Camel Spins in Colorado: The Monty Hoyt Story

Born September 13, 1944, in Baltimore, Maryland, Monty Hoyt was the son of newspaper writer Wallace Taber and Helen May Lininger, a wealthy socialite who entertained everyone from President Dwight Eisenhower to Ethel Merman and Bob Hope. 

Helen May Hoyt. Photo courtesy History Colorado.

After his parents' divorce, Monty was adopted by his stepfather, Edwin Palmer Hoyt, the wealthy editor and publisher of "The Denver Post" and "The Portland Oregonian". 'E.P.' served as domestic director of the Office of War Investigation during World War II, was close friends with Senator Charles L. McNary, personally knew several U.S. Presidents and had been a houseguest in the White House.

Palmer Hoyt. Photo courtesy University of Idaho Library Special Collections and Archives. 

Monty grew up in Denver, Colorado, with his three brothers in a wealthy, staunchly Republican home. He excelled at French and German at George Washington High School and managed to stay on the honour roll - despite having the longest absentee record in his class - while regularly making the hour drive between Denver and Colorado Springs to train as a figure skater under legendary coach Edi Scholdan. His brothers all skated too. Greg, the second oldest, was the 1964 Midwestern Champion in novice men's. In the summers, Monty performed with a stock theatre company and he was such a talented actor. His Thespian talents were recognized and he was soon offered the child lead role that Jerry Mathers ultimately played in Bob Hope's film "That Certain Feeling".

Monty Hoyt accepting a leather-bound brochure from General Motors PR representative Thomas Pond. Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine.

Monty's figure skating career didn't exactly start with a bang. In his first competition in Minneapolis, he took a nasty fall on a split jump, smashing his chin on the ice and skidding into the judges. His first success didn't come until 1959, when he claimed the U.S. novice men's title at the U.S. Championships in Rochester, New York. After finishing fifth in the junior men's event the following year in Seattle, he rebounded to take the U.S. junior men's title the following year at his home rink.

When Tim Brown, the bronze medallist at those Championships, declined a spot on the World team due to illness, Monty was offered a position. His mother worried he'd miss too much time from school due to the planned USFSA World tour of Europe after the World Championships in Prague, so the spot was given to Douglas Ramsay, the fourth-place finisher in the senior men's event, instead. Helen May Hoyt's decision ultimately prevented Monty from getting on Sabena Flight 548, which killed the entire U.S. figure skating team, including his coach. Curiously, his mother reportedly told the story that the cockpit of Sabena Flight 548 was breached by international terrorists and 'shot up'. 'E.P.' Hoyt, who was well-acquainted with several people in the CIA, never refuted Helen's story. Helen had a bit of a reputation in skating circles. Once, Dick Button later recalled, she marched into F. Ritter Shumway's hotel room and grabbed him by the shirt -pulling out a handful of chest hair - demanding that her son's performance be included on an early television broadcast. The veteran USFSA official exclaimed, "Get that woman out of my room!"

Photos courtesy "Skating" magazine (left) and University Of Denver, Special Collections and Archives (right)

After Edi Scholdan's death, six foot tall, one hundred and fifty pound Monty worked with famed coaches Sheldon Galbraith, Gustave Lussi and Carlo Fassi. At the age of seventeen, he was the unanimous winner of both the figures and free skating in the senior men's event at the 1962 U.S. Championships in Boston, drawing great admiration from the audience of three thousand and judges alike for his near-perfect free skate set to a medley of operatic overtures.

Top: David Edwards, Scott Ethan Allen, Monty Hoyt and Jim Short at the 1962 U.S. Championships. Bottom: Monty Hoyt.

After his winning performance at the 1962 U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Monty told Associated Press reporters, "This is the first time I've ever won in free skating. Usually, I get a lead in the figures and have to skate like blazes to stay ahead. This time I had a bigger lead and was more relaxed." Monty, who had earned the nickname 'Mr. Figures' for precisely that reason became the first man since Dick Button to win U.S. junior and senior titles in successive years.

At the World Championships that followed in Prague, Monty had a strong showing in figures but delivered only a mediocre free skate, highlighted by a fall where he slid right into the referee. The Czechoslovakian judge had him as low as fourteenth in the free skate, and he later joked that he was the only skater who had a conversation with a referee during his program. On the European tour that followed, he dazzled audiences with his solo performance to "Stars and Stripes Forever" and a duet with Dorothyann Nelson until a bout of influenza caused him to return home to America prematurely.

