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The Eleventh Annual Skate Guard Hallowe'en Spooktacular

 Vintage Hallowe'en illustration

It's October 31st and all of you spooky Skate Guard readers know that means. It's time for a yearly Skate Guard tradition... The Annual Skate Guard Hallowe'en Spooktacular! Dim the lights enjoy this eerie collection of darker stories that have peppered skating's history through the years.

Miss any of the other Hallowe'en Spooktaculars? You can find them all here.

COLD FEET

In 1865, British lawyer and author Edmund Mitchell put ink to paper, penning the widely-read story of The Phantom Of The Lake: "It was based on a family legend that several generations back the youthful owner of Eastwood Hall had gone out to skate the very night before his marriage. It had been a severe winter, and the ice was perfectly safe, so that his friends did not seek to prevent his going, though no one felt inclined to accompany him. But on the lake that afternoon a portion of the ice had been broken to allow swimming room for the swans. No eye saw the accident; no one was at hand to render help. But next morning the body was found, and the young maiden who that day should have become a bride, lost her reason when she beheld her lover's lifeless form. Hence grew the legend that never an Armitage dies a sudden or violent death but some member of the family sees the phantom skater on the ice, and hears his last bubbling cry across the waters."

Eastwood Hall in Nottinghamshire is now an events and convention center but its spooky history still lingers on. It plays host to an annual Ghost Hunt and the building is said to be plagued by flickering light bulbs, heavy footsteps and disembodied voices. Some visitors have recalled having the sensation of being pushed... which begs the question - did the ill-fated skater later later dubbed The Phantom of The Lake accidentally drown on the night before his marriage... or was he pushed?

THE SKATING CHAUFFEUR

Julia V. Sullivan, one of Chicago's first licensed female chauffeurs

Julia Veronica Sullivan drew considerable attention in the spring of 1912, when she broke down gender barriers and became one of Chicago's first licensed female chauffeurs. She was no stranger to the spotlight. In 1910, she'd won the National Archery Association's women's title... and before that, she had passed Canadian tests in figure skating.

In early November of 1912, Julia unexplainedly left her job with a taxi company. On November 26 of that year, the police were summoned to her apartment after neighbours heard a gunshot. Julia was found dead in her bed with a revolver beside her. She was only forty-two years old.

The coroner ruled Julia's death to be a suicide, but the police weren't buying it. They took her landlady, Mrs. Loeb, into custody. Mrs. Loeb had been the only other person in her apartment around the time of her death, but she could not explain what had happened. Apparently, the two women had been drinking vodka and then Julia went to her room drunk. There was considerable speculation that Mrs. Loeb had something to do with it. There was also speculation that because she had left her job weeks prior, she may have been behind on her rent and the landlady (after a few drinks) might have become particularly enraged by this. Then there was her manner of death - being shot in the heart - which wasn't common in suicide cases. 


On December 11, 1912, a jury ruled that Julia had committed suicide "while temporarily deranged" but 
many whispered that Mrs. Loeb knew more than she was telling the police. Had a pioneering chauffeur and talented figure skater taken her own life or had someone gotten away with murder?


SKATING ON THIN ICE

Long, long before Tonya Harding and Jeff Gillooly became household names, skating played a central point in a courtroom drama that CNN would have had a field day with.

On November 15, 1865, an oil field worker from Pittsburgh who went by the name John H. Sargent and a widow from Pecatonica, Illinois named Mrs. Achsah E. Follett checked into separate rooms at the Bushnell House inn in Beloit, Wisconsin. Early the next morning, they were married by Reverend S.H. Stocking, with the reverend's wife and daughter and a Mrs. Purcell of Beloit serving as witnesses. 

About an hour after the wedding, John H. Sargent applied to the Beloit agent of the Travelers Insurance Company of Hartford for three month's insurance against death by accident: a policy with a three thousand dollar payout - which would be nearly sixty thousand dollars today. The policy was written and delivered to him, and his new bride was the beneficiary. He then left with his wife immediately, saying he was in a great rush to catch a train. Mr. Sargent purportedly went back to work on the Pennsylvania oil fields and Mrs. Sargent returned home to Pecatonia alone. Almost a month later, Mrs. Sargent announced to her friends that her husband was coming to town.

In their 1878 book "Remarkable Strategies And Conspiracies", John Benjamin Lewis and Charles Carroll Bombaugh explained what happened next: "The people of the village of Pecatonica were notified by Henry J. Allen and his brother-in-law Samuel A. Corwin of that place, and Emanuel Hill of Rockford, that John H. Sargent, who had been skating, in company with Corwin, on the Pecatonica River during the afternoon of that day, had fallen through an air-hole and disappeared under the ice. Thorough search for the body was immediately instituted and continued during the next two days by a large number of citizens, but no trace of it was discovered... The people, generally, expressed their belief in the occurrence as alleged, though there were a few persons who held a different opinion. The officers of the [insurance] company, not being fully satisfied, directed further investigation, which resulted in their determination to withhold immediate payment of the claim, although there was nothing but vague suspicion to justify delay. The suspicion was founded mainly upon the bad character which the parties, especially Allen, bore in their own neighborhood; and the singular circumstance that Sargent, who had been married only four weeks (every day of which had been spent away from his bride) did not, on his return to the town where she was living, first visit her before skating with his friends upon the Pecatonica River. It was decided to resist at law, if need be, what appeared to be an attempt to defraud the company."

A three month search for the ill-fated skater failed to produce a body and aside from his three skating companions, no one in Pecatonia seemed to have any proof of the existence of Mr. Sargent. Meanwhile in Beloit, it was discovered that Sargent had pawned a silver watch for the premium on his policy and that the initials he had given in the register of the Bushnell House inn the night before his wedding read 'H.J.' and not 'J.H.' Serious doubts, both private and public, began to settle in as to whether or not this "Mr. Sargent" was a flim flam man. Things didn't look good.

Impatient for her three thousand dollar payday, Mrs. Sargent sued. The insurance company arrived with its shaky evidence in tow. Gilbert Love, recounting the events of the trial in the October 19, 1933 issue of "The Pittsburgh Press" noted that "The widow was not a good witness. She could remember nothing about her deceased husband's past. She didn't know where he was born, who his father and mother were, or whether he had ever been married before. He was an oil field worker from Pennsylvania and she had simply married him. That was her story and she stuck to it. Then the insurance company exploded its first bombshell. It brought in the pastor from Beloit and the witnesses to the marriage. They identified witness Henry J. Allen as the man who had married the widow under the name of James H. Sargent."

The widow, realizing she was in hot water, pulled out a photograph of her dead husband. The markings on the back indicated it had been taken by a photographer in Batavia, Illinois, so the insurance attorney stalled and brought in the photographer, Lorin M. Whitney. When probed about who was in the picture, he said, "This photograph is of my make. I have the negative from which this picture is made. I took the negative, and know the person who sat for it. The name of the person who sat for this this negative is James Clure. He lives in Batavia, Illinois; is a tailor by trade, and is still living. I have seen him nearly every day and I last saw him about an hour ago." As everyone in the courtroom tried to pick their jaws up off the floor, Clure strolled up to the stand. He confirmed to the judge that it was indeed him in the picture and said, "I was never known or called by the name of John H. Sargent. I was never married to the plaintiff. I was never drowned in the Pecatonia River!" With that damning testimony, the widow's star witnesses vanished from the courtroom and left town. She was left high and dry... but her problems were just beginning.

