Skate Guard

Discover The History Of Figure Skating!

Learn all about the fascinating world of figure skating history with Skate Guard Blog. Explore a treasure trove of articles on the history of figure skating, highlighting Olympic Medallists, World and National Champions and dazzling competitions, shows and tours. Written by former skater and judge Ryan Stevens, Skate Guard Blog also offers intriguing insights into the evolution of the sport over the decades. Delve into Stevens' five books for even more riveting stories and information about the history of everyone's favourite winter Olympic sport.

The 1933 European Figure Skating Championships

They reclined in parlours with their reading glasses, cup of tea and Agatha Christie's new Poirot mystery "Peril at End House" and cut up a rug to Ethel Waters' rendition of Irving Berlin's new hit song "Heat Wave". The year was 1933 and cautious optimism was in the damp winter air. Great Britain was slowly starting to show signs of recovery from the Stock Market Crash of 1929 in New York which sparked a global economic recession that left thousands in England unemployed.

On January 30 of that year, the same day Germans witnessed Adolf Hitler being sworn in by German President Paul von Hindenburg as Chancellor of Germany, many of Europe's top figure skaters gathered at the Westminster Ice Club in London for the first day of the first European Championships in history held in England. Let's take a look back at how things played out!

THE PAIRS COMPETITION

Olympic Gold Medallists Andrée (Joly) and Pierre Brunet opted not to enter, essentially making the competition a two-way race between two Austrian pairs - Idi Papez and Karl Zwack and Lilly (Scholz) Gaillard and Willy Petter. Gaillard had won an Olympic silver medal with her former partner Otto Kaiser and finished second with Petter the previous year at the European Championships, but had lost that year's Austrian title to Papez and Zwack, who won the bronze at Europeans the year prior.

Four judges placed Papez and Zwack first, while the Austrian judge tied them with their teammates Gaillard and Petter. Mollie Phillips and Rodney Murdoch were unanimously third, defeating Violet (Supple) and Leslie Cliff of Bournemouth and Mrs. and A. Proctor Burman of Manchester. The "Wiener Sporttagblatt" noted, "The equivalence of both Viennese couples made the smallest mistakes crucial... The circumstance [set up a scenario] where the two rivals [might] demolish [each other] but it was not like that. Both couples were in top form [and skated] at full speed. The effect was gorgeous.... In Vienna, the supporters of the couples have formed two camps - by the way just as in London - and it was somewhat surprising [the judges] put Papez-Zwack in first place... Maybe their success in the Austrian championship increased their confidence."

THE MEN'S COMPETITION

As in the pairs event, there were only five entries - probably owing to the fact that the event was held in England less than three weeks before the World Championships in Zürich. It would have made more sense to some to arrive early in Switzerland and train in St. Moritz or Davos in the weeks leading up to Worlds. As expected, Olympic Gold Medallist Karl Schäfer won the figures by a wide margin, but not unanimously. German judge Artur Vieregg voted for the lone German man competing, Ernst Baier, who placed second. Erich Erdös of Austria, Jean Henrion of France and William M. Clunie of Great Britain rounded out the five man field. In the free skate - and overall - Schäfer, Baier and Erdös were placed unanimously first, second and third - one of the few instances during that period that a panel was able to agree on something!

Ernst Baier's silver medal from the 1933 European Championships

The "Wiener Sporttagblatt" noted, " Karl Schäfer would not have even needed to skate to his peak, but he actually had one of his greatest days. He was quite faultless. Every second, every one movement and jump made his presence felt... This time he even surprised his friends. His beautiful and easygoing attitude, his calm and general mastery has a counterpart, and that is Sonja [Henie]. With the nonchalance of his difficult program and its compelling structure [he] withstood the sharpest criticism... The Berliner's Baier's compulsory exercises were almost a fiesta of mistakes and his freestyle did not yield the difficulties of Schäfer's but was quite effectively [put together]. Despite his youth, Erdös has already connected himself with the international master class. It is noteworthy that the Berliner had a pleasing, Viennese soft - but almost too feminine - style and that [Erdös] had a powerfully male style."

THE WOMEN'S COMPETITION

Left: Sonja Henie. Right: Cecilia Colledge.

To the surprise of absolutely no one, then two time Olympic Gold Medallist Sonja Henie dominated the competition from start to finish, placing unanimously first in both figures and free skating. The
"Wiener Sporttagblatt" noted that she was "nervous but well-controlled in the compulsory exercises but in the freestyle her pirouettes were racing, their stopping more precise than anyone else. The Axel she landed and her zigzag steps were so lightning fast that she swirled over the ice."

