A Touch Of Triskaidekaphobia

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

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

Ludmila and Oleg Protopopov. Photo courtesy Chicago Public Library.

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

Anuschka Gläser, Stefan Pfrengle and Claudia Leistner

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

Anna Galmarini

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

THIRTEENTH PLACE FINISHERS AT THE WINTER OLYMPIC GAMES

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

Year	Men	Women	Pairs	Ice Dance
1928	Montgomery Wilson	Edel Randem	Kathleen Lovett and A. Proctor Burman	N/A
1932	(none)	Elizabeth Fisher	(none)	N/A
1936	Erle Reiter	Angela Anderes	Irina Timcic and Alfred Eisenbeisser-Ferraru	N/A
1948	Zdeněk Fikar	Dagmar Lerchová	Grazia Barcellona and Carlo Fassi	N/A
1952	Kalle Tuulos	Vevi Smith	Bjørg Skjælaaen and Reidar Børjeson	N/A
1956	Allan Ganter	Joan Haanappel	(none)	N/A
1960	Peter Jonas	Dany Rigoulot	Marcelle Matthews and Gwyn Jones	N/A
1964	Charles Snelling	Kumiko Okawa	Margit Senf and Peter Göbel	N/A
1968	Philippe Pélissier	Linda Carbonetto	JoJo Starbuck and Ken Shelley	N/A
1972	Didier Gailhaguet	Cathy Lee Irwin	Florence Cahn and Jean-Roland Racle	N/A
1976	Pekka Leskinen	Emi Watanabe	Ingrid Spieglová and Alan Spiegl	Susan Carscallen and Eric Gillies
1980	Rudi Cerne	Karin Riediger	(none)	(none)
1984	Mark Cockerell	Elizabeth Manley	Claudia Massari and Leonardo Azzola	Jindra Holá andd Karol Foltán
1988	Petr Barna	Charlene Wong	Lisa and Neil Cushley	Sharon Jones and Paul Askham
1992	Masakazu Kagiyama	Patricia Neske	Danielle and Stephen Carr	Anna Croci and Luca Mantovani
1994	Michael Tyllesen	Lenka Kulovaná	Anuschka Gläser and Axel Rauschenbach	Aliki Stergiadu and Juris Razgulajevs
1998	Szabolcs Vidrai	Shizuka Arakawa	Danielle McGrath and Stephen Carr	Kateřina Mrázová and Martin Šimeček
2002	Ivan Dinev	Sarah Meier	Tiffany Scott and Philip Dulebohn	Sylwia Nowak and Sebastian Kolasiński
2006	Emanuel Sandhu	Susanna Pöykiö	Marcy Hinzmann and Aaron Parchem	Federica Faiella and Massimo Scali
2010	Artem Borodulin	Min-jeong Kwak	Caydee Denney and Jeremy Barrett	Nóra Hoffmann and Maxim Zavozin
2014	Brian Joubert	Kaetlyn Osmond	Maylin and Daniel Wende	Sara Hurtado and Adrià Díaz
2018	Daniel Samohin	Ha-nul Kim	Tae-ok Ryum and Ju-sik Kim	Kana Muramoto and Chris Reed
2022	Deniss Vasiljevs	Viktoriia Safonova	Nicole Della Monica and Matteo Guarise	Marjorie Lajoie and Zachary Lagha

THIRTEENTH PLACE FINISHERS AT THE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

