The 1957 U.S. Figure Skating Championships

The top news story was the FBI arrest of labor union leader Jimmy Hoffa. Thousands forked over sixty cents to see the hit film "Around The World In Eighty Days". Teenagers bopped to "Don't Knock The Rock" by Bill Haley and The Comets.

The hottest toys were the Atomic Missile Pedal Car and Captain Kangaroo Tasket Basket. If you were to believe "Everywoman's Magazine", you'd be a huge hit at your next pot luck with an absolutely terrifying 'Hot Dog Macaroni Aspic'.

The year was 1957 and to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the first U.S. Championships to be held in the state of California, the St. Moritz Ice Skating Club and the Skating Club of San Francisco joined forces from March 13 to 16 to host the U.S. Figure Skating Championships at the recently renovated East Bay Iceland rink. 

Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine

As is still often the case at the beginning of a new four year Olympic cycle, a considerable number of the previous year's medallists had turned professional or retired. In fact, reigning U.S. Senior Champions Joan Zamboni and Roland Junso were the only winners from the previous year's Nationals who had returned to defend their title. 

An unusual feature of this competition was a special exhibition by members of the Japanese national team. Harry A. Sims recalled, "It was very interesting to see how far these young skaters had progressed under the handicap of their isolation from the normal skating world. They had picked up much of their knowledge from visiting G.I. skaters, also from the visits of Tenley, Hayes and Dick Button, and from many motion pictures. This charming group of skaters made many friends... and we enjoyed very much our visits with them."

Top: Bradley Lord, Ray and Ila Ray Hadley and Carol Heiss. Middle: Diana Jean Lapp, Nancy Rouillard and Ron Ludington, Gregory Kelley. Bottom: David Jenkins, Sharon McKenzie and Bert Wright, Claire O'Neill and J.J. Bejshak and Carol Joyce Wanek. Photos courtesy "Skating" magazine.

The biggest social 'to-do' of the week was the competitor's party, held at the Hotel Claremont where the officials were put up. A judge's dinner, also at the Claremont, and a private cocktail party at Henry F. Swift's home were also highlights. There was also a meeting of judges at the Shattuck Hotel, where there was great discussion about replacing the College Tango with the Canasta. In what little spare time they had, competitors went sightseeing at Sutro's, a seaside ice rink that also included a unique museum full of curiosities such as a life-size replica of da Vinci's "The Lord's Last Supper" and the personal belongings of some of P.T. Barnum's more famous circus performers. How did things play out Berkeley in 1957? Let's take a look back!

THE NOVICE AND JUNIOR COMPETITIONS

Ila Ray and Ray Hadley. Photo courtesy Joan Sherbloom Peterson.

Seattle's Ila Ray and Ray Hadley took the junior pairs title, the only victory in Berkeley by skaters from the West Coast in the novice or junior ranks. They were coached by their stepmother Linda Hart. It was very close between the top three teams, with the Hadley's taking two firsts, silver medallists Sharon Constable and John Hertz taking two and Margaret Jurmo and Roy Pringle one. The Hadley siblings had a mascot that accompanied them to Berkeley - white French toy poodle named Honeybee. Ray took ballet classes and Ila Ray was a member of her school's debate and drama clubs.

Fourteen year old Diana Lapp of Denver took top honours among the novice women, while sixteen year old Carol Joyce Wanek of the Skating Club of New York won the junior women's title. Both winners won in two-three splits of the judging panels; Wanek over Lynn Finnegan and Lapp over Brenda Joyce Farmer. Their leads in the compulsories was what helped them both win gold. Lapp was an eighth grade student that enjoyed painting, ballet and playing the piano. Wanek was a junior at Rhodes Preparatory School. She was an only child who collected sweaters and miniature toy animals from all around the word.

Claire O'Neill and J.J. Bejshak

In Silver (Junior) Dance, Baltimore's Claire O'Neill and John 'J.J.' Bejshak were victorious over Margie Ackles and Howie Harrold despite the fact that their home rink had burned to the ground. Their free dance included the twizzle from the Argentine Tango. O'Neill was a high school senior who was absolutely obsessed with fashion and Bejshak was a freshman at the University Of Baltimore who hoped to get into advertising. He collected records suitable for skating.

Skating to a medley that included "La Traviata", seventeen year old Bradley Lord of Swampscott, Massachusetts bested a trio of California skaters - Jim Short, Lorin Caccamise and Don Mike Anthony - to win gold in the novice men's event. A month prior to the event, he'd accidentally left his skates on a bus. A thoughtful bus driver had kept them safe until he showed up to claim them. In his spare time, Lord enjoyed water color painting.

Gregory Kelley and Bradley Lord ominously shaking hands in front of a sign advertising a flight. Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine.

The novice men's champion, five foot tall, one hundred and ten pound Gregory Kelley was at twelve years old the youngest of the entries in his class. He was competing in his first U.S. Championships. The silver medallist in the novice men's event was Maribel Vinson Owen's young student Frank Carroll. Bruce Heiss, Carol's younger brother, placed fifth. Sixth and seventh were two young men who -like the winner - would later perish in the Sabena Crash, Bill Hickox and Douglas Ramsay. Kelley, the youngest child in his family, had never lost a competition he entered. He enjoyed playing tennis and swimming when he wasn't skating.

THE MEN'S COMPETITION

David Jenkins

With both Hayes Alan Jenkins and Ronnie Robertson out of the picture, the path to victory was clear for twenty year old David Jenkins, a pre-med student from Colorado Springs. As the reigning North American and World Champion, Jenkins was heavily favoured to win his first U.S. title in Berkeley. In the school figures, he defeated Tim Brown four judges to one, but was only able to amass an eight point lead. Jenkins unanimously won the free skate on his way to a gold medal and was the only man in the competition who attempted (and succeeded at) triple jumps. Tim Brown settled for silver, and Tom Moore moved ahead of Robert Lee Brewer of Alhambra, California to take the bronze.

THE WOMEN'S COMPETITION

Claralynn Lewis and Joan Schenke

On January 20, 1957 - Carol Heiss' seventeenth birthday - Tenley Albright announced her retirement from eligible competition. As Catherine Machado, the bronze medallist at the U.S. Championships the previous two years had also turned professional, Heiss found herself in an enviable position as she vied for her first U.S. title. Like David Jenkins, she entered the event as the reigning North American and World Champion... and like David Jenkins, she amassed a whopping lead in the school figures. She won the free skate and the gold medal in something of a landslide.

