On February 18 , 1956 1956: Carol Heiss, just turned 16, puts on the sweetest performance of her career. With her ponytail whirling like a propeller in the falling snow, she becomes the world figure-skating champion by finally defeating her arch-rival, Tenley Albright, who has beaten her in their first eight meetings, including the Olympics two weeks earlier. The 5-foot-2, 103-pound Heiss takes the crowd and the judges by storm in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, with her flawless four-minute performance. Wearing an emerald green dress and skating to Adolphe Adam’s “If I Were King,” she unreels a dazzling series of two double Axels, a double flip, double loops, a flying sit spin and other difficult figures. “Carol was great, better than ever,” Albright says. “I have absolutely no complaints. The judging was okay.” Heiss becomes the second youngest woman to win the world title. Sonja Henie won it when she was 15.
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