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

Year	Men	Women	Pairs	Ice Dance
1914	Sergei Wanderfliet	(none)	(none)	N/A
1922	(none)	(none)	(none)	N/A
1923	(none)	(none)	(none)	N/A
1924	(none)	(none)	(none)	N/A
1925	(none)	(none)	(none)	N/A
1926	(none)	(none)	(none)	N/A
1927	(none)	(none)	(none)	N/A
1928	(none)	(none)	(none)	N/A
1929	(none)	(none)	(none)	N/A
1930	(none)	(none)	(none)	N/A
1931	Theo Lass	(none)	(none)	N/A
1932	(none)	Elizabeth Fisher	(none)	N/A
1933	(none)	(none)	(none)	N/A
1934	(none)	Ester Bornstein	(none)	N/A
1935	(none)	(none)	(none)	N/A
1936	Toshikazu Kagiyama	Audrey Peppe	(none)	N/A
1937	(none)	(none)	(none)	N/A
1938	(none)	(none)	A. Wächter and Fritz Lesk	N/A
1939	(none)	Britta Rahlen	(none)	N/A
1947	(none)	Gun Ericson	(none)	N/A
1948	Per Cock-Clausen	Suzanne Morrow	Joan Ogilvie and Bobby Thompson	N/A
1949	(none)	Beryl Bailey	(none)	N/A
1950	(none)	Valda Osborn	(none)	(none)
1951	(none)	Betty Hiscock	(none)	(none)
1952	(none)	Eva Weidler	(none)	(none)
1953	György Czakó	Elaine Skevington	(none)	(none)
1954	(none)	Rosi Pettinger	(none)	(none)
1955	Tilo Gutzeit	Ilse Musyl	(none)	Claude Weinstein and Claude Lambert
1956	Hans Müller	Fiorella Negro	(none)	Lucia Fischer and Rudolf Zorn
1957	Yukio Nishikura	Joan Haanappel	(none)	(none)
1958	Norbert Felsinger	Margaret Crosland	Ludmila Belousova and Oleg Protopopov	Adriana Giuggiolini and Germano Ceccattini
1959	Hubert Köpfler	Carla Tichatschek	(none)	(none)
1960	Hubert Köpfler	Sonia Snelling	(none)	(none)
1962	Sepp Schönmetzler	Eva Grožajová	Mieko Otwa and Yutaka Doke	Marlise Fornachon and Charly Pichard
1963	Hugo Dümler	Karen Howland	(none)	Helga and Hannes Burkhardt
1964	Robert Dureville	Kumiko Okawa	(none)	Diane Towler and Bernard Ford
1965	Tim Wood	Hana Mašková	Ingrid Bodendorff and Volker Waldeck	Gabriele Rauch and Rudi Matysik
1966	Robert Dureville	Sally-Anne Stapleford	Susan and Paul Huehnergard	Annerose Baier and Eberhard Rüger
1967	Sergei Chetverukhin	Rita Trapanese	Betty Lewis and Richard Gilbert	Lyudmila Pakhomova and Aleksandr Gorshkov
1968	Michael Williams	Linda Carbonetto	Betty and John McKilligan	Donna Taylor and Bruce Lennie
1969	Tsuguhiko Kozuka	Rita Trapanese	Evelyne Schneider and Willy Bietak	Ilona Berecz and István Sugár
1970	Toller Cranston	Charlotte Walter	Evelyne Scharf and Willy Bietak	Teresa Weyna and Piotr Bojańczyk
1971	Jacques Mrozek	Kazumi Yamashita	Linda Connolly and Colin Taylforth	Anne-Claude Wolfers and Roland Mars
1972	Didier Gailhaguet	Gerti Schanderl	Gabriele Cieplik and Reinhard Ketterer	Teresa Weyna and Piotr Bojańczyk
1973	László Vajda	Gerti Schanderl	Gale and Joel Fuhrman	Krisztina Regőczy and András Sallay
1974	Bernd Wunderlich	Barbara Terpenning	Florence Cahn and Jean-Roland Racle	Anne and Harvey Millier
1975	Didier Gailhaguet	Emi Watanabe	Grażyna Kostrzewińska and Adam Brodecki	Susan Carscallen and Eric Gillies
1976	Christophe Boyadjian	Karena Richardson	Gabrielle Beck and Jochen Stahl	Judi Genovesi and Kent Weigle
1977	Kurt Kurzinger	Heather Kemkaran	Kyoko Hagiwara and Sumio Murata	Susi and Peter Handschmann
1978	Konstantin Kokora	Claudia Kristofics-Binder	Gabrielle Beck and Jochen Stahl	Stefania Bertele and Walter Cecconi
1979	Brian Pockar	Natalia Strelkova	Elizabeth and Peter Cain	Karen Barber and Nicky Slater
1980	Jean-Christophe Simond	Carola Weißenberg	Susan Garland and Robert Daw	Marie McNeil and Rob McCall
1981	Falko Kirsten	Manuela Ruben	(none)	Marie McNeil and Rob McCall
1982	Grzegorz Filipowski	Elizabeth Manley	Luan Bo and Yao Bin	Wendy Sessions and Stephen Williams
1983	Gary Beacom	Sanda Dubravčić	Susan Garland and Ian Jenkins	Judit Péterfy and Csaba Bálint
1984	Mark Cockerell	Karin Telser	(none)	Isabella Micheli and Roberto Pelizzola
1985	Petr Barna	Susan Jackson	Shuk-Ling Ngai and Kwok-Yung Mak	Noriko Sato and Tadayuki Takahashi