Heiss' free skate, set to Franz von Suppé's "The Beautiful Galatea", Adolphe Adam's "Giselle" and Gioachino Rossini's "La Gazza Ladra", earned her marks ranging from 9.4 to 9.9. No other skater earned a mark any higher than 9.3. The silver medal went to seventeen year old Joan Schenke of Tacoma and the bronze to nineteen year old Claralynn Lewis of Colorado Springs. Carol's younger sister Nancy placed fourth. Finishing out of the top four were Charlene Adams, Sherry Dorsey, Gladys Jacobs and Carol Keyes. To the disappointment of Maribel Vinson Owen, both of her daughters failed to qualify for the Nationals in Berkeley.

THE PAIRS AND ICE DANCE COMPETITIONS

Diana Lapp, Nancy Rouillard and Ron Ludington and Gregory Kelley. Photo courtesy Diana Lapp Green.

None of the senior pairs medallists from the 1956 U.S. Championships in Philadelphia made an appearance in Berkeley. In a wide open field, Nancy Rouillard of Stoneham, Massachusetts and Ron Ludington of Roxbury, Massachusetts took top honours, besting Mary J. Watson and John Jarmon and Anita Tefkin and James Barlow. Ron Ludington had only recently 'converted' from roller skating to the ice and had spent much of his time practicing between midnight and the early hours of the morning, when hockey games ended. He and Nancy's coach was Maribel Vinson Owen.

Left: Sharon McKenzie and Bert Wright. Right: Joan Zamboni and Roland Junso. Photos courtesy "Skating" magazine.

To the delight of the California audience, Bill Kipp's students Sharon McKenzie and Bert Wright - only fourth at the Nationals the year prior - pulled off an impressive upset in the Gold (Senior) Dance event, defeating Andree Anderson and Donald Jacoby, defending Champions Joan Zamboni and Ronald Junso and four time Champions Carmel and Edward Bodel. The Bodel's fifth place finish in the free dance was quite surprising.

McKenzie and Wright were the unanimous winners of the Three-Lobe Waltz, Blues, Paso Doble, Viennese Waltz and free dance. They performed the latter to a medley of foxtrot, blues and polka music. They were both competitive roller dancers. He was an accountant at the Richfield Oil Corporation; she had just left high school and found a job. Their win was a major factor in the Los Angeles Figure Skating Club winning the Bedell H. Harned Trophy for the club who earned the most points by their placements at Nationals. It was only the fourth time that the trophy had been won by a club from the West Coast.

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.

A Champion Of Two Countries: The Edith Secord Story

Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine, World Figure Skating Museum and Hall Of Fame.

Born September 4, 1896 in Brockville, Ontario, Edith Carol Finley had a rather transient childhood. Her father William Burton Finley, a respected photographer, travelled regularly with his work, carting around Edith, her mother Leona, sister Loretta, brother Emerson and Leona's three children from her first marriage with him most everywhere he went. By the time Edith was fifteen, she'd lived in Ontario, Quebec, Alberta, Saskatchewan, British Columbia and the state of Washington. It was while living in the Canadian Prairies that Edith first learned to skate, taking lessons from famed professional skater Norval Baptie.

On Canada Day in Saskatoon in the year 1916, she married Daniel Frederick Secord, a direct descendant of Amboise Sicard, Sr. - one of the earliest French Huguenot settlers of New Rochelle in the seventeenth century. The young Canadian couple settled in Manhattan. Daniel worked as an executive for Rex Cole Electric supplies; Edith joined the prestigious Skating Club of New York. Quickly earning a reputation as one of the club's most talented female members, she made her rounds on the skating carnival circuit, performing a similar pairs act with Betty Westgate where the two women dressed as Spanish Grandees.

As her father resided in Ottawa, Edith also held a membership with the Minto Skating Club. In 1922, she finished third in the Canadian pairs competition with Douglas H. Nelles. In 1925, she won the Canadian fours title with C.R. Morphy, Marion MacDougall and H.R.T. Gill and the Minto Skating Club's Malynski Cup for women's skating. At the 1929 Canadian Championships, she won an informal Waltzing competition with Stewart Reburn.

Though she certainly had success competing at the Canadian Championships, Edith's greatest achievements and disappointments came when she decided to start representing America. From 1929 to 1931, she was runner-up in the senior women's competition at the U.S. Championships to Maribel Vinson. In 1929, she won the first ever U.S. dance title, skating with USFSA President Joseph Savage. Edith and Joseph also finished third in U.S. senior pairs that year and next. Edith would go on to win the U.S. Waltzing title three times, twice with Savage and once with Ferrier T. Martin. In 1931, she won the bronze medal in the women's competition at the North American Championships in Ottawa behind Constance Wilson and Elizabeth Fisher. At the Philadelphia Skating Club and Humane Society's carnival in 1936, Edith joined forces with Nettie Prantell to win the Fourteenstep competition. It was one of very few instances of a similar pair winning an ice dance contest against non-similar pairs in those days. These, just a sampling of Edith's many successes during the late twenties and early thirties, spoke to her versatility and skill as a skater. Though she achieved great things competing for the U.S., the decision ultimately harmed her. In both 1928 and 1932, she earned the U.S. Olympic alternate position in women's singles but was excluded because of her Canadian citizenship. In her only appearance at the World Championships in 1930, Edith finished dead last in the pairs event with Savage.

Retiring from competitive skating in the mid thirties, Edith moved to a frame house on a hilltop on Osceola Avenue in Irvington, New York with her husband. Two of her dearest friends were Olympic Gold Medallists Andrée and Pierre Brunet. Though she never had any children of her own, she was regarded as one of the few USFSA national level dance judges of her era who really took a special interest in young people. She also was a regular on many Ardsley Park ponds, helping any young skater who showed an aptitude for skating. Skilled in the art of flower arranging, she gave exhibitions of dried and pressed flowers, ferns and grasses at several local public libraries. Also an avid horticulturist and gardener, she often took young children on nature walks through her woods, identifying the trees, flowers and mushrooms they'd see on their journeys.

In a January 9, 1939 interview with Herbert Allan for the "New York Post", Edith remarked, "A skater has to be almost at the top by the time he or she is sixteen to hope reach championship class. The youngsters are coming along so fast nowadays that competitors are considered old-timers at the age of twenty-five, when most other athletes are reaching their peak. I suppose that's because modern figure skating puts such a big premium on nimbleness and grace, which are the prerogatives of youth. It doesn't call for so much strength as other forms of athletics, although sturdy, muscular legs are necessary to achieve success in national competition... The skating cycle we are going through today stresses rhythm more than ever, and that's where youngsters are at their best. When sustained spirals, jumps and lifts were the thing, the smooth flow of movement wasn't so important, but now it's almost everything."

