The 1991 Canadian Figure Skating Championships

Royal Bank advertisement for the 1991 Canadian Championships. Photo courtesy Saskatoon Public Library, Local History Department.

Canadians were reeling over the introduction of the GST and their country's introduction to the Persian Gulf War. Brian Mulroney was Prime Minister, "White Fang" had just grossed thirty-four million at the box office and Londonbeat's "I've Been Thinking About You" blared on radios from Penticton, British Columbia to Port Hawkesbury, Nova Scotia.

  

The year was 1991 and from February 6 to 10, a who's who of Canadian figure skating gathered at Saskatchewan Place and the Harold Latrace Arena in Saskatoon for the 1991 Royal Bank Canadian Figure Skating Championships.

Left: Commemorative pin from the event. Right: World Champion Frances Dafoe, who acted as one of the judges in Saskatoon. Photo courtesy Saskatoon Public Library, Local History Department.

Regina had twice played host to the Canadian Championships, most recently in 1984, but the 1991 event marked Saskatoon's first kick at the can. Fortunately, a chinook made for smooth travel for the  thousands of competitors, officials and spectators that flocked to the city in the dead of a long Prairie winter. Johnny Esaw, Debbi Wilkes, Rod Black and Tracy Wilson acted as commentators on CTV's generous coverage of the event - seven hours in total, much of it live. Let's take a look back at how things played out on the ice!

THE NOVICE AND JUNIOR EVENTS

For the first time ever, Quebec pairs swept the podium in the novice pairs event. Caroline Haddad and Jean-Sébastien Fecteau, representing the CPA St-Léonard, were the winners. Martine Michaud and Sylvain Leclerc won the novice compulsory dances, but were overtaken in the free dance by Marisa Gravino and Patrice Lauzon in another historic first Quebec sweep of the novice dance. Although school figures had been eliminated from the senior ranks, novice skaters were still required to perform them. To the delight of the home crowd, fifteen year old Amanda Zerr of Saskatoon won the novice women's school figures. Unfortunately, she dropped down to fourth overall, hampered by an eighth place showing in the short program. The winner was another Quebec skater, Stephanie Fiorito, who had finished only fourteenth in 1990. Fifteen year old Jeffrey Langdon dominated the novice men's event from start to finish. Yvan Desjardins of the CPA Boisbriand placed third, his hopes of making it four for four for Quebec dashed.

Photo courtesy Saskatoon Public Library, Local History Department

Thirteen year old Penny Papaioannou and seventeen year old Raoul LeBlanc defeated Jamie Salé and Jason Turner to win the junior pairs event. They had been novice champions the year prior. Sixteen year old Marie-France Dubreuil and eighteen year old Bruno Yvars led yet another Quebec sweep in junior dance, skating a free dance inspired by The Oka Crisis.

Photo courtesy Saskatoon Public Library, Local History Department.

The winner of the junior women's event was fourteen year old Netty Kim of the Upper Canada/North York Skating Club. Coached by Bob Emerson, Kim won both the short program and free skate. She was the youngest of the sixteen competitors and had placed only sixth in novice in 1990. Fourth was a young Kristy Sargeant, who was only tenth entering the free skate. Halfway through her program, a tiara she was wearing fell off. The referee asked her if she wanted to restart her program. They laughed when she told them she just wanted to keep on going because she'd skated cleanly up to that point.

Herb Cherwoniak. Photo courtesy Saskatoon Public Library, Local History Department.

Saskatoon's Herb Cherwoniak won the Canadian junior men's event in front of a hometown. Matthew Knight and Ravi Walia, British Columbian skaters who placed one-two in novice men's in 1990, placed fifth and sixth. Coached by Dale Hazell, twenty year old Cherwoniak made history as the first man in history (and only the second skater) from Saskatchewan to win a national title in singles skating. In the previous few years, he'd suffered from appendicitis, a broken toe and disappointing performances. He choreographed his own free skating program and landed three triple jumps.

THE PAIRS AND FOURS COMPETITIONS

Isabelle Brasseur and Lloyd Eisler. Photo courtesy "La Presse" archive, Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec.

Coached by Josée Picard and Éric Gilles, Isabelle Brasseur and Lloyd Eisler had won the Canadian title in 1989 and the silver medal at the 1990 World Championships in Halifax. However, they had finished only third the year prior at the Canadian Championships. Cindy Landry and Lyndon Johnston, the winners in 1990, had moved on. Landry was by this point skating professionally with Peter Oppegard, the American skater who'd won the bronze medal at the 1988 Winter Olympic Games in Calgary. Less than two months prior to the Saskatoon event, Eisler had injured himself seriously while playing hockey. He arrived sporting a titanium leg brace and wasn't allowed to even attempt jumps until a week prior to the competition - and then it was only singles. This was not exactly the ideal position any couple would want to be in, let alone if they were planning on staging a comeback.

Left: Isabelle Brasseur and Lloyd Eisler. Right: Christine Hough and Doug Ladret. Photos courtesy Saskatoon Public Library, Local History Department.

In the book "To Catch A Dream", Isabelle Brasseur recalled, "Just before the short program, [Lloyd] told me, 'If I can't manage my jump, I'll do a single or skip it altogether, but you keep going and do yours as best you can. We'll be deducted for it but it should be all right, since I'm sure I can do all the pair elements.'" Eisler went for the side-by-side double Axel, landing it on two feet; Brasseur landed hers cleanly. 

Christine Hough and Doug Ladret

The two received a standing ovation for their gutsy effort and led Christine 'Tuffy' Hough and Doug Ladret, who had been landing side-by-side triple toe-loop's in practice, entering the free skate. In third were Michelle Menzies and Kevin Wheeler. Wheeler, too, was injured. In "Skating" magazine Peter K. Robertson remarked, "Kevin Wheeler's story of injury was somewhat different. After he entered the hospital for what was to be minor surgery, it was discovered in a 4 and one-half-hour operation that a tumor had attached itself to a nerve running from his knee to his ankle. He was released from the hospital just before Christmas and advised not to skate until May, but such is the determination of figure skaters that he and partner Michelle Menzies were in Saskatoon trying for a spot on the World Team anyway."

Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine

The fact that Brasseur and Eisler somehow managed to go out and skate an outstanding free skate to reclaim the Canadian title despite his injury was eclipsed by an incident so dramatic that even a veteran broadcaster like Johnny Esaw was visibly moved. Just over forty seconds into their free skate, Christine Hough and Doug Ladret had a disastrous fall on their split triple twist. Twenty-nine year old Ladret landed on top of Hough. She hit her shoulder on his head when they went down, then smacked her head on the ice. The couple almost slid into the boards. They were given a five-minute break by the referee, during which time they were quickly examined by Dr. Jim Werbecki. They courageously restarted their program from the beginning and skated well enough to take the silver over Stacey Ball and Jean-Michel Bombardier, Michelle Menzies and Kevin Wheeler and Kristy Sargeant and Colin Epp. Their coach, Hough's stepfather Kerry Leitch, told reporters, "I admire the courage for trying to do the entire program. I wouldn't have gotten up. Pair skaters have got to have more guts than any athletes in skating, anyway. A lot of hockey players wouldn't come back from a check like that." With her arm in a sling, Hough addressed the media after their performance and said, "I want to go to Worlds. I had to skate, no matter how much I hurt. Ladret added, "That's the way things are. Unless something's broken, we keep going."

Despite their injuries, Hough and Ladret and Lloyd Eisler still participated in the fours event. Hough and Ladret had been members of the winning four the previous three years. Eisler had finished on the podium in the eighties with former partners Karen Westby and Katherina Matousek, but it was Isabelle Brasseur's first time skating in the discipline at Canadians. Brasseur and Eisler and Ball and Bombardier defeated Hough and Ladret and Menzies and Wheeler to claim the title. One of the competitors, Kimbereley Esdaile, fell and hit her head during the competition and spent a night in the hospital under observation. There were so many injuries among the pairs and fours flock that "Skating" magazine that it was like "The Battle Of Wounded Knee".

THE MEN'S COMPETITION

Two time and defending Canadian Champion Kurt Browning had followed up his win at the 1990 World Championships with victories at the Goodwill Games, Skate Canada and the Nation's Cup. In one of the early practices in Sasktoon, he landed three quads and several triple/triple combinations.  "Then," he recalled in his book "Kurt: Forcing The Edge", "my back went haywire. It was a replay from Skate America in 1989, and the spasms were painful and intense. Mr. [Jiranek] and I considered withdrawing." Thanks to sessions with physiotherapsist Brian Craven, Browning was able to muster up the strength to deliver an outstanding original program featuring a triple Axel/double-toe-loop combination and triple flip, earning a 6.0 for artistic impression - his first at the Canadian Championships. Elvis Stojko, Michael Slipchuk, Patrick Brault and Brent Frank trailed him in the standings. All but Frank landed the triple Axel. It was Slipchuk's first clean original program at the Canadians since the 1989 event in Ottawa. He had been sick with strep throat, missed Divisionals and valuable practice time in the weeks leading up to the event. Four men landed the triple Axel combination in the originalprogram, which was a big first for the Canadian Championships.

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

In contrast , the men's free skate in Saskatoon wasn't one of the more memorable ones on record. The final flight was littered with up's and down's. Kurt Browning was less than stellar. He missed one of his triple Axel attempts and stumbled on two combinations. He did, however, attempt a quad but landed it on two foot. Referee Jean Matthews ruled that the jump was clean. Elvis Stojko doubled his first triple Axel attempt and missed his second but threw in a third for good measure, which helped him beat Browning on the first mark.

Norm Proft

Kurt Browning won his third Canadian title over Elvis Stojko on the strength of his presentation, along with his win in the short program. Michael Slipchuk took the bronze, ahead of Brent Frank, Patrick Brault, Matthew Hall, Norm Proft, Marcus Christensen, Sébastien Britten and Kris Wirtz. The top three were the exact same as in Sudbury the year prior.

THE ICE DANCE COMPETITION

Since Tracy Wilson and Rob McCall had danced on to the professional ranks in 1988, no couple had managed to show any kind of 'staying power' at the top. 1989 Champions Karyn and Rod Garossino had moved on. 1990 Champions Jo-Anne Borlase and Martin Smith had parted ways, paving the way for Smith's partnership with Michelle McDonald of Abbotsford, British Columbia, who had finished second in 1989 and 1990 with partner Mark Mitchell. At twenty-seven and twent- three, McDonald and Smith were already considerably older than many of their rivals and the fact they'd only teamed up in August of 1990 put them at a distinct disadvantage, particularly in the compulsories.

Jacqueline Petr and Mark Janoschak. Photo courtesy Saskatoon Public Library, Local History Department.

After the compulsory dances - the Ravensburger Waltz and Argentine Tango - yet another couple had choctawed their way to the top of the standings. Twenty year old Jacqueline Petr of Winnipeg and twenty-two year old Mark Janoschak of Bramalea, Ontario, who trained in Toronto under Roy Bradshaw, took the lead while McDonald and Smith tied for second with Penny Mann and Juan-Carlos Noria. Mann was a Newfoundlander; Noria was born in Venezuela.

Michelle McDonald and Martin Smith. Photos courtesy Saskatoon Public Library, Local History Department (left) and "Skating" magazine (right).

McDonald and Smith topped Petr and Janoshak in the Blues OSP, skating a delightfully unique program to "Creole Love Call". They clinched the Canadian title with an interesting free dance based on the 1941 Tyrone Power and Rita Hayworth film "Blood And Sand". Petr and Janoshak's fabulous free dance, an eclectic program set to music from "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure", was choreographed by Toller Cranston, who was in Saskatoon coaching Karen Preston with Mrs. Ellen Burka. He also designed avant garde costumes for them, but they got the thumbs down at Skate Canada. They didn't wear them in Saskatoon but later broke them out again in Munich at Worlds. They settled for the silver ahead of Mann and Noria, whose "Queen Of Sheba" free dance fell flat. Dara Bailey and Rock Lemay finished fourth and Laurie Palmer and Mark Mitchell placed fifth, hampered by a disappointing fall that had them eighth in the compulsories  Future Canadian Medallists Jennifer Boyce and Michel Brunet placed seventh.

