Amateur career Born in
Zurich, Biellmann won her first international championship in
Belgium at age 8; and, at age 11, she won the Swiss Junior Figure Skating Championships. At age 14, she competed at the
1977 European Championships and placed second in the Free Skate portion of the competition. At the age of 15, she was the second female skater to land the
triple Lutz jump in competition, after Jill Sawyer, which she performed for the first time at the
1978 European Championships. At the same event, she became the first woman to receive a 6.0 in Technical Merit, receiving the score from British judge Pauline Borrajo. At the
1980 Winter Olympics in
Lake Placid, Biellmann again performed poorly in
compulsory figures and was in twelfth place. She was second in the short program and won the free skate to finish fourth overall. She won the gold medal at the
1981 European Championships and another gold medal at
1981 Worlds. she popularized and perfected the spin, but did not invent it. It was present in skating at least since the
1965 European Championships when
Tamara Moskvina performed it. It remains the only figure skating spin to be officially named after a person in ISU regulations. According to figure skating historian James R. Hines, Biellmann's forte was the more athletic aspects of the free skating program, including "outstanding jumps and fast spins". ==Competitive highlights==