1986	Grzegorz Filipowski	Agnès Gosselin	Kerstin Kimminus and Stefan Pfrengle	Sharon Jones and Paul Askham
1987	Falko Kirsten	Claudia Villiger	Shuk-Ling Ngai and Cheuk-Fai Lai	Sharon Jones and Paul Askham
1988	Neil Paterson	Yvonne Gómez	Anuschka Gläser and Stefan Pfrengle	April Sargent and Russ Witherby
1989	Axel Médéric	Yvonne Pokorny	(none)	Susanna Rahkamo and Petri Kokko
1990	Oliver Höner	Beatrice Gelmini	Sharon Carz and Doug Williams	Małgorzata Grajcar and Andrzej Dostatni
1991	Oliver Höner	Simone Lang	Cheryl Peake and Andrew Naylor	Małgorzata Grajcar and Andrzej Dostatni
1992	Michael Slipchuk	Tatiana Rachkova	Anuschka Gläser and Stefan Pfrengle	Anna Croci and Luca Mantovani
1993	Konstantin Kostin	Lisa Ervin	Svetlana Pristav and Viacheslav Tkachenko	Margarita Drobiazko and Povilas Vanagas
1994	Aren Nielsen	Rena Inoue	Natalia Krestianinova and Alexei Torchinski	Irina Lobacheva and Ilya Averbukh
1995	Vasili Eremenko	Marina Kielmann	Marina Khalturina and Andrei Krukov	Elizaveta Stekolnikova and Dmitri Kazarlyga
1996	Takeshi Honda	Tatiana Malinina	Dorota Zagórska and Mariusz Siudek	Kati Winkler and René Lohse
1997	Laurent Tobel	Nicole Bobek	Silvia Dimitrov and Rico Rex	Kateřina Mrázová and Martin Šimeček
1998	Michael Tyllesen	Joanne Carter	Marsha Poluliaschenko and Andrew Seabrook	Elena Grushina and Ruslan Goncharov
1999	Stefan Lindemann	Lucinda Ruh	Valerie Saurette and Jean-Sébastien Fecteau	Galit Chait and Sergei Sakhnovski
2000	Vitali Danilchenko	Sabina Wojtala	Kateřina Beránková and Otto Dlabola	Anna Semenovich and Roman Kostomarov
2001	Sergei Rylov	Tatiana Malinina	Inga Rodionova and Andrei Krukov	Isabelle Delobel and Olivier Schoenfelder
2002	Brian Joubert	Zuzana Babiaková	Yuko Kawaguchi and Aleksandr Markuntsov	Tanith Belbin and Benjamin Agosto
2003	Ryan Jahnke	Ludmila Nelidina	Jacinthe Larivière and Lenny Faustino	Kristin Fraser and Igor Lukanin
2004	Ben Ferreira	Sarah Meier	Kathryn Orscher and Garrett Lucash	Svetlana Kulikova and Vitali Novikov
2005	Ivan Dinev	Idora Hegel	Marilyn Pla and Yannick Bonheur	Kristin Fraser and Igor Lukanin
2006	Tomáš Verner	Mira Leung	Marilyn Pla and Yannick Bonheur	Christina and William Beier
2007	Christopher Mabee	Elena Sokolova	Dominika Piątkowska and Dmitri Khromin	Anna Cappellini and Luca Lanotte
2008	Adrian Schultheiss	Valentina Marchei	Laura Magitteri and Ondřej Hotárek	Ekaterina Bobrova and Dmitri Soloviev
2009	Sergei Voronov	Susanna Pöykiö	Stacey Kemp and David King	Alexandra and Roman Zaretski
2010	Denis Ten	Alena Leonova	Anaïs Morand and Antoine Dorsaz	Ekaterina Rubleva and Ivan Shefer
2011	Ryan Bradley	Cynthia Phaneuf	Zhang Yue and Wang Lei	Cathy and Chris Reed
2012	Adam Rippon	Elena Glebova	Maylin Hausch and Daniel Wende	Kharis Ralph and Asher Hill
2013	Andrei Rogozine	Alena Leonova	Marissa Castelli and Simon Shnapir	Penny Coomes and Nicholas Buckland
2014	Ivan Righini	Gabby Daleman	Maylin and Daniel Wende	Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron
2015	Sergei Voronov	Anna Pogorilaya	Lubov Iliushechkina and Dylan Moscovitch	Alexandra Paul and Mitch Islam
2016	Alexei Bychenko	Nicole Rajičová	Tarah Kayne and Danny O'Shea	Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Nikolaj Sørensen
2017	Moris Kvitelashvili	Anna Pogorilaya	Nicole Della Monica and Matteo Guarise	Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Nikolaj Sørensen
2018	Keiji Tanaka	Nicole Schott	Annika Hocke and Ruben Blommaert	Marie-Jade Lauriault and Romain Le Gac
2019	Moris Kvitelashvili	Ekaterina Ryabova	Minerva Hase and Nolan Seegert	Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson
2021	Han Yan	Madeline Schizas	Annika Hocke and Robert Kunkel	Shiyue Wang and Xinyu Liu
2022	Deniss Vasiljevs	Ekaterina Kurakova	(none)	Natálie Taschlerová and Filip Taschler
2023	Deniss Vasiljevs	Madeline Schizas	Daria Danilova and Michel Tsiba	Maria Kazakova and Georgy Reviya