THE WOMEN'S COMPETITION

Charlene Wong, a five time medallist at Canadians, had turned professional. A three-way race was framed between defending Canadian Champion Lisa Sargeant, 1989 Champion Karen Preston and Josée Chouinard, a promising young star from Laval, Quebec who had won the bronze in Sudbury in 1990. Sargeant toyed with the idea of attempting a triple Axel combination in her short program set to the music of Liberace, but decided to play it safe and go for the double flip/triple toe-loop combination instead. Twenty-one year old Chouinard won the short program with four first place ordinals to Preston's one and Sargeant's two.

As was so often the case in the nineties, the final flight of the women's free skate in Saskatoon was chock full of mistakes. Reporters and spectators alike went berserk, as they often did, and a mountain was made out of a molehill when Josée Chouinard fell during her footwork sequence. Her toe-pick tumble didn't take her out of the running whatsoever, and she managed to win her first Canadian title over Sargeant, Tanya Bingert, Preston, Jutta Cossette, Annie St. Hilaire, Margot Bion, Stacey Ball, Cynthia Amy and Diane Takeuchi. Chouinard and Sargeant were named to the World team. In the "Edmonton Journal", one unnamed 'veteran Canadian coach' was quoted as saying,  "Our best chance right now might be to send Liz [Manley] and a picture of Barbara Ann Scott."

Josée Chouinard. Photos courtesy "Chatelaine" magazine, Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec.

Josée Chouinard was the first Quebec woman since Margot Barclay Wilkins in 1928 to claim the Canadian title. In her book "All That Glitters", Chouinard recalled, "Although I was obviously excited to win, I was having trouble accepting my newfound fame and the big expectations people now had for me... It was difficult for me to accept the changes that occurred in my life. Overnight, I was the Canadian Champion, and I had a hard time dealing with the attention it brought to me. No longer was I the little girl from Laval, Quebec who skated because she loved the sport. I was treated differently and people suddenly expected great things from me."

Thanks to a generous donation of VHS tapes by Skate Guard reader Amy, you can take a trip back in time and rewatch highlights of the 1991 Canadian Championships in digitized video form. The YouTube playlist, which includes a handful of the men's free skates and performances from the Parade Of Champions, can be found above or at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6c_NN6KdCfLakgDyoOEW8H53chFsaPy1.

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

Crossing Oceans: The Gweneth Butler Story

The daughter of Cicely (Hyland) and Arthur Cecil Butler, Gweneth Leigh Butler was born June 1, 1915 in Kensington, London, England. Less than a month prior to her birth, her father's business partner Evan Arthur Leigh of Yewbarrow Hall, Grange-over-Sands, perished during the sinking of the S.S. Lusitania. Interestingly, Gweneth's sister Audrey later married Vivian Whitewright Warren Pearl, the son of a famous surgeon-major who had survived the Lusitania's torpedoing. Evan Arthur Leigh left a third of his estate to Gweneth's father, giving the family the means to start a new life in America during The Great War.

Cecil, Cicely, Gweneth and Audrey Butler and the family's live-in nurse made the dangerous wartime Atlantic crossing to America and took up residence on Riverway in Boston. Cecil, a textile merchant, set up shop on Summer Street. His company Leigh & Butler served as the agent for The English Card Clothing Co., one of England's largest card clothing manufacturers. 

The Butler family all became members of the Skating Club Of Boston. Gweneth grew up skating alongside the likes of Theresa Weld Blanchard, Nathaniel Niles and Sherwin Badger, as well as a future rival who was only four years younger - Maribel Vinson.

The Stock Market Crash and the death of Gweneth's grandmother brought the Butler family back to London in the early thirties. Gweneth continued her skating at the Westminster Ice Club, Queen's Ice Rink and on winter sojourns to Switzerland. She made her international competitive debut in 1933, the same year she was 'presented' as a debutante. Although she finished a disappointing ninth at that year's European Championships, she earned a silver medal at an international competition held in St. Moritz.

Audrey and Gweneth Butler

After missing the entire 1934 season due to an ankle injury, Gweneth returned to competition in 1935, placing a very impressive fifth at both the European and World Championships. In both events, she placed third in the school figures. Considering the politicking that went on during that era and her relative competitive experience, these results only confirmed what everyone around her was saying - that she was quite remarkable at figures.

The same could not be said of Gweneth's free skating. In almost every competition she entered, she dropped in the standings after the figures. At the time, the British press was raving about the beauty, youth and free skating talented of Cecilia Colledge and Megan Taylor. None of these adjectives were used to describe Gweneth. Reporters repeatedly felt it worth mentioning that she was the tallest of the crop of female British skaters. They ran her picture in "The Bystander" in February of 1936 on a photo page titled "A Selection Of Spinsters From Every Set", describing her as "A Bonny Lass, always sunburnt".

Mollie Phillips, Cecilia Colledge, Graham Sharp, Gweneth Butler, Jackie Dunn and Belita Jepson-Turner in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Photo courtesy National Archives Of Poland.

Despite the fact that the press never seemed to get behind her as they did Cecilia and Megan, Gweneth soldiered on, winning the silver medal behind Colledge at the 1935 British Championships. She earned a spot on the 1936 Winter Olympic team and placed a very creditable fifth in the figures, but was forced to withdraw before the free skating due to 'indisposition' - a bad flu and a high fever. Her final international competition was the 1936 World Championships in Paris. She again placed - you guessed it - fifth. At that year's British Championships, she placed fourth behind Colledge, Mollie Phillips and Belita Jepson-Turner. Gweneth's competitive career ended the following year when she broke her ankle while skiing in St. Moritz.

Arthur John Horton Benn and Gweneth Butler

In August of 1938, Gweneth married Arthur John Horton Benn, the great-grandson of Colonel William F. 'Buffalo Bill' Cody. Their son Michael was born on October 12, 1939, just over a month after World War II broke out. The War had a profound impact on the Butler family. In a letter published in the December 1939 of "Skating" magazine, Gweneth's mother wrote, "We are living down at our country cottage. When everyone was asked to leave London. We shut down the town house. Cecil (Mr. Butler) is Air Raid Warden for this district and I am attached to the Women's Volunteer Service and am Billeting Officer for the village which has meant a good deal of work as there are over one hundred London children in the place. This entails boarding, educational arrangements, soup kitchen, clothing, etc. I also have a large household to arrange. Gweneth and her baby son with nurse are here and several others. Audrey (the second daughter) is here too. Both girls are enrolled at the Hospital and have passed their exams, but fortunately have not been needed yet. All their friends have joined up. We also have to grow more vegetables, etc., so I am becoming quite a gardener. Thank goodness I am very busy. All our friends are scattered and engaged on different jobs and it is difficult to see people except those quite near. Opinion in London on the length of the war is divided; some are optimistic; others exactly the reverse."