Monty Hoyt with members of the 1964 U.S. Olympic figure skating team

Unfortunately, things started to unravel for Monty the following season. He lost his U.S. title, finished off the podium at the North American Championships and after finishing a solid seventh in figures at the World Championships in Cortina d'Ampezzo, dropped to eleventh overall after a dismal free skate skated outdoors in bone-chilling temperatures on hard, brittle ice where he fell right in front of the judges and slid into the referee. What may have contributed most to Monty's disappointing result at the 1963 World Championships was the fact that he was a 'hothouse' skater through and through who had little experience dealing with such adverse weather and ice conditions. 

The following season - Monty's last - he chose to skate to the music "Battle Hymn of the Republic". It wasn't all glory, glory, Hallelujah though... He finished third at the U.S. Championships, tenth at the Winter Olympic Games in Innsbruck and eleventh at the World Championships in Dortmund. It's interesting to note that although he dropped a spot from Innsbruck to Dortmund, his brother recalled that his latter performance was the better of the two. 

Left: Christine Haigler and Monty Hoyt. Right: Monty Hoyt at the Broadmoor Skating Club.

Retiring from competitive figure skating at the ripe old age of nineteen, Monty gave up on plans to attend Harvard and study languages when he received a Boettcher Scholarship to attend the University of Denver.

Photo courtesy University of Denver, Special Collections and Archives

In his junior year, Monty joined the Phi Beta Kappa fraternity and was voted 'Junior Man Of The Year' for his work in editing the "Clarion" school newspaper. He later earned a Marshall scholarship to attend Oxford University in 1967, where he graduated with a B.A. from Corpus Christi College.

Photos courtesy University of Denver, Special Collections and Archives

Monty married Katharine Lee Hamilton of Downsview, Ontario, became a father of two. He worked as the Washington correspondent for the "Christian Science Monitor" and was a member of the Ford adminstration's Presidential Commission on Olympic Sports. In August 1972, he was featured on a half-hour series on WNAC called "Lamp Unto My Feet". The episode, entitled "Tuning In To Perfection", featured his skating career, work with the "Christian Science Monitor", the Sunday school class he taught, and him speaking about his Christian Science beliefs. Off the ice, he enjoyed playing golf and bridge, swimming and horseback riding.

Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine

Several years after his stepfather's death in June of 1979, Monty returned to the skating world as a judge. Tragically, just as he was in the process of working towards judging at an international level, he was diagnosed with cancer in January of 1997. 

Monty Hoyt passed away at the age of fifty-three on October 9, 1997, at his home in Phoenix, less than two months after the death of his mother, Helen Hoyt, who had also been battling cancer. Although mother and son were spared the tragedy of Sabena Flight 548 crash together, their lives ultimately came to a close within weeks of one another, thirty-six years later.

Skate Guard is a blog dedicated to preserving the rich, colourful and fascinating history of figure skating. Over ten years, the blog has featured over a thousand free articles covering all aspects of the sport's history, as well as four compelling in-depth features. To read the latest articles, follow the blog on Facebook, Bluesky, Pinterest and YouTube. If you enjoy Skate Guard, please show your support for this archive by ordering one of eight fascinating books highlighting the history of figure skating: https://skateguard1.blogspot.com/p/buy-book.html. 

Asian Heritage Month

Patrick Chan. Photo courtesy John MacDonald.

Asian Heritage Month is a time to celebrate the stories, achievements, and lasting impact of Asian communities across Canada - and in the world of figure skating, those contributions have helped shape the sport in remarkable ways. From pioneering competitors to World Champions and Olympic Medallists, Canadian skaters of Asian heritage have brought artistry, innovation, and resilience to the ice, inspiring new generations to follow in their edges.

To explore these achievements in more depth, I've created a dedicated timeline highlighting the milestones, breakthroughs, and standout moments of Canadian skaters of Asian heritage. You can view it here. It's a tribute to excellence, representation, and the evolving story of skating in Canada.

The Ban on Booing

Since the 19th Century, the International Skating Union has governed the sport of figure skating and established rules for its skaters. In the 1930s, the ISU took the unprecedented step of making rules for the audience, too.

In the summer of 1937, at the ISU Congress in St. Moritz, Switzerland, delegates voted to adopt a  proposal submitted by Herbert J. Clarke, the National Skating Association of Great Britain's delegate: "That the referee should suspend any International Championship or Competition if the behaviour of the public towards any judge or competitor is improper or unsatisfactory." The President of the ISU at the time that this rule was passed was Ulrich Salchow, the creator of many people's least favourite jump.

Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine

When this rule was introduced, it quickly earned the nickname "The Ban on Booing" - and it was quite controversial. Critics argued that if spectators were paying to attend a figure skating competition, they were perfectly entitled to voice their displeasure with the judges' marks. 