Once "Mr. Sargent" was located in Iowa, the conniving couple were indicted by the grand jury of Rock County and spent some time in a Jainsville jail. There were some complications though. Prior to his arrest, "Mr. Sargent" had been injured badly when cutting a falling tree... and "Mrs. Sargent" had given birth to their baby. Lewis and Bombaugh recollected, "After remaining in jail some time, and thereby punished to some extent, though not so much as their crimes deserved, they were released on nominal bail, which was, of course, forfeited, and they escaped further punishment. This was the result of humane consideration for the widow, who was Allen's dupe, and for her children, and for Allen himself, whose confinement really endangered his worthless life."


THE PHANTOM SKATER OF HICKORY CREEK

In the winter of 1888, nine year old Harvey Seasongood headed out with friends after school to an old wooden bridge near the frozen Hickory Creek, a tributary of the St. Joseph River in Berrien County, Michigan. 


What happened that day still resonated deeply with Harvey, a retired farm supply company operator, in the sixties. A 1963 article in the "Lansing State Journal" recalled his chilling story: "Suddenly from more than a mile downstream came a loud sound of scraping blades. Shouts and laughter died out among the lads. Time seemed to stand still as the echo of scraping blades hung on the creek banks. Children scrambled up the banks and through knee-deep snow with their skates on, leaving shoes and boots behind. Not the last to leave was little Harvey. The big boys jumped a barbed wire fence at the top of the bank. The little ones crawled under. But in-between Harvey tried to dive through and his clothes got caught on the barbs. Thrashing about only tangled him hopelessly. That's why Harvey was around when the Phantom skated by. The Phantom's scraping blades grew louder after each silent glide and sounded like he was rushing on with express train speed. Gasping, Harvey twisted around in his sheepskin jacket. Green sparks and blue flames flashed from enormous blades as the Phantom skater came around a bend. He was at least 18 feet tall, Harvey says, wearing black tights and a black skull cap, and he cast no shadow, despite the full moon. As the huge black figure approached the old timber bridge, the Phantom went into a crouch and picked up speed. Then with an eerie laugh that froze little Harvey's tears, the Phantom leaped high and hurdled the bridge. As he came down on the other side, Harvey saw in the moonlight that one blade was bonded to a cloven hoof. Alighting with a roar of sparks that melted snow in a half-acre circle, the Phantom sped on down Hickory Creek. The Phantom hadn't noticed little Harvey caught in the fence. And the only person to ever report seeing the Phantom doesn't remember how long he was caught in the fence or how he got home - but he remembers seeing a glow from green sparks and blue flame receding upstream."


Harvey Seasongood passed away in 1964 but his chilling story of the Phantom Skater of Hickory Creek became an urban legend in the area.

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 FacebookTwitterPinterest 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.

The 1975 Skate Canada International Competition


They wore leisure suits, mood rings and platform shoes. They crowded around television sets to watch the antics of Archie and Edith Bunker on "All In The Family". They swayed to David Bowie's "Fame" and bitched and moaned over the "Return To Sender, Embargo Mail" labels on their letters during Canada's postal strike. 


The year was 1975 and from October 23 to 25, over twenty-two thousand spectators came out of the woodwork to watch forty-five skaters from thirteen countries compete at the newly-constructed Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton, Alberta to compete at the third ever Skate Canada International competition. It was Olympic Silver Medallist Debbi Wilkes' first job as a commentator for CTV.


The competition was significant for three reasons. Firstly, it was one of the only autumn internationals during that period. Secondly, it was the kick-off to an Olympic season and a great opportunity for skaters to 'test-run' their new programs in front of international judges before heading to Innsbruck. Thirdly - and perhaps most importantly - it was the first major international event held since the ISU voted to reduce figures to thirty percent in value and up the free skating to fifty. How did the skaters fare? Let's take a look back!

THE MEN'S COMPETITION

Photos courtesy Edmonton Public Library

Men from Finland, France, Poland, the Soviet Union, Great Britain, Japan, Austria, Czechoslovakia, the United States and Canada competed in Edmonton but the two skaters the audience was most interested in were Toller Cranston and Ron Shaver.

Toller Cranston

Toller Cranston had won the event in 1973; Shaver was victorious in 1974. When the two Canadians last competed against each other at the World Championships in Colorado Springs, Cranston finished fourth to Shaver's eighth.

Video courtesy Frazer Ormondroyd

When Ron Shaver arrived in Edmonton, he was still recuperating from a serious groin injury that had nearly sidelined him the previous season. He finished only fourth in figures, behind Igor Bobrin, Toller Cranston and Hungary's László Vajda. A stumble on the second half of the double toe-loop/triple toe-loop combination and a fall at the end of his step sequence in the short program made it impossible for Shaver to move up. Toller Cranston, on the other hand, brought down the house with one of his finest performances ever. Skating to Strauss' jubilant "Graduation Ball", he dazzled the audiences and judges alike with his finesse, flair and superb technical skill.

Left: Toller Cranston. Right: Terry Kubicka. Photos courtesy Edmonton Public Library.

The men's free skate in Edmonton was a nightmare for both the accountants and referee and assistant referee Sonia Bianchetti and Audrey Williams. Nineteen Terry Kubicka, the young American who had won the free skate at the 1975 World Championships and emerged as his country's 'number one' after Gordon McKellen's retirement, brought down the house with an electric routine jam-packed with triple jumps... and a not yet officially illegal but) certainly frowned upon backflip. The judges scored him just behind Ron Shaver, who landed five triples, in the free skate.

Terry Kubicka

When the marks were tallied, Terry Kubicka managed to make up enough ground to finish third overall despite being only sixth entering the free skate after stepping out of a triple Lutz in the short and messing up one of his figures. Toller Cranston, though only third in the free skate with a disappointing performance that featured only one clean triple, still managed to take the gold on the strength of his figures and short program.

THE WOMEN'S COMPETITION

Edmonton born Lynn Nightingale had won both the Canadian and Skate Canada titles in 1973 and 1974 but opted to perform an exhibition instead of competing at the 1975 event. She was slated to compete at the Richmond Trophy in England that November. In her absence, the heavy favourite was Kath Malmberg, a two-time U.S. Medallist from Rockville, Illinois who had placed a strong fifth at the 1975 Worlds in Munich on the strength of her figures. To no one's surprise, she led the pack after the compulsories in Alberta. Japan's Emi Watanabe, only fourth in figures, won the short to move up to third overall entering the free skate behind Malmberg and Italy's Susanna Driano, who trained in Colorado Springs with Carlo and Christa Fassi. Watanabe trained in Toronto but went to school down in the United States.


Susanna Driano impressed many with her stamina and high energy in the free skate. Her zippy and athletic performance included a triple Salchow, three double Axels and three double Lutzes. Her only error was on a fourth double Axel attempt, which she aborted mid-air and two-footed. In comparison, Kath Malmberg's program was far less technically demanding. She 'only' did one double Axel and two double Lutzes and attempted no triples. When the judges ranked her only third in the free skate, the gold became Driano's. It was a remarkable comeback as she'd placed only tenth in the event the year prior in Kitchener.