Gweneth Butler in 1942

Within a year of her mother's letter, Gweneth left for America. Leaving her baby with her American mother-in-law in Chicago, she joined the cast of Arthur M. Wirtz and Sonja Henie's show "It Happens On Ice" at the Center Theatre and taught skating for several years at the Skating Club of New York. To aid in the War effort, she took part in a skating carnival to support the Seamen's Church Institute of New York's effort to purchase Christmas kits for men in the United States Merchant Marine. After the War, Gweneth and her husband divorced. He remarried in 1949; she in 1957 to Ian Bailey. She lived out her golden years quietly in London, passing away on November 15, 2006 at the age of ninety-one.

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

An Unconventional Leader: The Herbert Larson Story

Photo courtesy Saskatchewan Sports Hall Of Fame

"Herb was a feisty, tough little guy who wasn't going to take crap from anybody. He'd take on anything given the proper environment and motivation." - Hugh Glynn, "Reflections Of The CFSA: A History Of The Canadian Figure Skating Association"

"It has always been my aim and endeavour to bring to any office I hold in figure skating activities a sense of sportsmanship... My main interest seems to have been to encourage young boys to take up figure skating and to obliterate the word 'fancy' and replace it with 'figure'." - Herbert Larson, "Skating" magazine, February 1953

The son of Johanna 'Anna' (Swanson) and Swedish immigrant Sven Johan Larson, Herbert 'Herb' Reginald Larson was born on July 1, 1899 in Genesee, Illinois. His parents, who were staunch Lutherans, moved north to in Lost River, Saskatchewan when he was a young boy. He was the third oldest of five boys and spent much of his youth working long, harsh days on the family homestead.

Photos courtesy University Of Saskatchewan Special Collections

As a young man, Herbert worked on the farm of a German family and saved up enough money to attend Nutana Collegiate and the University Of Saskatchewan. He was active in numerous aspects of school life at the University, including the yearbook and amateur dramatic society. He graduated from the College Of Commerce in 1925, settled in Saskatoon, married his wife Lillian (Howatt) and had two children, Mavis and Lorne.

Photos courtesy University Of Saskatchewan Special Collections

An ambitious and community-minded man, Herbert served as the provincial chairman of the Canadian Manufacturers Association, President of the Saskatoon Petroleum Club, an executive member of the Saskatchewan War Finance Committee, Saskatchewan Motor Club and Fish and Game League and was active in his local public library, Kinsmen and Rotary Club's. He was the owner of School Publications and Specialties, which produced materials for Saskatchewan schools. He later founded the very successful H.R. Larson Publishing Company, also known as Midwest Litho. One of his employees was Mary Rose Thacker's brother Ross. In his spare time, he enjoyed curling, hunting, fishing, square dancing, shuffleboard and figure skating.

Herbert Larson's business Midwest Litho. Photo courtesy Saskatoon Public Library.

As director and President of the Saskatoon Figure Skating Club, Herbert was keenly aware of the problems that Western skaters faced. With few exceptions, the CFSA was run by an 'old boy's club' from Eastern clubs. The Canadian Championships and AGM's were almost always held in Eastern Canada... and stacked full of Eastern judges. Travel was also an issue. If skaters couldn't afford train tickets and accommodations, they couldn't even attend Canadians. With an aim to improve this situation, he worked with a small group of Westerners, including Granville Mayall, Bert Penfold and Aileen Abbott, to form the sprawling Western Canada Section of the CFSA, which stretched from Victoria, B.C. to Port Arthur, Ontario in 1946. He later served as its President.

Undaunted by a harrowing car accident in the autumn of 1950 that saw his Ford Meteor plunge through the ice of Redberry Lake, Herbert served as the chairman of the Western Canadian Championships and became certified as a Gold level judge and referee with the CFSA. From 1951 to 1953, he served as the CFSA's Vice-President. In 1953, he began his tumultuous and controversial reign as the CFSA's President - only the second man from Western Canada to hold the position.

Herbert Larson, Donald B. Cruikshank and F. Herbert Crispo. Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine.

As CFSA President, Herbert was - to put it diplomatically - a polarizing figure. The first Western Canadian President, Alf Williams, had been happy to tow the line. Herbert wanted to shake the tree and make drastic changes to how the Association was run. He was extremely vocal about his desire to diminish the control of the clique of Ontarians that he called "the Eastern combine" and this, of course, made him quite unpopular with the CFSA's long-held 'establishment'.

Herbert Larson shaking hands with Charles Snelling. Photo courtesy Saskatoon Public Library.

When Herbert came up with the idea visiting many of the one hundred and thirty-eight member clubs to try to establish some sort of working relationship and in-person connection, this ruffled feathers because he paid for these trips out of his own pocket. Donald B. Cruikshank, the CFSA's Past-President, briskly stepped in with a motion that all travel by the CFSA's Presidents be approved and paid for the Association. Not long after, his fellow executive members changed the rules of the Association and called a surprise election for President. It was actually the first time in the long history of the ASAC or CFSA that there had been an election for President - everyone else had been essentially appointed. In order to defeat his opponent from Toronto, Herbert took advantage of a rule that allowed member clubs to send in their votes by proxy, enlisting key builders from the Western provinces in a campaign that involved travelling to clubs from Victoria to Regina. This cunning strategy paid off and he was re-elected to serve as President for a second year. He didn't stand for re-election in 1955 and F. Herbert Crispo, the man he'd defeated in 1954, succeeded him as President.

Alma English and Herbert Larson. Photos courtesy Saskatoon Public Library.