In the figures, three judges had twelve year old Cecilia Colledge second. Hilde Holovsky and Fritzi Burger received the other two second place ordinals. Colledge's success was considered quite the shock as she had placed only eighth the previous year's Olympics and World Championships. In the free skate, the Austrian judge tied Holovsky with Henie. With thirteen ordinal placings, Colledge took the silver. Burger and Holovsky tied in ordinal placings but Burger was awarded the bronze based on her point total. Belgium's Yvonne de Ligne and Austria's Liselotte Landbeck rounded out the top six. Colledge, who skating on home ice received even more applause than Henie, made history as the first British woman to medal at the European Championships.

The marks of the British judge were highly out of line with the other judges. He had Gweneth Butler, the British skater who placed ninth, third in the figures. The Austrian and Norwegian judges had her seventh and ninth. Not to be accused of national bias, he was the only judge to place Cecilia Colledge down in fourth in the free skate! The British judge also placed Hilde Holovsky ninth in figures, while the Austrian and Norwegian judges had her in the top three.

Interestingly, it was at the Westminster Ice Club that Cecilia Colledge had first seen Sonja Henie skate, when she was only seven years old. The day after the event concluded, a reporter from the "Daily Mirror" went to go visit her at home. They found her sitting in front of the fire surrounded by her dolls. She told them, "I wasn't a bit excited when I took my turn yesterday. I had been practising on another rink about a quarter of an hour before I had to go on, so I didn't really have time to get nervous. Tomorrow we are going back to Switzerland, where I have been since Christmas. I came home only for a few days so that I could compete in the championship."

THE WALTZING COMPETITION

Twenty-one years before the first official European Championships in ice dancing, an international waltzing competition was a popular conclusion to the Championships in London. Competitors skated in a circular pattern around chairs placed on the ice. The top three couples were Ethel Muckelt and Ronald D. Gilbey, Violet Supple and Leslie Cliff and Betty Meakin and Jackie Dunn. Muckelt, the Cliff's and Dunn would all represent at Great Britain at the Olympics.

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.

WCKY In Cincinnati: The Joan Hyldoft Story

Photo courtesy "The National Ice Skating Guide"

"If I didn't get good grades, my father would make me stop skating. I skate because I love it, and when I see people in the audience enjoying my work, it gives me pleasure." - Joan Hyldoft, "New York Post", August 23, 1946

The daughter of Inga (Johnson) and Ewald Andreas Hyldoft, Johanne Christine 'Joan' Hyldoft was born January 27, 1926 in Lindsborg, Kansas. Like many of the tiny city's residents, the Hyldoft's had Scandinavian ties. Joan's paternal grandparents were from Denmark; her maternal grandparents from Norway. Her grandfather Andreas was a well-respected watchmaker. Her parents were both school teachers. Joan got her first taste of the spotlight when she was only fourteen months old. She was selected as 'the healthiest baby' over five hundred other infants at a contest held at the Texas Cotton Palace exposition.

Joan took up ballet at the age of nine and continued with her dance lessons when her family moved to Huntington, West Virginia, where her father had secured a job teaching biology at a local high school. It was soon discovered that Joan's talents extended far beyond the dance floor. She won a blue ribbon at Huntington's famous horse show, took the state diving trophy and drew praise for her organ playing at the local Lutheran church.

At the age of fourteen, Joan took to the ice for the first time at Huntington's indoor rink after watching one of Sonja Henie's films. An onlooker told her parents she was a natural and the next year, she was sent to train with Gustave Lussi at the Lake Placid summer school. She shared the ice with a very young Dick Button and soon drew praise for the height of her Axel jump and the speed of her camel spin. In an age where surety and elegance were foremost in the minds of many young 'lady skaters', Joan had youth and athleticism on her side.

Soon, skating took over. Joan and her mother moved into an apartment in Philadelphia. While attending the Baldwin School for Girls at Bryn Mawr, Joan practiced daily at the Philadelphia Skating Club and Humane Society. "I'd skate from 6 until 9 o'clock each morning, go to classes during the day, skate from 5 o'clock in the afternoon until 9 at night."

Joan Hyldoft, David T. Layman Jr., Dorothy Goos and Mabel MacPherson at the 1942 Eastern States Championships. Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine.

In January of 1942, she took the gold in the novice women's class at the Eastern States Championships at Iceland in New York City. Her victory was quite incredible considering the fact she'd only been skating for two years and there were thirty-three entries - an absolutely unheard of number in those days. Among the young women she defeated were Lois Waring, Eileen Seigh and Irene Maguire - all future U.S. senior medallists. Disappointingly, Joan placed a disastrous ninth in the novice women's event at the U.S. Championships that followed in Chicago. It would be her final competition on skates... technically.