Photo courtesy Edmonton Public Library

Canadians Susan MacDonald, Camille Rebus and Kim Alletson placed fourth, sixth and seventh. MacDonald was suffering from an abscessed tooth. West Germany's Gerti Schanderl, third after the figures, dropped down to fifth overall with a disastrous free skate. A crowd favourite, Schanderl skated with an ambition one reporter from the "Manchester Guardian" described as "resembling a Panzer tank in full attack."

THE ICE DANCE COMPETITION


Photo courtesy Edmonton Public Library

Dance was poised to be included at the Olympics for the first time and the discipline was going through something of a metamorphosis. At the most recent ISU Congress, the Ice Dance Technical Committee had banned vocal music and rules had been passed penalizing excessive side-by-side and shadow skating, separations, posing and ballet inspired programs. Couples were also not allowed to perform more than seven introductory steps in the compulsory dances. In "Skating" magazine, Frank Loeser stated, "Ice dancing is currently in an unusual state of happy distraction. Each dance team seems to be pursuing a distinct sort of dance with an individual style. The only problem created is one for the judges. Apart from an awareness of technical competency, one can only use personal preference for sorting out an order. The compulsory dances thankfully provide a simpler frame for judging technical ability."

Lyudmila Pakhomova and Aleksandr Gorshkov

Thirteen couples competed in Edmonton - the largest field to date in the burgeoning fall invitational. 1974 winners Irina Moiseeva and Andrei Minenkov didn't return to defend their title but their Soviet teammates Lyudmila Pakhomova and Aleksandr Gorshkov were on hand to give exhibitions. Hungarians Krisztina Regőczy and András Sallay, ranked sixth in the World, were forced to withdraw when Sallay injured his back picking up luggage at the airport terminal. On hand were the fourth and fifth place teams in the World - Natalia Linichuk and Gennadi Karponosov of the Soviet Union and Matilde Ciccia and Lamberto Cesarani of Italy.


Precise compulsories and a strong Rhumba OSP earned Linichuk and Karponosov a hefty lead entering the free dance.  To the surprise of many, Canadians Barbara Berezowski and David Porter managed to best the Italians to take the silver on the strength of their show-stopping, four tempo free dance to "In The Mood", "Jordan's Tango", "Softly As I Leave You" and "Mambo No. 5".


The Muscovites, to the surprise of no one, took the gold with their free dance to "The Last Snow Of Spring". Americans Judi Genovesi and Kent Weigle, Poles Teresa Weyna and Piotr Bojańczyk and Canadians Susan Carscallen and Eric Gillies finished fourth through sixth. Canada's third couple, Lorna Wighton and John Dowding, were eighth. In her book "Figure Skating History: The Evolution Of Dance On Ice", Lynn Copley-Graves noted, "The winners' strength lay in their maturity - the play of man against and toward woman - plus intricate choreography." After the Sunday night exhibitions, Barbara Berezowski flew on a red-eye flight to Toronto to compete in the Miss Canada Pageant. She was the reigning Miss Toronto. David Porter joked, "If she wins, she'll have to call me Mr. Universe".

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 FacebookTwitterPinterest 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.

Water And Ice: The Alfredo Mendoza Story

Latin American figure skating pioneer and water skiing champion Alfredo Mendoza
Alfredo Mendoza and Jinx Clark. Photo courtesy "World Ice Skating Guide".

"I was burned out on skiing. I was doing it all the time and not making any money. It was fun to just glide along the ice. I was making money - and back then I was after the money." - Alfredo Mendoza, "The Tampa Tribune", August 23, 1995

Born January 9, 1933 in Acapulco de Juárez, Mexico, Alfredo Ortiz Mendoza grew up on the water. As a boy, he learned to swim and dive off the cliffs of La Quebrada and worked on a tugboat with his older brother Carlos. Alfredo and Carlos tried their hand at bullfighting in Mexico City but ultimately it was another sport that really caught Alfredo's fancy.

After seeing a newsreel of water skiers at a local theatre, Alfredo travelled to San Juan Bautista Tequesquitengo to learn the sport on the town's lake. A year later in 1950, when Dick Pope Jr. brought his water skiing troupe to the El Paradise beach club in Acapulco, Alfredo entered his first contest and placed a creditable fourth. He caught Dick's eye and was invited to participate in a series of competitions at Cypress Gardens in Florida.

Latin American figure skating pioneer and water skiing champion Alfredo Mendoza

With training, Alfredo quickly rose through the water skiing ranks and won the U.S. water ski jumping tournaments in 1952 and 1953. In 1953, he won the World title in Toronto, a feat he repeated two years later in Beirut, Lebanon. After turning professional, he staged a popular show at Cypress Gardens and endorsed a line of water skis - 'The Mendoza'. In a blurb regarding his 1989 induction to the International Waterski and Wakeboarding Hall of Fame, the sport's governing body noted, "His jumping wins were characterized by an unusual 'crack-the-whip' approach to the ramp, now known as the double-wake cut. Mendoza introduced it in 1951 after he and his fellow Cypress Gardens skiers had used it successfully in practice. It enabled him to set records at the world tournaments and later became a standard for water ski jumpers of all ages."

Latin American figure skating pioneer and water skiing champion Alfredo Mendoza
Photo courtesy Library of Congress

Alfredo's unlikely introduction to the sport of figure skating happened in 1955, when he was twenty years old. In a 1969 interview with a reporter from "The Tampa Tribune", he recalled, "Holiday on Ice was showing in Tampa that winter... and the star, Kay Servatius, came over to the Gardens to see them. She was gorgeous - a Ukrainian. I met her at the Gardens and she was interested in learning to water ski, which of course pleased me and Mr. Pope as well. I taught her, came to see the show at the Armoury... in Tampa and first laid eyes on an ice rink. After the show, I put on [a pair of rented] skates, got on the ice and promptly busted my confidence when I fell. I tried a couple of times, got interested and in the next few years, every chance I got, I went to Coral Gables where they had a rink and began learning to skate." The same reporter who interviewed him for that article called him a 'wetback'. Despite the discrimination he faced, Alfredo was so persistent in his efforts to learn to skate that he made the three and a half hour drive from Winter Haven to Coral Gables as often as he could. In 1957, he auditioned for Holiday On Ice and got his start in the chorus.

Latin American figure skating pioneer and water skiing champion Alfredo Mendoza
Photo courtesy "World Ice Skating Guide".

Alfredo's early days in the show were far from glamorous - at one point, he was selected to appear as the front half of a dog costume. Wearing a fifteen pound head, he careened around the ice to the strains of Elvis Presley's hit "Hound Dog". He recalled, "I couldn't skate worth a darn, but I was the world water ski champ. Publicity and all and they hired me. I was awful. I fell all the time. Twice, I guess, in one show was my personal record." Practicing every chance he could in between shows, he got his 'big break' when one of the male stars of the show was injured and he was picked out of fifty five other chorus skaters to replace him temporarily.

Latin American figure skating pioneer and water skiing champion Alfredo MendozaLatin American figure skating pioneer and water skiing champion Alfredo Mendoza
Left: Jinx Clark and Alfredo Mendoza. Right: Janie Morris and Alfredo Mendoza.

