Jaffee, Irving W.
Speed Skating
b. Sept. 15, 1906, New York, NY
d. March 20, 1981
Jaffee never won a national championship, but he won three gold medals at the Winter Olympics, though his first victory was considered unofficial. In 1928, Jaffee beat Bernt Evensen of Norway in the first heat of the 10,000-meter event. After six more heats, with three remaining, the temperature at St. Moritz, Switzerland, suddenly went up, melting the ice.
Officials planned to cancel the results and re-run all the heats after the temperature dropped again. But the Norwegian skaters, the only threats to Jaffee, decided they couldn't beat him since he'd already defeated their champion, and they left. Jaffee had also won a silver medal in the 5,000 meters. In 1932, he won both the 5,000-meter and 10,000-meter events.
The winter sports director at Grossinger's Resort in the Catskills, Jaffee set a marathon record there on January 27, 1934, by skating 25 miles in 1 hour, 26 minutes, and 0.1 seconds, breaking the old record of 1:31:00. He had never before skated more than 10,000 meters.