Schuba's interest in figure skating began as a young child in 1955 when she happened to see an American competition on the television bought by her parents to watch performances of the
Vienna State Opera and the
Burgtheater. She was coached by
Helmut Seibt from 1955 to 1962, and then by Leopold Linhart. Her first major success was winning the ladies' singles portion of the
Austrian Championships at the age of sixteen in 1967; she would go on to defend her title five straight times. Schuba steadily improved throughout the end of the 1960s and the early 1970s, placing in the top five several times and eventually taking first twice each at the European Championships and the World Championships in 1971 and 1972. Schuba's greatest success came in 1972 at the Winter Olympics at
Sapporo when she won the gold medal. She is the first Austrian lady since
Herma Szabo in 1924 to win gold and is the most recent. Schuba, the dominant compulsory figures skater, placed first in the figures and
Janet Lynn of the
United States, the top
free skater, placed first after the free skate. As the scoring system used at the time placed more weight on figures, Schuba won the gold medal and Lynn won the bronze behind silver medalist
Karen Magnussen of
Canada. The
International Skating Union, the governing body of the sport, would over the ensuing years decrease the weight given to the figures portion before finally eliminating it in 1990. Scuba, considered one of the best compulsory figure skaters ever, was also considered weak in free skating. After winning gold at Sapporo, Schuba did the same the next month at the World Championships, successfully defending against silver medalist Magnussen and bronze medalist Lynn. At the end of the year, sportswriters named her
Athlete of the Year for 1972. == Later career ==