In the sixties, Alfredo became one of Holiday on Ice's biggest stars, skating adagio pairs acts with Tom Collins' future wife Janie Morris, Darolyn Prior, Carol Johnson and his own future wife, Jinx Clark. Alfredo's pairs act featured some of the most dazzling tricks of the trade, including gravity-defying carry lifts and the Detroiter. Many thought it was his skill on water skis translated to the ice, but he insisted the sports weren't similar whatsoever. "The skating is so much more difficult, really," he recalled. "Naturally, you don't have the help from the pull of the boat and the momentum for leaps and turns is all your own. Furthermore, there's always a possibility one of the girls in the show, or someone, might have dropped a bobby pin on the ice and that's some hazard."


Alfredo toured with Holiday on Ice until 1974 when, tired of the nomadic lifestyle of a touring professional, he returned to the water skiing world as a professional teacher. After returning to Cypress Gardens for a time, he operated his own water skiing schools in Clearwater and Tarpon Springs, supplementing his income by taking tourists out parasailing. In 1995, he told a reporter from "The Tampa Tribune" "I can't believe I've been doing it all this time, but it's great to be with people. I tell you, I love teaching. I think I'm a good teacher and I enjoy it."

Latin American figure skating pioneer and water skiing champion Alfredo Mendoza
Alfredo water-skiing in Tampa in 1995, just two years before his death

Alfredo passed away on March 21, 1997 in Clearwater, Florida at the age of sixty-four, leaving behind two sons - Carlos and Ricardo - and a legacy as the one of the only Latin American skaters to successfully make the transition from water to 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 FacebookTwitterPinterest 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.

Manuel del Toro, The Puerto Rican Patinador

Latin American figure skating pioneer and artist Manuel del Toro
Photo courtesy "World Ice Skating Guide"

The son of Mercedes (Bellido) and Pedro Gregorio del Torro Gomez, Manuel del Toro was born August 3, 1927 in Brooklyn, New York. When he was a baby, his parents brought him to Puerto Rico. Manuel, his older sister Mercedes and younger brother Jorge grew up in the municipality of Mayagüez, where his father worked as a house carpenter. 

Manuel's family returned to New York when he was ten. His father found work as an operator at a cork manufacturing company, and settled on Lorraine Street in Brooklyn. As a teenager, he studied art at the Graduate School of Industrial Art. To make ends meet, he got a job as an usher at the Center Theatre, which was famous for its lavish ice shows. Employees were permitted to use the theatre's ice stage during off hours. Manuel bought his first pair of skates and began dabbling on the ice. Though he received no formal instruction, he was able to catch on to the sport quickly after memorizing the moves of the performers in the shows he'd watched dozens of times. After only five weeks, he was invited to join one of the shows, but his skating career was delayed by his service as a Private First Class with the United States Marine Corps. 

Latin American figure skating pioneer and artist Manuel del Toro
Manuel del Toro and Jerry Rehfield

After his discharge from the military, Manuel landed a role in an ice show at the Boulevard Room at The Stevens Hotel in Chicago. Billed as 'The Greco Of The Ice', he quickly earned a reputation as a multi-talented performer. Having taken some voice classes at the Minneapolis College Of Music, he was tasked with emceeing, singing and skating in many hotel ice shows.

Ad for Dorothy Lewis ice skating show at the Hotel Nicolett

In Manuel's professional career, which spanned four decades, he performed at the Starlight Roof of the Chase Hotel in St. Louis, Missouri, Barbara Ann Scott's Skating Sensations Of 1950 tour, Dorothy Lewis' shows at the Hotel Nicollet in Minnesota, the Terrace Room of the Hotel New Yorker, the Roxy Theatre, the Ice Vogues and Holiday On Ice tours, Wiener Eisrevue, the ice shows at the Conrad Hilton Hotel in Chicago and Johnny Flanagan's Ice Spectacular "Fiesta Tropicana" at the Cabaret Caprice at the Sheraton in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. In 1960, he also appeared in a television special hosted by Johnny Desmond called "Music On Ice".

Latin American figure skating pioneer and artist Manuel del Toro

Manuel performed everything from adagio pairs acts to barrel jumping and interpretive and comedy skating, and was hugely popular with audiences. It didn't hurt that he was six feet tall, dark and handsome. He was married at least three times and had four children - two sons named Ricardo and Alfredo and two daughters named Patrice and Vanessa. His wives included Peggy Lou Harrison, a model named Jane Conlon and the professional skater Jinx Clark.

Latin American figure skating pioneer and artist Manuel del Toro
Manuel del Toro and Jerry Rehfield

Manuel was not only a talented figure skater and singer, but an exceptionally gifted and versatile commercial artist. He did everything from oil paintings to sculpt metal (clay with aluminum coating) to sculpture. He also designed parade floats and made rugs on a loom. In his spare time, he enjoyed baseball, golf and swimming. 

Latin American figure skating pioneer and artist Manuel del Toro

Manuel passed away on June 11, 1999 in his home in Florida, having lived in Pompano Beach for many years. His pioneering role as one of the America's first Latino figure skaters absolutely deserves recognition. 

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 FacebookTwitterPinterest 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.

The 1952 U.S. Figure Skating Championships

Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine

King George VI passed away and Princess Elizabeth was proclaimed the Queen of England. The United States senate ratified a peace treaty with Japan. Harry S. Truman was President, Brylcreem and beehives were all the rage, a movie ticket was forty cents and Kay Starr's "Wheel Of Fortune" topped the music charts.


The year was 1952 and from March 26 to 29, many of America's best figure skaters gathered at the Broadmoor Ice Palace in Colorado Springs, Colorado for the U.S. Figure Skating Championships. The Broadmoor had played host to the Nationals in both 1948 and 1949.

Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine

The event was the grand finale of a long and arduous season. Most of the top skaters had already competed at the U.S. Olympic Tryouts just before Christmas in Indianapolis and at the Winter Olympic Games and World Championships, held in Oslo and Paris. Though the competition was serious business, the mild weather coupled with the popular outdoor swimming pool on the Lake Terrace of the Broadmoor Hotel provided more of a vacation vibe than anything. How did things play out on the ice? Let's take a look back!

THE NOVICE AND JUNIOR EVENTS

Los Angeles' Georgiana Sutton lead the way after the school figures in the novice women's event, but was overtaken in the free by Mary Ann Dorsey. Fourteen year old Dorsey - 'Lulu' to friends - was a ninth grade student in Minneapolis who enjoyed knitting and playing ping pong. Another ninth grade student, thirteen year old Tim Brown of Baltimore, was the unanimous winner in the novice men's event. He had only been skating for three years at that point and carried around a wishbone for good luck.

The winners of the junior pairs title were Sharon Coate and Richard 'Buddy' Bromley, teenagers from the state of Washington. Coate and Bromley were competitors in singles, pairs and dance and represented two different clubs - she Seattle; he the Lakewood Winter Club in Tacoma. He was the editor-in-chief of his high school newspaper; she collected dolls from around the world. Finishing just off the podium in fourth were Carol Ann Peters and Danny Ryan, who skated 'double duty' in the Gold (senior) Dance event.

The Silver (junior) Dance event was won by a husband and wife team from Buffalo, Elizabeth and Roger Chambers. They had both been skating for around ten years; competitively for four. She was a mother of three and he worked in the sales department of Maxson Cadillac. Both were keen amateur photographers and were quite tall for dancers at the time. She was five foot six; he six foot one.

