Background
His father, a figure skater himself, brought him onto the ice when he was six years old.
His father, a figure skater himself, brought him onto the ice when he was six years old.
He skated for the club Herner EV and represented West Germany. His coach was Günter Zöller. In the early 80s he was part of West Germany"s men"s figure skating team, which also consisted of Norbert Schramm and Heiko Fischer.
Cerne was most known for his elegant style, which emulated that of John Curry, and his strong edging.
Then, in 1981, a younger teammate, Norbert Schramm, emerged and went on to dominate not only the German Nationals but also various international competitions. In 1984, however, 26-year-old Cerne entered the scene with a new attitude and consistent triple jumps due to intensive training.
Most notably, Cerne had mastered the triple Lutz jump, which he needed in order to be technically competitive with Schramm as well as other top skaters. Then, he came in 4th at the Olympics, although he had several errors in his free skate.
After the 1984 World Championships, Cerne turned professional and skated with "Holiday on Ice".
He also became a figure skating coach. After his figure skating career he became a television journalist, working initially for the German public television station Atmospheric Reentry Demonstrator, presenting sport shows from 1992 onwards. Since 1996 Rudi Cerne has worked for ZDF, Germany"s other public broadcaster.
He still presents sport shows but also presents Aktenzeichen XY … ungelöst, a show about unresolved crimes.
1976–1984
1969–1976.
His career started out strong, when he won the German Figure Skating Championships in 1978 and 1980. Schramm won two consecutive world silver medals in 1982 and 1983 while Cerne could barely place in the top dozen, which prompted many to conclude that Cerne"s career as the top West German male skater was over. Due to these improvements, he still just qualified the German Nationals bronze medallist to qualify for the Europeans, but continued to win the silver medal at the European Championships behind Alexandr Fadeev of the Soviet Union.
