Racism At The Rink

"Puck" magazine political cartoon depicting a person of colour on a skating chair at the Union Skating Pond

One year after civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous "I Have A Dream" speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the March On Washington, a riot broke out at a Medford, Massachusetts skating rink when a young black man asked to cut in on a young couple ice dancing together. According to the July 30, 1964 issue of "The Age", "before the brief fracas ended, at least 10 people suffered minor injuries, and the stone-throwing, club-wielding crowd damaged a bus and turned over a police car... Fifty club-swinging police from five nearby communities broke up the disturbance. Several police were pushed and punched by rioters. Others said they were hit by rocks... To prevent further fighting, the police escorted groups of youths out of Sullivan Square and made sure the crowds dispersed quickly. Police from Malden, Somerville, Boston and Cambridge and the metropolitan district commission assisted in breaking up the riot."

Flashback to almost twenty years earlier, north of the border. In 1945, a fifteen year old Toronto student named Harry Gairey Jr. made his first trip to the Icelandia indoor arena on Yonge Street with his friend Donny Jubas. Jubas was Caucasian; Gairey a person of colour. Gairey started skating at the age of eight and regularly frequented the Varsity Arena and Ryerson Park rink but when he and Jubas arrived to skate at this new rink on Yonge Street one day that winter, everything changed. "I go up to buy tickets and the guy says to me, 'We can't sell your friend a ticket,' I turn around and look behind me, then I turn back and say, 'Are you talking to me?' And he says, 'Yeah, I'm talking to you. We don't sell tickets to Negroes. We don't let them in here. So do you want only one ticket?' And I turn and say, 'Let's get out of here,'" Jubas recalled in a February 16, 2009 article in the "Toronto Star".

Like a broken record of Mabel Fairbanks' experiences in New York City, rink racism was still very much alive and well in many North American cities during that era... and like Fairbanks, Gairey didn't turn the other cheek. His father, a Pullman porter, had studied race relations and arranged a meeting with Alderman Norman Creed which alerted Mayor Robert Hood Saunders to the situation. Twenty five University Of Toronto students picketed the Icelandia rink with signs saying  "Color Prejudice Must Go" and "Racial Discrimination Should Not Be Tolerated". Two years later, as a direct result of the rink's refusal to admit Gairey, Toronto's city council passed an ordinance against discrimination based on race, colour, creed or religion. Gairey's father became a prominent activist for civil rights and the rink where Gairey, Jr. and Jubas skated as children was renamed the Harry Ralph Gairey Ice Rink. At the naming ceremony, Gairey and Jubas rekindled their childhood friendship.

In terms of breaking down colour barriers, skating has come a long, long way since the earlier decades of the twentieth century. There have been Olympic and World medallists of colour like Debi Thomas, Robin Szolkowy and Surya Bonaly. Just this past week, Vanessa James became the first woman of colour to win a medal at the European Championships in pairs skating.

Over the course of the next couple of weeks in conjunction with Black History Month, we'll be exploring the historical impact of persons of colour in the skating world on Skate Guard and I sincerely hope that these stories - some heartwarming, some heartbreaking - serve as a reminder of how far the skating world has come but how far it still has to go.

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 the 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.

Back In The USSR, Part Three: Ice Dancing's Humble Beginnings In The Soviet Union

"Perhaps the USSR will soon occupy all three rungs of the stand of honor." - Tamara (Bratus) Moskvina, "Skating" magazine, April 1970

Marina Klimova and Sergei Ponomarenko, Natalia Bestemianova and Andrei Bukin, Maya Usova and Alexander Zhulin... It would really be quite easy to assume from thinking back on these legendary names that ice dancers from The Soviet Union were always dominant. However, like everything else in figure skating history, everything begins somewhere.

In 1958, Svetlana Smirnova and Leonid Gordon made history at the European Championships in Bratislava as the first Soviet ice dance team to compete in a major ISU international competition. They finished dead last. Prior to taking up ice dancing, Smirnova had been a pairs skater with partner Yuri Nevsky. Nevsky had previously skated pairs with Ludmila Belousova before she teamed up with Oleg Protopopov and when he retired from competitive skating in 1957, he took on a major role in popularizing ice dance in the Soviet Union.

In the September 1962 issue of "Skating World" magazine, Nevsky wrote, "Ice dancing had been practiced in the Soviet Union at public rinks long before the USSR Federation became affiliated with the ISU. But it was merely a pastime for those who attended the rinks after their daily work and found pleasure in skating to music. The number of ice dances in those early days did not exceed a dozen, and the patterns were rather primitive, being based on simple edges. These were mainly polka, tango and foxtrot movements, waltzes (to both slow and fast tempo) and some dances converted to the ice from the ballroom, of the Pas de Grace and Pas d'Espagne type." Aside from recreational performance, the most audience that these dances really received was at carnivals.

Lynn Copley-Graves' wonderful 1992 book "Figure Skating History: The Evolution Of Dance On Ice" noted that "while reading the USFSA magazine 'Skating' in 1955, Yuri happened upon some ISU dances. He showed them to others and sparked interest in competitions using ISU regulations. Within a year, skaters at the public rinks embraced the new dances, calling them 'sporting dances'. Poor technical ability hampered progress because knowledge of edges, cross rolls, mohawks, etc. was scanty. As the Soviet skaters fumbled through the European Waltz, Foxtrot and Fourteenstep patterns, interest waned. The highly qualified skaters - those who could handle the intricacies of these dances - snubbed them, unconsciously associating them with the old dances. To them, the dances were 'a new toy for beginners or for those who attended the rinks for fun.' Only a few of the leading figure skaters recognized the worth of the new dancing. Among them were Yuri's pair partner Svetlana Smirnova and Leonid Gordon."

Coached by Larisa Novozhilova, Smirnova and Gordon learned fourteen ISU compulsory dances in a year and gave exhibitions in St. Petersburg but perhaps discouraged by their loss in Bratislava, turned professional and joined an ice ballet. However, their brief but pioneering step to putting ice dance on the map as a bona fide sporting discipline added credibility to these new dances, and it wasn't long before the Soviet federation adapted these 'new ISU dances' into their competitive structure and developed a three-tiered testing system with four levels in each tier. Within ten years, ice dancing had became so popular in the Soviet Union that qualifying competitions were instituted to whittle down the number of senior ice dance teams at the National Championships to fifteen.

Lyudmila Pakhomova and Alexander Gorshkov

By 1969, Lyudmila Pakhomova and Alexander Gorshkov were on the European and World podium. Their secret? Choreography from The Bolshoi Ballet. As compared to the severely contrasting style of the dominant British teams of that era, it would be the Soviet ice dancer's infusion of classical dance into their ice dancing that would give them that edge for years to come. Talk about a contrast from initial resistance to innovation!

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 the 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.