Edith Secord and Joseph Savage

Shortly before her husband's death in 1957, Edith sold her house and a small cottage on their property and moved down to a little grey house near the road. Widowed, Edith lived in this house alone until her death on December 23, 1964 in Tarrytown, New York. Her obituary from the December 29, 1964 issue of the "Daily News" of Tarrytown recalled, "As long as her health permitted she continued to skate for private pleasure. On a still wintery morning walking along Osceola Ave., it was lovely to catch a lilting tune from a record player, and come upon the tall figure, skating marvellously to soft music on the Havemeyer pond, alone in her special world."

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 1964 Canadian Figure Skating Championships

Carol Channing made her debut in the new Broadway musical "Hello, Dolly!" and the Vietnam War raged overseas. The miniskirt and hula hoop made their debuts and Bobby Vinton's "There! I've Said It Again" topped the music charts.

From January 16 to 18, 1964, a who's who of Canadian figure skating gathered at the four thousand seat Memorial Gardens in North Bay for that year's Canadian Figure Skating Championships. It was the first of two occasions that the Northeastern Ontario city played host to the prestigious national competition.

Although it was an Olympic year, the North Bay Championships were considered by some to be slightly anticlimactic. Douglas Kimpel and the CFSA brass had decided to hold a separate Olympic trial event at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto in November of 1963. Debbi Wilkes recalled, "It was a real topsy-turvy time. I can imagine the Association wanted to have a good luck at what people were doing, what was happening as far as their training was going and give us all a chance, from a positive side of things, to compete prior to Canadians. Remember in those days there was no Grand Prix; there was nothing to prepare you like Skate Canada... There were even some years where Sectionals were held after Canadians. Figure that out! I think the organization may have been a little bit worried about me and Guy because at the '63 World Championships in Cortina, Italy we did not compete... I'm sure the Association was wondering, 'What are THEY up to?' It kind of, from my perspective, gave them a good look at us to see, 'Are they really ready to be named to an Olympic team?' Those trials were the first time I met Barbara Ann Scott. I remember I was just gobsmacked. It was quite a thrill to meet her. Over the years I got to know her well and she had quite the potty mouth on her! She understood the role she had to play and she played it so beautifully and yet when you got her alone, she was a very real, absolutely adorable, charming person... funny, irreverent... potty-mouthed. Quite hilarious."

At Maple Leaf Gardens, the judges sat on chairs on the ice, holding up their own scores on cards after each performance. Wendy Griner bested Petra Burka and Shirra Kenworthy to win the women's event, while Donald Knight, Charles Snelling and Bill Neale finished one-two-three in the men's. Debbi Wilkes and Guy Revell and Linda Ann Ward and Neil Carpenter were first and second in the pairs. For practical reasons, there was no dance event - dance wasn't yet an Olympic sport. Paulette Doan and Ken Ormsby were on hand to give an exhibition though, and there was also a fashion show of the new Canadian Olympic team digs.

Thirty eight year old, newly elected CFSA President Douglas Kimpel. Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine.

The top three in singles and the top two in pairs were named to the Olympic team. Norma Sedlar and Gregory Folk, who had been in the top two in figures in their respective events, dropped in the standings in the free skating and were left home. The November event was skated in the shadow of one of the most stunning events of American history.

The morning of the first day of the Trials - November 22, 1964 - a television in a skater's lounge in Toronto broke the news that President John F. Kennedy had been shot and killed. Debbi Wilkes recalled, "We were training that morning at the Cricket Club. We had just had lunch and I think I was watching TV upstairs in the lounge and there was a program interrupt. They came on saying JFK had been shot. He was still alive at this point, so that would have been around lunch time. There was a real pall, of course, over everything and then scuttlebutt started happening over whether or not the event would actually be cancelled or postponed... There were a number of hours where nobody really knew what was happening. Then, of course, in the meantime it was announced that he had died. The decision was made to carry on with the event but there was some recognition of it prior to the start of event, whether it was a moment of silence. Sad day."

Though the Olympic spots had already been decided, the skating at the Canadians in North Bay was first class and served as an important final 'test run' before skaters headed to Innsbruck to compete at the newly constructed Olympic Ice Stadium in Innsbruck, Austria. Let's take a look back at how all our favourites fared!

THE JUNIOR EVENTS

Susan and Paul Huehnergard and Toller Cranston in 1964. Photos courtesy Cynthia Miller.

Nineteen year old Paul Huehnergard and his fourteen year old sister Susan had only been skating together for two years, but their hard work with coach Bruce Hyland paid off in North Bay. They won the junior pairs event, bettering Sharon Davis and Ross Garner of Woodstock, who also competed in the junior dance. Third place finishers Betty and John McKilligan would go on to become two time Canadian Champions and Olympians in 1968. Shirley Robson of the Royal Glenora Club in Edmonton took gold in the junior women's event, besting Roberta Laurent and Marjorie Hare. Shirley was also a talented ice dancer who skated with Bill Windover.

After half the field was cut in the initial round of competition, four couples remained in junior dance. Gail Snyder and Wayne Palmer, Rosina Lockwood's students from the Granite Club in Toronto, narrowly defeated Lynn Matthews and Byron Topping of the Cricket Club in a three-two split of the judging panel. The teams finished in the reverse order at the Central Ontario Sectionals.

Fourteen year old Toller Cranston was coached by Eva Vasak and represented the Lachine Figure Skating Club in Quebec. He had won the bronze medal in the junior men's event at the Canadians in Edmonton in 1963 and the senior men's title at the Central Ontario Summer Free Skating Competition and the Eastern Championships in Hull. It hadn't been an easy go though. Toller's sister Phillippa Baran recalled, "When Toller was thirteen, he developed a painful lump below both knees. Skating had become painful and jumping had become excruciating. He had a condition called Osgood Schlatters that most often afflicts growing boys aged ten to fifteen. The family was told that Toller would absolutely, positively never skate again. Toller spent the next many months with both legs in plaster casts extending from the ankle to the groin. When the casts came off, he was able to gradually resume walking, and then skating, but was warned that he must not run and he must not jump. He continued to train. He began to jump. He won the 1964 Canadian Junior Championship." Defeating Toronto's Paul Crowther and Edmonton's Archie Zariski in North Bay, Cranston made history as the first man ever from a club east of Ontario to win the Canadian junior men's title.

