Zayak wins skating crown

March 18, 1982

Elaine Zayak stamped herself as figure skating's exciting Comeback Kid at last week's world championships in Copenhagen. Demoralized by a third-place finish at the US championships earlier this year, the New Jersey teen-ager won the world title in dramatic fashion, leaping from seventh to first on the basis of her free-skating routine. This stage of the competition had been her undoing at the nationals, where she fell three times attempting triple jumps. Fellow American Scott Hamilton won the men's crown, giving the US a singles sweep for the first time since David Jenkins and Carol Heiss won the titles in 1959.