Back In The USSR, Part Two: Training Behind The Iron Curtain

"We can only guess at what age human 'motor bricks' are formed. But considering hundreds of years of ballet experience in Russia and the fact that the Moscow Ballet School students start at age seven, we have to presume that at age twelve, 'motor bricks' are already rather 'firm' and it is hard, if not impossible, to get rid of incorrect 'pronunciation' in body motion. - Dr. Sergei Aleshinsky

It wasn't until the sixties that the Soviet Sports Program started taking figure skating seriously. Prior to that, as Henry W. Morton noted in his 1963 book "Soviet Sport: Mirror Of The Soviet Society" sports with low military potential like figure skating and tennis just weren't paid much credence. Initially, unless officials believed that a skater could contend for a medal they simply weren't 'good enough' to be sent to international events.

Galina Beskina of Moscow, who took from Boris Podkopaev

However, with the success of many Soviet skaters abroad as the sixties wore on, the Soviet Sports Program began to recognize the potential of competitive figure skating. They took concerted steps to get people on the ice. Morton explained that "in winter, which is usually severe and lasts from six to eight months, skating surfaces in cities are flooded to provide frozen pathways in parks and near large stadia." The whole point of this would have been to not only promote physical education, but to get people in skates and moving. It was all about hand picked talent identification sweetie. Among those who first learned to skate on a flooded sports field? None other than the legendary Tamara Moskvina herself.

A great example of the push to get more and more skaters on the ice during this period comes from Miriam Morton's 1974 book  "The Making Of Champions: Soviet Sports For Children And Teenagers". Morton writes that "there is also a countrywide movement to teach figure skating to masses of children. The 'Pionerskaya Pravda' and the figure skating schools are encouraging this. In Moscow, for instance, there are posters at every skating rink inviting children and teenagers to enroll for free instruction and practice. To give balance to the program, these figure skating centers offer calisthetics, elements of music appreciation, and ballet dancing... Marina Sanaya began her training in one of these centers. When she was thirteen, she participated in the world championship competition in Calgary, Canada. 'So far,' reported a Soviet sports journalist with a touch of humor, 'her biggest reward has been a kiss and a big hug from her parents, but she skated with champions Karen Magnussen and Janet Lynn.'"

Lynn Copley-Graves, in her wonderful book "Figure Skating History: The Evolution Of Dance On The Ice" noted that in the late sixties and early seventies "Soviet skating developed rapidly as skaters and coaches took back training techniques and ideas for competitive tiers from their interactions abroad. By 1969, Soviet competitors could work up through club, city, provincial and national meets... Ice time was no problem, because competitors could attend school in the morning or afternoon or fit training time around their work schedule. Everyone either worked or went to school. Dressmakers were paid to design costumes for the competitors to fit the music or theme, and competitors had access to the Union House of Music or Conservatory to pick out music... Most World Class skaters trained in Moscow or Leningrad, drilling the same whether for pairs or dance... At Moscow's Crystal Palace, Nancy D'Wolf watched six skaters go through drills that seemed like 100 of everything for two hours: Axels, Argentine twizzles, waltz jump split lifts, Kilian patterns. The warmup readied them for program run-throughs... There were no tests at the lower levels. Either trainers passed their students on to the next level of proficiency, or the students achieved the next level by winning a certain event. Soviet skaters were called 'sportsmen,' not athletes; those considered 'pros' skated in shows. When the sportsmen practiced, no one else could used the ice. In August, the Moscow rink closed to all other skating to let the sportsmen train for the upcoming season. As skaters progressed to higher competitive levels, they received more ice time."

Promising young skaters received free skating attire and competed against the students of other coaches. Each city's training bases held regular competitions, closed to the public. The objectives of these city competitions weren't just to offer skaters competitive opportunities but also to identify potential international competitors, the national competition in the Soviet Union not being the sole basis on which international assignments were selected. By the seventies, the Soviet Union had over fifty artificial rinks and four thousand competitive figure skaters.

Copley-Graves further explained, "Lower-level skaters trained three hours a day and world class [ones] put in four hours a day on the ice. Exercise programs - running and floor exercises imitating figure skating technique - supplemented on-ice practice in a deliberately prolonged training cycle to make skaters peak later in life. To develop instructional techniques, Soviet trainers analyzed videotapes of top World competitors... One aspect of Soviet training is to develop skaters equally in both directions, instead of just counterclockwise... While Western skating associations struggled with methods for guaranteeing accreditation of coaches, the Soviet system set up Institutes of Physical Culture. Even the best skaters had to graduate from an institute to coach. Medical doctors and scientists - many among them former competitors - researched the mechanics, physics and biology of figure skating. Skating coaches were, thus, specialists and commanded high social status; they worked independently with the less advanced skaters. Ballet choreographers helped coaches arrange [programs] and exhibition numbers for the elite competitors...  Many retired sportsmen went on to coach the youngsters. The Soviet government considered a full-time job as working 16 hours a week, and they spread the word to keep everyone employed. Thus, the many instructors worked on a rotation basis."

Irina Rodnina and Alexander Zaitsev

The Soviet Union's identification of the relationship between physics and figure skating technique understandably gave Soviet skaters an edge and interestingly, an American coach of renown who I spoke with explained that a Soviet skating manual discussing physics was indeed smuggled into the U.S. by a Russian coach and this information has indeed been disseminated and passed on through oral tradition to several American coaches over the years.

Another obvious advantage that Soviet skaters had was dance training. Elena Tchaikovskaya was one of the eminent coaches who stressed the importance of ballet training to coaches and Sergei Alechinsky, in the September-October 1988 edition of "Professional Skaters Magazine" noted that "the students of the Soviet specialized figure skating schools begin to attend ballet classes at about the same time they are selected for the school (about six years old)."

Ekaterina Gordeeva and Sergei Grinkov at the 1986 World Championships in Geneva

Although the concept of the Soviet Union's training system may seem completely foreign to those of us living in other countries, there's no denying that many aspects of their system, in particular the study of physics and implementation of ballet training, were really ahead of their time. Like it or not, the system certainly produced more champions that you can shake a skate guard at.

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 the 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.

Back In The USSR, Part One: Propaganda And The Soviet Sports Program

"Take our warning:
If you want to keep your health,
Don't you ever,
Wait for doctors, act yourself.
Bathe in cold water every morning
If you want to keep your health."

- Soviet health and sport propaganda blasted over loudspeakers at the Central Stadium, Spartakiad, 1956

Back in April of last year, we took a look at the first skating club in Russia and some of Russia's first skaters of note. In today's blog, I want to return to the region and explore just how figure skating began its sickeningly slow rise to prominence under the Soviet state. Let's start by taking a look at some of the problems facing figure skating in the period leading up to the December 29, 1922 formation of The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

Prior to the formation of the Soviet Union, many athletes competing winter sports received little to no funding, which greatly impacted their ability to travel to international competitions. In fact, seeing as Nikolay Panin-Kolomenkin competed at the 1903 World Championships and Lidia Popova and A.L. Fischer at the 1908 World Championships in their home country, the only Russian skaters between 1900 and 1922 who competed abroad at a World Championships were Fedor Datlin, Ivan Malinin, Sergei Wanderfliet and Xenia Caesar. In fact, winter sports funding on the whole during this period was so bad that in 1912, European and World speed skating champion Nikolai Strunnikov left the sport when he was refused financial support for his trips to compete abroad.

