Fratianne winds up her amateur career in figure skating

Figure skater Linda Fratianne put two big disappointments behind her this week in announcing the end of her amateur career. After 11 years of competitive skating, she signed with a theatrical agency that will help chart her future in ice shows, commercials, and possibly movies.

Fratianne had entered the Lake Placid Olympics as the defending world champion and a strong contender for the women's gold medal. She finished behind East Germany's Annet Poetzsch, though, a setback that prevented her from follwing in the footsteps of previous US Olympic champions such as Carol Heiss, Peggy Fleming, and Dorothy Hamill.

From Lake Placid she traveled to last week's world championships in Dortmund, West Germany. This time Fratianne came in third even while turning in another outstanding free-skating routine. Finishing ahead of her were Poetzsch and Dagmar Lurz, the technically brilliant but less crowd-pleasing West German skater who had taken the Olympic bronze.