Carol Heiss and Tenley Albright

Though she had just won the Eastern title in the senior category, twelve year old Carol Heiss competed as a junior in Colorado Springs. She represented the Junior Skating Club of New York and came behind from third in figures to convincingly win the junior women's event. In doing so, she added her name to a long list of U.S. women who'd claim national titles as both a junior and senior... Tenley Albright, Gretchen Van Zandt Merrill, Yvonne Sherman, Beatrix Loughran and Maribel Vinson among them. In her 2012 interview with Allison Manley on The Manleywoman SkateCast, Heiss recalled, "It was my first time dealing with the altitude. And I was third in school figures, and I remember thinking that I would have to work hard on them to get better. And I remember walking in and slamming the big arena doors on my finger. Even today it’s a little crooked, so I must have broken it."

When fourteen year old Ronnie Robertson, a ninth grade student at a progressive school in Colorado Springs, won the junior men's school figures, some thought his road to gold would be a cakewalk. It was anything but. He faced a serious challenge in the free skate from Cleveland's David Jenkins and California's Armando Rodriguez. When the marks were tallied, three judges had Robertson first, one voted for Rodriguez and another gave his first place ordinal to Philadelphia's William Lemmon Jr. - who ended up only seventh overall. The red-haired Robertson took the gold, followed by Rodriguez and Jenkins... and everyone agreed that the future of men's figure skating in America looked very bright indeed.

THE PAIRS COMPETITION

Only two pairs competed for the Henry Wainwright Howe Memorial Trophy in the senior pairs event. To no one's surprise, Karol and Peter Kennedy easily defeated Minnesota's Janet Gerhauser and John Nightingale to win their fifth and final U.S. title. Though there was no controversy in hthe judging - all five judges had the Kennedy's first - but behind the scenes there was a very different story going on.

The February 28, 1952 issue of "The Seattle Daily Times" reported, "Dr. Michael Kennedy of Seattle and his son were involved in a fist fight with a French news cameraman tonight at the World Figure Skating Championship and were separated by police. The incident came as Peter and his sister, Karol, had left the ice after finishing their pair-skating routine. As they left the ice, Karol stepped to the side of the rink and sat down to catch her breath. Dr. Kennedy said he asked the photographer not to take her picture because she was crying, but the picture was made anyway. In the melee that followed, the doctor's glasses were broken and the cameraman received a bloody nose. The police stepped in. The Kennedys hurried from the Sports Palace by a rear door and were taken to their hotel. Peter and Karol didn't wait to change to their street clothes."

In the months that followed, the ISU had its Congress and the USFSA its Annual General Meeting. It came out that in addition to the incident in Paris, Karol and Peter had also skated an exhibition without a proper sanction in Garmisch-Partenkirchen following the World Championships. The incident in question was a performance for American G.I.'s during a Bavarian skating competition, arranged by the U.S. military. Their father believed the German sponsors had applied for a sanction from the ISU, but they hadn't. Newspapers reported the exhibition as being the reason for their suspension, but the USFSA and ISU also acknowledged the incident in Paris.

Though Karol and Peter's father had told the press that they intended to skate professionally, after the suspension Peter applied to his local draft board for induction to go fight in the Korean War. He was rejected because he had asthma. He had previously been given a deferment because he was a student at the University of Washington. He got a job at the First National Bank.

THE ICE DANCE COMPETITION

Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine

Six couples competed for the Harry E. Radix Trophy in Gold (senior) Dance in Colorado Springs, with two pairings eliminated after the initial round. The unanimous winners, to the surprise of few, were Baltimore's Lois Waring and Michael McGean. They had won the event previously in 1950 but opted not to compete the year prior and were also victors at the ISU's International Ice Dance Competition at the 1950 World Championships in London. Their free dance (rather daringly) included a couple of very small lifts. 

Twenty one year old Waring had studied at the University Of Miami and twenty four year old McGean was a graduate of Dartmouth College. She enjoyed dancing and dressmaking; he photography and squash. The Sunday following the competition, the couple got married outdoors on the Lake Terrace at the Broadmoor Hotel. Many skaters and officials stayed in town for the ceremony and reception.

THE WOMEN'S COMPETITION


Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine

After losing to Sonya Klopfer at the U.S. Olympic Trials in Indianapolis, sixteen year old Manter Hall School student Tenley Albright of Boston had claimed the silver medal at the Winter Olympic Games in Oslo and withdrawn from the World Championships in Paris due to a serious bronchial infection. Sufficiently recovered to compete in Colorado Springs, Albright easily won her first of five consecutive U.S. titles, leading the field of six from start to finish. She also earned the Oscar L. Richard Trophy, awarded to the most artistic 'lady' skater. 

Seattle's Frances Dorsey took the silver, while St. Louis' Helen Geekie (competing in her eighth U.S. Championships) took the bronze. Sonya Klopfer and Virginia 'Ginny' Baxter, second and third at the World Championships, were notably absent. Shortly after the competition, both received suspensions from the USFSA for promising to compete at the U.S. Championships before leaving for Europe to compete at Olympics and Worlds, and failing to do so.

THE MEN'S COMPETITION


Tenley Albright and Dick Button

"A superbly built athlete of immense strength, as lithe as a panther, he is concerned with his figure skating, as an endeavour to reach even greater heights. A terrific worker, he trains has few athletes have ever trained before and anyone who has seen him skate must surely realize how necessary this hard training is in order to attain such exceptional brilliance and to perform his amazing programme". These were the words of famed British skater, judge and writer T.D. Richardson, describing two time Olympic Gold Medallist, five time World Champion and three time North American Champion Dick Button. It was a delight to the skating community that Button gave "perhaps the greatest free style exhibition of his career" (according to Mrs. R. Sanders Miller in "Skating" magazine) to win his seventh consecutive U.S. title in Colorado Springs. In his final competition as an amateur, Button put the boots to his competition in the figures and landed a triple loop and three double Axels to earn unanimous first place votes from every judge and the Oscar L. Richard Trophy for the most artistic performance by a male skater. Jimmy Grogan, the winner of the U.S. Olympic Trials (which Button hadn't competed in) took the silver, ahead of Hayes Alan Jenkins, Dudley Richards and Hugh Graham. The standard of skating was so high that any other year, any of the five competitors could have easily won.


In his book "Dick Button On Skates", Button wrote, "I knew that this last national championship might be by final competition and I slaved to make it a successful one. Winning the United States title for the seventh title, I equalled the record set by Roger Turner of Boston in 1934. When I retired after this '52 tournament, I left a sport which was waxing yet stronger, with no hint of a slowdown. I was amazed in 1949 to see novice skaters incorporating in their routines jumps which had been considered daring manoeuvres for champions as late as 1945. This trend became more marked through 1952, and it seemed that an original, difficult move was no sooner introduced than it became standard equipment down the ranks of competitors, from the seniors, through the juniors, into the more talented echelon of novices. The mastery of these new ideas was not easy, but the ambition and industry of our younger skaters was so intense that they were achieving in one season what would have been the work of several years in more leisurely pre-war times. In the national and sectional championships I could appreciate best the restless urge for perfection and progress in so many skaters. Their enthusiasm and drive had carried our made-in-America school to world supremacy, and had already established it on a sounder basis when I retired than at any time during my competitive career."