Skate Guard is a blog dedicated to preserving the rich, colourful and fascinating history of figure skating. Over ten years, the blog has featured over a thousand free articles covering all aspects of the sport's history, as well as four compelling in-depth features. To read the latest articles, follow the blog on 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. 

Behind The Scenes: The Book Launch

The launch of my new book "Jackson Haines: The Skating King" is just around the corner! The book will be officially launched on November 1. I couldn't be more excited to get this important history out into the world. That said, writing, editing and designing the book was definitely just the beginning. The real work hasn't even started yet and I wanted to give you a little behind the scenes look at what goes into an indie book launch!

The goal of any well-organized book launch should never be to get your book in front of as many people as possible. It should be to reach your target audience. "Jackson Haines: The Skating King" is not the kind of book that will explain the difference between a toe-loop and a toe-pick - it's a book for lovers of figure skating who already have a basic knowledge of the sport and its history... and that's who I want to reach.

How do I plan on doing that? In addition to promoting the book on social media (Facebook, X/Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, TikTok and Threads) I will be reaching out to people who have signed up to my newsletter and placing targeted ads on Amazon, Facebook, X/Twitter and Instagram. I tried to think outside of the box and get a little creative in my marketing strategy. I partnered with a local business for a giveaway of custom skating-themed bath and body products, hired a voice actor to read an excerpt from one of Jackson Haines' letters for a video promotion and will be hosting a live discussion about the book on social media.

I made a lot of the mistakes the last time around that I have learned from:

- Not 'going wide' and staying exclusive to one platform. 

- Not investigating audience quality/engagement before running targeted ads to followers of influencers.

- Free promotions - great for the first book in a fiction series, not at all for a standalone nonfiction book! As they say, 'exposure' doesn't pay the bills.

- Marketing to general audiences instead of those specifically interested in figure skating.

- Not seeking out ARC Readers and organizing a street team.

- Getting the word out at the wrong time. Facebook's algorithms, for instance, won't show a post to people unless people like or comment right away. I'm an early riser in the Atlantic Time Zone. If I post something at 6 AM, it's 2 AM in Vancouver.

Marketing is a constant learning process. It is a good thing I love to read because I've been learning something new every day over the past six months preparing for this book's launch... but there's one  challenge that is absolutely unavoidable.

Libraries are one of the best ways to get your book in the hands of target readers. However, getting your book into them isn't an easy task whatsoever for any indie author. Libraries are particularly discerning with acquisitions of self-published titles. Many won't even consider self-published books unless they have been reviewed by Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews, Booklist, Publisher’s Weekly, Quill & Quire, etc. The cost of a Kirkus Review alone is $450 USD and unfortunately, many self-published authors report that these paid editorial reviews have not provided a good return on investment. A key part of my launch strategy involves pitching the book individually to over two hundred North American libraries as well as dozens more in the UK, Europe and Australia - focusing on local connections when I reach out to them if possible. 

Social media marketing and library pitches are just two of many things that happen behind the scenes when you launch a book. There are dozens of other things that go on: pricing, press releases, creating ad copy for multiple platforms, organizing digital deposit with Library and Archives Canada, writing blogs, sending and answering e-mails, making phone calls and engaging on message boards.

When you go the traditional publishing route, all of these fun things are handled by a team of people. When you don't, it's a one-pony show.

If you want to be amazing and help ensure this book succeeds, there are a few small things you can do that won't take more than five minutes of your time...

- Tell people that love history or figure skating about the book!

- Leave a short, honest review on bookish sites like Goodreads, The Storygraph, Bookbub, Litsy and Librarything and copy it over to the retailer's site you purchased the book from. You can absolutely share the same review on more than one site... in fact I'd love if it you did. Whether you loved it or hated it, a review would be so appreciated!

- Go to your local library's website and fill out a 'Suggest A Purchase' form. All of the information you might need for this form can be found on the site you purchased your copy on.

Thank you so much for your support and I really hope you enjoy reading the book.  

 

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. 

Women's History Month

 

October is Women's History Month Month in Canada and Skate Guard celebrates key milestones of women in figure skating.

You can find all of the Women's History Month content by tapping on the link in the top menu bar of the blog or clicking here.

To nominate amazing Canadian women in figure skating to the Skate Canada Hall Of Fame, click here. 

LGBTQ+ History Month

 

October is LGBTQ+ History Month in Canada and Skate Guard celebrates key milestones of LGBTQ+ skaters. 

You can find all of the LGBTQ+ History Month content by tapping on the link in the top menu bar of the blog or clicking here.

To nominate LGBTQ+ skaters, coaches, judges and builders to the Skate Canada Hall Of Fame, click here. 

Latin American Heritage Month

October is Latin American Heritage Month in Canada and Skate Guard celebrates key milestones of skaters of Latin American heritage. 

You can find all of the Latin American Heritage Month content by tapping on the link in the top menu bar of the blog or clicking here. 

To nominate skaters of Latin American heritage to the Skate Canada Hall Of Fame, click here. 

German Heritage Month

  

October is German Heritage Month in Canada and Skate Guard celebrates key milestones of skaters of German heritage in Canada.

You can find all of the German Heritage Month content by tapping on the link in the top menu bar of the blog or clicking here. 

To nominate skaters of German heritage to the Skate Canada Hall Of Fame, click here. 

Time To Talk Tyke: The T.D. Richardson Story

"Captain T.D. Richardson is to British skating something of what Vaughan Williams is to music and Bernard Shaw to literature. He combines the knowledge and wisdom of a vast experience with a tireless, almost youthful zest for progress." - Dennis Bird, "Skating World" magazine, September 1952

"For goodness' sake SKATE - without timidity, indecision, and wavering." - T.D. Richardson

The son of James and Catherine (Cameron) Richardson, Thomas Dow (T.D.) Richardson was born on January 16, 1887 - the year of Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee - in Yorkshire, England. He was the youngest of the couple's six sons and two daughters and spent his early years in the family's large home on Bishopshill Road. The household he grew up would have been bustling with activity, as his aunt and grandmother as well as a live-in servant lived with his parents and siblings. His father was a hosier and sub postmaster.

