I Came, I Saw, I Cured: The Alain Calmat Story

Photo courtesy "Miroir-Sprint" magazine

Born August 31, 1940 in Paris, France, Alain Calmat came from modest, working class roots. His parents ran a dry cleaning business near the family home on Avenue Winston-Churchill in Champs-Élysées. Though he'd taken his first steps on the ice some years earlier, young Alain didn't start focusing on figure skating seriously until he was nine when he started training at the federal rink of Boulogne-Billancourt. From an early age, he was taught by Jacqueline Vaudecrane, the grand dame of French figure skating who had coached Jacqueline du Bief to the World title in 1952. Madame Vaudecrane's hands were quite full throughout the fifties, for she coached not only Alain but his dear friend and long-time rival Alain Giletti. The two promising young skaters became lovingly known as "Les Deux Alains" to French skating fans.

Boulogne-Billancourt was a home away from home for Alain. In an April 21, 2006 interview in "Le Parisien", he recalled, "It was my high school... I keep great memories but I was very hard. Madame Vaudecrane imposed a sacred work. She was both our skating teacher and mother in general education. I lived in [Place de la République] (in Paris) and I had to go to Boulogne, twelve years, every morning at 6:00. As I was studying by correspondence, I spent my days there." Alain took both his on-ice education and schooling seriously, achieving high marks as a student of the Cours Hattemer school.

In 1952 at the age of eleven, Alain won the French junior men's title. Two years later at the age of thirteen, he claimed his first of thirteen medals in the senior men's event at the French Championships. In 1952, he attended his first European and World Championships, placing an impressive fifth and eleventh, respectively. It wasn't until four years later, when he claimed his first of five French titles and won the bronze medal at the European Championships in Bratislava, that he began to be regarded as a bona fide medal contender.

Top: Alain Giletti and Alain Calmat in 1954. Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine. Bottom: Alain Calmat signing autographs at Queen's Ice Rink in 1958. Photo courtesy "Skating World" magazine.

In the years that followed, Alain went on to claim five more medals at the European Championships - three of them gold - and win two bronze medals and two silver medals at World Championships.

Video courtesy Frazer Ormondroyd

Alain was highly favoured to win the gold medal at the 1964 Winter Olympic Games in Innsbruck, but fell twice in the free skate and 'settled' for silver. It was the first medal France ever won at the Olympics in men's figure skating.

Left: Alain Calmat, Manfred Schnelldorfer and Scotty Allen on the Olympic podium in 1964; Right: Alain Calmat performing a jump for photographers.

Alain retired in 1965 after finally winning the World title that had eluded him for over a decade at the World Championships at the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs.

Photo courtesy "Le Miroir des Sports"

Though Madame Vaudecrane was Alain's primary coach during his entire career, he also was sent with Alain Giletti to America to train with Pierre Brunet alongside World Champion Donald Jackson of Canada.

Though in three trips to the Olympic Games Alain proved unable to win gold, he again made history by becoming the first French athlete to light the flame in the Olympic cauldron at the opening ceremony of the 1968 Winter Olympic Games in Grenoble. When he lit the flame, the sound of his heartbeat was supposed to have been amplified from a wireless microphone taped to his chest over the loudspeakers. Unfortunately, he ran the length of the microphone with the torch, and when he mounted the stairs, his heartbeat wasn't audible. Nevertheless, seven thousand school children lit torches in celebration.

Throughout much of his competitive career, Alain had spent as much time in the books as he did on his brackets. After retiring and passing his medical exams, he became a surgeon and served as chief of abdominal and gastric surgery at the Hôpital à Montfermeil. He was part of Christian Cabrol and Charles Dubost's team that carried out the first heart transplants in France. He later worked as a professor and the head of the clinic at the hospital of Collège Pitié-Salpêtrière in Paris.

Excelling as a student, skater and surgeon wasn't enough for the ambitious Frenchman. He served as the President of the figure skating committee of the Fédération Française des Sports de Glace from 1972 to 1984. He also pursued judging for a time, acting as France's judge at the 1980 Winter Olympic Games in Lake Placid after being handed a three-year suspension by the ISU in the seventies for national bias, which was later reduced to two. In the mid eighties, he embarked on a political career.

From 1984 to 1986, Alain served as the Minister Of Youth Affairs And Sports under Prime Minister Laurent Fabius, While serving as Minister, he staunchly opposed grants enabling athletes to "play both ways" with sport and education, having experienced "the hell of a double life" himself. He believed the risk of failure in both pursuits was too great and wanted athletes to have funding to be able to focus their full attention to athletic pursuits, and then be able to pursue their educational goals afterwards. He established the Calmat-Chevènement program which encouraged sports programs in elementary schools and helped instate France's Loto Sportif. Most endearingly however, he made a point of honouring his former coach Madame Vaudecrane with the legion of honour.

From 1986 to 1993, Alain served as the deputy of the Département of Cher, In 1995, he became the Mayor of Livry-Gargan. In 1997, he was re-elected as a Minister Of Parliament for the district of Seine-Saint-Denis and became a deputy in the French National Assembly. Serving through 2002, he was then re-elected as mayor of Livry-Gargan, a post he held until suffering a shocking defeat in 2014. Life in politics wasn't easy for the former World Champion. When representing Cher, one evening the door of his apartment was smashed in. "I only had time to get dressed," he told a reporter from "Le Berry Républicain" in 2013.