After his presidency of CFSA, Herbert resumed his service on the executive of the Western Canada Section and won the 1958 Western Canadian veteran's ice dance title with Alma English. He was inducted into the Saskatchewan Sports Hall Of Fame in 1977. Upon his retirement, he moved to Victoria, British Columbia, where he founded the Kinsmen K-60 Club and served as President of the Oak Bay Senior Kiwanis Club. He passed away on December 19, 1996 at the age of ninety-seven. In 1998, Herbert's children established the Larson Family Fund in his memory for the Saskatoon Foundation, which contributes to funding various local programs.

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 1992 Diet Coke Skaters' Championships

Held at the Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati, Ohio from April 3 to 5, 1992, the Diet Coke Skaters' Championships were sponsored by (you guessed it) the good folks at Coca-Cola, along with MasterCard and Reebok. The event was held to mark the five-year anniversary of the 1987 World Championships, held at the same rink and featuring many of the same competitors.

In this particular CBS professional 'made-for-TV' competition, skaters performed three programs (technical, artistic and exhibition) with the technical and artistic programs scored out of 10.0. Unlike other professional events, the high and low marks were not dropped in either program and as in the amateur ranks, the technical program had seven required elements. The winners of both the men's and women's events took home a cool forty thousand dollars.

Barbara Underhill, who recently learned she was pregnant, skated a 'guest' exhibition with Paul Martini as there was no pairs event. At the time, the duo believed it may have been their final performance. Underhill wasn't the only pregnant Canadian skater in Cincinnati. Tracey Wainman, who accompanied then-husband Jozef Sabovčík, was extremely close to her due date. Sabovčík worried that she might end giving birth to their son Blade in Cincinnati.

The Diet Coke Skaters' Championships was to have been part of a planned four-part professional series organized by Jefferson-Pilot Communications called The Skater's Championships. The first event was Les Dieux de la Glace - Masters Professionels de Patinage (the first Miko Masters) held in June of 1991 in Paris. The second was the International Figure Skating Championships in Atlanta in December of 1991. The Cincinnati event ultimately ended up being the third and final stop. 

The task of promoting the event fell on the lap of Don Schumacher, the executive director of the Greater Cincinnati Sports and Events Commission. Whatever Schumacher did worked. Tickets for the three-day event, which ranged from twenty-five to thirty-five dollars per day, sold like hot cakes, with visitors from as far away as Canada flocking to the Queen City to see their favourite skaters compete. Join me in the time machine as we look back at how this overlooked event played out!

THE MEN'S COMPETITION

Making his professional debut after winning the 1992 Winter Olympic Games and World Championships, Viktor Petrenko nailed a triple Axel on his way to winning the men's technical program ahead of Brian Orser, Jozef Sabovčík and five others.

Gary Beacom, skating first in the artistic program, performed a self-choreographed avant garde program to Patrick O'Hearn's "Malevolent Landscape" clad head to toe (literally... his entire head was covered) in a black spandex bodysuit. The judges weren't amused. World Champion Alexandr Fadeev was next to skate, and he received marks that were even lower. Robin Cousins, sixth after the technical program, had the audience spellbound with his self-choreographed interpretation of k.d. lang's "Busy Being Blue". Though his program didn't include a triple jump, it did include a double Axel and his signature layout backflip. He was the only skater other than the winner to receive a perfect 10.0. Scott Hamilton, who'd faltered in his technical program and placed only fifth, rebounded with a flawless performance choreographed by Ricky Harris to a choral version of "The Battle Hymn Of The Republic". The program was dedicated to the victims of the 1961 Sabena Crash. He received 10.0's across the board and catapulted into first place. Brian Orser followed with a subdued performance to Michael Feinstein's "Where Do You Start?", doubling his only planned triple attempt and earning marks from 9.7 to 9.9. Petrenko finished well outside of the top three in the artistic program when he made the decision to perform his Olympic free skate as an artistic program, despite being advised against it by both judges and his fellow competitors. Though he was the only skater to attempt and land a triple Axel, he missed three other jumping passes. Even the commentators on CBS pondered why he hadn't chosen to perform the number he used in the Exhibition Of Champions - Chubby Checker's "Let's Twist Again" - instead. Robert Wagenhoffer and Jozef Sabovčík followed, each failing to earn marks that placed them in the top three. Hamilton took the win and Petrenko's strong technical program lead kept him in second, ahead of Orser, Cousins, Sabovčík, Wagenhoffer, Beacom and Fadeev.

THE WOMEN'S COMPETITION

Scott Hamilton, who left Verne Lundquist and Tracy Wilson to their own devices in the CBS booth during the broadcast of the men's event, offered his commentary for the women's event. Katarina Witt won the technical program with one of the most technically demanding performances of her entire professional career, skating to an early version of the "Robin Hood" program she would later use when she reinstated to the amateur ranks for the 1993/1994 season. Debi Thomas and Liz Manley, Witt's fellow medallists from the 1988 Winter Olympics, followed in second in third place. A pair of World Champions, Denise Biellmann and Rosalynn Sumners, were tied for fourth ahead of Charlene Wong and Caryn Kadavy.

Caryn Kadavy, first to skate in the artistic program, choreographed her own program to "Nessun Dorma" from "Turandot" but missed all three of her jumping passes and only managed to earn 9.5's and 9.6's. Biellmann followed, uncharacteristically missing both of her jumping passes as well. She earned marks ranging from 9.4 to 9.8. The audience came around when Rosalynn Sumners skated a clean performance to Roberta Flack's "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face", replete with four double jumps. Her marks, ranging from 9.7 to 9.9, easily broke her earlier tie with Biellmann. Charlene Wong's artistic program left her sandwiched between Sumners and Biellmann and Kadavy. 

The top three women after the short program retained their positions in the artistic program, with Manley earning one 10.0, Thomas three 10.0's and Witt perfect 10.0's across the board. Manley, skating to Bette Midler's "Miss Otis Regrets", delivered the most energetic of the three performances. Witt was the only one to land a triple jump, but of the three she received the most tepid response from the audience. Spending most of her program to Louis Armstrong's "Let's Fall In Love" vamping it up and standing and posing, even Scott Hamilton remarked, "I think they were expecting to see a lot more skating and a lot less posing." Debi Thomas, skating an uncharacteristically classical program to "Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini", was quietly radiant but two-footed the landing of her only attempted triple. She still received a standing ovation from the audience, who booed her lower scores. It would prove to be her final professional competition until she made a comeback in the fall of 1996 to compete in two events after having her son.