THE FOURS COMPETITION

A fours competition hadn't been held at the Canadian Championships since 1962, when a quartet from Toronto trounced their British Columbian opposition. None of the skaters from that event returned and in North Bay, it was a battle between two Toronto fours - one from the Cricket Club and the other from the Granite Club. The winning four came from the Cricket Club, consisting of Bonnie Anderson, Gregory Folk, Laura Maybee and future CFSA President and ISU Vice-President David Dore.

THE ICE DANCE COMPETITION

There was an unusually large field of dance teams in North Bay in 1964. No less than fifteen couples skated the compulsory European Waltz, Rocker Foxtrot, Blues and Kilian and free dance. There was no elimination round as in the juniors. To no one's surprise, Geraldine Crispo's students Paulette Doan and Ken Ormsby unanimously defended their Canadian title. Perpetual runners-up Donna and J.D. Mitchell had retired after earning their ISU Gold Dance medal in Davos, giving Doan and Ormsby little opposition at home. Both skaters were taking courses at Shaw's Business College - she an executive secretarial course; he business administration. The silver medallists in North Bay, Carole Forest and Kevin Lethbridge, were coached by Bruce Hyland and ranked only tenth at the 1963 World Championships - seven spots behind Doan and Ormsby.

Marilyn Crawford and Blair Armitage. Photo courtesy Marie Petrie McGillvray.

Marilyn Crawford and Blair Armitage of the Minto Skating Club took the bronze over Lynn Matthews and Byron Topping, who were 'skating up' in the seniors. In her book "Figure Skating History: The Evolution Of Dance On Ice", Lynn Copley-Graves recalled, "The judges unanimously placed each of the five final couples in the same order. Paulette Doan attracted attention with a red dress trimmed in pink with a low back ending at a rose on the waist."

THE MEN'S COMPETITION

World Champion Donald McPherson's decision to turn professional opened the door for a new Canadian Champion in North Bay. Instead, an 'old' one took it. Twenty six year old Dr. Charles Snelling, who won five consecutive Canadian titles in the fifties, decided to make a comeback while working as a staff surgeon in the department of internal medicine at Toronto Western Hospital. He took a surprise win over Donald Knight and fifteen year old Jay Humphry of the North Shore Winter Club. His accomplishment, especially after a six year absence, was nothing short of remarkable - especially since he had been only third in the figures at the Olympic Trials in November.

Two years later, Snelling remarked, "I consider myself primarily a a doctor and look upon skating as a physically demanding form of recreation which I feel everyone needs, especially when engaged in a sedentary type of profession. I work my skating practice in when I feel my medical work has been satisfactorily dealt with and thus my approach to the sport probably differs considerably from that of younger competitors."

THE PAIRS COMPETITION

Debbi Wilkes and Guy Revell continued their remarkable comeback. Less than a year prior, Wilkes had taken a horrific fall in a parking lot in Cortina d'Ampezzo at the World Championships. She and Revell had been demonstrating a lift for photographers in a parking lot when she got dropped from an overhead position, suffering a serious concussion. Over the summer, Wilkes concentrated on her studies and Revell went back to work. They slowly resumed training at the Tam O'Shanter rink, but what the future held no one really knew.

In North Bay, Wilkes and Revell had the skate of their lives, earning a few perfect marks of 6.0 for their daring display. They finished far ahead of Linda Ann Ward and Neil Carpenter and Faye Strutt and Jim Watters, the silver and bronze medallists. Gertrude Desjardins and Maurice LaFrance, Wilkes and Revell's long-time rivals, had broken up the summer prior.

Announcing their win, Richmond Hill sportswriter Ron Craine wrote, "If gameness and plain guts (if it is all right to apply such a word about an ethereal young lady like Miss Wilkes) count half as much as their ability, then these kids stand a good chance of snatching a gold bauble for Canada [at the Olympics]. They've worked long and hard for this chance and we'd like to think that everyone in this big, wide country of ours is pulling for them. Go, kids, go! You can do it and deserve nothing but the best!"

Debbi Wilkes recalled, "By the time we got to North Bay in '64, I felt we were on a path that was driven by a lot more confidence and the fact that were defending Canadian Champions. Having those couple of words after your name was very powerful. That kind of motivated to work harder, try harder, be bigger, be better. I think was that was the appropriate path for us along to the Olympic Games, which was just an amazing experience."

THE WOMEN'S COMPETITION

In the women's event, Petra Burka pulled off an upset that had been years in the making, defeating World Silver Medallist and North American Champion Wendy Griner on home turf. As at the Olympic Trials, Shirra Kenworthy again took the bronze. Kenworthy had spent the previous summer training at the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs and Sun Valley. 

Wendy Griner and Petra Burka had been neck and neck the past two seasons, but the figures had always been Burka's downfall in the past. A former member of the Lakeshore Skating Club, she lived in Eringate and attended Vincent Massey Collegiate. She was coached by her mother Ellen Burka at the Cricket Club in Toronto.

Debbi Wilkes recalled, "There was a big turnover at that time and I don't just mean in terms of competitors. There was a beginning in a switch of mentality where defending champions were not just automatically crowned champions again. There was a rise afoot. This was the age of Wendy Griner and Petra Burka and Petra was coming up like a locomotive - just superb technique and triple jumps and it was like a real change! She defeated Wendy and that had never happened - or if it had happened it was very, very rare."

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.

A Game Changer: The Walter Arian Story

Photo courtesy Professional Skaters Association

The son of Jack and Esther (Izaner) Arian, Walter Arian was born November 5, 1906 in Vienna, Austria. The details of his early life are hazy at best, but we do know that at some point his family emigrated to Great Britain. It was there that Walter took up figure skating... and soon began instructing others at the Ice Club, Westminster. He earned the Austrian Skating Association's Gold Medal, as well as the National Skating Association's Gold Medal and Second Class Instructor's Certificate. In 1932, he entered an open professional competition organized by the National Skating Association, placing second to Howard Nicholson, the coach of Sonja Henie. The following year, he placed third behind Nicholson and Jacques Gerschwiler. With those credentials under his belt, the five foot seven skating instructor with brown hair and blue eyes decided to make a major change.

Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine

In 1934, Walter emigrated to Canada aboard the Empress Of Britain and took a job teaching at the Toronto Skating Club. Two years later, he became a naturalized Canadian citizen. During the thirties, Walter taught a who's who of Canadian figure skating, including Constance and Bud Wilson, Norah McCarthy, Ralph McCreath and Osborne Colson. However, his most important contribution to skating during this period were his efforts to revitalize the Toronto and Lake Placid carnivals. To step things up a notch, Walter brought in Boris Volkoff, a charismatic ballet master from Russia who trained under Mikhail Mordkin and danced with Anna Pavlova in the Ballets Russes in Paris.

1937 was one of Walter's busiest years. He married Edna Lynn Schaefer, a choreographer and former showgirl who originally hailed from Kansas City, Missouri. He also took over as head professional in Lake Placid briefly while Gustave Lussi was touring with an ice show and skated in Harry P. Harrison's Winterland show at the Great Lakes Exposition in Cleveland, Ohio alongside Maribel Vinson Owen, Evelyn Chandler, Bruce Mapes and Frances Claudet.

Though Toronto skaters had a long history of competitive success, Walter built greatly upon the efforts of his predecessor Gustave Lussi. A report from "Skating" magazine in 1938 noted, "He has a very sound knowledge of both school figures and free skating and has been a regular inspiration to our Juniors. Last year in the Canadian Championships his pupils won six out of eight possible titles. Training carnival courts is also one of Arian's strong points; last year he trained 'Garden Fantasy' comprising 200 juniors, was co-trainer of three other courts, and with his wife (who was a 'Gae Foster Girl' at the Roxy in New York) he originated and trained 'Sophisticated Rhythm' which was one of the snappiest numbers in our carnival and which was repeated this summer at Lake Placid."

Photo courtesy "The National Ice Skating Guide"

In 1938, Walter became one of the founding officers of the American Skaters Guild, a precursor of the Professional Skaters Guild of America and Professional Skaters Association. In 1940 and 1948, he served as the President of the American Skaters Guild. In 1950, he briefly chaired the Professional Skaters Guild of America.

Walter Arian's Canadian Tango. Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine.

An innovator in every sense, Walter invented a compulsory dance in 1942 - the Canadian Tango. Although the dance never ultimately 'caught on', it enjoyed a brief period of popularity. In the forties, he taught at the Cleveland Skating Club. Among his many students were a young David and Hayes Alan Jenkins. He became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1948. In January of 1953, he travelled to Toronto to organize the funeral of his sister. While there, he tragically passed away on January 16, 1953 of a heart attack. He was only forty six.

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.

#Unearthed: Champions Again!

When you dig through skating history, you never know what you will unearth. In the spirit of cataloguing fascinating tales from skating history, #Unearthed is a once a month 'special occasion' on Skate Guard where fascinating writings by others that are of interest to skating history buffs are excavated, dusted off and shared for your reading pleasure. From forgotten fiction to long lost interviews to tales that have never been shared publicly, each #Unearthed is a fascinating journey through time. This month's edition comes to you from the August 1987 issue of "Soviet Life" magazine. Anatoli Shelukhin's article "Gordeeva and Grinkov - Champions Again!" offers a wonderful snapshot of the legendary Ekaterina Gordeeva and Sergei Grinkov just prior to the 1988 season, when they won their first of two Olympic gold medals.

"GORDEEVA AND GRINKOV - CHAMPIONS AGAIN!" (ANATOLI SHELUKHIN)

I saw pair skaters Ekaterina (Katya for short) Gordeeva and Sergei Grinkov for the first time four years ago at a routine workout at a skating rink on Leningrad Prospekt in Moscow. Stars Alexander Fadeyev, Yelena Vodorezova, Veronika Pershina and Marat Akbarov - in effect, half of the USSR's national team - were on the ice. Off to the side, a tall, slender youth and a petite young girl worked on their jumps. While I watched the twosome, the girl fell several times, landing on her knees. After she fell, she'd lie on the ice for a couple of minutes. Regaining her composure, she'd stand up and try again.

"Katya, aren't you discouraged with figure skating yet? You've had so many falls and bruises," I asked Katya when the workout was over.

"The coaches still believe in us. They say everything will be okay in a couple of years. We're hoping for the same too," the cheerful, blue-eyed skater told me.

The coaches were on the mark. Two years later Gordeeva and Grinkov won the junior world championships in pairs. That was in December 1984, and only three weeks later the couple took part in their first national championship. Though Katya was only 13 and her partner was 17 at that time, they never faltered. The pair performed complex elements with unusual ease, placing sixth in the competition. In 1985 a team of trainers, including celebrated coaches Stanislav Zhuk and Stanislav Leonovich and choreographer Marina Zueva, joined forces to help the gifted pair.

"We were all geared up to win the Moscow News International Competition in December 1985," Sergei recalled. "We wanted to present a challenge to Olympic champions Yelena Valova and Oleg Vasilyev and to national titleholders Larisa Selezneva and Oleg Makarov. Also, we knew that participating in the European Championships in Copenhagen was at stake." The competition proved to be dramatic. The two-minute program presented by Gordeeva and Grinkov was warmly received by the audience, and the judges' scores of 5.5 and 5.6 held out the promise of victory. But national champions Selezneva and Makarov gave a flawless free program, while Gordeeva and Grinkov's was marred by three falls during jumps. The young pair slid from first place to fourth. After the contest Katya cried and Sergei consoled her. "Disappointed as we were, we didn't lose hope," Katya said later. "Our coaches advised us to redo our free program as quickly as possible to achieve stability, lightness and speed. We spent a week reworking our program, and in January 1986 we took a silver at the USSR Championships in Leningrad."

The following March the Gordeeva-Grinkov pair won the world title in Geneva, Switzerland.
How did she get started in skating? "I was four years old when my mother took me to a skating rink," she said. "And since then I've been going in for the sport. Sergei and I have had several trainers, but we owe our greatest success to choreographer Marina Zueva. She was a member of the USSR national team for many years, skating in pairs with Andrei Vitman. Her intuition is amazing."

Under Zueva's guidance, Katya and Sergei have reached a new level of skill: When they perform, they are not simply executing elements, they are conducting a dialogue on the ice. American TV commentator and former Olympic ice skating champion Peggy Fleming noted that the Soviet pair is one of the most “dancing" duets to have appeared in the past two decades. Each of their motions is extraordinarily light and natural.