Photo courtesy "Skating World" magazine.

At the time, the Open Marking System was brand spanking new, and the ISU had concerns about judges "being intimidated by the public". 

Interestingly enough - after "The Ban on Booing" was instituted, audience behaviour got much worse, before it got better. There are many tales, from those first decades of the 6.0 System's existence, of audience members taking things one step further and throwing things at judges. Famously, at the 1956 Olympics in Cortina d'Ampezzo, the audience was so incensed by the marks awarded to Carol Heiss that they hurled "bottles, cigarette cartons...  tomatoes or what have you [onto] the ice, so that the judges had to take shelter. It held up the proceedings for about twenty minutes until order was restored and the ice cleared of rubbish," recalled Mildred Richardson, the wife of international judge and eminent British figure skating writer T.D. Richardson. In the pairs event at the same Olympics, the judges and referee were pelted with so many oranges that the ice had to be cleared three times.

Over the years, skating audiences have simmered, shifting their focus from flying produce to flying camels. For many, social media has provided a welcome outlet for people to complain.  

Interestingly enough, the rule once dubbed "The Ban on Booing" never really went away. Even today, referees at ISU Championships still have the "duty and power" to suspend a competition "until the order is restored in case the public interrupts the competition or interferes with its orderly conduct."

So while the tomatoes may be packed away and the boos a little more subdued, the tension between audiences and judges will always simmer beneath the surface - proof that in figure skating, the drama isn't just on the ice.

Skate Guard is a blog dedicated to preserving the rich, colourful and fascinating history of figure skating. Over ten years, the blog has featured over a thousand free articles covering all aspects of the sport's history, as well as four compelling in-depth features. To read the latest articles, follow the blog on Facebook, Bluesky, Pinterest and YouTube. If you enjoy Skate Guard, please show your support for this archive by ordering one of eight fascinating books highlighting the history of figure skating: https://skateguard1.blogspot.com/p/buy-book.html. 

The 1930 World Figure Skating Championships

ISU championship medals for men (left), women (center) and pairs (right) used at the 1930 World Championships

From February 3 to 5, 1930, the world's best figure skaters descended on The Big Apple for the 1930 World Figure Skating Championships. To really get a sense of how big a deal this competition was, it was the first World Championships ever held on North American soil, the first time official World Championship events in men's, women's and pairs skating were held at the same time in the same location and the first time that Sonja Henie ever skated in North America. Pretty historic stuff!

Top: Karl Schäfer, Sonja Henie, Ludwig Wrede, Melitta Brunner and Georges Gautschi. Bottom: Melitta Brunner, Karl Schäfer, Maribel Vinson and Sonja Henie.

How did it all come about? In the book "First twenty-five years of the United States Figure Skating Association, 1921-1946", Charles T. Church, then president of the USFSA wrote: "Countless letters and cables had passed between the Internationale Eislauf Vereinigung and the USFSA and Henry Howe, when he was in Europe, had many conversations with Mr. [Ulrich] Salchow, I.E.V. President, before the Europeans agreed to having the World Championship Competitions held in the United States under the auspices of the USFSA and The Skating Club of New York. Permission was finally granted in the fall of 1929, and from that time, things began to hum in preparation for the great event. About February 1, 1930, the following cable from Stockholm was received: 'Internationale Eislauf Vereinigung send congratulations. Convinced first World Championships skated America will result in growing cooperation and fellowship - Salchow.'"

One of the major players in ensuring that the rules set forth by the ISU were instituted properly was Joseph Savage. The same five judges from Austria, Canada, Great Britain, Norway and the United States presided over the marking of all three disciplines - another first - and competitions in school figures were arranged at The Ice Club on West 50th Street, with free skating competitions to be held in Madison Square Garden.

William Nagle, Ludwig Wrede, Roger Turner, Bud Wilson, Georges Gautschi, Karl Schäfer, Gail Borden II and James Lester Madden at the 1930 World Championships. Photo courtesy "Skating Through The Years".