A recipient of numerous honours including the Légion d'honneur and National Order Of Merit, Alain is also a father of four and a talented singer and guitarist. He has served on a committee of locally elected representatives which has advocated for support and funding for HIV/AIDS research and served as chairman of the Medical Committee of France's Olympic Committee.

Alain was also inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall Of Fame in 1987... and that's where things get quite interesting. Articles from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in 1984 and the "Jewish Post" in 1986 identified him as being of the Jewish faith, yet in 2007, a user with the handle 'Ericdep' on Wikipedia went to great pains to remove all indication that Alain was Jewish: "M. Calmat ask us to remove all the references about this name [Calmanovich] which is defamatory as well as the indications about Jewish religion." A representative from the International Jewish Sports Hall Of Fame explained, "Years ago we were told that Alain Calmat's family name was not Calmanovich, so we removed the reference on our website and subsequent publications. Mr. Calmat was elected in 1987, three decades ago, and none of those who participated in his election are still active with the Hall Of Fame. Our recollection is receipt of information that the skater's surname was not Calmanovich." The International Jewish Sports Hall Of Fame still recognizes Alain as the first and only Jewish person to have lit the Olympic flame.

There's one thing we can be sure of. Alain Calmat's modest upbringing, perseverance and dedication in balancing medical studies and an exceptional skating career became to many young French athletes a shining example of what could be accomplished if you worked hard and stuck with it. Asked what words he wanted written on his epitaph, he once told a French journalist, "veni, vidi, curavi"... "I came, I saw, I cured."

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.

An Unusual Talent: The Hellmut Seibt Story

Photo courtesy Bildarchiv Austria

Born June 25, 1929 in Vienna, Austria, Hellmut Seibt first took up skating at the age of four after a doctor suggested some outdoor exercise as a recuperative measure after a bout with pneumonia. The youngster was carted off to the Engelmann rink by his parents. Soon, he caught the attention of Angela Hanka, Rudolf Kutzer and then reigning Olympic and World Champion Karl Schäfer. His training was directly hampered by World War II when Eduard Engelmann Jr.'s rink was badly damaged by allied bombings. Adding injury to insult, a training mate named Karl Jungbauer was killed in the War. However, the teenager stuck with the sport, taking to the ice at the Wiener Eislaufverein whenever possible until the Engelmann rink was repaired. The January 1, 1945 issue of the "Wiener Feldpost" described him as "an unusual talent".

Photo courtesy Bildarchiv Austria

In January 1946, this "unusual talent" made his debut at the Austrian Championships held at the Wiener Eislaufverein. Though he finished only fourth of the six men who competed that year - well behind Edi Rada - it was clear to many that he was a skater going places. Hellmut began training with Inge Lind-Solar and in 1948 at eighteen years of age competed in both singles and pairs (with Susi Giebisch) at the 1948 Winter Olympic Games in St. Moritz. Having placed higher in singles than in pairs at the 'big three' - the Olympics, World and European Championships - that year, he made the decision to end his partnership with Giebisch and focus entirely on singles skating.

Photos courtesy Bildarchiv Austria

From 1950 to 1952, Hellmut enjoyed a meteoric rise to the top. He won three Austrian titles, the European titles in 1951 and 1952, a bronze medal at the 1951 World Championships and a silver medal at the 1952 Olympic Games in Oslo, Norway.

Hugh Graham, Carlo Fassi, Hellmut Seibt and Donald Jacoby. Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine.

Hellmut's silver medal win in Oslo behind Dick Button would not have been possible without his strong result in the school figures. He was only fifth in free skating and actually had fewer points than bronze medallist Jimmy Grogan. He defeated him only by having one fewer ordinal placing... and not without controversy. Suzanne Morrow-Francis later alleged that her mother, who was Canada's team leader at the Games, was approached by an Austrian official who said that if the Canadian judge helped Hellmut win the silver, Suzanne would win the silver medal in the women's event. Suzanne and her mother refused to participate in the deal and informed Canadian judge Norman Gregory of the situation. He refused to act on their complaint unless a third-party witness was produced and nothing came of it. There's no denying that Hellmut was well-known as a specialist in school figures, but his free skating was said by some to be at times uninspired. At the 1952 European Championships in Vienna, which he won, Finnish judge Walter Jakobsson had him in a tie for sixth in the free skating with Carlo Fassi, who won the silver medal.

Dick Button and Hellmut Seibt. Photo courtesy Bildarchiv Austria.

After a disappointing fourth place finish at the 1952 World Championships in Paris, Hellmut turned professional and joined the Wiener Eisrevue, with whom he performed for three years. Reuniting with his former pairs partner Susi Giebisch, he was featured prominently in the show, alongside Fernand Leemans, Emmy Puzinger, Hans Leiter and Jiřina Nekolová. In 1956, he married fellow skater Inge Regner. The couple embarked on a highly successful career coaching side-by-side, much like the Fassi's. His Austrian students included Hanna Eigel, Regine Heitzer, Trixi Schuba, Peter Jonas and Günter Anderl.

Hellmut Seibt with Richmond Ice Rink's manager A.V. Hopkins and Philip B. Davidson of John Wilson Skates in 1951. Photo courtesy "Skating World" magazine.