Who's the boss of the duet? "Katya," smiles Sergei. "She's a born figure skater. She's SO calm and collected, and she's got exquisite taste." And what does Katya think of her partner? "He has a good sense of humour and loves to laugh, so he's easy to be around."

The 1987 European Championships in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, proved disappointing. Though their presentation was superb, they received no marks after Sergei's foot strap broke, and a referee ordered that the performance be stopped. Sergei and Katya took this very hard, but it didn't break their spirit for the world championships in Cincinnati, Ohio, and they emerged victorious.

The skating pair later toured the United States and Canada. What were their impressions? "We trained in Oxford, a small university town not far from Cincinnati, for a week before the world championships, and every day 1,500 people came to watch us. They brought us letters, drawings and flowers." Katya said. "It was an incredible experience, one we'll never forget."

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 1922 European And World Figure Skating Championships

"Badinage Et Patinage" by Louis Houpin. Photo courtesy Bibliothèque nationale de France.

In 1922, Americans flocked to speakeasies to dance the Charleston and drink bootleg gin while in Europe, the drastic sweep of social, political and economic changes in the years following The Great War made prohibition look like a trivial inconvenience.

In May of 1921, the International Skating Union had held its first post-War Congress in Stockholm and shortly after, an announcement was made inviting all of its member nations - including the War's losing nations who had been excluded from participating in the 1920 Summer Olympic Games in Antwerp - to participate in the first post-War official ISU international Championships. In the book "Skating Around The World 1892-1992: The One Hundredth Anniversary Of The International Skating Union", ISU historian Benjamin T. Wright hypothesised as to why it took so long for the ISU to resume competitions following the War: "There is nothing specific in the record to explain the long delay of three years, except the chaotic state of Europe itself, with the defeat and break up of the Central European empires and the formation of new nations resulting from the Treaty Of Versailles (signed at the end of June, 1919). In addition, a severe economic depression in Europe after the War had a direct effect on leisure type activities, such as sports."

Willy Böckl. Photo courtesy German Federal Archives.

On January 28 and 29 in Davos, Switzerland, the European Championships - which then only offered a men's competition - was held in conjunction with the World Championships in pairs skating and an ISU organized international speed skating race. The field of ten men representing six nations was the largest entry at the European Championships at that time. Austria's Willy Böckl defeated pre-War World Champion Fritz Kachler three judges to two in the school figures. The scoring of the men's free skate was all over the place. Böckl had two first place ordinals, but he also had a seventh place ordinal from Norwegian judge Yngvar Bryn. Dr. Ernst Oppacher and Germany's Werner Rittberger also received first place ordinals in the free skate. When the marks were tallied, Böckl placed ahead of Kachler, Oppacher and Rittberger overall with four first place ordinals. Martin Stixrud, the lone Norwegian competitor, received the overall first place vote of Yngvar Bryn. No other judge had him higher than fourth. A wire report that appeared in the January 30, 1922 issue of the "Wiener Sporttagblatt" expressed that an Austrian victory had been a "sure thing" but that there was surprise that it was Böckl instead of Kachler who ultimately won.

Helene Engelmann and Alfred Berger in 1922. Photo courtesy Bildarchiv Austria.

Though five teams participated, the pairs competition in Davos was really a two-way battle between the reigning Olympic Gold Medallists Ludovika and Walter Jakobsson and Helene Engelmann and Alfred Berger.

Helene Engelmann and Alfred Berger won the event decisively, with first place ordinals from a bloc of four Austrian and Swiss judges, while the Jakobsson's finished second, receiving the first place mark from the lone Finnish judge. Berlin's Margaret and Paul Metzner defeated Munich's Grete Weise and Georg Velisch three judges to two for the bronze. Yngvar Bryn, who judged the European men's event, placed last with his wife Alexia. France's Yvonne Bourgeois and Francis Pigueron, who had been announced as competitors, ultimately did not participate.

Herma Szabo. Photo courtesy Bildarchiv Austria.

The World Championships in men's and women's singles skating were held from February 4 to 6, 1922 at the Stockholms Allmänna Skridskoklubb in Stockholm, Sweden. The women's competition was perhaps the most clear-cut and least controversial event of the era. Receiving first place ordinals from every single judge in both school figures and free skating, Austria's Herma Szabo claimed her first World title. Sweden's Svea Norén, the Silver Medallist at the 1920 Summer Olympic Games in Antwerp, took the silver in a four-one decision over Norway's Margot Moe, who received her sole second place ordinal from the only Norwegian judge on the panel. The fact that there wasn't an event a whiff of a complaint in the Swedish press about Norén's loss to Szabo at a time when the Swedish and Austrian press frequently sparred over   the results of international championships only confirms Szabo's superiority on this occasion.

The four entries in the men's event in Stockholm had all competed at the last pre-War World Championships in Helsinki in 1914. Fritz Kachler, who'd arrived from Davos just in the neck of time to compete, redeemed himself after his loss at the European Championships by defeating Gillis Grafström - the hometown favourite - four judges to one in the school figures. Even more impressively, Kachler managed to pull of his early lead with only one Austrian judge on the panel. That lone judge, Josef Fellner, tied Grafström and Kachler in the free skate, but the other four judges - all Swedish - rated Grafström higher. When the overall marks were tabulated, defeated Kachler three judges to two overall. Though he too defeated Kachler in the free skate, Böckl was unanimously third overall. Martin Stixrud, without a Norwegian judge to support him as in Davos, was unanimously fourth.

Gillis Grafström. Photo courtesy Sveriges Centralförening för Idrottens Främjande Archive.

What's interesting to note is how very little press attention both of these competitions received despite the fact they were held in countries with rich skating traditions. Even the victories of Böckl and Engelmann and Berger in Davos received almost no attention in the Austrian press, which was highly unusual considering the Viennese were pretty gaga over skating at that point in time. In Europe, there were likely more important issues to talk about than sport.

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.

Science Meets Art: The Lorna Dyer And John Carrell Story

The daughter of Veda (Williams) and Merritt Gibson Dyer, Lorna Virginia Dyer was born July 3, 1945 in Seattle, Washington and grew up in the suburb of Magnolia. When her father was a junior honors student at the University Of Washington in the roaring twenties, his widowed mother lost everything in the stock market crash and he dropped out of school. He gave up his dream of being an engineer to become a court reporter. Lorna first took the ice when she was in the Brownies and received her first lessons from a skating enthusiast named Carol Mittun.