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

Zerr Woman: The Helene Engelmann Story

Helene Engelmann and Alfred Berger. Photo courtesy Bibliothèque nationale de France.

"When comparing pair skating from then and now... you must admit that today's pair skating is much more difficult, but also more beautiful. Mainly because of the interspersed solo figures, then also through the artistic skill, lifting figures, jumps and various pirouettes. If I'm honest, I like it better than earlier and I am convinced that pairs will continue to develop." - Helene Engelmann, "Der Wiener Tag", December 25, 1937

Helene Engelmann was born February 9, 1898 in Vienna, Austria. To say that she came from Vienna's most important skating family would be something of an understatement. When her father Eduard Engelmann Jr. was four, her grandfather Eduard Engelmann Sr. had taken him to see Jackson Haines perform. Her grandfather went on to construct his famous Engelmann ice rink, where her father trained to win three consecutive European titles from 1892 to 1894. Her aunt Christa von Szabó was the winner of the pairs competition at the Nordic Games in 1901. Olympic Gold Medallist and seven-time World Champion Herma Szabo was her cousin and two-time Olympic Gold Medallist and seven-time World Champion Karl Schäfer was married to her sister Christine.

Helene started skating as a very young child on her family's ice rink in Hernals. When she was only eleven years old, trainer Pepi Weiß-Pfändler paired her with an experienced older skated named Karl Mejstrik. With his first partner Helene Kuich, Karl had finished second at a pairs competition held in conjunction with the World Championships for men in 1908 in Troppau. Karl was an all-around sportsman who held memberships with the Wiener Regatta-Verein and Wiener Eissport-Klub, excelled in skiing and worked as a trainer at the 'Danube' rowing club. 

Helene Engelmann and Karl Mejstrik

Early in their partnership, Helene and Karl entered only waltzing competitions, winning first prize in a contest put on by the Wiener Akademischen Sportvereines in 1911. The "Allgemeine Sport-Zeitung" claimed this was because Helene was still "technically too weak" to do pairs. In 1912, Karl gave up his singles skating to focus on pairs and in one winter Helene "developed the utmost diligence and colossaly improved her technique within a short time." The duo won the Troppauer Challenge-Preis and in 1913, made history as the first Austrian pairs team to win the World Championships. It was their first time competing in an ISU Championship and the first time couples from Austria had entered an official World Championship in pairs skating. At the age of fifteen in 1913, Helene is still (to this day) the youngest skater ever to win a World pairs title.

Helene described the experience of winning her first World title in an article that appeared in "Der Wiener Tag" on Christmas Day, 1937: "I have, in my athletic career, experienced some things a lot of things that were beautiful and some things that hurt. I remember some things as if they happened only yesterday; some other things lie in a gray, gray distance. My first success in the World Championships remains very close in my memory. It was in Stockholm on February 10, 1913. Why I have the date so precisely is because the day before, I had celebrated my birthday. On the day before the World Championships, I was with my father and partner Mejstrik at the Stockholm theater and I was thirsty to celebrate the day. I felt it very important that I drink the first glass of champagne. No sooner had I been served a such a small glass, then it was time to go to bed. That was actually the one great disappointment to me. I had expected much more from the champagne. My father was not to be trifled with. 'You have one difficult day ahead of you tomorrow, Helene. March to bed.' With a smiling face and a bleeding heart I said goodbye to the 'old people' who continued to still celebrate my birthday. Very early on February the 10th, I was woken by by father and we drove out into the bay, where the compulsory figures for men and women took place. The ice was terribly soft and bad after. At noon, when the freestyle skating was held in the Stockholm stadium - on natural ice - it was better then. My champagne grief from the day before was not forgotten. For that, I was terribly upset and excited. My partner Mejstrik spoke to me of the hype already used. 'I don't know who is in front of us or who skates after us. All I know is that we are against the long-time champion couple... The Jakobsson's were viewed as the winning pair. I was trembling with excitement like a poodle pulled out of ice water and Mejstrik had it not easy to calm me down before skating. And then it was our turn. According to a Viennese waltz, we had our program built. With the first sounds of music, every trace of nervousness had left me and I skated hand in hand with my partner - back then there were no solo figures for pairs skaters - as if there were no judges, no viewers, just the two of us on the big ice surface. It was like a dream. I stopped skating on because the music was over and then was sent by my father back to the hotel. He promised he would tell me immediately of the result of the competition. Excited, I sat in the lobby near Mejstrik, as the phone rang the bell. I followed the expression of the hotel porter on the telephone early. He said to us in broken German: 'Zerr woman... first! Mr.... and Mrs... first.' So the married couple Jakobsson had won first prize. Mejstrik told me that I was very good and he was very pleased with me. I would have so much liked to come home a World Champion. Maybe I cried too. I do not know anymore. Then my father came. I do not know why, but I was ashamed of him. He was so convinced that we would take first place and win - and now I had been deceived. 'So, how's the new World Champion doing?' was his greeting. Wasn't that impossible? It could not be. 'Mr... Mrs... first.' Those words could still be heard clearly in my ears and only gradually did I realize that meant Mejstrik and me. It occurred to me too that the smile of the doorman was an embarrassed wish of happiness, with the few broken German words he knew, from the first to know of our victory. That evening I knew that champagne tasted good, but the World Championship win was my happiest birthday gift."

Helene Engelmann and Karl Mejstrik

In 1914, Helene and Karl settled for second place behind Ludovika and Walter Jakobsson at the World Championships in St. Moritz. Just when an exciting rivalry between the two top pairs teams in the world was shaping up, it all came to a halt. "Then came the War," recalled Helene. "There was no artificial ice, no evening lighting, no music. Everything was forbidden. My partner moved. The skating world slept for a winter lasting several years."

Helene Engelmann and Alfred Berger. Photos courtesy Bibliothèque nationale de France.