Ivan Malinin

Russian Studies lecturer James Riordan explained in his 1977 book "Sport In Soviet Society: Development Of Sport And Physical Education In Russia And The USSR" that this period of scant international representation in Russia was moreso "a busy time for the organized sports movement, with tentative government backing and overall control. More and more clubs were formed, schools and courses of physical training were established in the larger cities." We also learn from Riordan that from 1917 to 1920, skating became a sport which gained more focus. "The existing Vsevobuch training programme was extended from 96 hours to 576 hours in urban areas and to 436 hours in rural localities, spread over two years... The new programme also made provision for lectures in hygiene, anatomy and physiology." As you can tell by the years, this increased focus on developing skating as a sport predated the official start of the Soviet Union. Although during the period of the Bolshevik Revolution, the Soviet Sports Program was already rearing up.

Soviet figurine of female figure skater, twentieth century

The first official championships of the Soviet Union may have been held in Moscow in 1923 and won by Yuriy Zel'dovich but why did it take so long for the Soviet Union to start pumping out champion after champion? Yuri Brokhin's book "The Big Red Machine The Rise And Fall Of Soviet Olympic Champions" may provide an important clue that held true for several decades in the Soviet Union: "To be admitted to a skating school is more difficult than to pass the entrance exams at Moscow University. First, there are few such schools. Most of these, located in Moscow and Leningrad, enjoy a cachet comparable to that of the most exclusive of Connecticut's country clubs. Even the bureaucrats admit that the mass approach seen in other Soviet sports is absent in figure skating, if only because of the limited availability of artificial ice. More important, countless hours of work with a large group of specialists are demanded for every pair of world-class youngsters."

Lynn Copley-Graves' book "Figure Skating History: The Evolution Of Dance On The Ice" noted that during the mid fifties, "Walter Powell asked the Soviet delegates why a country so interested in the arts did not send skaters to Worlds. [Nikolai] Panin, still alive in Leningrad, had been the last prominent Soviet skater half a century earlier. Walter asked to visit Moscow during the World Speed Skating Championships in February. The USSR Sports Section issued Walter, ISU President James Koch, and Secretary Georg Hasler an official invitation. Inside Russia, the three visitors witnessed a 'renaissance of figure skating'. Panin had written the Russian rulebook on skating, about 200 pages long, illustrated with photos of skaters doing some of the 41 official figures recognized by the ISU and its member associations. Three new artificial rinks were planned in Moscow, and the USSR was about to hold its first exclusive national figure skating championships. Previously the country had hosted international meets, but none just for Soviet skaters. The three visitors left with the sense that they would welcome Soviet skaters into the world figure skating community at large."

Now that we've touched somewhat on the development of figure skating as a bona fide sport under the Soviet Sports Program, I want to go back to the quote from the very beginning of today's blog and explore the role propaganda played in luring in youth athletes. The 1951 poster heading today's blog translates to "if you want to be like me - just train!" The "Pionerskaya Pravda" and "Izvestiia" newspapers were widely considered to be under the government's thumb and the Soviet Sports Program's own newspaper, "Sovetskii Sport", periodically ran pieces on its top figure skaters. "Les Nouvelles de Moscou" (The Moscow News) sponsored the annual skating competition of the same name and the propaganda machine was in full swing there too. Barukh Hazan's 1982 book "Soviet Impregnational Propaganda" noted that skaters from the Soviet Union were "asked to make public semi-political statements which are consequently amplified by Moscow's other instruments of propaganda."

Stay tuned! Part two of this three part series on Soviet skating history will venture a bit forth in time and explore what can be discerned of training conditions behind the Iron Curtain. You don't want to miss it!

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 the 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.

Bridging Borders: The Stories Of The First Two Canadian Men's Champions

In the early days of competitive 'fancy' skating in Canada, skaters from the Minto Skating Club in Ottawa were a dominant force. Today on the blog, we'll meet two fascinating pioneering men from the most wonderful country in the world's capital who paved the way for the skaters of the future. Canada's first two champions in men's figure skating, Ormonde B. Haycock and Douglas H. Nelles, may have just been names on a paper to you before but after learning their stories I think you will be as fascinated by these two 'gentlemen skaters' as I was.  

ORMONDE B. HAYCOCK

Ormonde Haycock coaching at the Olympia Skating Club in Detroit. Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine.

Born in Ottawa on September 4, 1880, Ormonde 'Ormie' Butler Haycock was the son of of Richard Henry Haycock and Mary LaFontaine. He had one brother and four sisters, one of which grew up to be a senator's wife. Although educated in public schools and at the Lisgar Collegiate School before his father got him a job as the assistant manager of the Canada Life Assurance Company, Ormonde grew up in a skating family and throughout his colourful life, skating is always what this man seemed to turn to.

Ormonde was one of the founders of the Minto Skating Club and a long time executive member. He was also instrumental in the initial organization of the skating club's junior program. His obituary from "The Ottawa Citizen" suggested "he was eight times champion of Canada", but this is incorrect. Although Ormonde 'only' won four Canadian men's titles (in 1905, 1906, 1908 and 1911), he won five Canadian pairs titles, making that nine. One of those pairs titles was won with his sister Aimée, who also won two Canadian women's titles. Ormonde and his other sister Katherine won two pairs titles together and not to be outdone, a third sister named Oswald - who went on to marry Colonel Ivan McSloy - finished second in the now long defunct Waltz event at the Canadian Championships in 1910.

Ormonde Haycock, Lady Evelyn Grey, Eleanor Kingsford and Philip Chrysler. Photo courtesy National Archives of Canada.

Ormonde's other two national pairs titles were won with Lady Evelyn Grey, the youngest daughter of Lord and Lady Grey. Ormonde was also a member of the Connaught Four which won the North American championship in 1910. In 1911, Ormonde won the Earl Grey Cup for skating teamwork along with Lady Evelyn Grey (the second youngest daughter of Lord and Lady Grey), Eleanor Kingsford (later Mrs. John Law) and Philip Chrysler. As many Canadian skating records were lost in the 1949 Minto Skating Club Fire, it's certainly possible that records of more of Ormonde's earlier championship wins went up in flames as well. We do know he travelled to Great Britain with a group of Canadian skaters in his heyday and competed internationally against Irving Brokaw in a men's event in New York in 1905. Ormonde and Irving were good friends who both worked tirelessly to help 'establish' the International Style of skating in North America.

What many don't know about this Canadian skating pioneer is that in addition to his proficiency on the ice, he was equally as comfortable on water that wasn't frozen. As well as being a sailing enthusiast, Ormonde was an accomplished sculler. An early member of the Ottawa Rowing Club, he won rowing championships in Ottawa, St. Catharines and Washington from 1904 to 1906 and in 1906 was part of a four man crew that won an international rowing event in Detroit, Michigan. Ormonde was also musically talented and deeply fond of music. He played several instruments and even composed for piano.