The Seibt's moved to Düsseldorf in the early sixties, where Hellmut worked with Dagmar Lurz, Ralph Borghardt and Uschi Keszler. While in West Germany, he played an intregral role in organizing the 1964 World Championships in Dortmund. The Austrian power couple left West Germany in 1967 to coach the Italian national team in Milan. Under Hellmut's tutelage, Rita Trapanese rose through the ranks to medal at both the 1971 and 1972 European Championships in Zürich and Gothenburg.

Coming full circle, the Seibt's returned to Austria in the seventies, where Hellmut served as the coach of Austria's national team until his death on July 21, 1992 at the age of sixty three. After his death, the Hellmut Seibt Memorial was organized in his memory, originally as part of the European Criterium series. Past winners in various age categories and levels have included Meryl Davis and Charlie White, Keegan Messing, Clemens Jonas, Michal Březina, Miriam Ziegler, Denis Vasiljevs and Denis Ten. Though largely overlooked in comparison to his rivals at the time, Hellmut's contributions to figure skating in no less than three different nations were considerable.

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 Legend From Liverpool: The Jeannette Altwegg Story

"It was the only thing I knew how to do, and I couldn't go on doing it all my life." - Jeannette Altwegg, August 17, 1953, "The Glasgow Herald"

The daughter of Gertrude (Muirhead) and Hermann Altwegg, Jeannette Eleanor Altwegg was born September 8, 1930 in Coimbatore, a city in the Madras district of India. Her father, a Swiss born Briton, worked in Quilon with the Liverpool Cotton Exchange for a time before relocating the family to England when Jeannette and her brother Christopher were small children.

Jeannette learned to skate at the age of six at the Liverpool Ice Palace. It wasn't long before she showed promise. In an interview in the August 17, 1953 issue of "The Glasgow Herald", she recalled, "When I was ten I had to give up school to concentrate more on skating, and I had private schooling. I don't think I missed this at the time but later I realized that I had missed the companionship of children my age."

At the end of World War II, Jeannette's father returned to Switzerland when the Cotton Exchange was nationalized. He opened a textile factory in Winterthur. Jeannette relocated to Downe, a village in the London Borough of Bromley. When only a promising junior skater under the direction of Swiss coach Armand Perren, she was selected as a representative of Great Britain for the 1947 European and World Figure Skating Championships. She surprised everyone by finishing in the top five in both.

That September, Jeannette achieved success in another sport. She was the runner up in the All-England Junior Championship held at Wimbledon in lawn tennis, losing in the final to Norma Seacy, the reigning Scottish junior champion at the time. Later that autumn, she claimed her first senior British skating title at Wembley, after amassing a huge lead in the school figures. It started to become clear at this point that focusing her attention solely on one sport was probably her best bet.

It was around this time that Jeannette started working with another esteemed Swiss coach, Jacques Gerschwiler. In Davos, Switzerland at the 1948 European Championships, the young skater finished fifth overall but found herself at the center of controversy in the school figures. The Ottawa Citizen, on January 14, 1948, recalled that Barbara Ann Scott "collected six firsts in the first four compulsory figures and one ninth place rating - given her by a British judge, Maj. K.S. Beaumont. Beaumont gave first-place ranking to Jeannette Altwegg, the British champion, although she appeared to be running fourth in the overall ranking."

Less than a month later, Jeannette and Barbara Ann Scott squared off again at the Winter Olympics in St. Moritz. In the school figures, the rivalry between Canada's sweetheart - Barbara Ann Scott - and the British skater was intense. In the February 5, 1988 issue of "The Toronto Star", Scott recalled, "The ice surface we used was surrounded by snowbanks. Jeannette's coach had a habit of standing at the side and extending a foot in the snow, close to the ice, so she'd have a target to line up her loops and keep them straight. It was a good idea but Sheldon [Galbraith] picked up on it. He'd wait until she'd started a figure and then go stand beside her coach and stick out a foot not far from his. When she'd turn, she couldn't look up to see which foot it was she was supposed to be guided by. All she could see was two of them. By the time we'd done the six figures, she was pretty mixed up." Despite these antics, Jeannette finished a strong second in that part of the competition with a score of 842.1 to Scott's 858.1. Free skating was a different story altogether. Jeannette finished a disappointing sixth. Yet, the February 7, 1948 issue of the "Dundee Courier" argued, "Miss Altwegg gave [a] masterly and polished performance. Miss [Maribel] Vinson was astonished at the low marks the British girl received." Again, the British judge placed her first, ahead of Barbara Ann Scott. Her strong finish in the figures assured her the bronze medal. She followed her Olympic bronze medal up with a fourth place finish at Worlds, again hampered by comparatively low free skating scores.

After being beaten in the early rounds in a second trip to Wimbledon in September 1948, Jeannette gave up competitive tennis and focused her attention solely on skating. Her decision paid off. She won her second British title in the autumn of 1948 and in the early months of 1949 claimed the bronze medal at both the European and World Championships. Shortly after the World Championships, she contracted the mumps and was off the ice for some time.

Photo courtesy National Portrait Gallery. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons International License.

In the autumn of 1949, Jeannette won her third consecutive British title at the Empress Hall at Earl's Court, London. After claiming silver behind Ája Vrzáňová at the 1950 European Championships in Oslo, Norway, she returned to England for a rematch at the World Championships at Wembley's Empire Pool. Finishing less than a point behind Vrzáňová in the school figures, she took to the ice for the free skate in front of a crowd of nine thousand and fell fourteen points behind, yet managed to win the silver over France's Jacqueline du Bief on the basis of her outstanding figures.