The timing of the controversial European Championships in Strbske Pleso, Czechoslovakia, on January 19 and 20, 1930, meant that the vast majority of skaters who had opted to participate were simply unable to secure ocean passage to America in time to participate in the World Championships. In fact, the only skater in any discipline who had competed in the High Tatra mountains who made it to New York City was the men's runner-up, Karl Schäfer of Austria. A rushed voyage by train and boat brought him to America just in time to compete. Also on the missing list was the reigning World Champion Gillis Grafström of Sweden, who the "Engadine Express" slanderously surmised didn't attend due to his "fresh temperament". In reality, Grafström had already booked his passage to Europe but had suffered a concussion during a fall practicing "new acrobatic jumps to suit expected American taste, new spins, astonishing tracing" in Villars. The Henie family was met at the pier by a swarm of journalists and Mayor Jimmy Walker and from the first step Sonja took on North American soil, she was given the star treatment. Church recalled, "One highlight of the championships was engineered by 'Billy' Bird of The Skating Club Of New York, and that was when he arranged to have Sonja's taxi escorted to her hotel by New York City motorcycle policemen - the only skater I know of who has had this honor." The participation of Henie and other foreign skaters in the wildly successful "Land Of The Midnight Sun" ice carnival that preceded the competition generated much hype for the competition and played a major factor in filling the seats at Madison Square Garden for the free skating competitions. Varying accounts put anywhere from thirteen to seventeen thousand bodies in those seats... long before the days of television advertisements.

The day before the competition got underway, an international who's of figure skating gathered at the Kelwynne Road home of Skating Club of New York judge Joel B. Liberman for a formal luncheon served by Mr. and Mrs. A Cushing Ash of the Scarsdale Tavern. Joel's sister, Grace Munstock, assisted in receiving guests. Those in attendance included Sonja Henie and her parents, Melitta Brunner and Ludwig Wrede, Andrée and Pierre Brunet, Cecil Smith, Constance Wilson, Maribel Vinson and her parents, Georges Gautschi, Willy Böckl and USFSA Presidents past, present and future Henry Wainwright Howe, Charles T. Church and Joseph K. Savage. How did the competitions play out? Let's take a look back!

THE MEN'S COMPETITION

Karl Schäfer in 1930. Photos courtesy National Archives of Poland, "Skating" magazine.

After finishing second the two previous years to Willy Böckl and Grafström, twenty-year-old Karl Schäfer won in a spectacular fashion in New York City, making history as the youngest man yet to win a World title. He earned first-place ordinals from every judge in both the school figures and free skating.

Although he only had one second place ordinal in free skating, American Roger Turner earned the silver medal based on his strong second-place showing in the figures. His medal win was also of great historical significance as it was the first medal won by an American man in the history of the World Championships. With a strong free skating performance, Dr. Georges Gautschi of Switzerland claimed the bronze ahead of Canada's Montgomery Wilson and four other competitors. Benjamin T. Wright recalled a story concerning Richard L. Hapgood, who was a reporter for the "Boston Transcript" at the time: "He travelled from New York after the competition with the Austrian judge and asked him by he had given Schäfer 11 sixes (6.0) out of 12 (the other being a 5.9) in the compulsory figures, to which the judge, Mr. Julius Edhoffer, replied that he 'always gave a six to the best figure.'"

The only British entry in the entire event, Ian Home Bowhill, was forced to withdraw. A short footnote in "Skating" magazine noted, "Mr. Bowhill... actually arrived in New York harbor, yet could not land and skate! Other than the following, we know nothing. He is said at times to have been afflicted with heart trouble. During a storm, he became so violently ill, affecting his heart, that the ship's doctor refused to allow him to leave his room when he arrived, ordering his return to England at once. We wish to express our admiration of his sportsmanship in coming and our deepest regrets and sympathy in his great misfortune."

THE PAIRS COMPETITION

Andreé and Pierre Brunet with Charles T. Church. Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine.

In the pairs competition, newlyweds Andreé and Pierre Brunet of France captured their third World title. The silver went to Melitta Brunner and Ludwig of Austria and the bronze to Americans Beatrix Loughran and Sherwin Badger. The Brunets' win was impressive in that there was no French judge on the panel, and there was clearly some national bias going on. Three judges put the Brunets first, one tied them with Melitta Brunner and Ludwig Wrede of Austria, and the Canadian judge placed  Constance Wilson and Montgomery Wilson first... although no other judge even had them in the top three. That same Canadian judge also put Isobel and Melville Rogers third. No one had them in the top three either.

THE WOMEN'S COMPETITION

Constance Wilson-Samuel, Suzanne Davis, Melitta Brunner, Cecil Smith, Maribel Vinson and Sonja Henie. Photos courtesy "Skating" magazine (top) and "Skating Through The Years" (bottom).

The real talk of the Championships was, of course, the women's competition. The stories, as they always did when Henie was involved, started before the competition even began. In an interview for David Young's book "The Golden Age Of Canadian Skating", Cecil Smith recalled that during a practice, "First came Sonja, swathed in furs. Then came Mother, swathed in furs. Then Papa Henie, with a fur coat and [a] cigar. Then the brother, with long blond hair, carrying Sonja's skates, and behind him one of the international judges. Sonja walked over to my patch to see what my figures were like, but I said nothing - just smiled." It was at this event that Smith competed in white boots, a statement which Henie later 'borrowed' and popularized. Despite taking a tumble in the free skate, the Canadian star recovered without missing a beat. Constance Wilson was lucky to compete at all. A faulty skate sharpening had led to an accident in practice that nearly took her out of the event altogether. Despite missed training time, she too performed quite well all things considered.

Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine

With a little luck from the rabbit's foot she wore around her neck and a little wheeling and dealing, no doubt from Papa Henie, Sonja won her fourth consecutive World title. However, her win wasn't unanimous. In the figures,  British judge Herbert J. Clarke - who was also the ISU Vice-President at the time - had her third behind Smith and Vinson. American judge Joel B. Liberman had her second behind Smith. In the free skating, Canadian judge J.C. McDougall had Henie second behind Constance Wilson. All other judges had her first. Overall, Henie earned first place ordinals from every judge, Smith three seconds and two thirds for second and Vinson one second, two thirds and two fourths for third. Wilson, Melitta Brunner and American Suzanne Davis finished fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively.

In her book "Wings On My Feet", Henie recalled, "In the wings, preparing none too calmly to face all those thousands of eyes in the galleries, I remember checking carefully every detail I could think of - my boots, the sharpness of my blades, whether my gloves were fastened and the ornaments on my hair firmly in place... Norwegian-Americans fell upon us after the competitions, hordes of them. They came over to the Biltmore with us, and when they had crowded into our suite, it seemed we should have taken a floor instead. Several of them remembered father from his cycling days at the Bygdøy track and, to his vast pleasure, recognized him by sight despite the fact that back then he had been less than a shadow of his 1930 self."

Joel B. Liberman's report on the event in "Skating" magazine was unusually frank for the time. He wrote, "Sonja will always win over Maribel in spite of dark whisperings of disillusion about Sonja which circulate like evil spirits around a rink in practice and are blown away when the referee announces that the tournament has begun. That is - Sonja will always win unless Maribel will listen and learn. I have always felt that if our American star could give that measure of practice under efficient coaching which is accorded the foreign stars that she would be the greatest skater of them all. Her school figures are excellent (they were good enough to win a first from a foreign judge) and she skates them with daring. Her free skating has vitality and dash. She has personality plus on the ice. You may want to drag her off and lecture her on how to win, but you can't ignore her. Notwithstanding this great talent she will not reach the goal to which she is entitled unless she learns - repose. Strangely enough it has a place in skating and Sonja is a champion because she has it coupled with speed and accuracy. In her school figures Sonja is slow motion. She sticks to the trace like a veteran. Her forced turns are just good enough to get by, but at loop-change-loop she is a wizard. At the end of a long school program she will be found at the top or so near it that her remarkable ability as a free skating performer will always pull her through. She is still the same dashing free skater that she was at the Olympics and her program is practically unchanged except that she is even more complete mistress of the art of showmanship in skating than ever. Granted that Sonja has not a varied free skating program, and that she relies for her points on a wide variety of spins, a few perfect jumps, and a couple of eagle moves, yet she performs these so faultlessly and with such ease that on her performance any fair minded judge should give her practically the maximum. As to the lack of dances, spirals, original specialties... I would say that while Sonja retains her extreme youth and vivacity, she does what she does so well that we must condone what she omits. As a solo skater among women amateurs she stands alone."

Fritzi Burger. Photo courtesy National Archives of Poland.

Fritzi Burger didn't make the trip to New York, saying her father told her, "Why not be the first European Ladies Champion, rather than travel all that distance just to be second again to Sonja." The American press coyly alluded to a relationship between Schäfer and Henie, who were seen holding hands, to make good copy and a skater's party was thrown for the competitors by Mr. and Mrs. Church. The hugely successful competition really did generate a huge boom of interest in the sport in America and proved to the Eurocentric ISU that North Americans were fully equipped to host major international competitions. Quoted in the December 31, 1936 issue of the "New York Post", Joseph K. Savage recalled, "Those championships convinced the skeptical Garden authorities that figure skating was a paying proposition and won a large following for the sport." Perhaps Sherwin Badger summed up the event best when he said, "Judging by the enthusiasm of the audiences, the press, and the management of Madison Square Garden, it looked as if, at long last, figure skating had left its struggling beginnings behind and was about to become a firmly established sport."

Following the competition, Cecil Smith headlined the Minto Follies in Ottawa. Schäfer, Henie, the Brunets and a cast of European stars joined their American counterparts in a whirlwind series of exhibitions in New York, Boston, New Haven and Philadelphia before returning on steamers to Europe to compete in the (second) 1930 European Championships in Berlin. 