On January 25, 1947, John Carrell, the adopted son of James and Helen (Baldwin) Carrell, was born. Like Lorna, he grew up in Seattle. His parents had moved to the state of Washington from Oregon, having grown up in Nebraska and Wisconsin. As a teenager, John attended Roosevelt High School. John's brother Jim recalled, "My father was a professor of speech and hearing at the University of Washington, and my mother was a speech therapist for the Seattle Public School system. From an early age, he showed a talent and interest in dancing, and before he started skating, I remember he took dance lessons at the Cornish. He began skating probably at nine or ten."

Marsha Deen, Buddy Zack, Joyce Butchart, Ed Tarling, Lorna Dyer, King Cole, Sharon Ayres, Joe Surace, Suzanne Vieux and Steve Kraemer posing at a Seattle Skating Club carnival. Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine.

Lorna got her big break in 1962, when she finished third with partner King Cole in the Gold (senior) Dance event at the U.S. Championships. It was her very first trip to Nationals, and she and King actually tied with the second place team (Dorothyann Nelson and Pieter Kollen) in the free dance and missed a spot on World team by one point. One judge had them first. The absence of the skaters, coaches and officials who perished in the Sabena Crash one year prior was palpable at those U.S. Championships in Boston. Lorna had dated Bill Hickox, who was one of the unfortunate victims in the tragedy. The two met in Sun Valley, where Lorna went in the summers to train with her first coach. "The plane crash enabled you to move up the ladder faster - so instead of coming in fifth, you came in second or something," Lorna recalled. "I'd say the plane crash gave me - sadly - the opportunity to fill the void, so to speak."

Lorna Dyer and King Cole in 1962 (left) and Lorna Dyer and John Carrell in 1962 (right). Photos courtesy "Skating" magazine.

In the summer of 1962, Lorna and King won their final competition together, the Gold Free Dance at the B.C. Summer Invitational Championships. Thayer and Yvonne Sherman Tutt had offered to sponsor Lorna and King to skate at the Broadmoor, but Lorna didn't want to leave her coach Jean Westwood. King went to the Broadmoor and teamed up with Mary Ann Cavanaugh and later, Ardith Paul and Lorna was paired up with John, who had finished third in the Silver Dance event at the 1962 Northwest Pacific Championships with Allana Mittun. Lorna recalled, "It was a better relationship. John was a funny, wonderful guy. He kept me laughing constantly. He used to sit down on is skates
and raise his hands as 'claws' and sneak up behind me and scare me or when 'lurking' (which was a phenomenon in the sixties) he would hide behind a wall or post and lean his hands and head around and wait for me to see him. Just a dislocated head and hands."

Photos courtesy "Skating" magazine

In their first two seasons skating together, Lorna and John won a pair of bronze medals at the U.S. Championships and finished eighth and fifth in their first two trips to the World Championships. A pattern that would be all too familiar throughout their career together began at the 1964 World Championships in Dortmund. Though only third in their own country, they were the top ranked U.S. couple in the eyes of the international judges.

Left: Lorna and John on the cover of "Skating" magazine. Photo courtesy Lorna Dyer. Right: Lorna Dyer and John Carrell.

In 1965, Lorna and John finished second at the U.S. Championships but won the North American Championships and the bronze medal at the World Championships. It was America's first medal in ice dance at Worlds since 1959 and came only four years after the Sabena Crash which had decimated the ranks of American ice dancing.

Left: Peggy Fleming and Lorna Dyer at the 1965 World Championships. Right: Lorna and John posing at ages eighteen and sixteen. Photo courtesy Lorna Dyer.

Though they were sponsored by the Broadmoor Skating Club throughout their career, Lorna and John did much of their training in Canada. Lorna recalled, "After spending so much time in Canada and knowing so many wonderful people there, I feel just as Canadian as American. I love Canada and Canadians. Back then, we commuted - first by driving, then by flying - to Canada to train with Jean every weekend. It was very, very expensive. We rented an ice arena up there [in Victoria] and lived with her in the summer. We followed her when she went to the Broadmoor in '64 and went to the University Of Colorado. Then, a tornado hit Colorado and she freaked out. Being English, of course, they don't have those sorts of things, so she moved back to Victoria - so we followed her back again. She was really the best coach in the world at the time, and you just don't give that up. It was just luck that she moved to the area and we met her, so we didn't want to lose her. We would have followed her anywhere."

About two years into Lorna and John's partnership, they had taken a break and decided to go skate in Sun Valley for the summer. When they returned, they found out Jean Westwood and Charles Phillips Jr. had taken on Kristin Fortune and Dennis Sveum as their pupils. Fortune and Sveum were also from the West Coast (hailing from California) and were around the same ages as Lorna and John, but that was about all they had in common. Kristin was a feisty drama student and bidding fashion designer; Dennis a tall, lanky salesman at Montgomery Ward. Lorna and John were both students at the University Of Washington. She studied biology; he political science. Sharing a coach with their closest competition proved to be challenging at times.

Photos courtesy University Of Washington

Lorna and John lost the U.S. title to Kristin and John for the second time in 1966. At the World Championships that followed in Davos, they tied with them in places and had more points than them, but narrowly lost the silver medal in a split of the judging panel. Though the loss was difficult, history was made at that competition. However, behind the scenes there was controversy. Jean Westwood recalled, "Davos 1966 I will never forget. I was approached by an ISU official to see if I could arrange either of the North American judges to place Carrell and Dyer in first as the Eastern bloc were behind them. I refused. I have never played politics and never will. I would not favor one of my couples over the other. I would never approach either of the two judges involved even though I knew one did favor Carrell and Dyer... By the time the free dance was over the judges battle was finished and the first [compulsory] dance result held up. Gladys Hogg congratulated me on my two teams and I replied that she had been the coach of the top five teams!"

Video courtesy Frazer Ormondroyd

It was the first time ever that two American teams were ever 'officially' on the podium at Worlds, as the international dance event held in conjunction with the 1950 World Championships in London where two American couples had medalled wasn't deemed an official World Championship by the ISU. Kristin and Dennis ended their partnership after the 1966 Worlds. Lorna recalled, "I decided to quit in 1966, and John started skating with Kristin then for a short while but he could not stand her, and he and Jean persuaded me to skate with John one last year... and I did and I am very happy I did." Ultimately, Kristin got married and moved to Denver. Dennis briefly paired up with Barbara McEvoy but was drafted to serve with the Special Services in the Vietnam War. Their departure from the U.S. dance scene paved the way for Lorna and John's most successful season ever.