Though Jeannette was best known for her excellence in figures, she was no slouch as a free skater. She performed Axels and double jumps in both directions - something that is rarely, if at all, seen today - and was well known for her 'Diesel' (or toeless) Lutz jump, which she included in all of her  performances.

In the autumn of 1950, Jeannette won her fourth and final British title. Shortly after, she finally found herself atop the podium at the European Championships in Zürich, Switzerland. The twenty year old next headed to the Palazzo del Ghiaccio in Milan, Italy. In the figures, she amassed a fifty-seven point lead. Even Jacqueline du Bief's masterful free skating wasn't enough to narrow the gap. Though fifth in free skating, Jeannette managed to win her first World title by four points. Eminent British judge and author T.D. Richardson commented, "Jeannette shares with Cecilia Colledge, Hans Gerschwiler and Graham Sharp the palm for school figure-skating in modern times."

As the 1952 Winter Olympics in Oslo, Norway neared, it was all business for Jeannette. With Jacques Gerschwiler, she developed a new program to Offenbach's "The Tales Of Hoffmann" and decided to forgo the British Championships and focus her attention on the end game. After handing Jacqueline du Bief another defeat at the European Championships in Vienna, she headed to Oslo well-trained and ready to give it her best shot although she'd injured her knee.

Photos courtesy "Skating World" magazine

Despite a fourth place finish in the free skate behind Virginia Baxter, Jacqueline du Bief and Tenley Albright, Jeannette's strong score in the school figures was enough to earn her the Olympic gold medal in her final competitive performance. It was the only individual gold medal that Great Britain won in those Games in any sport. Her victory provided a boost of morale to the people of Great Britain; a piece of wonderful news in a world of rationing and reconstruction. After winning, she performed in the closing ceremonies of the Games. She gave what was to be her final skating performance on April 23, 1952 in front of a full house at Kingsway Rink, Dundee, Scotland.

After winning her Olympic title, Jeannette made an unorthodox choice by refusing to turn professional. The February 23, 1952 issue of the "Sydney Morning Herald" exposed the reasoning behind her decision: "Jeannette and her Scots mother were taking tea when a cable arrived from the Music Corporation of America which confirmed a 2,000 pound a week offer to tour the world. Jeannette said: 'No thanks. Not for a million pounds. I've retired from competition skating. I want to get married and have children. What's the good of making a million? Tax would take most of it. I would get ideas far beyond me. I would have to keep up a position quite unnatural to me and waste a lot of money entertaining a lot of people I wouldn't like. Besides, I'm not a dramatic skater. I could never do popular music hall stuff. I'm not interested in luxury. I never had a pair of skating boots made for me until I came second in the world championship three years ago. A friend ran up the costume in which I won the Olympic title. You don't need lots of money and facilities to reach the top. It was the top for me and the end of all my sports ambition when I saw the Union Jack raised before that international crowd of 30,000 people on Wednesday night.'"

In April of 1953, Jeannette was honored by Otto Mayer of the International Olympic Committee with a special diploma for her refusal to become a professional and became (on the recommendation of Sir Winston Churchill) Commander Of The British Empire in a June 11, 1953 birthday celebration for Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace only nine days after the Queen's Coronation. She went to Winterthour, took a course in children's welfare and watched 1953 World Championships in Davos from the stands, remarking in the February 15, 1953 "Toledo Blade" that "Tenley [Albright] is the only one who is putting down some standard."

On her twenty-second birthday, Jeannette accepted a job as Assistant to the Headmistress of the kindergarten school in the British war orphanages at Pestalozzi Children's Village in Trogan, Switzerland. Earning one hundred and twenty Swiss francs per month (less than three pounds per week), she toiled from six-thirty in the morning until eight at night every day, washing, ironing, mending clothes, scrubbing floors and doing other housework. There were twelve houses in Pestalozzi for war orphans, each with ten to eighteen children... children from Great Britain, France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Greece and Finland. In the August 17, 1953 issue of "The Glasgow Herald", she beautifully reflected, "One of the greatest rewards for our work is to see the alert, happy and normal expression in the eyes of children who when they came looked only hopeless and frightened - like some of the Greek children, children of bandits who had never had a home or known their parents. It is more wonderful than anything you can imagine to feel the love and confidence these children gave you, and the knowledge that they are needed. They may not say thank you in so many words, but the way they come to take you for granted and trust you - as they would their own parents - means much more."

Dennis Bird and Jeannette Altwegg. Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine.

While in Switzerland, Jeannette met her future husband Marc Wirz, a Swiss engineer who was the brother of Swiss Champion Suzi Wirz, one of Jeannette's perennial competitors. After announcing their engagement in London on April 17, 1954, the couple wed in a civil wedding in Bern, Switzerland in late September of that year, following this with a formal ceremony in the British church in Zürich on October 5, 1954. She cut her wedding cake with a skate blade made of English steel. It wasn't her last encounter with skates.

In 1960, Jeannette laced up once again to give her final performance - an exhibition the grand reopening of the Liverpool Ice Rink. In "Skating World" magazine, Dennis Bird recalled, "She has only skated once or twice in the last couple of years, but she showed that much of her supreme ability remains... As Jeannette said, the mind runs on into the old, familiar routine but the body doesn't follow with its former readiness. Anyway, seeing once more her stylish free skating, and her carefree dancing with her father, was a happy experience which brought back many memories of a glorious period in the history of British skating."