Annulled results from the 1930 European Championships (take one) in Štrbské Pleso

The results of the men's event in Štrbské Pleso had been declared null and void by the ISU because Yugoslavian ISU judge Ivo Kavsek had been swapped out for a non-certified judge named Victor Vadisek. Judging under Kavsek's name, Vadisek led a bloc of judges from Czechoslovakia, France and Yugoslavia to place Josef Slíva ahead of Karl Schäfer. Schäfer had the last laugh in Berlin, easily winning his second European title and putting to bed a controversy that had made front page news in both Czechoslovakia and Austria.

Skate Guard is a blog dedicated to preserving the rich, colourful and fascinating history of figure skating. Over ten years, the blog has featured over a thousand free articles covering all aspects of the sport's history, as well as four compelling in-depth features. To read the latest articles, follow the blog on Facebook, Bluesky, Pinterest and YouTube. If you enjoy Skate Guard, please show your support for this archive by ordering one of eight fascinating books highlighting the history of figure skating: https://skateguard1.blogspot.com/p/buy-book.html. 

Echoes of Gold: The Eva Romanová and Pavel Roman Story

As the world's best take to the ice in Prague at the 2026 World Figure Skating Championships, we look back at another defining moment in the city's skating history. In 1962, siblings Eva Romanová and Pavel Roman made history on this very stage, becoming the first Czech ice dance team to capture a World title - delighting a home crowd and etching their names into skating history.

Pavel Roman was born on January 25, 1943, in the Moravian city of Olomouc. His younger sister Eva Romanová was born on January 27, 1946. Their parents, Frantisek and Jarmila, worked as a sales representative and a costume designer.

As children, Pavel and Eva enjoyed biking, playing tennis, and swimming during the summer. In winter, they skated at the Olomouc rink with their half-brother Zdenek. In a 2019 interview with the "Blackpool Gazette", Eva recalled, "My brother wanted to play ice hockey but my father said you have to learn to figure skate first. There weren't many boys doing that, so they wanted to pair him up with other girls. But my father said, 'no, he has a sister,' so we ended up skating together."

When it quickly became clear that both Eva and Pavel had a natural talent for skating, their father became a regular presence at the rink and took a strong interest in their development. Although Frantisek had no background in skating, he studied skating literature, observed other coaches, and eventually took on the role of coach, training Eva and Pavel three days a week. Because the rink was primarily used for hockey, many of their practices took place early in the morning before school.

In 1952, Frantisek was transferred to Prague for work. He continued coaching his children for a few more years, but it soon became clear they needed more advanced instruction than he could provide. He approached coach Mila Novaková, who agreed to train Eva and Pavel at Stadion Praha.

The siblings initially competed as a pairs team, winning medals at the Czechoslovakian Championships in 1957 and 1958. During the 1959/1960 season, they competed in both pairs and ice dance. At that year’s national championships, they placed second in pairs and won the first Czechoslovakian ice dance title. At just thirteen, Eva became the youngest woman ever to win a national title in her country.

At the European Championships in Davos, Switzerland, they finished twelfth in pairs but seventh in ice dance. That result helped the talented young brother and sister decide where to focus their efforts. By the following season, they had committed entirely to ice dancing.

Right photo courtesy Národní muzeum

In 1960, Eva and Pavel again placed seventh at the European Championships, but the following year they moved up to fifth. The cancellation of the 1961 World Championships - scheduled to be held in their home city, due to the Sabena Crash that killed the entire U.S. figure skating team, delayed their World debut.

Alongside their skating careers, both pursued post-secondary education. Eva earned a degree in Decorative Arts from an art-industrial school while working as a window dresser at a department store. Pavel attended the industrial school Střední průmyslová škola na Proseku, where he studied machining and engineering. In their spare time, Eva enjoyed drawing, while Pavel took an interest in building sports cars. He would often ride Jawa motorcycles to "break them in" for new buyers.

Photo courtesy Národní muzeum

In 1962, Eva and Pavel showed remarkable improvement, finishing third at the European Championships in Geneva, Switzerland, behind France's Christiane and Jean Paul Guhel and Britain’s Linda Shearman and Michael Phillips. In the May 1962 issue of "Skating World", British skating historian Dennis L. Bird wrote that in Geneva they had the best free dance, but that their performance "looked like pair skating without the jumps."

"To me, they were amazing," recalled the late World Ice Dancing Champion Bernard Ford, in Steve Milton's book "Figure Skating's Greatest Stars". "It wasn't dance-y, like things had been. They skated to the music, but they attacked it. They had a lot of speed." Believe it or not - at the time, some actually criticized their speed, but their athletic style, which contrasted sharply with the British ice dancing style of the time, proved immensely popular when the World Championships finally took place in Prague from March 14 to 17, 1962, drawing enthusiastic crowds to the Sportovní hala.