Top: John Carrell, Lorna Dyer, Diane Towler, Bernard Ford, Kristin Fortune and Dennis Sveum at the 1966 World Championships in Davos. Bottom: John Carrell, Lorna Dyer and U.S. team manager Carl Cram at the 1967 World Championships in Vienna. Photos courtesy "Skating" magazine.

In 1967, Lorna and John were the unanimous winners of both the U.S. and North American Championships. The 1967 World Championships in Vienna were the last Worlds held on outdoor ice and it rained incessantly during much of the dance competition. Despite the weather, Lorna and John skated incredibly well, dancing up a storm in their free dance set to a medley that included Santo & Johnny's "Deep Purple" and Herb Alpert's "Bittersweet Samba".

Video courtesy Frazer Ormondroyd

The North American judges had Lorna and John first, but they finished second overall behind Diane Towler and Bernard Ford. Those Worlds were the first where lifts were permitted in the free dance. "It was very controversial," Lorna remembered. "We had a lot of rules when I was skating. You couldn't let go except to change position. You couldn't do much and it was very stiff. I look at [when I was skating] and now - even when Torvill and Dean were skating - so much changed. The rules and music changed - dance really loosened up and evolved for the better."

After the 1967 World Championships, the National Skating Union Of Japan asked the U.S. World Team to give a series of eight exhibitions and two clinics in Japan. Lorna recalled, "They flew Ron and Cindy Kauffman, Peggy Fleming, John and me and Gary Visconti to Japan and we toured. It was our world team and not some other country's that was invited as we had the most medals that year at Worlds. We received some beautiful gifts, including a specially created green vase with an ice skater on it. We had a blast, but odd at that age, we looked forward to [a stop in] Hawaii the most." Some of Lorna's favourite skating memories came from the post-Worlds ISU exhibition tours organized by the West Germans. John once got an eyeful of Sjoukje Dijkstra changing in a dressing room and in one hotel stop, Lorna was the only one with a bathroom. A few eyebrows were raised when the entire cast of the show - including, of course, the men - emerged from her room in towels and robes after showering there. In Davos in 1966, Doris Fleming absolutely forbade her daughter Peggy from doing anything that might injure her, as the Olympics were in less than two years. Lorna and Peggy stuck off with a group of skaters and went careening down a luge run. "We thought - 'Oh, what would Doris do to us!' We had fun, but she could have broken a leg or something." Competitions also made for some funny memories. Lorna recalled a hilarious incident from the 1965 World Championships in Colorado Springs thusly: "Emmerich Danzer was taught by this big Austrian woman and he was afraid of her because she'd hit him if he didn't do well. He had skated a poor figure and instead of getting off the ice at the closest entrance he skated all the way to the other side of the ice arena and got off. I looked up and it was because this big Austrian coach was after him."

Not all of Lorna and John's skating adventures were fun and games. Lorna recalled, "The KGB of the Soviet Union was very active when we skated. Aleksandr Gorelik (silver in the 1968 Olympics) and I kept trying to date but the KGB was fearful he would defect to the U.S. if he had a contact like me. They monitored him closely. In Vienna (1967) he bribed a U.S. male pair team skater with a bottle of vodka to find my hotel room. On entering the room - in about thirty seconds - the phone rang and it was the KGB telling Aleksandr to leave. Then we exhibited in Moscow after Vienna and Aleksandr snuck up the entryway to the ice and handed me flowers, but I looked back into the walkway and there was a woman KGB agent. They then cancelled the post ice show party due to this incident."

Top: Lorna Dyer and John Carrell at a party, circa 1974. Bottom Peggy Fleming, Ron Kauffman, Lorna Dyer, John Carrell and Cynthia Kauffman in Hawaii in 1967. Photos courtesy Lorna Dyer. 

After the 1967 season, Lorna and John turned down an offer to skate with the Ice Capades. Lorna and John both finished their educations at the University of Washington and then Lorna got married and shipped off to Florida, where her husband was training to be a flight surgeon in the Vietnam War. John headed east and took up a job coaching skating, but was soon soured on teaching because of a very difficult parent. He left the sport behind and reinvented himself as a ballet dancer, going by the stage name John Aubrey. He danced with a ballet troupe in New York before joining the National Ballet Of Canada, where he performed for seven years alongside a who's who of Canadian dance throughout the seventies. He left the ballet in 1980 and returned to coaching for a time and sadly passed away on September 20, 1989 at the age of forty two from complications of HIV/AIDS - one of dozens upon dozens of amazing skaters who lost their lives during that painful era. Lorna recalled, "People were in the closet in those days. You know skating - maybe a third of men might be gay. It was never an issue with me. I kind of knew but we never talked about it. It was just very quiet in those days. Everybody knew but nobody cared. He was just John. He was like a brother and I loved him very much."

John Carrell. Photo courtesy Jim Carrell.

After retiring from competitive skating, Lorna worked as a biology teacher, sharing her passion for science with high school students for twenty years. In 1985, she won the prestigious Outstanding Biology Teacher Award for Washington state, awarded by the National Association of Biology Teachers. In her last eight years of public education employment she was a grant writer for the Northshore School District. She spent four years as a science trainer for the state of Washington, running a co-operative that served thirty three school districts and provided continuing training for teachers before becoming a full-time grant writer. For over two decades, she spent her summer breaks in Sun Valley, Idaho, teaching skating. In 1980, she penned an instructional book called "Ice Dancing Illustrated". It was a project that took seven years to complete. Lorna remarked, "I hope [the book] captures the technical information for dance compulsories that Jean Westwood imparted to me. Her information came largely from the legendary Gladys Hogg of Great Britain who trained many world champions including Towler and Ford of England. I did not make money off this book but I wanted to capture what I thought was the best information on ice dance for posterity. I was greatly aided by a pupil of mine, Dr. Harry Brandt, who knew just enough about ice dance to ask the right questions when he did not understand what I had written. He was an invaluable editor." Lorna is now retired, living with her husband in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Lorna and John were nominated for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer's Sports Star Of The Year Award in 1967 but despite the fact they were U.S and North American Champions and three time World Medallists, they have yet to be inducted to either the U.S. Figure Skating Hall Of Fame or Washington Sports Hall Of Fame. Ice dancing may have changed a lot since the sixties, but in their era they were without question one of the finest couples in the world - one that combined the science and art of skating.

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.