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 FacebookTwitterPinterest 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 Whiz Of White Lodge: The Winsome Thackeray Story

Photo courtesy National Library Of Australia

The daughter of James and Esther (Anderson) Thackeray, Esther Winsome Lorraine Thackeray was born in 1908 in Melbourne, Australia. Winsome and her three brothers William, Robert and James grew up wanting for very little at the family's large home 'White Lodge' on Marine Parade in St. Kilda. 

Winsome's father was the Managing Director of Messrs. H. R. Carter & Co. Pty. Ltd., Flour and Grain Merchants and her mother was the President of the East St. Kilda Women's Hospital Auxiliary and a member of the Australia Women's National League, Seamen's Mission and English Speaking Union. While attending the Church of England Girls' Grammar School and the Oberwyl girls boarding school, her life became an endless stream of tea parties, charity fundraisers and dance lessons.

Winsome became a member of East St. Kilda junior auxiliary of the Women's Hospital and earned a cooking diploma after taking a three year course in Domestic Arts at the Emily McPherson College of Domestic Economy. In 1927, at the age of nineteen, she was finally able to achieve some semblance of control over her destiny. She showed up on the doorstep of the famed Melbourne Glaciarium and fell madly in love with figure skating. By 1930, she was skating every single day and had passed her third class test. In an interview with Beatrice Fischer in the August 21, 1930 issue of "Table Talk" she explained, "I just couldn't bear to let anything beat me! And watching those more fortunate individuals who could cut all kinds of patterns on the ice with such apparent ease, only goaded me on to do to the same. I found, that once on the ice, it was not so very difficult to make a beginning, be it ever so bad, and then after each trial I noticed an improvement, which added to my zest and gave me an exhilirating sense of power. It is a marvellous feeling in any form of activity, but particularly with skating, when it becomes quite intoxicating."

Photo courtesy National Library Of Australia

Finding an unlikely partner in Cyril MacGillicuddy, a doctor almost twenty years her senior, Winsome entered every pairs, Waltzing and singles skating competition imaginable in Australia in the late twenties and early thirties... and placed in the top three in almost every one. Contrasting with her curly fair hair, she always skated in all black and wore a short dress with a flared skirt. She added a hat and stockings for exhibitions. In 1933 - her most successful year - she won the national women's and pairs titles in Sydney and the Victorian women's, pairs and waltzing titles in Melbourne, setting a record for the most Australian skating titles held by any person at the same time. In total, she won two Australian women and pairs titles and one Australian Waltzing title. In 1935, she again made history by becoming the first woman in Victoria to pass the first class skating test. Quoted in the September 24, 1935 issue of "The Argus", she explained, "I love skating and it is a great joy to me to be able to be on the ice nearly every day." What made Winsome's achievements all the more heartening was the fact that at the height of her success, she was grieving the death of her father.

Winsome Thackeray and Dr. Cyril MacGillicuddy. Photo courtesy National Library Of Australia

Though she retired from competitive figure skating in 1935, Winsome remained a fixture at the Melbourne Glaciarium, helping to organize charity skating galas for the Women's Hospital and performing in carnivals as part of the 'Glaciarium Eight' (a team of two fours) with Edith Adams, Alison Lyons, Gwen Chambers, Graham Hobbs, Nate Walley, Ron Chambers and Jack Gordon. Though coverage of figure skating competitions was scant in the Australian press at the time, numerous mentions were made of Winsome's elegance and grace on the ice. She told Beatrice Fischer, "I really think my dancing helped me tremendously with skating. It is quite noticeable that those who have never danced make very much slower progress on the ice, than others who have. Dancing seems to instil a certain balance and poise, which is so necessary to possess in order to become a graceful skater."

By the time World War II started, Winsome had hung up her skates. She returned to the life her mother had charted out for her - volunteer work, volunteer work and more volunteer work. She worked tirelessly with the St. Kilda League Of Helpers and the Mission of St. James and St. John and lived a relatively quiet life. In 1947, her partner and friend Dr. MacGillicuddy passed away and on Good Friday in 1963, the long vacant Melbourne Glaciarium burned to the ground. Winsome never married and lived at 'White Lodge' her entire life, dying in relative obscurity at the age of sixty-eight on March 26, 1976... exactly forty years after she made first made Australian figure skating history.

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 FacebookTwitterPinterest 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.

A Touch Of Triskaidekaphobia

The number 13 in vintage typeset

Triskaidekaphobia, a word you'd never want to wind up with in a spelling bee, is defined as a fear of the number 13. For centuries, people around the world have considered the number unlucky. There have been suggestions that the ancient Babylonians and Mayans were wary of the number. In a 2015 article in "National Geographic" magazine, a scientist from Newark named Thomas Fernsler attributed fears of the number 13 to the fact that numerologists considered 12 a whole number. "There are 12 months in a year, 12 signs of the zodiac, 12 gods of Olympus, 12 labors of Hercules, 12 tribes of Israel, and 12 apostles of Jesus," he noted. To this day, there are many hotels without a thirteenth floor or room and scores of people who avoid travelling or doing business on the thirteenth day of the month, particularly if its a Friday.

Over the years, figure skating has its own fair share of superstition surrounding the number 13... some of it good, some bad. Barbara Ann Scott considered the number 13 lucky because her armband at the 1948 Winter Olympics was the number 13 and she skated on Friday the 13th at that year's World Championships in Davos. Dorothy Hamill won her Olympic gold medal in Innsbruck on 1976 on Friday the 13th. Karen Magnussen was 13th in the starting order in the free skate at the 1972 World Championships and won a medal in her home country. A handful of skaters have placed 13th at the World Championships and then gone on to win World titles in the years that followed. 

Russian figure skaters Ludmila and Oleg Protopopov
Ludmila and Oleg Protopopov. Photo courtesy Chicago Public Library.

The first were Ludmila Belousova and Oleg Protopopov in 1958. They were followed by Diane Towler and Bernard Ford, Tim Wood, Lyudmila Pakhomova and Aleksandr Gorshkov, Krisztina Regőczy and András Sallay, Irina Lobacheva and Ilya Averbukh, Roman Kostomarov, Isabelle Delobel and Olivier Schoenfelder, Brian Joubert and Anna Cappellini and Luca Lanotte. The most recent skaters to translate a 13th place at the World Championships to gold were Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron. The only skater in history to translate a 13th place finish at the Olympics to a gold medal at a future Games was Shizuka Arakawa.

German figure skaters Anuschka Gläser, Stefan Pfrengle and Claudia Leistner
Anuschka Gläser, Stefan Pfrengle and Claudia Leistner

For many skaters, placing 13th at the World Championships appeared to be something of a curse. German pairs skater Stefan Pfrengle placed 13th at the World Championships three times with two different partners. Skaters who very well could have been World Champions like Toller Cranston, Elizabeth Manley, Sergei Chetverukhin, Petr Barna, Susanna Rahkamo and Petri Kokko and Tanith Belbin and Benjamin Agosto may have had a 13th place finish at the World Championships to blame for their bad luck.