T.D. - or 'Tyke' as he was later nicknamed for his York upbringing - first took to the ice in 1891 during The Great Frost... an unseasonably cold winter that froze over waterways and fens alike and made for optimum skating conditions. As a young man of fourteen, he and brother Alexander attended a small private school called Grosvenor Mount School in Scarborough, Yorkshire run by Herbert Walton and boarded with the Offord family in South Kensington. He later attended a private school in Lausanne, Switzerland.

On October 21, 1905, at the age of eighteen, T.D. was enrolled in Cambridge University and admitted to Trinity Hall. By this time, his father had sadly passed away. While attending the university, he proved himself quite a sportsman, excelling at boxing, rowing, bandy, curling and golf.  Alexandra Browne, the College Archivist and Records Manager at Trinity Hall, noted that his successes as an oarsman: "He was in first boat for the May Bumps and Henley boat races 1907-1909, and he won the Ellis Pairs in 1908." Though short in stature, T.D. competed in wrestling matches against Oxford in two different weight classes. 

In the autumn of 1906, T.D. found himself in court, charging with "using obscene language" towards a police officer. He entered a plea of not guilty and his defense stated it was a case of mistaken identity. The judge dismissed the case due to insufficient evidence. It was the only blot in an uneventful academic career. Mary Scott of the Cambridge University Archives noted, "He worked towards the Ordinary B.A., that is without honours, sitting both parts of the general examination in 1908 and 1909. The subjects examined will have included the Acts of the Apostles in Greek, a Latin classic, a Greek classic, algebra, elementary statics, and elementary hydrostatics and heat. Thereafter, we have no records of him sitting any further examinations and he does not appear to have graduated."

As was the fashion at the time, T.D. regularly wintered in Switzerland as a teenager, where he added skiing and bobsled to his list of athletic pursuits. He first learned to figure skate in the stiff English Style, taught by Captain Roy Scott Hewett (who would later hold the British title in this style several times) in Grindelwald. After earning his bronze medal in the English Style, he was introduced to the Continental (International) Style of skating by Bernard and Alex Adams in 1905. At first he thought it was "rather vulgar". He recalled, "By this time the 'English' was on its last legs, although it is true that when I and my friends came down from Cambridge 'to eat dinners' at the Inner Temple, and went during the day to skate at 'The Toxophilite' in Regents' Park, where 'The Skating Club' functioned we were requested to wear 'morning coat.'"

Through careful study of the methods of the Adams brothers, Bror Meyer, Ulrich Salchow, Gustav Hügel and many other greats of the era, he successfully transformed himself from a rigid English Style skater to an adept Continental one and soon earned his gold medal in the latter as well. Sir Samuel Hoare recalled, "His counters and rockers go off on the ice like pistols, his brackets are as infallible as the Pope, and not only does he know the reason, but he can describe it to other people." Through his friendships and mentors in Switzerland, T.D. soon became so passionate and educated about the sport that he developed a unique interest in the sport's technique and history and an uncanny ability to impart his knowledge on to others.

Mildred (Allingham) and T.D. Richardson

Back home in England, T.D. could often be found on the ice at Prince's Skating Club and the Hammersmith Ice Rink. A year after his mother passed away, he began skating with Mildred 'Wag' Allingham at Prince's. The on-ice couple, who won three cups in ice valsing together, soon became an off-ice one, marrying in 1915. Then, like so many other young British men at the time, T.D. went off to fight in World War I. After serving on the Western Front and earning the rank of Captain, he returned to Great Britain and took up permanent residence in a hotel with his beloved wife, who he referred to as "his accomplice".

Illustration of Mildred (Allingham) and T.D. Richardson at the 1913 British Championships

With Mildred, he popularized shadow skating, a form of pairs skating first conceived by his coach Bernard Adams that involved mirrored movement. Ice show impresario Claude Langdon recalled, "Soon after I had opened up with ice at Hammersmith, we were looking for a dance that the public could do without really knowing how to skate. [T.D.] came down to see me, put on his boots and skates, and, with the professionals Howard Nicholson, Trudy Harris and Alfredo, worked out a dance that very night. As a national dance the National Skating Association did not take it up, which was a source of disappointment to us at the time; but a year or so later the tango had been worked out by Nicholson, Trudy Harris and Capt. Richardson and his wife. Now, so many years later, the tango on ice is, in my opinion, no more beautiful than it was as we remember it in the old days at the Hammersmith Rink." In 1923, T.D. and Mildred won the silver medal at the British Championships in pairs skating and in 1924, the duo entered the Winter Olympic Games in Chamonix, France. They finished dead last, no thanks to British judge Herbert Ramon Yglesias, who expressed to them that while they were both excellent skaters, he didn't consider what they did to be pairs skating and they would be last on his card... before they even skated. When the curlers were forced to share practice ice with figure skaters at those games, one such stone-thrower witnessed a young Sonja Henie whirling around the ice and asked T.D., "What is this, a puppet show? A circus?" He responded, "No - THAT is the future of skating."

