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Brian Anthony Boitano (born October 22, 1963) is
an United States|American figure skating|figure
skater from Sunnyvale, California.  Once a
champion in the amateur ranks, he became a
professional skater following the 1988 season.

Boitano is probably best remembered for winning
the much celebrated Battle of the Brians over
Canada|Canadian Brian Orser at the 1988 Winter
Olympics in Calgary, Alberta|Calgary.  Heading
into the final free skating portion of the
competition (worth 50% of the overall total),
Boitano had a slight lead over Orser, but the lead
was so minuscule that the winner of the free skate
was guaranteed to win the gold medal.  Boitano
went on to skate the performance of his life and
win the gold, landing 8 triple jumps including two
triple axels and a triple flip-triple toe loop
combination.  The performance is considered to be
among the very best in the history of the sport,
which is particularly impressive given the
pressure of the Olympic Games as well as intense
media scrutiny surrounding the Battle of the
Brians.  To this day, the Sports Illustrated cover
featuring Brian Boitano landing his second triple
axel of the program marks the only time a male
figure skater has appeared on the cover of the
magazine.

Following his victory in Calgary as well as
another gold medal at the World Championships in
Budapest, Boitano turned professional.  He went
onto dominate competitions in the professional
ranks, winning 10 straight professional
competitions, including 5 consecutive World
Professional Championship titles and 4 consecutive
wins at the Challenge of Champions.  During this
five-year stretch, Boitano did not make a single
technical error in his programs.  In June 1993,
the International Skating Union (ISU) introduced a
clause, known as the "Boitano rule", which allowed
professionals to reinstate as 'amateur' or
'eligible' skaters.  This had been the result of
Boitano's active involvement during the early
90's, which saw professionals being allowed in the
Olympic Games in the sports of tennis and
basketball.  Boitano reinstated to have a crack at
the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway. 
Going into the Olympics as a gold medal favorite
among a star-studded field, Boitano
uncharacteristically missed his triple axel
combination during the short program—for the
first time ever, according to Scott
Hamilton—and this proved extremely costly,
knocking Boitano completely out of medal
contention.  He fought back to finish 6th.

Boitano's signature jump, the Tano triple lutz or
simply the Tano, is considered to be the most
difficult jump in figure skating. Although triple
axels and "quads" (quadruples) are on their face
more difficult, the Tano requires the jumper to
raise one arm above his head while performing the
jump. The fact that one arm is raised dramatically
reduces the jumper's angular momentum, making a
Tano triple far more difficult than a normal
triple.

== Career ==
* 1986 Gold Medal, World Championships in Geneva,
Switzerland
* 1988 Gold Medal, World Championships in
Budapest, Hungary
* 1988 Gold Medal, Winter Olympic Games|Winter
Olympics in Calgary, Alberta, Canada
* 1988-1992, 1994, 1st place, World Professional
Championships in Landover, MD, a total of 6 times

== References ==
A caricature of Brian Boitano as a superhero
appears as a recurring character in the irreverent
cartoon series South Park.  The movie South Park:
Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999 in film|1999),
features a musical number titled What Would Brian
Boitano Do? to which Mr Boitano is reported to
have skated to. Mr. Boitano also appears in a 1995
Christmas cartoon that was a prototype of South
Park, entitled The Spirit of Christmas.