Italian figure skater Anna Galmarini
Anna Galmarini

Several skaters who have placed 13th at the World Championships have sadly died under tragic circumstances. Hana Mašková and Anna Galmarini both perished in automobile accidents. Rob McCall placed 13th at two consecutive World Championships with his first partner and died as a result of HIV/AIDS complications. Chris Reed, who placed 13th at the 2011 World Championships and 13th at the 2018 Olympics, died of cardiac arrest in 2020 at the age of thirty. Denis Ten, who was 13th at the 2010 World Championships, was murdered at the age of twenty-five in 2018. His birthday was on June 13th.

THIRTEENTH PLACE FINISHERS AT THE WINTER OLYMPIC GAMES

Prior to 1928, there were always fewer than thirteen entries in every discipline at the Winter Olympic Games. The skater marked in bold went on to win an Olympic gold medal.

Year

Men

Women

Pairs

Ice Dance

1928

Montgomery Wilson

Edel Randem

Kathleen Lovett and A. Proctor Burman

N/A

1932

(none)

Elizabeth Fisher

(none)

N/A

1936

Erle Reiter

Angela Anderes

Irina Timcic and Alfred Eisenbeisser-Ferraru

N/A

1948

Zdeněk Fikar

Dagmar Lerchová

Grazia Barcellona and Carlo Fassi

N/A

1952

Kalle Tuulos

Vevi Smith

Bjørg Skjælaaen and Reidar Børjeson

N/A

1956

Allan Ganter

Joan Haanappel

(none)

N/A

1960

Peter Jonas

Dany Rigoulot

Marcelle Matthews and Gwyn Jones

N/A

1964

Charles Snelling

Kumiko Okawa

Margit Senf and Peter Göbel

N/A

1968

Philippe Pélissier

Linda Carbonetto

JoJo Starbuck and Ken Shelley

N/A

1972

Didier Gailhaguet

Cathy Lee Irwin

Florence Cahn and Jean-Roland Racle

N/A

1976

Pekka Leskinen

Emi Watanabe

Ingrid Spieglová and Alan Spiegl

Susan Carscallen and Eric Gillies

1980

Rudi Cerne

Karin Riediger

(none)

(none)

1984

Mark Cockerell

Elizabeth Manley

Claudia Massari and Leonardo Azzola

Jindra Holá andd Karol Foltán

1988

Petr Barna

Charlene Wong

Lisa and Neil Cushley

Sharon Jones and Paul Askham

1992

Masakazu Kagiyama

Patricia Neske

Danielle and Stephen Carr

Anna Croci and Luca Mantovani

1994

Michael Tyllesen

Lenka Kulovaná

Anuschka Gläser and Axel Rauschenbach

Aliki Stergiadu and Juris Razgulajevs

1998

Szabolcs Vidrai

Shizuka Arakawa

Danielle McGrath and Stephen Carr

Kateřina Mrázová and Martin Šimeček

2002

Ivan Dinev

Sarah Meier

Tiffany Scott and Philip Dulebohn

Sylwia Nowak and Sebastian Kolasiński

2006

Emanuel Sandhu

Susanna Pöykiö

Marcy Hinzmann and Aaron Parchem

Federica Faiella and Massimo Scali

2010

Artem Borodulin

Min-jeong Kwak

Caydee Denney and Jeremy Barrett

Nóra Hoffmann and Maxim Zavozin

2014

Brian Joubert

Kaetlyn Osmond

Maylin and Daniel Wende

Sara Hurtado and Adrià Díaz

2018

Daniel Samohin

Ha-nul Kim

Tae-ok Ryum and Ju-sik Kim

Kana Muramoto and Chris Reed

2022

Deniss Vasiljevs

Viktoriia SafonovaNicole Della Monica and Matteo Guarise     Marjorie Lajoie and Zachary Lagha

THIRTEENTH PLACE FINISHERS AT THE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

Prior to 1914, there were always fewer than thirteen entries in every discipline at the World Championships. Skaters marked in bold went on to win World titles.

Year

Men

Women

Pairs

Ice Dance

1914

Sergei Wanderfliet

(none)

(none)

N/A

1922

(none)

(none)

(none)

N/A

1923

(none)

(none)

(none)

N/A

1924

(none)

(none)

(none)

N/A

1925

(none)

(none)

(none)

N/A

1926

(none)

(none)

(none)

N/A

1927

(none)

(none)

(none)

N/A

1928

(none)

(none)

(none)

N/A

1929

(none)

(none)

(none)

N/A

1930

(none)

(none)

(none)

N/A

1931

Theo Lass

(none)

(none)

N/A

1932

(none)

Elizabeth Fisher

(none)

N/A

1933

(none)

(none)

(none)

N/A

1934

(none)

Ester Bornstein

(none)

N/A

1935

(none)

(none)

(none)

N/A

1936

Toshikazu Kagiyama

Audrey Peppe

(none)

N/A

1937

(none)

(none)

(none)

N/A

1938

(none)

(none)

A. Wächter and Fritz Lesk

N/A

1939

(none)

Britta Rahlen

(none)

N/A

1947

(none)

Gun Ericson

(none)

N/A

1948

Per Cock-Clausen

Suzanne Morrow

Joan Ogilvie and Bobby Thompson

N/A

1949

(none)

Beryl Bailey

(none)

N/A

1950

(none)

Valda Osborn

(none)

(none)

1951

(none)

Betty Hiscock

(none)

(none)

1952

(none)

Eva Weidler

(none)

(none)

1953

György Czakó

Elaine Skevington

(none)

(none)

1954

(none)

Rosi Pettinger

(none)

(none)

1955

Tilo Gutzeit

Ilse Musyl

(none)

Claude Weinstein and Claude Lambert

1956

Hans Müller

Fiorella Negro

(none)

Lucia Fischer and Rudolf Zorn

1957

Yukio Nishikura

Joan Haanappel

(none)

(none)

1958

Norbert Felsinger

Margaret Crosland

Ludmila Belousova and Oleg Protopopov

Adriana Giuggiolini and Germano Ceccattini

1959

Hubert Köpfler

Carla Tichatschek

(none)

(none)

1960

Hubert Köpfler

Sonia Snelling

(none)

(none)

1962

Sepp Schönmetzler

Eva Grožajová

Mieko Otwa and Yutaka Doke

Marlise Fornachon and Charly Pichard

1963

Hugo Dümler

Karen Howland

(none)

Helga and Hannes Burkhardt

1964

Robert Dureville

Kumiko Okawa

(none)