Jeannette and her family posing in front of their private plane. Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine.

Jeannette and her husband Marc had four children together... and more than their fair share of adventure. They rode horses at their summer home in Majorca and took flying lessons in Bern. After earning her aviation license, Jeannette made the decision in the mid sixties to fly all the way from Switzerland to her country of birth, India. In an interview with Dennis Bird that appeared in "Skating" magazine in May of 1968, she recalled, "I was rather dubious about the trip. I wasn't too sorry when one of the engines broke down in Italy. We went the rest of the way by commercial airline. I'm sure we saw and enjoyed more of India that way that if we'd had to think about refueling stops and servicing." Jeannette and Marc ultimately divorced in 1973.

Following her divorce, Jeannette settled in Bern, Switzerland. Notoriously declining numerous interview requests in the decades that followed, she finally acquiesced and gave a select few when she attended the 2011 European Championships in Switzerland at the invitation of the organizers of the event. When Jeannette passed away on June 18, 2021 at the age of ninety, she was the oldest surviving Olympic Gold Medallist in women's figure 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.

The 1952 Winter Olympic Games

In February 1952, a pound of coffee cost thirty seven cents, Louis St. Laurent was Canada's Prime Minister and one of the top news stories was the crash of National Airlines Flight 101 in Elizabeth, New Jersey. "An American In Paris" and "A Streetcar Named Desire" were nominated for Academy Awards, Johnny Ray and The Four Lads' song "Cry" topped the Billboard music charts and over sixty of the world's best figure skaters gathered in Oslo, Norway to compete for top honours at the 1952 Winter Olympic Games. Let's take a look back at things played out at this fascinating event!

SETTING THE STAGE

Though a rink in Hamar and the Tryggivann Stadium at Holmenkollen were 'considered' in the event that Mother Nature didn't want to cooperate, the two initial venues for the figure skating were ultimately used. The pairs event and men's and women's free skating were contested on natural ice in the open air Bislett Stadion, with school figures contested at the Jordal Amfi rink, an open air artificial ice rink behind the Stadion lined with long, wooden stands for approximately nine thousand spectators.

Yvonne Sugden, Nancy Hallam, Barbara Wyatt, Yolanda Jobin, Jeannette Altwegg and Susi Wirz training at Suvretta House in St. Moritz, Switzerland in advance of the 1952 Winter Olympic Games

The Canadian team consisted of Marlene and Vevi Smith, Frances Dafoe and Norris Bowden, Suzanne Morrow and her mother who served as team manager, Norman Gregory and judge Donald Gilchrist. All but Suzanne (who was already in Europe) and Gilchrist flew from Montreal via T.C.A. to London on January 30, 1952, where they caught a connecting British European Airways flight to Oslo. As the plane approached the Oslo airport, a blinding snowstorm caused grave concern among the skaters and there was some discussion as to whether they'd be able to land or would have to be diverted to another airport. Ultimately, the runway was illuminated with flares to guide the pilot into making a safe landing, but the skaters were quite rattled on deplaning. They were greeted at the airport by the wife of Canadian ambassador to Norway Edward Joseph Garland, Per Flaaten, liason between the Norwegian and Canadian Olympic Committee, and W.T. Pickering, the Canadian Olympic Team's chef de mission. From there, the skating team checked into the Savoy Hotel until their quarters at the Olympic Village in Sogn were ready. Norman Gregory recalled, "The Olympic Village quarters, while very plain, were quite comfortable. The rooms were bright and clean and the meals excellent, although there was a very definite shortage of fresh fruit for the first few days, however, that was rectified when the Norwegians brought in large quantities of Spanish oranges which were far superior in taste to the oranges available in Canada. One of the physical disadvantages of Oslo as the center for the Olympic Games, certainly as far as the figure skaters were concerned, was the distance that had to be travelled to get to practice rinks, as these were widely scattered one from the other and not very convenient to get to by means of tramway... It might be added, that for the last few days, the Norwegians provided a bus service between the Olympic Village and the various rinks." France's Jacqueline du Bief recalled the Olympic Village in Oslo thusly: "Small grey houses, grouped in the form of a horseshoe round a grim, snow-covered courtyard - entirely cut off from the city - had been summarily fixed up to form the general quarters of the competitors; the Olympic village. Each house, like a consulate, bore the name of a country and housed its own representatives, so that people frequently said: 'I am going to France' or 'Meet me in an hour's time in England.' In fact, when you set foot in one of these houses you felt you were actually going into the country itself and you could give yourself a nice trip round the world without leaving the little grey courtyard. The team spirit everywhere in this little Olympic village was wonderful."