Photo courtesy Národní muzeum

Eva and Pavel achieved the unthinkable, winning the title in their debut at the World Championships, in front of a home crowd. Writing in "Skating" in May 1962, Jane Vaughn Sullivan wrote, "Dressed in matching costumes of glowing coral which set off their blonde hair, they skated with fire and spirit to win the Dance title." That year, they became the first non-British team to win since 1952, when ice dancing was first officially included in the ISU World Championships record books.

As Lynn Copley-Graves observed in "Figure Skating History: The Evolution Of Dance on Ice", "the British were shut out of the medals altogether, shut out of what seemed like their birthright, for the only time in the first 12 years of World Dance." Following their victory, Eva and Pavel performed in exhibitions in Moscow and Kiev alongside Karol Divín and members of the U.S. team.

During the off-season, Eva and Pavel traveled overseas to train in Colorado Springs, where they also performed in the Broadmoor Ice Revue for two weeks. At the 1963 European Championships in Budapest, they won the free dance with first-place ordinals from eight of the nine judges. However, losses in the Foxtrot, Westminster Waltz, Kilian, and Argentine Tango to Britain’s Linda Shearman and Michael Phillips - who had finished fourth at the previous year’s World Championships - left them second overall in a result so close that it took more than an hour to tabulate the marks.

Video courtesy Frazer Ormondroyd

At the 1963 World Championships in Italy, the rivalry between the two teams was again intense. The Britons won the compulsory dances, while Eva and Pavel took the free dance. According to the "Reading Eagle" on March 3, 1963, "officials announced the Czech brother and sister team had won the ice dance title, but did not release point scores immediately. The Britons were so close that unofficial point totals gave them more points than the Czech defending champions, 322.7 to 321.6."

Ultimately, the defense of Eva and Pavel’s World title came down to the votes of the nine judges - and this time, it was enough.

Photo courtesy Národní muzeum

The following season, Eva and Pavel made the unusual decision to keep the same free dance they had used the year before. At the 1964 European Championships, history seemed ready to repeat itself when another British team, Janet Sawbridge and David Hickinbottom, led after the first two compulsory dances, the Foxtrot and European Waltz. In her book, Lynn Copley-Graves noted, "Romanová/Roman, in search of the elusive European title, caught up in the Kilian and held a narrow lead after the Tango. Their dazzling free dance had a sequence where Eva did a series of lightning spread eagles between turns on her toe picks. Aside from Lawrence Demmy's 5.4 and 5.5, their lowest marks were 5.7 for their first European title."

With the newly crowned European title under their belt, Eva and Pavel headed to Dortmund for the World Championships, where they faced an easier path to victory. Building a substantial lead in the compulsory dances, they earned first-place votes from six of the seven judges, scoring 249.2 points with eight ordinals, and comfortably defeated Canadians Paulette Doan and Kenneth Ormsby to win their third World title.

During the summer of 1965, Eva and Pavel trained at home in Czechoslovakia at the country’s first summer skating school. When they arrived at the Palace of Sports at Moscow’s Lenin Central Stadium for the 1965 European Championships, they made mistakes in the compulsory dances but nonetheless maintained their lead. They also debuted a new free dance, which was highly praised for its unison and speed, allowing them to hold off three British couples.

At nineteen and twenty-two, as three-time defending World Champions, Eva and Pavel headed to their fourth and final World Championships at the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs. As Lynn Copley-Graves noted, "no couple could hope to oust Pavel and Roman in the free dance... With amazing cohesion in their free leg movements, Eva and Pavel amassed a fourth consecutive World title. They did not skate in the exaggerated straight-back position of the British, with the result that came across as more fluid. Their innovative free dance energized the audience."

As swiftly as they had risen on the World stage, Eva and Pavel retired at the peak of their careers, leaving the World Championships undefeated.

Eva and Pavel received numerous offers to skate in shows and even signed with the Ice Capades, but Czechoslovakian officials voided the contract. In May 1965, they competed in the World Professional Championships in England, winning the Starlight Waltz, Blues, Quickstep, and their free dance to take the title over four British teams. They later joined the Holiday on Ice tour in Cologne, Germany.

Photo courtesy Joseph Butchko Collection, an acquisition of the Skate Guard Archive

To receive permission to tour with the show, they had to give the Czechoslovakian government ten percent of their earnings and agree to renew their visas each year.

Photo courtesy Toronto Public Library, from Toronto Star Photographic Archive. Reproduced for educational purposes under license permission.

