Leaving the Sport On Top!
Javier Fernández López was born on 15 April 1991 in Madrid. He is the younger of two children born to Enriqueta, a mail carrier, and Antonio, an army mechanic. Fernández started skating at the age of six, after his older sister began taking lessons. For a while, he also played soccer, tennis, and ice hockey, but dropped the other sports to focus on skating at age eight. Their father stated,
"Between the two children we were spending €450 a month when my earnings were less than €1,500".
Figure skating was not a popular sport in Spain, but Javier showed promise, and continued to move up in the ranks while representing Spain at low-level competitions. When Javier went to the United States to train, Antonio took a second job repairing helicopters to cover the expenses. His older sister, Laura, competed in ladies' singles and ice dancing.
Due to his natural good looks, Javier developed a large fan base among female figure skating fans, and his successes on the rink continued to draw attention in figure skating circles.
When he reached the senior levels of competition, he became a star. He became the first Spanish figure skater to win medals on the Grand Prix Tour, the European Championships, the World Championships, and the Olympics. He won the gold medal at the National Championships of Spain 8 times. At the Grand Prix Final, he won 1 bronze medal, and two silver medals. At the World Championships, he won 2 bronze medals and 2 gold medals. At the 2018 Winter Olympics, he won a bronze medal.
His crowning achievement was winning 6 consecutive gold medals at the European Championships.
This year Javier announced his retirement, but said he would compete at the 2019 European Championships, which would be his last event. He faced stiff competition from two Russians, a French skater, and an Italian. After the short program he was in 3rd place. His long program was not error free, but it was near perfect and very artistic, and he was moved into 1st place, to win his 7th consecutive European Championship.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8tXAv0ph14