Bislett Stadion

At the Opening Ceremonies held at the Bislett Stadion, chairman of the organizing committee Olaf Ditlev-Simonsen called for a moment of silence in sympathy for British team, who were mourning the loss of King George VI... harkening back to the 1936 Winter Olympics in Garmisch-Partenkirchen where the British team were mourning the death of King George V. Captain T.D. Richardson's wife Mildred, who was in Oslo covering the event for the British press recalled, "In Norway they have somewhat strict and rather odd laws governing drinking. So it was difficult, indeed almost impossible – to get a quick one, without having a meal. As you can imagine that was not very popular with the Gentlemen of the press! So, as we were all housed in the specially built and very comfortable Viking Hotel, a deputation (not a 'demo' we hadn’t heard of such things in those happy, far off days) went to the powers-that-be and after some difficulty, had a bar - ostensibly only for press – installed in the hotel. Of course the news quickly spread around and the rush to be there at the opening had to be seen to be believed! I’m afraid that, charming and anxious to be helpful though they were, our Norwegian hosts were not always as efficient as they might have been. For example, one day – the Saturday before the Opening Ceremony – on returning to the hotel at lunchtime, I got a phone call from London. It was 'The Observer', asking why they had not had my ‘piece’ on the general atmosphere in Oslo, etc. I told them that I had had no such request and they replied that a communication had been sent some days before, saying they wanted something for their 'Sporting Print', a very prestigious slot on the back page of 'The Observer' at the time. Would I call them back in half an hour – it being Saturday - with my 'piece'? Well I did and it was in print on Sunday! On another occasion we met the Mayor of Oslo at some reception and he said how sorry he was that we did not go to a banquet held some nights previously where we were to be guests of honour – as the only press men (people today of course), who had also been competitors in the Winter Games. So we explained that we had not received that invitation and how disappointed we were. It never turned up among our papers."

Ria and Paul Falk (left) and Tenley Albright (right) in Oslo

The weather, though fiercely cold at times during the Games, in other instances caused chaos for the organizers in advance of the Games. At one point, a lack of snow forced the Norwegian Army to step in and import snow from the northern mountains by lorry to keep the Holmenkollbakken ski jump in operation.

   

Fortunately, Mother Nature cooperated during the figure skating events. Swedish skating historian Gunnar Bang recalled, "You could count on between 12-15,000 people [at] every event." In fact, no less than thirty two thousand spectators showed up for the women's free skate at the Bislett Stadion... at least three thousand over capacity. However, during the women's school figures, a packed crowd at the onset dwindled to only a handful of bodies in the bleachers by the end of the competition.

THE WOMEN'S COMPETITION

Jeannette Altwegg

The women's school figures, contested during the mornings of February 16 and 17, 1952, were the first of the figure skating events in Oslo. 1927 World Bronze Medallist Karen (Simensen) Klæboe, the chair of the figure skating committee of the Norwegian Skating Association, made history as the first female assistant referee at the Olympic Games.

Australia's Nancy Hallam and Gweneth Molony (left) and Erika Kraft of Germany, Jeannette Altwegg of Great Britain and Jacqueline du Bief of France training in Oslo

Prior to the Games, an Austrian judge came to Paris to try to coax Jacqueline du Bief, who'd declined an invitation to perform an exhibition in Vienna, to reconsider. He threatened, "Skate. The Games are to be held in a fortnight. You need help - we shall be grateful to you... If you don't skate, we shall 'kill' you at the next competition and all Central Europe will do likewise," he purportedly told her, adding fuel to the rumours that were circling Paris at the time that there was going to be some funny business going on with the judging in Oslo. She stood by her refusal. During the school figures in Oslo, one of the Austrian judge's cronies showed up and said, "You are doing badly and you will need a lift up. Our competitor is in the same position for the test in the 'free' for this evening and if you will promise us that the French judge will look favourably on him we will make it up to you on your points for the figures, for this afternoon." She told him where to go and how to get there and placed fourth, behind twenty one year old Jeannette Altwegg of Great Britain, sixteen year old Tenley Albright of Newton Center, Massachusetts and seventeen year old Sonya Helen Klopfer (Dunfield) of Long Island City, New York. Albright was the only woman to wear shorts for the figures.

Jeannette Altwegg's lead in the figures was substantial. All but American judge Harold C. Storke (who placed Albright first) had her firmly in the lead by over forty points. As the figures counted for sixty percent of the total score, Altwegg - a figures specialist who was no slouch as a free skater - had all but won Olympic gold before the free skate barring a complete disaster.

Jacqueline du Bief (left) and Erika Kraft (right) practicing in Oslo

Jacqueline du Bief described the atmosphere in the dressing room during the women's free skate on February 20, 1952 thusly: "Any ordinary person entering that room would have thought herself in a place full of lunatics. Jeannette, very calm and concentrating on herself, was waiting seated on a bench, her eyes lost in space, whilst Ginny Baxter was sitting cross-legged on a massage table playing patience, and Tenley Albright, stretched out on another table with her eyes tightly closed, remained motionless as a statue, with the aim of relaxing. All around, the others - in various stages of undress - were getting themselves ready. Some were smiling, some were on the defensive already, others were exchanging a few words with their mothers or teachers, in low tones so that they should not disturb their fellows. But the nervous yawns, the deep sighs, the hoarse voices revealed the general tension better than all else. Soon the first competitor, outwardly quite cool but inwardly shaking with fright, left the dressing-room, giving the signal for the start of the competition. The competition, which for many of us was to be the last or the one before the last, represented that for which we had striven every day for about ten years - that for which we had so long hoped. From now onwards, there was the regular movement of competitors going out to the rink, punctuated by an occasionally uttered 'Good luck' - the returns that were either tearful or victorious but were always noisy and breathless, accompanied by a wave of cold air from 'out there' - affecting more and more the nerves of those who were waiting their turn and trying to conquer their mounting fears."