T.D. and Mildred attended the 1928 Winter Olympic Games in St. Moritz, where he served as Great Britain's judge in the women's event. At those Games, Papa Henie asked T.D. to take a look at Sonja's figures. Without batting an eyelash, T.D. informed him that she couldn't skate brackets at all and proceeded to show her how to do them. Papa asked Tyke to coach her, and he flatly refused... because he was judging her. Papa Henie offered him a case of champagne, and then a motor boat, which he refused. Finally, he suggested that his former coach Alex Adams (who was teaching at Suvretta House) offer her some instruction. Mildred, who acted as interpreter between Sonja Henie and Adams recalled, "She adored Tyke. He was the only person to whom she ever listened or was able to tick her off."

In the late twenties, Mildred and T.D. introduced the Kilian to England and T.D. submitted a proposal to the ISU recommending that a rule be instituted barring officials from judging skaters from their own country in an effort to curb the displays of national bias that were rampant in international figure skating competition at the time. He also played an important role in the institution of the "one judge per country" rule, though he received a one year suspension for the National Skating Association for "daring to offend [our] Continental friends" as a result.

In the early thirties, "Modern Figure Skating", his first of almost a dozen books on figure skating technique and history, was published. A copy translated into Japanese served as a training manual for Kazuyoshi Oimatsu and Ryuichi Obitani, the two young Japanese men who became the first from their country to compete in the Winter Olympic Games in 1932. Over the years, he also penned articles on figure skating for "The Westminster Gazette", "The Field", "The Daily Telegraph", "Country Life", "Skating Times" and "Skating World". He even contributed to the "Encyclopedia Britannica." During the thirties, T.D. supplemented his income from writing by managing a company called International Film Renters Ltd.

Mildred and T.D. at the Kulm Rink during the 1948 Winter Olympic Games

As chef de mission of the British Olympic team in 1936, he was wined and dined by Nazi officials - including Jaochim von Ribbentrop - at buffet suppers and banquets. Twelve years later, while serving as Chief Of The Foreign Press at the 1948 Winter Olympic Games in neutral Switzerland, he had to reach out to the office of his old Cambridge University classmate Hugh Dalton, when the British Olympic team arrived without uniforms for the opening ceremony. He got the money for uniforms... no small miracle as clothing was still on ration for coupons back home in England at the time.

Skaters at an amateur ice show in St. Moritz, Switzerland. Left to right: Ursula Barkey, Valerie Hunt, Peter Burrows, Joan Haanappel, Anthony Holles, Joyce Coates, Mildred 'Wag' Richardson, David Clements, T.D. 'Tyke' Richardson, Catherine Morris, Michael Robinson, Diana Clifton-Peach, Anne Reynolds, Barbara Conniff

Following the 1948 Winter Olympic Games, T.D. received a two year suspension from the ISU for "journalistic activities" when he broke strict but controversial rules about participants (both skaters and officials) publishing any commentary of international competitions. Because the rules didn't apply to "writing of books on figure skating", they became dubbed the "Richardson rules". At the 1949 ISU Congress in Paris, the ISU clarified these rules, stating "No judge, official or competitor of the ISU, taking part may write. If not taking part they may write but must not receive any payment." T.D. fired back in "The Skating Times", writing, "So that a man or woman, whatever his or her integrity or ability may be, is barred by his profession from assisting in international competitions!"

In 1956, the ISU finally decided that T.D. was a "non-amateur" and therefore allowed to write about what he pleased. Though some perceived his roles as an author and journalist for "Skating World" and "The Times" and judge and referee for the National Skating Association as a conflict of interest, T.D. developed many strong bonds over the years. His many famous friends included Howard Nicholson, Claude Langdon, Gustave Lussi, Jacques, Arnold and Hans Gerschwiler, Gladys Hogg, The Brunet's, John Harris, Theresa Weld Blanchard and Gillis Grafström.

Photo courtesy Elaine Hooper, BIS Archives

T.D. served as chairman of the National Skating Association's Ice Figure Committee from 1945 to 1948, 1950 to 1955 and 1965 to 1966, the founder and chairman of the NSA's Technical Advisory Committee. Over the years, he made several important changes to England's testing schedule, including the introduction of pair tests to his country. He also helped found the NSA's Ice Dance Committee and advocated for the introduction of 'new' compulsory figures (three-rocker-threes, bracket-counter-brackets and double loops) to the ISU schedule. These 'star tests for advanced figures' were suggested by T.D. back in the thirties, but not introduced through the NSA until 1967.