On March 8, 1916 (a year after the Great War  started) Ormonde enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force and went overseas to serve in anti-aircraft batteries. Unlike many, he lived to tell about the war and went back into the insurance business. That didn't last long... and the lure of his lifelong passion for skating returned. After getting married to his wife Florence, Ormonde's increasing interest in teaching skating led him to leave Ottawa to coach skating in Toronto and Lake Placid. Christie Sausa's book "Lake Placid: A Skating History" noted that Ormonde was "fabulously popular" and "performed in the three winter ice carnival skating exhibitions held each winter, in addition to his coaching duties." He later coached in Detroit and Cleveland for a time before making the trek to New York. In the early thirties, Ormonde also worked with skaters in Buffalo and Niagara Falls. He choreographed, directed and performed in the Buffalo Skating Club's 1932 club carnival which was attended by an audience of three thousand, five hundred people.

Ormonde passed away at the age of fifty eight on August 18, 1938 in Canandaigua, New York at his summer home after several months of illness. Although his name or story isn't as remembered as many Canadian skating greats who followed, his legacy is one of a lifelong dedication to the sport we all know and love. Ormonde didn't just help to build skating in one country but did it in two at a time when the competition between Canadian and American skaters was every bit as fierce as it is today. I think we all owe this long lost pioneer a tip of the hat and a big thank you!

DOUGLAS H. NELLES

Photo courtesy Library and Archives Canada

Born March 26, 1881 in Grimsby, Ontario, Douglas Henry Nelles was the son of Beverly and Louisa (Buckwell) Nelles. His father was a fruit grower and packer and it's no surprise that young Douglas spent much of his youth outdoors helping with the family business. He even did some skating on Grimsby's hockey rink. By his early twenties, Douglas had studied civil engineering and gained employment with the Dominion Land Survey. Travelling with a party of men into the harsh wilderness of Hugh Miller Inlet, Glacier Bay and Skagway and living in tents on the borders of Canada and Alaska, his job was at times quite dangerous.

Douglas H. Nelles and an orderly setting up camp in the wilderness. Photo courtesy Library and Archives Canada

Late in the first decade of the twentieth century, Douglas moved to Ottawa, studied at McGill University and found work as a civil engineer for the Geodetic Survey. It was during this period that he first truly embraced the great art of figure skating. Not long after joining the Minto Skating Club, he claimed the 1910 and 1912 Canadian senior men's titles and the 1912 national pairs title with Eleanor Kingsford.

In 1911, Douglas travelled to Europe and returned bearing news of the International Skating Union's system of compulsory figures. Working with Colonel E.T.B. Gillmore, he helped make these figures the standard at the Canadian Championships. He also had them printed in the "Minto Club Hand Book", a text that was kindly distributed to all of the other skating clubs in Canada. After taking lessons from visiting European coach Arthur Held, he passionately extolled the virtues of graceful free skating to anyone who would listen.

After marrying Marjorie Katura Stowe Wainwright in January 1914, he took a hiatus from skating and served overseas with the Canadian Forestry Corps during World War I, reaching the rank of Major. He was demobilized in 1919 and returned to Canada via Pier 21 in Halifax, Nova Scotia aboard the HMT Minnekahda.

Less than a year after he returned to Canada, Douglas was back on the ice. In 1920, he teamed up with Alden Goldwin to claim his second Canadian pairs title and capped off his competitive career with a bronze at the 1922 Canadian Championships with D.F. Secord. While working as a manufacturer, he toiled away behind the scenes as a judge and builder with the Amateur Skating Association of Canada and the Minto Skating Club. One of his great accomplishments was his work with Major Clarence E. Steeves and Melville Rogers in organizing the highly successful 1931 North American Championships in Ottawa.

Although Douglas and his wife suffered a devastating loss when a son died in childbirth in 1933, they took great pride in their daughter Muriel and son Arthur. The latter turned out to be every ounce the great skater his father was. After showing promise as a young skater at the Minto Skating Club, Arthur Douglas Nelles turned professional and appeared in the Arthur M. Wirtz show "It Happens On Ice" at the Center Theatre with Hedy Stenuf, the Ice Cycles and several small-scale international tours, Skippy Baxter and The Caley Sisters. Muriel (Nelles) Whyte was a successful skating coach who helped found the Barrie Figure Skating Club. Sadly, Douglas H. Nelles, one of Canada's first great skating champions, passed away December 7, 1960 at the age of seventy nine.

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 the 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.

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow: Skating Hair Through The Years

Keep it under your hat... but we're going to talk about a little hair history today! Until the twentieth century, how a skater's hair looked made little difference. Whether under a top hat or a smart feathered bonnet, the length of a skater's locks was quite irrelevant until the introduction of the Continental and International Styles of skating made jumps and spins de rigueur and the sport gained more of a following as early hotel shows and ice pantomimes became popular in the first few decades of the twentieth century.

It really wasn't until the Sonja Henie era when women's figure skating became more much more glamourized that many skaters really started paying attention to creating a 'packaged look' and it was Henie herself who led the charge.

When she was in her early fifties, Sonja Henie had her hair done by a young hairdresser named Jon Peters, who went on to become a Hollywood producer. They became fast friends and she actually lent him one hundred thousand dollars towards his first salon. 

Left: Sonja Henie. Right: Advertisement for Glover's hair products featuring Věra Hrubá Ralston.

By the fifties, tiaras weren't uncommon sights in the hair of competitive skaters and especially in the popular British ice pantomimes, both men and women often wore wigs.

Photo courtesy "The National Ice Skating Guide"

Producers of touring productions led the war on errant hair-pins, which posed particular dangers to skaters performing under dim spotlights. In her 1952 book "Skate With Me", even Barbara Ann Scott warned of their dangers: "Don't use ordinary hairpins. They are too apt to fly out. Be sure that you have your hair tethered down securely, for there is nothing very appealing about a girl skating with her hair flopping all over her face. I used to wear a little bonnet which served the double purpose of keeping my hair back and my ears warm." Scott's reference to bonnets was in line to the trend to cover hair to keep it out of a skater's face when they performed jumps and spins, doubling as added warmth in the subzero temperatures during outdoor competitions. In her husband Tyke's 1959 book "Girls' Book Of Skating", Mildred Richardson noted, "Caps are never worn, as they tend to come off, but in windy or snowy weather hair is covered by a becoming pull-on hood or scarf."