Diane Towler and Bernard Ford

1965

Tim Wood

Hana Mašková

Ingrid Bodendorff and Volker Waldeck

Gabriele Rauch and Rudi Matysik

1966

Robert Dureville

Sally-Anne Stapleford

Susan and Paul Huehnergard

Annerose Baier and Eberhard Rüger

1967

Sergei Chetverukhin

Rita Trapanese

Betty Lewis and Richard Gilbert

Lyudmila Pakhomova and Aleksandr Gorshkov

1968

Michael Williams

Linda Carbonetto

Betty and John McKilligan

Donna Taylor and Bruce Lennie

1969

Tsuguhiko Kozuka

Rita Trapanese

Evelyne Schneider and Willy Bietak

Ilona Berecz and István Sugár

1970

Toller Cranston

Charlotte Walter

Evelyne Scharf and Willy Bietak

Teresa Weyna and Piotr Bojańczyk

1971

Jacques Mrozek

Kazumi Yamashita

Linda Connolly and Colin Taylforth

Anne-Claude Wolfers and Roland Mars

1972

Didier Gailhaguet

Gerti Schanderl

Gabriele Cieplik and Reinhard Ketterer

Teresa Weyna and Piotr Bojańczyk

1973

László Vajda

Gerti Schanderl

Gale and Joel Fuhrman

Krisztina Regőczy and András Sallay

1974

Bernd Wunderlich

Barbara Terpenning

Florence Cahn and Jean-Roland Racle

Anne and Harvey Millier

1975

Didier Gailhaguet

Emi Watanabe

Grażyna Kostrzewińska and Adam Brodecki

Susan Carscallen and Eric Gillies

1976

Christophe Boyadjian

Karena Richardson

Gabrielle Beck and Jochen Stahl

Judi Genovesi and Kent Weigle

1977

Kurt Kurzinger

Heather Kemkaran

Kyoko Hagiwara and Sumio Murata

Susi and Peter Handschmann

1978

Konstantin Kokora

Claudia Kristofics-Binder

Gabrielle Beck and Jochen Stahl

Stefania Bertele and Walter Cecconi

1979

Brian Pockar

Natalia Strelkova

Elizabeth and Peter Cain

Karen Barber and Nicky Slater

1980

Jean-Christophe Simond

Carola Weißenberg

Susan Garland and Robert Daw

Marie McNeil and Rob McCall

1981

Falko Kirsten

Manuela Ruben

(none)

Marie McNeil and Rob McCall

1982

Grzegorz Filipowski

Elizabeth Manley

Luan Bo and Yao Bin

Wendy Sessions and Stephen Williams

1983

Gary Beacom

Sanda Dubravčić

Susan Garland and Ian Jenkins

Judit Péterfy and Csaba Bálint

1984

Mark Cockerell

Karin Telser

(none)

Isabella Micheli and Roberto Pelizzola

1985

Petr Barna

Susan Jackson

Shuk-Ling Ngai and Kwok-Yung Mak

Noriko Sato and Tadayuki Takahashi

1986

Grzegorz Filipowski

Agnès Gosselin

Kerstin Kimminus and Stefan Pfrengle

Sharon Jones and Paul Askham

1987

Falko Kirsten

Claudia Villiger

Shuk-Ling Ngai and Cheuk-Fai Lai

Sharon Jones and Paul Askham

1988

Neil Paterson

Yvonne Gómez

Anuschka Gläser and Stefan Pfrengle

April Sargent and Russ Witherby

1989

Axel Médéric

Yvonne Pokorny

(none)

Susanna Rahkamo and Petri Kokko

1990

Oliver Höner

Beatrice Gelmini

Sharon Carz and Doug Williams

Małgorzata Grajcar and Andrzej Dostatni

1991

Oliver Höner

Simone Lang

Cheryl Peake and Andrew Naylor

Małgorzata Grajcar and Andrzej Dostatni

1992

Michael Slipchuk

Tatiana Rachkova

Anuschka Gläser and Stefan Pfrengle

Anna Croci and Luca Mantovani

1993

Konstantin Kostin

Lisa Ervin

Svetlana Pristav and Viacheslav Tkachenko

Margarita Drobiazko and Povilas Vanagas

1994

Aren Nielsen

Rena Inoue

Natalia Krestianinova and Alexei Torchinski

Irina Lobacheva and Ilya Averbukh

1995

Vasili Eremenko

Marina Kielmann

Marina Khalturina and Andrei Krukov

Elizaveta Stekolnikova and Dmitri Kazarlyga

1996

Takeshi Honda

Tatiana Malinina

Dorota Zagórska and Mariusz Siudek

Kati Winkler and René Lohse

1997

Laurent Tobel

Nicole Bobek

Silvia Dimitrov and Rico Rex

Kateřina Mrázová and Martin Šimeček

1998

Michael Tyllesen

Joanne Carter

Marsha Poluliaschenko and Andrew Seabrook

Elena Grushina and Ruslan Goncharov

1999

Stefan Lindemann

Lucinda Ruh

Valerie Saurette and Jean-Sébastien Fecteau

Galit Chait and Sergei Sakhnovski

2000

Vitali Danilchenko

Sabina Wojtala

Kateřina Beránková and Otto Dlabola

Anna Semenovich and Roman Kostomarov

2001

Sergei Rylov

Tatiana Malinina

Inga Rodionova and Andrei Krukov

Isabelle Delobel and Olivier Schoenfelder

2002

Brian Joubert

Zuzana Babiaková

Yuko Kawaguchi and Aleksandr Markuntsov

Tanith Belbin and Benjamin Agosto

2003

Ryan Jahnke

Ludmila Nelidina

Jacinthe Larivière and Lenny Faustino

Kristin Fraser and Igor Lukanin

2004

Ben Ferreira

Sarah Meier

Kathryn Orscher and Garrett Lucash

Svetlana Kulikova and Vitali Novikov

2005

Ivan Dinev

Idora Hegel

Marilyn Pla and Yannick Bonheur

Kristin Fraser and Igor Lukanin

2006

Tomáš Verner

Mira Leung

Marilyn Pla and Yannick Bonheur

Christina and William Beier

2007

Christopher Mabee

Elena Sokolova

Dominika Piątkowska and Dmitri Khromin

Anna Cappellini and Luca Lanotte

2008

Adrian Schultheiss

Valentina Marchei

Laura Magitteri and Ondřej Hotárek

Ekaterina Bobrova and Dmitri Soloviev

2009

Sergei Voronov

Susanna Pöykiö

Stacey Kemp and David King

Alexandra and Roman Zaretski

2010

Denis Ten

Alena Leonova

Anaïs Morand and Antoine Dorsaz

Ekaterina Rubleva and Ivan Shefer

2011

Ryan Bradley

Cynthia Phaneuf

Zhang Yue and Wang Lei

Cathy and Chris Reed

2012

Adam Rippon

Elena Glebova

Maylin Hausch and Daniel Wende

Kharis Ralph and Asher Hill

2013

Andrei Rogozine

Alena Leonova

Marissa Castelli and Simon Shnapir

Penny Coomes and Nicholas Buckland

2014

Ivan Righini

Gabby Daleman

Maylin and Daniel Wende

Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron

2015

Sergei Voronov

Anna Pogorilaya

Lubov Iliushechkina and Dylan Moscovitch

Alexandra Paul and Mitch Islam

2016

Alexei Bychenko

Nicole Rajičová

Tarah Kayne and Danny O'Shea

Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Nikolaj Sørensen

2017

Moris Kvitelashvili

Anna Pogorilaya

Nicole Della Monica and Matteo Guarise

Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Nikolaj Sørensen

2018

Keiji Tanaka

Nicole Schott

Annika Hocke and Ruben Blommaert

Marie-Jade Lauriault and Romain Le Gac

2019

Moris Kvitelashvili

Ekaterina Ryabova

Minerva Hase and Nolan Seegert

Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson

2021

Han Yan

Madeline Schizas

Annika Hocke and Robert Kunkel

Shiyue Wang and Xinyu Liu

2022

Deniss Vasiljevs

Ekaterina Kurakova

(none)

Natálie Taschlerová and Filip Taschler

2023

Deniss Vasiljevs

Madeline Schizas

Daria Danilova and Michel Tsiba

Maria Kazakova and Georgy Reviya


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 FacebookTwitterPinterest 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