Tenley Albright, Jeannette Altwegg and Jacqueline du Bief on the Olympic podium

Tenley Albright, Sonya Klopfer and Suzanne Morrow all fell on jumps in their free skating performance. Jeannette Altwegg's effort in Oslo was by no means a disaster, but up against some very strong free skaters, she only placed fourth in the free skate, with ordinals ranging from third through ninth. du Bief, eleventh of the twenty women to skate, performed exceptionally well and had the highest point total in the free skate but Detroit's Ginny Baxter earned four first place ordinals... besting even the innovative du Bief in that phase of the competition. du Bief included a double Lutz to double loop series of jumps.

Garnering considerable press back home in England, Jeannette Altwegg became the only British athlete to win a gold medal at the Oslo Games and the first British skater since Madge Syers in 1908 to win an Olympic gold medal in figure skating. Tenley Albright took the silver and du Bief the bronze, followed by Klopfer and Baxter. Canada's three entries - Suzanne Morrow, Marlene and Vevi Smith - placed sixth, ninth and thirteenth. Great Britain's Valda Osborn, who placed only thirteenth, had the unusual distinction of receiving a third place vote from Swiss judge Henri Mügeli. Altwegg announced her retirement from figure skating the day after winning Olympic gold, to the dismay of professional ice show impresarios and praise of Olympic officials, who delighted at the fact she'd rather retire from sport altogether than become a professional athlete.

Suzanne Morrow later alleged that in Oslo, her mother was approached by - wait for it - the Austrian judge saying that if the Canadian judge he placed Helmut Seibt second behind Dick Button in the men's event, he would in turn ensure that Morrow earned the women's silver. He claimed that if the Canadians didn't accept the offer, he'd offer the same deal with the Americans, ensuring Tenley Albright a silver. Mrs. Morrow approached Norman Gregory, telling him that her daughter didn't want any part in it. He later refused to take action against the Austrian judge unless Mrs. Morrow produced a witness.

THE MEN'S COMPETITION

Alain Giletti

If the media's 'darling' of the Games was Jacqueline Vaudecrane's twelve year old student Alain Giletti, its 'bad boy' was eighteen year old Michael Carrington of Streatham. The young British Champion found himself at the center of controversy when NSA officials sent him home prior to the men's competition due to "unsatisfactory conduct." Two British officials asked the NSA to reconsider but Mildred Richardson recalled, "Unfortunately he seemed to imagine that being a member of the Olympic Team entitled him to behave in a most irresponsible manner, and that the rules of behaviour - attending practice sessions for example - did not apply to him. There were other foolish demeanours which could not be overlooked so that we – that is the Senior Officials of the NSA who were in Oslo which included T.D.R and myself – after much soul searching, decided that we must send him home. Fortunately we still had in the men's team such stalwarts as Michael Booker who was our champion 6 times, but it was a most unfortunate affair, causing great upset and distress to us all."

Michael Carrington claimed he had practiced eight hours a day and given up his job the year prior to practice for the Games... hardly the actions of a skater who didn't take the Olympics seriously. Quoted in the February 18, 1952 issue of "The West Australian", he claimed, "An official came on Friday morning to take me to the airport for the first plane to London. I was warned of his arrival and was not available. He packed all my clothes and took them out of the camp." He refused to leave until he was given "a satisfactory explanation" and was later suspended by the NSA for eight months, barring him from the chance of defending his national title.

Dick Button

If Giletti and Carrington had captured the attention of the press, Harvard University Dick Button had dominated it. Prior to the Games, he told an Associated Press reporter, "I don't skate against anyone. I'm skating against perfection. I want to skate my best and I want everyone else to do his best." However, the athletic director at Harvard took the unusual step of sending out a news release stating that Button would attempt the triple loop jump in Oslo. In his book "Dick Button On Skates", Button recalled, "This departure from custom was made for two reasons. First, if a rival had not already begun work on a triple jump, I felt he did not have time to catch up with me before the Olympic Games. Second, it would be wise to warn the judges that I was prepared to present a radical new jump at Oslo, otherwise it might go unrecognized; the judges might well ask themselves whether that was a triple revolution or an optical illusion."

When the fourteen men took to the ice to skate their figures on February 19, 1952, it was absolutely clear to everyone that Dick Button was in a class by himself. He earned first place ordinals from every judge and (like Altwegg) amassed a lead of over forty points over his closest competitor, Helmut Seibt of Austria. Jimmy Grogan of the United States, Peter Firstbrook of Canada, Carlo Fassi of Italy, Hayes Alan Jenkins of the United States and young Alain Giletti of France followed, but with Button's upcoming triple loop attempt in the free skate and his impressive arsenal of other jumps and spins, his competitors were truly in a competition for the silver. The men's figures were the forward outside counter, backward outside double three-change-double three, backward outside loop-change-loop and backward outside bracket-change-bracket.