Excerpt from Jacqueline du Bief's book "Thin Ice"

By the sixties, Carol Heiss had dyed her hair black for her role in "Snow White And The Three Stooges" and Sjoukje Dijkstra was jacking it up to Jesus with a beehive that contained more final net than the entire dressing room of the movie "Hairspray". In her interview with Allison Manley for "The Manleywoman SkateCast" in April 2014, she laughed, "You don’t know how much hairspray there was in there... It stayed, you see, it would be stuck. If it would be loose, I couldn’t stand it, if my hair came into my eyes or anything. But it had so much spray in it that it just stayed there. So it was good. I don’t understand now, when I see the skaters with the ponytails slinging around - that must be awful. Mine didn't move, it stayed. It took a lot of hairspray. I’m amazed that I still have hair on my head." Though Dijkstra managed to keep her hair, not everyone was so lucky. In one show, American Olympian Roy Wagelein's toupee got caught in his partner's costume during a lift and came right off his head. 

Without a doubt, the most famous skating hairdo in history was the Dorothy Hamill wedge. Achieved by lifting the hair and cutting at an inward angle, going from the longest lengths at top to the shortest at the bottom, the cut was copied by millions of women around the world after Hamill's win at the 1976 Winter Olympic Games in Innsbruck. After turning professional, Hamill signed a three hundred thousand dollar contract with Clairol and did commercials for their Short & Sassy Shampoo and Conditioner. In turn, the company donated twenty five cents from every bottle to the USFSA's Memorial Fund. 

By the nineties, short hair was on its way out and ponytails and buns dominated. Josée Chouinard did commercials for Pert Plus, Clairol sponsored a pro-am competition and even Scott Hamilton skated to music from the movie "Hair" in a hippie-style wig. Copying the glorious mane of Gwendal Peizerat, male ice dancers in the early twenty first century grew out their hair in droves... with extremely mixed results.

Whether Tonya Harding's mall bang or Maria Butyrskaya's Florence Henderson bob, the way that the world's top skaters have worn their hair over the years has just been one more way that they have set themselves apart. The grades of execution might have varied, but I think most skaters have earned a 6.0 for composition and style.

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 the 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.

Toller Cranston's 1984 Comeback

At the 1994 Winter Olympic Games in Lillehammer, Norway, the lines between amateurism and professionalism blurred when champions from eras past reinstated to the eligible ranks in hopes of challenging the world's best Olympic eligible skaters. It is a topic we've visited before more than once on Skate Guard, but I am quite confident that the subject of today's blog may be news to many of you. It doesn't involve Lillehammer and doesn't even take place in the nineties.

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

Less than three years after winning the bronze medal at the 1976 Winter Olympic Games in Innsbruck, Austria, the late, great six time Canadian Champion Toller Cranston was very seriously considering the possibility of attempting a comeback to the eligible ranks and competing in the 1984 Winter Olympic Games in Sarajevo. In an interview with Linda Jade Stearns in the December-January 1979 issue of "The Canadian Skater" magazine, he spoke of his plan in detail: "Charles Snelling will have nothing on me. I have to perform for a couple more years - I want to do a movie and I know that I can't do that if I'm an amateur. Then I'm going to have to throw myself on my knees and ask the CFSA to give me back my amateur status, which will take a year. Therefore I'm basically aiming for the 1984 Olympics... I'm going to do my comeback at thirty-five as opposed to Snelling in his mid-twenties. And he didn't train the way I'm training now... I just competed in the American Superstars show for TV, and my competitive instincts surged - like wild. I became a tiger, a cutthroat, and I became consumed with the desire to win, which I had never really felt before when competing as an amateur. When I enter the 1984 Olympics - even if I have to skate out of Iceland to do it - I'll put skating in its proper perspective. I'm going to take it very seriously, but I know that my career will not hinge on how well I do. It's not like, 'Oh my God, what happens if Ronnie Shaver beats me - I'll be finished, I'll be through.' I learned how to be afraid in the worst way. When people say, 'Oh, you only came third at the Olympics, you blew it,' I reply, 'Third? It's a miracle!' I was so totally overwrought that when I stepped onto the ice I couldn't believe that my legs were carrying me. I can do figures in my free skating boots now that are better than the ones I did in the Olympics in my figure boots. I realize that it's totally a question of control of the brain. It was nervousness, it wasn't that I had bad figures (that accounted for my low standing in figures at the Olympics.) My figures were just as good as anybody's, but I did not have the ability to zero in, to totally concentrate. I wouldn't be nervous now because nothing is hinging on my performance. I'm not going to enter with the attitude that here's my big chance to win the 1984 Olympics. When you come back at thirty-five to compete in the Olympics, people will say, 'Let's see how good he is... can he beat the champion from Luxembourg? Well, probably. But can he beat the French champion?... Let's see how far he can go. I know that I'm not going to out-triple my competitors because by then they're going to have to scrape them off the rafters. In the performance that I would give, the emphasis would be totally on performing. I would perform like wild. It's not that I wouldn't do a number of things, but I would say, let the skaters doing the quadruples and the eight triples do them. I would do all the things that they don't do. I would create a certain controversy."

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

In the end, the lure of professional competition won out. For seven consecutive years from 1980 to 1987, Toller competed at Dick Button's World Professional Figure Skating Championships in Landover, Maryland. More often than not, he didn't win. We will never know the history books would have looked if Toller had in fact somehow managed a return to the eligible ranks in 1984. Against the likes of Scott Hamilton, Brian Orser, Jozef Sabovcik and the rest, he would have undoubtedly been at a huge disadvantage technically but I don't think anyone can argue that he wouldn't have put on one hell of a show like only Toller could.

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 the 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.

Boitano And Witt's Skating Tours

I don't think winning an Olympic gold medal is something anyone would call easy, but surely forging out into the unknown and designing your own skating tour can't be either. Following their wins at the 1988 Winter Olympic Games in Calgary, Brian Boitano and Katarina Witt did just that, headlining in a series of tours aptly called Skating, Skating II and Skating III and bringing a who's who cast of the world's best figure skaters along for the journey.

Marketed towards younger, 'hipper' audiences, the Skating tours were produced by Cellar Door and Bill Graham Presents, sponsored by Chrysler and directed and lovingly choreographed by Sandra Bezic and Michael Seibert. They had three successful runs in North America from 1989 to 1992 and even visited Europe and Japan. At the time, Skating was in direct competition with several other touring skating productions including Stars On Ice, the World Cup Champions On Ice tour, Benson and Hedges Symphony On Ice and Tom Collins' beloved Tour Of World Figure Skating Champions. Despite this, the tours certainly fared well in the height of their popularity, so much so that they became the first skating production to sell out Madison Square Gardens in ten years at one point. Much of the reason for the tour's successes was Boitano and Witt's name recognition but thoughtful choreography and the show's diverse cast made for a well rounded and entertaining tour all around.

In a November 1990 article from "The Christian Science Monitor", Boitano said, "It's the people around us who make the show so good, but it's difficult to cast because a lot of times the producers only hear names. From a personal standpoint, you want people who are good, who will bring a lot of entertainment to the show." Joining Boitano and Witt in the cast were Rosalynn Sumners, Tracy Wilson and Rob McCall, Barbara Underhill and Paul Martini, Gary Beacom, Elena Valova and Oleg Vasiliev, Judy Blumberg and Michael Seibert, Caryn Kadavy, Yvonne Gomez, Robert Wagenhoffer, Vladimir Kotin and Renee Roca and Gorsha Sur.