Michael Booker recalled, "Around 1954 T. D. Richardson approached me about learning new figures... I did learn some and demonstrated them to leading UK teachers and judges.  About eighteen months later again at a judges school in Davos conducted by Arnold Gerschwiler and 'Karly' Enderlin, Arnold's bosom friend (Arnold made a special farewell trip to Switzerland to see Karl just a month before he, Arnold, died.) As I recall most of the figures were three circle jobs, rockers and counters with brackets and threes on the end circles and a double brackets figure; in order to accomplish the latter the 'push/pull' method had to be used on fairly small circles to keep the pace and get back to the center. They were an interesting challenge but not really that difficult, certainly no more than left back loop change loop! One of the main reasons they were rejected, and I forget how many there were, was economic, a practice ice issue. There being no Zambonis, patches lasted two hours and were always at a premium. These new figures simply took up too much ice and time and were too impractical except for the most skilled skaters; an attempt was made to include them in the schedule to no avail."

One of the reasons, perhaps, that T.D.'s 'new' compulsory figures didn't gain a lot of traction over the years was the fact that he often butted heads with ISU officials and took digs at the ISU in his writings. In 1947, the ISU introduced a rule that empowered the referee of a competition to immediately kick any judge who was caught communicating with a spectator "by sign, signal or otherwise" off the panel and out of the competition. With his characteristically dry wit, T.D. wrote in "The Skating Times": "What fun! I hope I am there when some gallant referee has a crack at enforcing this new one.. There will be no complaint of the dullness of school figure skating on the day when some wild partisan forgets to be a good boy." He italicized the ISU's admission that "this might be difficult to enforce", highlighting the absurdity of such a cop-out to their own rule.

With Claude Langdon, he formed the Sports Advisory Committee of Britain, whose members included the Duke of Hamilton, Lord Aberdare and Cyril Tolley. He also conceived and played an instrumental role in organizing the Commonwealth Winter Games and taught Sir Samuel Hoare how to skate. "If he helped me," Hoare wrote, "he has helped scores of others. There is not a skater at the Suvretta rink at St. Moritz who does not owe him a debt of gratitude for the word of advice and encouragement that he is always ready to give. Who that has seen him at work will forget the spectacle of his judging a test? I think of him surrounded by a crowd of keen skaters, scanning the tracings as a detective would follow blood stains, congratulating success, condoling with failure."

In January of 1955, Queen Elizabeth II bestowed upon T.D. the Order Of The British Empire (OBE) for his many contributions to figure skating in Great Britain and twelve years later, the National Skating Association honoured both him and Mildred with honorary lifetime memberships. Benjamin T. Wright, chairman of  the ISU Technical Committee and ISU Referee, ISU and USFSA historian, recalled, "He was a good guy. He and his wife were an interesting couple... a power couple." NSA historian Elaine Hooper recalled, "I was quite a young skater when he was around and he was always around in an ice rink somewhere and were a bit frightened and also in awe of him. He was very involved with the elite skaters at the time." The late Cecilia Colledge once said, "He acted always for what he knew was right. He would not submerge his principles in order to be popular. He would not compromise in order to be elected. He would not curb his independent courage. He served skating."

T.D. Richardson passed away on January 7, 1971 at his home in Kensington just over a week before his eighty-fourth birthday, not long after undergoing a major operation. Shortly after T.D.'s death, skating historian Dennis L. Bird wrote, "'T.D.' was not an easy man to work with, and never concealed his impatience with anyone who disagreed with him. Many of the beneficial changes which he introduced in figure skating met with considerable opposition, partly because he was not always very diplomatic in dealing with official organizations. He was never deterred by controversy [and] was a gifted man in many ways... In reviewing championships for the press - technical as well as national - he was seldom harsh so far as individual skaters were concerned, preferring to show them how to improve in future rather than to criticize their present abilities. (Occasionally, however, he could be devastating in what he did NOT say.) But if he spared the feelings of competitors, he had no patience with judges who did not know their job. He wrote of one European championship panel 'Some of the judges were obviously ill-instructed in the fundamentals... They cannot be expected to be able to appreciate the fine points...' In private he could even more pungent... Old in years, he was perennially young in outlook. It was characteristic of him that, in one of his last official speeches, at the 1967 NSA Ball, he urged the importance of having more young skaters involved in running the NSA. When the NSA Presidency became vacant some years ago, it would have been a fitting honour to bestow on him. But when his views were sought on a possible 'back-bench' move to put his name forward, he did not at his age want to be involved in a contest (another greatly-respected skater had already been nominated). And in a sense the office would have added little: his place in skating history was already assured; his life's work done. He may have been physically small of stature, but he was a... towering personality in the small world of figure skating." 

Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine

T.D. was elected posthumously to the World Figure Skating Hall Of Fame five years later in 1976 and to this day, his books and articles remain one of the most important windows on skating history that exist. Simply put, without T.D. Richardson the world of figure skating wouldn't be what it is today.

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.

A Pioneering Sportswriter: The Jim Proudfoot Story

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

"He was the ultimate professional. He had a great appreciation of the language... He had the passions of a fan, but he never permitted that to show in his copy." - Milt Dunnell, Canadian Press NewsWire, April 2, 2001

"Patience is a commodity a figure skater must possess in immense quantities if he hopes to survive at the highest competitive level - patience to live through the hours and days and weeks of repetitious practice, patience to await one's turn in the spotlight and the patience to persevere during the development of one's skills." - Jim Proudfoot, "Skating" magazine, February 1968

The son of Elsie May (Kennedy) and James Garrett Proudfoot, James Alan 'Jim' Proudfoot was born in 1933 in Kearney, Ontario. His father hailed from nearby Burk's Falls; his mother from Magnetawan. His grandfather was a doctor and his parents were followers of the United Church. Jim and his younger brother Dan began their education in a two-room schoolhouse with their father, who was a school-teacher. After graduating from Burk's Falls High School, Jim attended the University Of Toronto.

