in Colorado Springs with absolute mastery. He was unanimously chosen by all the judges in Compulsory and Free Skating programs respectively. He repeated his success in 1958 in Paris, and in 1959 in Colorado Springs. He was also successful in Olympic competitions: David won the bronze medal at the 1956 Olympic Winter Games in Cortina d'Ampezzo. He received his most important victory in 1960 at Squaw Valley: The Olympic gold medal. The Czechoslovak competitor, Karol Divin won the silver medal after winning the Compulsory Skating. The excellent Free Skating of David Jenkins was appreciated by every judge and discerned him the Olympic gold.

He gave up his skating career after the winter Olympiad in Squaw Valley to study medicine. He is known in the history of Figure Skating as an excellent jumper who was really ahead of his time. He performed 2 triple jumps in his Free Skating: the triple Rittburger and the triple Salchow. His speciality was the double Axel and the sit spin. In a long history of Figure Skating, there has not being a family success as that achieved by the Jenkins brothers. Their results are impressive indeed.