For Witt, the tours proved liberating after so many years of skating in Communist East Germany. In an April 1990 article from "The Sun Journal", she explained "I can now do whatever I want. I do not have to ask somebody 'Please, can I do this?' I do not have to beg somebody to get out of the country and to work with Brian." Liberation and freedom was a strong undercurrent of much of the skating even - Gary Beacom performed a number showcasing his edges to complete silence in one number. Another highlight of the tours was a truncated version of Boitano and Witt's "Carmen On Ice" act.

After the tour's third run in 1992, Skating sold its dates to Stars On Ice and Sandra Bezic started working with Stars On Ice in time for the 1992/1993 season's tour. Concurrently, Boitano and Witt were both preparing for comebacks when professionals were allowed to reinstate to the amateur ranks in time for the 1994 Winter Olympic Games in Lillehammer, Norway where the pair of Olympic Gold Medallists finished sixth and seventh respectively. Although the tour may not be as remembered as many others due to its relatively short run, it produced some excellent skating and provided opportunities for many professional skaters who may not have had the opportunities to tour North America otherwise. With a cast like that though, I don't know how anyone could forget it.

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 the 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.

Pivots And Polar Bears: The Skating History Of Canada's North

When one Clement Bancroft Burns, territorial and federal secretary of the Yukon Territory, arrived in Dawson City in 1902 during the height of the Klondike Gold Rush he ascertained a need for a sporting and recreation facility. Through pledges, forty five thousand dollars was raised to aid in the construction of the Dawson Amateur Athletic Club. Walter Creamer, dubbed the Barnum of Klondike, became involved and soon an enclosed ice skating rink became one of the facility's most popular features.

The D.A.A.C.'s skating rink measured seventy five by one hundred and seventy five feet, and played host to a series of skating carnivals and parties at the turn of the century, replete with music played by a brass band. On July 21, 1909, the "Dawson Daily News" reported, "The great enclosed ice skating rink attracts devotees of all ages, who, making up a neatly and gaily clad throng spin merrily over the long stretches of carefully prepared ice surfaces; it is here that the mardi gras of the Northland is held each winter, and here that the children hold minor carnivals. It is here that many of the swiftest and most expert skaters of the world join in that swiftest of all human physical contests, hockey, in disputing the championship of the North." We know that during this period Minnie Cummings travelled to the Northwest Territories to perform, and it was likely at this very rink.

Peggy Hanulik came to Dawson City from Manitoba in 1965 and set to work teaching the children of Dawson City to skate. Two years later, she headed to Whitehorse, where she became involved in the Whitehorse Skating Club and helped found the Fireweed Figure Skating Club. The Yukon's first CFSA certified judge, Hanulik judged competitions for close to thirty years. She served on countless committees and boards and did everything from bringing CanSkate to the province to cutting music for carnivals and chaperoning at competitions. Her years of dedication paved the way for the 2007 Canada Winter Games in Whitehorse, the first time the Canada Games ever made an appearance up north. Among the winners at that event? A young Liam Firus, Kirsten Moore-Towers and Andrei Rogozine. Today in the Yukon capital, the Arctic Edge Skating Club is the place to be if you're as into press lifts and pivots as you are polar bears.

Skaters at the first Arctic Winter Games in 1970. Photo courtesy Library And Archives Canada.

In the Northwest Territories, outdoor skating was tremendously popular on the frozen Netla and McKenzie Rivers. The Gerry Murphy arena - known to locals as the 'Murphdrome' - was the go-to skating spot for Yellowknife residents from 1950 until its demolition in 2004. The Yellowknife Skating Club was founded in December 1968 and two years later, the first Arctic Winter Games were held in the Northwest Teritories capital, attracting visiting competitors from the Yukon and Alaska in its first year. Figure skating competitions have absolutely been an integral part of these biennal 'Northern Olympics', which have expanded to include athletes from Nunavut, Greenland, Russia, northern Quebec, British Columbia, Manitoba, Alberta and Saskatchewan.

Photo courtesy "Canadian Skater" magazine.

The skating clubs in Hay River and Inuvik have been around for years and boasted some very talented young skaters, but perhaps the most fascinating figure skating clubs of the North are the Iqaluit and Cape Dorset Figure Skating Clubs in Nunavut. The latter, located in an Inuit hamlet near the southern tip of Baffin Island in the Qikiqtaaluk Region of Nunavut, is one of the most remote figure skating clubs in the world. Founded in 1995, the club established a sister club relationship with the Stephenville Skating Club in Newfoundland. When the Cape Dorset skaters needed skates, the Newfoundlanders took up a collection and shipped them up. In turn, the Nunavut club sent down Inuit art that the club could auction off to fundraise. In 1999, when a new rink opened in Stephenville, eight skaters from Cape Dorset were invited down to perform in the Newfoundland club's opening show... alongside special guests Brian Orser and Jamie Salé and David Pelletier. In 2015, Rachel Pettitt made history by becoming the first skater from the Yukon to win a national title when she won the novice women's event at the Canadian Championships in Kingston. Matthew Powers, a talented skater from Whitehorse, had won the silver medal in the junior men's event in 1991 and become the first skater from the territory to compete at the World Junior Championships.

Canada's north may not have produced an endless list of figure skating champions, but it has certainly had a fascinating history thus far! It may not be long at all before we finally start seeing skaters from Canada's north making a greater impact on the national level. The times, they are a-changin'...

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 the 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.

'Jumpin' Jack Flash', A Jack Of All Trades

Canada's Sports Hall of Fame | Panthéon des sports canadiens photo. Used with permission.

Born August 15, 1872 in Perth, Ontario, John "Jack" McCulloch moved to Winnipeg, Manitoba with his parents at the age of four. An athletic young man, he excelled in a variety of sports including canoeing, rowing, track and field, cycling, gymnastics, roller skating and ice hockey; he was in his day very much Canada's answer to Lottie Dod.

It was as a hockey player that McCulloch first achieved real fame. S.F. Wise and Douglas Fisher's 1974 book "Canada's Sporting Heroes" noted, "He helped form the province's first teams in 1889, and as a player with the Victorias, took part in the first regularly scheduled game in Manitoba on December 20, 1890. In 1893, wishing to gain experience against teams in the cradle of hockey, the Manitobans undertook an Eastern tour, playing in Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal. The outcome surprised both the East and West. The Manitobans won nine victories in eleven games and outscored their opponents 76-36; Eastern newspapers stressed McCulloch's speed and grace."