Photo courtesy University Of Toronto Archives

Jim's passion for sports journalism began when he was a student at the University of Toronto, working as the assistant sports editor for "The Varsity" newspaper. At the same time, he was just beginning his forty-nine year career at the "Toronto Star". Over the years, he covered everything from hockey and baseball to Super Bowls, Grey Cups and the Summer and Winter Olympics as the newspaper's sport editor. Though best remembered for his coverage of team sports, Jim's coverage of figure skating was ahead of its time.

Jim began writing about figure skating in an era when the sport was still often relegated to the 'society' pages. He covered the careers of a who's who of Canadian figure skating, including Barbara Wagner and Bob Paul, Donald Jackson, Maria and Otto Jelinek, Petra Burka, Karen Magnussen, Sandra and Val Bezic, Toller Cranston, Barbara Underhill and Paul Martini, Brian Orser, Elizabeth Manley, Kurt Browning, Isabelle Brasseur and Lloyd Eisler and Elvis Stojko. A 1978 article in "The Canadian Champion" recalled how he proved a jinx for the Jelinek's. Whenever he was in attendance covering one of their competitions, they faltered. It got to the point that he tried not to look at them when they performed. When the sibling duo competed at the 1962 World Championships in Prague, he finally "gave way to temptation and took a peek at them on the ice. The second he did that, Maria fell." The Jelinek's, as we all know, won the gold medal that year anyway.

In one memorable column, Jim celebrated the impact of Barbara Ann Scott. He wrote, "Are you acquainted with a woman, Canadian-born and in her 40s, called Barbara Ann? Bet you are. And the reason is that in 1947 and '48, infants from coast to coast were being named after Barbara Ann Scott. Which tells you how popular she was after winning the global figure skating championship one winter and adding an Olympic title the next. Popular? That doesn't begin to explain. There was hardly a person in this country who didn't either worship her or have a crush on her. Next thing you knew, parents everywhere were buying skates for their daughters and the boom was on. Now Canada is numbered among the world's foremost nations in skating. Year after year, many of the best competitors anywhere are ours. And the whole thing began with Barbara Ann."

Cam Cole and Jim Proudfoot. Photo courtesy Toronto Public Library, from Toronto Star Photographic Archive. Reproduced for educational purposes under license permission.

Jim wrote about the elimination of school figures, The Battle Of The Brian's and the scandal surrounding Tonya Harding and the 1994 Winter Olympic Games in Lillehammer. He penned articles for the "Toronto Star" about countless Canadian, North American and World Championships and was a contributor to both "Skating" and "The Canadian Skater" magazines. The final major figure skating event he covered was the 1997 World Championships in Lausanne, Switzerland.

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

Jim was a colourful character who earned the nickname 'Chester', after a character from the television show "Gunsmoke". He had a habit of hitchhiking from one sporting event to another. His predecessor as sports editor of the "Toronto Star", Milt Dunnell, recalled in 1998, "He must have travelled a zillion miles in pursuit of sports yarns, combined with a bit of luxury living at the expense of ye olde Toronto Star, but he never drove a kilometer of that distance himself; never got stuck in a car deal, either, because he never had one." Though perceived by some as a gruff character, he was no Grinch. He was the driving force behind the "Toronto Star" Santa Fund and Proudfoot Corner. The Corner funded thousands of gift boxes for underprivileged Toronto children, each containing a hat, shirt, pair of socks, pair of mittens, book, toy and candy.

Peter and David Heffering presenting Jim Proudfoot with a cheque for the Santa Claus Fund. Photo courtesy Toronto Public Library, from Toronto Star Photographic Archive. Reproduced for educational purposes under license permission.

For his contribution to the Canadian skating world, Jim was honoured with a CFSA Award Of Merit in 1974. In 1998, he was presented with the Sports Media Canada Achievement Award by IOC Vice-President Dick Pound. In his acceptance speech, he quipped, "I often think an award like this becomes inevitable once a person goes through four decades without screwing up, but I deeply appreciate the award and I do feel very, very honoured."

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

Jim retired from the "Toronto Star" in 1999. He passed away at the age of sixty-seven on April Fool's Day, 2001, from complications of a stroke he suffered a year prior. He was inducted posthumously into the Skate Canada Hall Of Fame in 2008. At the time of his death, colleague Dave Perkins recalled, "He was an invaluable historian of the Toronto sporting scene, a human computer for names and dates. Yet he understood good columns are not strings of statistics and such. His real strength was in reproducing colour, in retelling the anecdotes, and he had a professional's touch for dryly creeping up on a punch line. And for every anecdote he told, he inspired another."

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.