After The Great War, Helene's trainer Pepi Weiß-Pfändler paired her with Freidl 'Alfred' Berger, an Austrian Champion in both rowing and bobsleigh. Helene remembered, "In 1920 I was, with my new partner Berger, invited to Klagenfurt. We had to rehearse our program without music in the Carinthian capital there was one Peasant band that played marches in the square. We had them play a Strauss at a marching pace. Our program was expanded. There were jumps and also some lifting figures but it was still a real pair program without solo elements. In 1922, we finally came back to the World Championships and competed against the Jakobsson's in Davos. We stayed victorious. What hurt me is that no World Championship medals came [by post]." Helene and Alfred did not compete internationally in 1923, but returned in 1924 to win the gold medals at the Winter Olympic Games in Chamonix, France and World Championships in Manchester, England.

Helene Engelmann and Alfred Berger. Photos courtesy Bibliothèque nationale de France.

Helene and her skating partners took very different paths after their World Championship wins. Karl Mejstrik went to England, anglicized his name to Charles and taught skating at two London rinks - the Hammersmith Ice Drome and Golders Green Ice Rink. Alfred Berger operated a seed business, married an opera singer and briefly taught figure skating and hockey at the Minto Skating Club in Ottawa. Helene married an engineer named Johann Jaroschka and had a son named Johann Jr. in 1931. Her husband enlisted with the Wehrmacht during World War II and was killed while serving with a Pionier battalion. The Engelmann rink was badly damaged by Allied bombings during the War and afterwards, Karl Schäfer helped rebuild the rink. Helene and her son were involved in the management for several years. Helene lived out her days in Pukersdorf, suffering from dementia and other health issues in her later years. She passed away at the age of eighty-seven on August 1, 1985. 

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 1956 World Figure Skating Championships

Held from February 16 to 19, 1956 at the same open air stadium which played host to the 1936 Winter Olympic Games where Sonja Henie won her third and final Olympic gold medal, the 1956 World Figure Skating Championships were arguably the one of the most dramatic post-Olympic World Championships in history. No Hungarian skaters participated in protest after the West German government refused to issue entry visas for a Hungarian soccer team the previous year. With the exception of the ice dancers who hadn't competed in Cortina d'Ampezzo, many skaters travelled directly from the Olympic site by train.

It was twenty degrees below zero when the Canadian contingent arrived in West Germany without their team leader Ralph McCreath only to find the hotel where they were supposed to be booked had no record of their reservations. Carol Heiss arrived around the same time only to find that she too had no reservation. It took two days to sort out the whole mess, and when McCreath finally arrived via Rome he arranged for Heiss and her mother to have private rooms in the same hotel as the Canadian team. In turn, Pierre Brunet (Carol's coach) looked after Frances Dafoe and Norris Bowden, whose coach Sheldon Galbraith had been called back to the Toronto Skating Club to help with the club's annual carnival. Skaters like America's Mary Ann Dorsey and Austria's Ilse Musyi, who hadn't competed at the Olympics but had travelled with their country's respective Olympic teams, benefited from no missed practice time due to travel and the experience of practicing with more experienced skaters on Olympic ice. 

Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine.

In West Germany, practice conditions were less than ideal for all skaters. Dafoe recalled, "At Garmisch we trained in 18 degrees below... I developed hypothermia and couldn't control my shaking. Pierre Brunet noticed what was happening and carried me into a warm room." Throw on a sweater and warm up and join me as I take an in-depth look at how each of the respective competitions in Garmisch-Partenkirchen ultimately played out.

THE MEN'S COMPETITION

A triple threat from America: Hayes Alan Jenkins, Ronnie Robertson and David Jenkins

As in Cortina d'Ampezzo, the men's competition was a three-way fight between Hayes Alan Jenkins, his younger brother David and Ronnie Robertson. And as in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Hayes all but assured himself victory by decisively winning the school figures with first place ordinals from eight of the nine judges.

Left: Men's medallists in 1956. Right: German press clipping of Hayes Alan Jenkins. Photo courtesy Julia C. Schulze.

The free skate was a completely different story. All nine judges gave the edge to Robertson, but it wasn't enough for him to unseat the newly crowned Olympic Gold Medallist. David Jenkins was almost unanimously third, with only the Czechoslovakian judge daring to place rising star Karol Divín ahead of him. Canadian Champion Charles Snelling improved upon his eighth place finish at the Olympics by placing a strong fourth ahead of Great Britain's Michael Booker.

While Hayes Jenkins had fond memories of standing on the podium with his brother and sharing a moment in the spotlight with his future wife Carol Heiss, David Jenkins' memories of this event weren't as glowing. In his April 2011 interview on The Manleywoman SkateCast, he recalled, "It was five below, and my brother said I should get my skates sharpened, and I was stubborn and I resisted. I fell on both the triples and twice trying to get back up.  I really had warmed up probably than I better had, and I thought I was on top of the world, and the crowd was getting all excited and I thought that was just great. And I think I totally stopped thinking. The next year I was world champion, and I never fell again in competition. After that one, my coach insisted that I fall in warmup whether I needed to or not, just so that he’d have some idea that I was still keeping my mind working."

THE ICE DANCE COMPETITION

Pamela Weight and Paul Thomas. Photo courtesy "Ice & Roller Skate" magazine.

With the retirement of four time World Champions Jean Westwood and Lawrence Demmy and 1955 World Bronze Medallists Barbara Radford and Raymond Lockwood, the path to gold was clear for twenty two year old Pamela Weight and her nineteen year old partner Paul Thomas. Although the young team coached by Len Liggett had only been skating together for just over a year, they had already won the silver medal behind Westwood and Demmy at the 1955 World Championships in Vienna and the British senior dance title in November 1955 in Nottingham. Unlike Westwood and Demmy, they had no long term aspirations. She planned to marry; he to move to Canada. Garmisch-Partenkirchen was their last hurrah... and a hurrah it was! Weight and Thomas dominated all four compulsory dances - the Foxtrot, Paso Doble, Tango and Westminster Waltz - and the free dance and were placed first on every judge's scorecards in every phase of the competition. 

June Markham and Courtney Jones

The British Silver and Bronze Medallists June Markham and Courtney Jones and Barbara Thompson and Gerard Rigby became World Silver and Bronze Medallists in an equally convincing fashion. That said, each of the teams ranked fourth through sixth - Americans Joan Zamboni and Roland Junso (who fell in the free dance) and Carmel and Edward Bodel and France's Fanny Besson and Jean-Paul Guhel - earned ordinals in the top three. Canada's sole entry, young Lindis and Jeffery Johnston, placed ninth of the seventeen teams who competed. The Italian team who placed twelfth, Bona Giammona and Giancarlo Sioli, had ordinals ranging from sixth to fifteenth.