Speed and grace seem to be appropriate adjectives to describe McCulloch's later contributions to Canadian sport. He achieved most of his fame as a speed skater, first winning the Canadian speed skating title in 1893. At the event in Montreal, there were four distances raced and he won all four.
The next year on Hallowe'en, he married Mary Therese Aikins in Winnipeg. Two years later, he travelled to St. Paul, Minnesota, where he became the U.S. speed skating champion, winning quarter mile, open mile, five and ten mile races. The next year, when the World Speed Skating Championships came to Montreal, McCulloch beat Norwegian speed skating phenom Karl Alfred Ingvald Næss in both the one thousand, five hundred meter and five thousand meter races, becoming World Champion. Renowned doctor, sculptor and athlete R. Tait MacKenzie wrote of McCulloch, "One can hardly call him a specialist, for besides speed skating, in which he is supreme, he is a good figure skater." At the height of his fame in 1898, he turned professional, touring Canada and the northern U.S. competing in speed skating races for money, stilt skating, barrel jumping and giving exhibitions as a 'fancy' figure skater. In many ways, he was a predecessor to Norval Baptie, who popularized the combined speed/figure/trick skating show not long after.

Canada's Sports Hall of Fame | Panthéon des sports canadiens photo. Used with permission.

The Saturday, February 5, 1898 issue of the "Brooklyn Daily Eagle" spoke of his performances in that New York, noting "McCulloch is a wonderful trick skater and his jumping, backward skating and figures are marvellous. At all around skating he has not a peer unless it be Nilsson, who heads the professional ranks". Another 1898 article from the "Winnipeg Free Press" suggested that early in his professional career he may have even spent time in the Yukon: "He has left the athletic arena and is endeavouring to take him to the Klondike, from whence he hopes to bring back enough gold to keep his family in comfort." This seems unlikely given the time frame. If he did go looking for gold, he didn't stay long because newspaper records place him in Toronto in 1900.

Early in the twentieth century, McCulloch spent considerable time touring Western Canada. The January 8, 1907 edition of "The St. John Sun" noted that "besides appearing at all the big race meets, McCulloch and [Gib] Bellefeuille will give exhibitions of speed and fancy skating all over the country, starting with a tour through Manitoba and to other western points." The January 21, 1907 issue of "The Winnipeg Tribune" confirmed the duo's trip back to Manitoba: "Jack McCulloch and Gib Bellefeuille are carded for their final exhibition at the Auditorium tonight, giving their fancy figure and stilt skating and a mile dash as a finish. Both men are in excellent trim, having devoted the past month to constant practice. McCulloch shows the old-time gracefulness and speedy work for which he was noted several years ago, as Jack says, 'It's not the years I've been out of the game. It's knowing how, and not forgetting it.' St. Paul is the first stop after the Auditorium, the date in the former city being Jan. 23; from that point on east the boys expect to give no less than sixteen exhibitions as well as meeting half a dozen speedy skaters in Buffalo." 1907 proved to be his final year on tour.

Returning to Winnipeg, he was badly injured in an automobile accident in 1908 and turned his attention to two new pursuits: automobiles and skate making. He opened an automobile repair shop specializing in racing cars and was even a founding member of the Winnipeg Automobile Club. As a skate maker, he constantly experimented with varying techniques before developing and manufacturing his McCulloch tube skate, which was immensely popular with hockey players of the time as it allowed for quick, short strides. This Jack of all trades, master of most passed away in Ramsey County, Minnesota on January 26, 1918 and was posthumously inducted into Canada's Sport Hall Of Fame and the Manitoba Sports Hall Of Fame. Sadly, his contribution to figure skating history is one that has been downplayed in comparison to his more famous accomplishments in speed skating and hockey.

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 the 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.

The Jubliant Jakobssons: Finland's First And Only Olympic Gold Medallists

Photo courtesy Sveriges Centralförening för Idrottens Främjande Archive

The story of how Finland's first and only Olympic Gold Medallists rose to prominence and dominated the figure skating world for close to two decades is one that has sadly been too often neglected entirely. Yet, the story of Ludovika and Walter Jakobsson is perhaps one of the most interesting out there! Thanks to Johan as well as Tua, Harald, Peggy, Klas Johan and Bruno (members of the Jakobsson family) I am thrilled to be able to share their incredible story.

Ludovika Antje Margareta Eilers was born July 25, 1884 in Potsdam, Brandenburg, Germany and raised in Berlin by affluent Lutheran parents Johann and Anna Marie Elisabeth (Hintze) Eilers. The oldest of five siblings, Ludovika acted as chaperone to her brothers Richard, Werner and Rudolph and sister Elisabeth on their frequent winter trips to skate at the Berliner Schlittschuhclub. Though her siblings enjoyed skating, Ludovika lived and breathed it. She soon became regarded as one of the finest young skaters at her club. Her father's money allowed her to travel extensively in her youth. In her teenage years, she crossed the Atlantic to visit a relative in America and exhibited her skating in Vienna and St. Petersburg to the delight of audiences.

Ludovika and Walter Jakobsson. Photo courtesy Finnish Archives.

Walter Andreas Jakobsson was born February 6, 1882 in Helsinki to Anders and Emilie (Wesström) Jakobsson . He had two sisters, Irene and Lilly, and a younger brother named Gunnar. I guess you could say sport was in his blood to some extent, as his cousin Jarl Gustav Anian Jakobsson was a 1908 Summer Olympian in javelin and long jump. Walter actually got his start on the ice at the age of twelve as a speed skater, switching ten years later (along with his brother Gunnar) to figure skating. Walter's exhibitions in Helsinki with Miss E. Bergh in the early twentieth century were popular with audiences. An intelligent young man, he spoke Finnish, German and a little English, but Swedish was his mother tongue. He was an avid amateur photographer, joining the Amatörfotografklubben i Helsingfors (AFK) in 1902. The following year, he won second prize in an open photo exhibition at the Ateneum Art Museum. Using newly marketed Lumière plates, he was praised for his artistry as a photographer and described by photographer and author Gunnar Lönnqvist as a "happy young man [with a] student cap [on his] head and a tin camera in his hand... This young engineering student mastered the photographic techniques to perfection, doing his most valuable artistic work using special printing methods. In the work of Walter Jakobsson dark tones dominate. He chose sparingly and dramatically lighted subjects. His city views are photographed in rainy weather with gleaming wet asphalt and outlines softened by drizzle and mist. The processing enhanced the character and air of his subjects to comply with his artistic views and aims." Jakobsson's photographs of Finnish figure skaters during this period also helped preserve his country's skating history for future generations.

Ludovika and Walter Jakobsson. Photo courtesy Finnish Archives.

The future Olympic Gold Medallists met in 1908 in Berlin. Ludovika had just finished skating a beautiful waltz with a university library clerk. Afterwards, a group of Finns approached the duo to thank them for their lovely performance. One of the men handed her a bouquet of violets. That man was Walter Jakobsson.