While on tour, both Eva and Pavel found love. Eva married British ice comedian Jackie Graham, who bred Arabian horses in Devon, England. Pavel met his wife Sonia Grand, a singer and Holiday on Ice skater who was the goddaughter of skating historian Nigel Brown, in Switzerland. They celebrated with two wedding ceremonies - one in Switzerland and another at Karlštejn Castle, southwest of Prague.

Eva and Pavel toured with Holiday on Ice until 1971, when Pavel and Sonia took jobs in Tennessee at the Kingdom of Camelot inn. Pavel served as recreation director and planned engineering projects, while Sonia entertained guests with her singing. Meanwhile, Eva continued to tour with Holiday on Ice alone in Johannesburg, South Africa, before moving to England.

Pavel's half-brother Zdeněk published a book about Eva and Pavel's skating career. The book claimed that their father had been "a strict disciplinarian to the point of abuse." In an interview at the 1962 World Championships, Eva disputed these claims. "He was much older than me and he wrote about all the funny things. I had a different view. Father taught me to the best I could be and that comes in handy in life. Our parents made sure we didn't tell tales. If we did, my father would punish us both. At school they would say, 'How can you skate with your brother?' Most brothers and sisters beat each other up, but we were best buddies. We skated for fun, not ambition."

Off the ice, Pavel enjoyed carpentry and furniture making and, according to Bernard Ford, was "a man's man. He did all sports. He cross-country motorbiked, he raced cars. He was an all-around jock, which was certainly well outside the ice dance image." He was also an amateur mechanic with a need for speed. In a 2014 interview with Lidovky, Eva recalled, "Unfortunately, Pavel drove too fast. My mother had always said, 'Pavel, you make me me one million dollars.' And he had replied, 'No, if anything, I would kill myself.'"

Pavel’s words proved tragically prophetic just days after his twenty-ninth birthday, while he was driving guests to the Kingdom of Camelot. The February 3, 1972 edition of the "Rogersville Review" reported, "A one-car accident early Thursday morning on State Route 94, near the Kingdom of Camelot, snuffed out the life of former world figure skating champion, Pavel (Paul) [Roman], 29. [Roman], who had been serving as recreation director at the Kingdom of Camelot since last summer, was pronounced dead on arrival at Hawkins County Memorial Hospital. State Highway Trooper Russell Tipton, who investigated the accident, said [Roman] lost control of his car on a curve, left the road and went down an embankment, hitting several trees. The accident happened [within] the shadow of the Camelot Inn, near the athletic field. [Roman] was returning to the Inn when the accident happened."

Roman’s funeral was held at St. Henry's Catholic Church. Although he was originally to be buried at Highland Cemetery, he was ultimately interred in Olšanské hřbitovy Cemetery in Prague.

Life continued for Eva, but it was never easy. In a 2006 interview, she said, "Not a day [went by] that I did not remember him. For me, [he did] not age, he is still twenty-nine." She skated for a time with her husband, performing a comedy act with chimpanzees. She also tried teaching ice dancing in England, but when it proved unprofitable, she ran a retirement home for a decade before moving to the United States.

After teaching skating in Dallas for four years, she retired to a farm in Texas, caring for ducks and geese. In the 1990s, Eva and her husband sold the farm, bought a caravan, and traveled across America for five years before returning to Europe, spending time in England and Spain before settling at a farm in Lipnice, near Rokycany, in the Czech Republic in 2001. Now a widow, Eva lives in Lytham St. Annes, a seaside town near Blackpool, England.

Eva and Pavel Roman's story is one of extraordinary talent, dedication, and trailblazing achievement. As the first Czech team to win a World title in ice dancing, they achieved success internationally at a time when the sport was dominated almost entirely by British teams. From their early days skating together in Olomouc to becoming four-time World Champions, they brought speed and athleticism to ice dancing. While Pavel's life was tragically cut short, Eva continued to embrace life with determination, pursuing teaching, performing, and later farming and travel, all while keeping the memory of her brother and skating partner alive. Their legacy stands as a testament to their talent and the lasting impact they made on the world of ice dance.

Skate Guard is a blog dedicated to preserving the rich, colourful and fascinating history of figure skating. Over ten years, the blog has featured over a thousand free articles covering all aspects of the sport's history, as well as four compelling in-depth features. To read the latest articles, follow the blog on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube. If you enjoy Skate Guard, please show your support for this archive by ordering a copy of figure skating reference books "The Almanac of Canadian Figure Skating", "Technical Merit: A History of Figure Skating Jumps" and "A Bibliography of Figure Skating": https://skateguard1.blogspot.com/p/buy-book.html.