BBC broadcast one hour of free dancing to skating lovers back come in Jolly Ol' England. In her book "Figure Skating History: The Evolution Of Dance On The Ice", Lynn Copley-Grave recalled, "TV commentator Max Robertson repeated publicly a statement by a well-known judge that Weight/Thomas were the best ice dance team ever produced in Great Britain. Jean Westwood refuted the statement in a letter to 'Skating World', reminding readers that she and Lawrence beat them on several occasions." Although Westwood and Demmy certainly had the more distinguished career, Weight and Thomas earned the Vandervell Trophy for their winning performance in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

THE WOMEN'S COMPETITION

Women's medallists in 1956

With her terminally ill mother in attendance, Carol Heiss did the unthinkable in the school figures, edging twenty year old Olympic Gold Medallist Tenley Albright five judges to four. Snow fell steadily as the friendly rivals took to the ice to settle the score in the free skate. Tenley skated brilliantly but Heiss only expanded her lead with her performance to Jean Martinon's "If I Were King", earning 5.9's across the board and the first place ordinals of seven of the nine judges. The result ended up five judges to four in Heiss' favour.

Tenley Albright

"Time" magazine raved that Heiss' "near-flawless execution brought the chilled crowd to its feet. Even one of the judges broke into spontaneous applause". The February, 19, 1956 issue of "The Victoria Advocate" noted that "the tiny blonde skated flawlessly, and her performance feature double Axels, double flips and loops." Heiss celebrated the victory with her mother, grandparents and coach Pierre Brunet. In her December 2012 interview on The Manleywoman SkateCast, Heiss recalled, "That was the world championship where I had worked very hard to get the double Axel. I didn’t quite have it at the Olympics - it was there but I just barely did it, it was one of those low ones. At Worlds I had more confidence, I put two in the program and landed both of them. And I’m convinced it was those clean double Axels that gave me an edge over Tenley."

Austria's Ingrid Wendl received third place ordinals from five judges to Yvonne Sugden and Catherine Machado's two apiece to take the bronze. The lone Canadian entry, Ann Johnston, placed a strong ninth of the twenty nine entries.

America had four women's entries in Garmisch-Partenkirchen: Mary Ann Dorsey, Carol Heiss, Tenley Albright and Catherine Machado

A young Sjoukje Dijkstra, competing in her second World Championships, almost didn't make it to the event. In her April 2014 interview on The Manleywoman SkateCast, she recalled, "After the Olympics, we went back to Davos and I got very sick. I had laryngitis... My parents weren't there. I tried everything, penicillin... So from there, I went from my bed to Garmisch. I was so determined that I wanted to compete. I didn't do my best. That was hard, because you know you can do better."
Dijkstra placed sixteenth. Four years later, she would stand on the podium with Heiss at the Winter Olympic Games in Squaw Valley.

THE PAIRS COMPETITION

Frances Dafoe and Norris Bowden

More than a few people felt that Canada's Frances Dafoe and Norris Bowden had been robbed of a gold medal at the 1956 Winter Olympic Games. They had narrowly lost by one point and two places to Austrians Sissy Schwarz and Kurt Oppelt and delivered one of the finest pairs skating performances the world had ever seen. The World Championships in Garmisch-Partenkirchen were their chance to settle the score and before the event even began, the writing seemed like it was on the wall. Dafoe and Bowden had been told there would be seven judges - three on one side, three on another and a neutral judge from Switzerland. When the judges trotted out, there were suddenly nine. Dafoe and Bowden skated even more brilliantly than they did in Italy, but in the end, five judges (West Germany, Italy, Austria, Czechoslovakia, America) voted for Schwarz and Oppelt and four (Australia, Canada, Great Britain, Switzerland) opted for Dafoe and Bowden. The Austrian judge placed the Canadians third behind bronze medallists Marika Kilius and Franz Ningel and the Canadian judge put Schwarz and Oppelt third behind Americans Carole Ann Ormaca and Robin Greiner, who finished fourth. Placing fifth in only their second trip to the World Championships were Barbara Wagner and Bob Paul.

Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine

Dafoe and Bowden's loss sparked an uproar of international proportions which took several years and ISU Council action to repair. Even the West German press decried the result of the event. "The Munich Abendzeitung" proclaimed, "Frances Dafoe and Norris Bowden were the true world champions of the evening... The whole arena was thrilled with excitement, and the spectators roared their delight. They were certain they were watching the world champions... This time Schwarz and Oppelt were nowhere near the precise performance of the Canadians. But not only the Austrian judge was responsible for this regrettable lapse of human objectivity. The Czechoslovak and Italian judges also obviously marked [Dafoe and Bowden] down... Schwarz and Oppelt certainly had good content with lots of pleasant moves, but the exhibition was not as clean as in Cortina, or as sovereign. They were out of balance in spins and the flow from one movement to another was imperfect. There was no ecstatic enjoyment in watching them, but their marks were very high. The Austrian judge gave 5.8 twice, while later he gave the Canadians 5.5 which provoked booing from the crowd." The "Garmisch-Partenkirchen Tagblatt" agreed that the Canadians "deserved to win first place without a doubt."

With little support from the CFSA and their coach not present, Dafoe and Bowden were left to deal with the controversy alone. Schwarz and Oppelt's coach Arnold Gerschwiler came to them after the event and said, "I am here to shake the hands of the true champions" but despite outraged protests to the ISU from coaches who called the event blatantly fixed, the suspect results of this competition remained as is.

Medallists at the 1956 World Championships. Left to right: David Jenkins, Ingrid Wendl, Gerard Rigby, Barbara Thompson, June Markham, Courtney Jones, Pamela Weight, Paul Thomas, Tenley Albright, Ronnie Robertson, Sissy Schwarz, Kurt Oppelt, Carol Heiss, Hayes Alan Jenkins, Frances Dafoe, Norris Bowden and Marika Kilius

At the closing banquet of the event, a speaker alluded to the fact the wrong skaters had won the gold medals in the pairs event. The entire Austrian team rose and walked out in a huff. One year later, the ISU handed three Austrian judges lifetime suspensions.

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