Photo courtesy Finnish National Board of Antiquities - Musketti

Walter was in Berlin to study at the TH Charlottenburg (Royal Technical Higher School of Charlottenburg) for a degree in electrical and mechanical engineering. He had arrived in Germany without skates as his mother had suggested that if he left them at home, he'd spend less time skating and more time studying. Soon after seeing Ludovika skate, he bought a new pair. Appreciating the Finn's enthusiasm and admiration, she agreed to skate as a pair with him. A year later, they were sent to Budapest to perform and in 1910, they won the silver medal behind Olympic Gold Medallists Anna Hübler and Heinrich Burger at the World Championships in Berlin, Germany.

Ludovika Jakobsson and Anna-Lisa Allardt. Photo courtesy Finnish Archives.

Soon, romance blossomed and the two skaters became engaged. Walter proposed that the couple move to his native Finland. In a memoir discovered by historian Henriikka Heikinheimo, Ludovika wrote, "He wanted to marry me... Maybe I was a diva or a practical German or whatever - but for some time, I was [against] having been [sent to] Helsinki. I asked what was his actions [were] and in the future our apartment - not just go there and get married." She agreed to go to Helsinki to check things out, and when accommodations weren't found that suited her, she announced she was leaving for Berlin. Disappointed, Walter followed her back to Germany, where they married on July 27, 1911 at the ages of twenty seven and twenty nine. They lived in Berlin for a time while Walter worked for Siemens as a construction engineer before taking up residence in an apartment in Helsinki's Punavuori district owned by Walter's grandparents. He got a job with Strömberg Oy, a company that produced electric motors and later became the technical director of Osakeyhtiö Kone Aktiebolag, a company that manufactured cranes, elevators and electric hoists.

Postage stamp commemorating the Jakobsson's released in conjunction with the 1977 European Championships. Courtesy Harald Lindner. Used with permission of the Jakobsson family.

Helsinki welcomed the talented couple with open arms, taking them into the fold at the Helsingfors Skridskoklubb and reserving them a private section of ice north of the city's harbour to train during the long Scandinavian winters. To keep fit in the summers, the couple ran for twenty minutes every day... in their apartment to the horror of their servant.

Painting of The Jakobsson's. Courtesy Klas Johan Roos; Used with permission of the Jakobsson family.

The duo's competitive record prior to World War I was nothing short of stellar. They both claimed Finnish titles in both singles and pairs and won five consecutive medals at the World Championships, two of them gold. Ludovika even claimed the bronze medal in the women's event at the 1911 World Championships in Vienna. While competing with Ludovika, Walter routinely acted as Finland's judge for men's and women's figure skating competitions. The December 24, 1909 issue of the Finnish newspaper "Helsingin Sanomat" noted the Jakobssons skated with a "kind of rigidity, which is a nice charm [of the] Nordic style."

Ludovika and Walter Jakobsson. Photo courtesy Finnish Archives.

When international competitions resumed following the first World War, the Jakobssons won their first of two Nordic titles in Oslo in 1919. After welcoming their first of two daughters to the world, the following year, they headed to Antwerp, Belgium to participate in the 1920 Summer Olympic Games.

They arrived a few weeks before the figure skating competition to practice every morning and afternoon at the Palais de Glace d'Anvers, which had been constructed specifically for the Games. Many Belgians flocked to see the talented pair skate in warm spring weather as it was a novelty. He dressed in slacks, long socks and a sweater, white starched shirt and tie and her in an ankle length black dress and a smart jeweled black hat with a feathered spray, they made quite the sharp looking pair when they took to the ice as the last of eight teams contesting for Olympic gold. Sakari Ilmanen wrote of their performance, "They did not have many moments on the ice when you realized that they were not in a great mood for ice skating. Not a trace of the competition fever, severe jumps and turns succeeded perfectly, the skating was punctual and full presentation of the music. It was ice skating which received enthusiasm [from] the audience. Almost incessantly throughout the skating time, they showed tumultuous applause." Defeating Norwegians Alexia and Yngvar Bryn and Britons Phyllis Johnson and Basil Williams by a wide margin, they became Finland's first and only Olympic Gold Medallists in figure skating. Although Greco-Roman wrestler Verner Weckman was Finland's first Olympic Gold Medallist back in 1908, the Jakobsson's were the country's first Olympic Gold Medallists since the country achieved independence from Russia in 1917. Additionally, Ludovika became Finland's first female Olympic gold medallist in any sport.

Ludovika and Walter Jakobsson. Bottom photo courtesy Sveriges Centralförening för Idrottens Främjande Archive.

Following their Olympic win, the Jakobssons made a cameo in the Finnish film "Polyteekkarifilmi" and won a silver medal at the 1922 World Championships in Davos, their third World title in Oslo in 1923 and an Olympic silver medal at the 1924 Winter Olympic Games in Chamonix, France behind Austrians Helene Engelmann and Alfred Berger. After a four year hiatus from competition, they returned to participate in their third Olympics in St. Moritz in 1928, where they placed a disappointing fifth.

Ludovika appeared in a few Finnish silent films and took up judging for a time before focusing her attention on training young skaters in Helsinki. She is credited with helping build the Finnish skating program and in particular for her work with young women. Walter served as President of the Helsingfors Skridskoklubb for decades and was responsible for the development of the Johannesplan in Helsinki. However, his primary focus was always judging. He pushed the International Skating Union to drop the highest and lowest marks in an effort to curb national bias and helped decide the results of countless World and European Championships. Walter often called it as he saw it, even if his decisions were deemed controversial by others. At the 1929 World Championships in Budapest, he placed Sonja Henie third in the free skate behind Austrians Melitta Brunner and Fritzi Burger. At the 1933 World Championships in Stockholm, he was the only judge to place Vivi-Anne Hultén ahead of Henie in the figures. One can only imagine the stress of his post as the referee of the women's competition at the 1936 Winter Olympics in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, where Sonja Henie won her third Olympic gold medal as the Nazis looked on.

"Walter and Ludovika were the most charming and friendly couple with families in Finland, Switzerland and Germany. They had also friends all over the world," recalled members of the Jakobsson family in a December 2016 letter. "They did a lot of voluntary work and were good gardeners. They had a very large and beautiful garden in their very charming summerhouse outside Helsinki by the sea. Walter was also a handyman, making his own garden furniture as well as giving the knowledge to his grandchildren, and their friends. He arranged also sailing competitions and [taught] sailing rules and gentlemanship to the neighbouring children. He also arranged 'Olympic Games' for the children when Helsinki had the Olympics in 1952. They are still mentioned by their family and by people who had been trained by them."

Photo courtesy Johan Nygren; 1955 Elsa Snellman painting courtesy Tua Lindner. Used with permission of the Jakobsson family.

Walter passed away on June 10, 1957 while in Zürich, Switzerland and Ludovika retired from coaching, passing away eleven years later on November 1, 1968. Inducted posthumously to Finland's Sports Hall Of Fame in 2010 and the World Figure Skating Hall Of Fame in 2013, they remain the most successful pairs team ever to have represented Finland in international competition. Skating historian Gunnar Bang once argued, "They are the rightly considered the most skillful exponents of good style in pair skating that perhaps ever existed."

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