The men's free skating competition, held on February 20, 1952, was attended by thousands of figure skating aficionados and curious onlookers who wanted to see Button attempt his triple loop for the first time. In "Dick Button On Skates", Button recalled, "I had only a brief warm-up while the judges took their seats, and coaches called last minute instructions. A whistle blew shrilly, a little man carrying score cards slipped and slid across the band of ice rimming the competitive area, and the referee rose from his center chair. The men gathered around him as he reiterated to the skaters, in several languages, that should shoelaces break, they could start over; should they want more warm-up time, they could have it; and did they know the order of skating? Affirmative an- swers and nervous gestures answered him. Pulling on sweaters and coats, tucking hanging shoelaces into their boots, the skaters hurried back to the warmth of the dressing rooms to wait their turn. Was I nervous? Let me put it this way: Yes. This was to be the crowning effort of years of practice. To be sure, I had a very substantial lead in school figures, but if I could not perform the triple loop, even though I should manage to win, the effort would be, in part, a failure... Once again I heard my familiar competitive music. The be- ginning phrase always startled me out of the sluggish feeling that usually came over me before the competition began. I raised my arms, took an opening step and forced myself into the opening spin. I thought over and over only that I had to take the program coolly. After thirty seconds, one Axel and a double Lutz, I had the feel of the ice. The next jump would tell whether weeks of work had been successful - whether I would be the first to do a triple jump in competition. Would it work? Would it work? Now when I needed it most, would there be a hitch? The least fault in timing, the least rut in the ice at takeoff... I took the four-five-six preparation step and moved toward the edge into the loop. I forgot in momentary panic which shoulder should go forward and which back. I was extraordinarily conscious of the judges, who looked so immobile at rinkside. But this was it. The edge cut the ice and my arms lowered, shoulders turning against the rotation to allow a grip that would follow through. My knees closed as my feet crossed in the air. The wind out my eyes, and the coldness caused tears to stream down my cheeks. Up! Up! Height was Vital. Round and around again in a spin which took only a fraction of a second to complete before it landed on a clean steady back edge. I pulled away breath- less, excited and overjoyed, as applause rolled from the faraway stands like the rumbling of a distant pounding sea. The rest of the program hardly mattered. I was let-down, serious, over-concerned, forgetting that this should be really all enjoyment. I finished the five minutes, now but an instant. Only when I left the ice did I realize I was exhausted. Photographers popped flashbulbs; reporters asked questions. I had laced my boots so tightly that circulation had stopped. My feet were numb. Knots had to be cut before I could remove my boots. The struggle was over."

Helmut Seibt, Dick Button and Jimmy Grogan on the Olympic podium in Oslo

Unanimously first with his history-making free skate, Dick Button became the first North American skater to successfully defend an Olympic title. On the strength in his lead over Grogan in the figures, Seibt narrowly captured the silver medal. Canada's Peter Firstbrook settled for fifth, behind Hayes Alan Jenkins, who placed third behind Grogan in the free skate.

THE ICE DANCE EXHIBITION

While the men's free skate marks were being computed, Americans Carol Ann Peters and Danny Ryan and Canadians Frances Dafoe and Norris Bowden each exhibited compulsory dances at the Bislett Stadion in almost pitch black darkness. Ending their exhibition, the teams switched partners on the Fourteenstep corners. Staged too late at night to capture much attention from the tired spectators, the demonstration perhaps failed to generate media attention for the first 'official' World Championships in ice dancing in Paris only days later. In case the name Danny Ryan sounds familiar, he was sadly one of the victims of the 1961 Sabena Crash.

THE PAIRS COMPETITION

Karol and Peter Kennedy, Ria and Paul Falk and Marianna and László Nagy on the Olympic podium in Oslo

Held on the evening of February 22, 1952, the pairs competition decided the final figure skating medals of the Oslo Olympics. The clear favourites amongst the thirteen team field were the married Germany couple Ria (Baran) and Paul Falk and Seattle siblings Karol and Peter Kennedy, who had both won World titles previously. The 'Kennedy Kids' earned first place ordinals from the American and Norwegian judges and were tied with the Falk's by the Swedish judge, but the judges from Canada, Great Britain, Switzerland, Hungary and Austria all had the Germans solidly in first with marks ranging from 5.6 to 5.8. Baran and Falk's winning performance was skated to Beethoven's "Egmont" overture and Carl Maria von Weber's "Oberon".

The Kennedy's settled for silver, ahead of two another sibling teams... Hungary's Marianna and László Nagy and Great Britain's Jennifer and John Nicks. At the World Championships that followed in Paris, Peter Kennedy, the son of a dentist, found himself at the center of controversy when he allegedly assaulted a press photographer. He received suspensions from both the USFSA and ISU following the incident.

The Falk's and The Kennedy's

The Canadian and American judges both had Frances Dafoe and Norris Bowden third, but a trio of seventh place ordinals from the German, Swedish and Hungarian judges kept them out of the running. Dick Button recalled, "From the start, Ria and Paul Falk outshone any other pair  I have ever seen. There are only a few skaters who attain the level of greatness and the Falk's were of this number. Like Manolete, the Spanish bullfighter who scorned tricky passes and concentrated on simple classic moves that reached perfection, the Falk's specialized on single jumps, simple lifts, and parallel skating that was always in unison. The exact matching of their styles and physiques made their complete similarity possible."

THE CLOSING CEREMONIES

Marianna and László Nagy

During the Closing Ceremonies at the Bislett Stadion, the official report of the 1952 Olympic Games recalled, "Jeannette Altwegg, Great Britain and György Czako of Hungary gave the spectators lovely figure skating displays, while Marianna Nagy and her brother László, of Hungary, did their impressive pair skating to the music of 'Donauwellen'.  The ice dance which finished the figure skating exhibition was carried out by 40 children in national costumes, led by ballet master Otto Thoresen in his Morgedal costume."

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