Joan turned professional at the age of fifteen after being offered a job skating at the Netherland Plaza hotel's ice show in Cincinnati. While in the Queen City, she entered WCKY radio's Miss Cincinnati pageant. She took first prize, defeating one hundred and twenty-four other young women with a show-stopping talent number - a skating performance on 'muck' (artificial) ice. It was perhaps the first time in American history that figure skating was performed in a beauty contest or pageant. As the winner, she was sent to Atlantic City to compete in the finals of Miss America. Things didn't go quite as smoothly with Joan's talent act in New Jersey. Depending on the source you read, one of two things happened. Either the sun baked the muck ice turning it into a syrupy consistency you couldn't skate on or "just before Joan was to go on, the 300-pound stage manager stepped on the ice and fell, breaking it into hundreds of pieces". Either way, Joan's skating act was a bust but 'the show must go on' mentality kicked in. She performed her skating number (minus the ice) on the floorboards of the Warner Theater's stage and took a prize in the preliminary round.

Photo courtesy "McCall's" magazine

Over the next several years, Joan performed for thousands of dinner guests at the hotel 'icers' that were hugely popular during and in the aftermath of World War II. Before she even turned twenty, she was capturing hearts at the Iridium Room at the the Hotel Stevens in Chicago and half a dozen New York venues - the Hotel New Yorker, Biltmore Hotel, Center Theatre and Roxy Theatre. She even appeared in an ad for Pepsident toothpaste.

Jinx Clark, Rudy Richards, Joan Hyldoft, Mickey Meehan, Genevieve Norris and Bob Payne in the 1953 Holiday On Ice tour

In the late forties, Joan joined the cast of Holiday On Ice, where she wowed audiences in both solo and pair acts in shows across North America. Most remarkable was the fact that while skating professionally, Joan took pre-med classes at New York, Columbia and Illinois State Universities and Marshall College in Huntington. She aspired to be a brain specialist. In 1952, she told reporter Henry W. Clune, "I have wanted to be a brain surgeon since I was a girl in my early teens. I have wanted to be a brain surgeon since I was allowed to witness an operation for the removal of a brain tumor in a Philadelphia hospital... It seemed terribly important."

Photo courtesy "The National Ice Skating Guide"

Ultimately, skating won out over school and what was intended to be a short stint as a professional turned out to be a decade-long career. After a brief stint performing in a British ice pantomime, she returned to Holiday On Ice in 1959, joining Dick Button on a historic skating tour behind the Iron Curtain in Soviet Russia.

Joan retired from professional skating in the early sixties, sidelined by a recurring back injury. She found a job teaching skating at the Iceland rink in Houston, Texas and married Tommy Harral, a local drama teacher's son, in October of 1961. The marriage didn't last. She settled in Waco, took a job as a part-time secretary and became involved in the First Lutheran Church. For a short time, she taught skating in Waco as well. She passed away on August 25, 1986 at the age of sixty, her skating stardom in the forties and fifties all but forgotten.

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 Selection Of Scandinavian Stars

A group of Norwegian figure skaters in 1907. Photo courtesy Norsk Folkemuseum.

In the first half of the twentieth century, talented athletes from Scandinavian countries dominated the world's figure skating scene. Sonja Henie, Gillis Grafström, Ulrich Salchow and Magda (Mauroy) Julin all won Olympic gold medals and the skating clubs of Stockholm, Oslo, Copenhagen and Helsinki all played host to international skating competitions where defining moments in the sport's history played out. In today's blog, we'll look back on the stories of some forgotten Scandinavian skating stars who rose to prominence during this period.

RANDI BAKKE AND CHRISTEN CHRISTENSEN

Born less than a month apart in the autumn of 1904, Randi Bakke and Christen Christensen learned to skate at the Oslo Skøiteklub and rose to prominence as one of Norway's top pairs teams in the twenties and thirties. They placed a disappointing last in their first appearance at the World Championships in 1923 but went on to win an incredible eight consecutive Norwegian pairs titles from 1929 to 1936. In Stockholm in 1931, they became the second pair in history from their country to win a medal at the World Championships. They retired in 1936, after placing a disastrous fifteenth at the Winter Olympic Games in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Christen served on the board of the Norges Skøyteforbund for nearly a decade, ran a radio shop in Oslo and passed away on June 2, 1969 at the age of sixty-four. Randi married and moved to Nesodden, where she passed away on on May 21, 1984 at the age of seventy-nine.

HILKKA AND EDVARD LINNA

Photo courtesy National Board Of Antiquities - Muscat

Born August 25, 1886 in Mikkeli, then part of Russian Finland, Edvard Ferdinand Linna first rose to prominence as a gymnast, winning the bronze medal in the men's team event at the 1908 Summer Olympic Games in London, England. In the roaring twenties, he won the Finnish pairs title as a figure skater three times with Olga Saario, who had once skated with Walter Jakobsson.

Edvard served as the chairman of Suomen Taitoluisteluliitto and on the board of the Finnish Olympic Committee and won the Finnish pairs title in 1938 and 1939, skating with his daughter Hilkka, who was born on September 24, 1919. In the fifties, Edvard and his wife Ingeborg's other daughters Kirsti and Riitta took turns winning the Finnish women's title.

Hilkka passed away on July 10, 1956 at the age of thirty-seven; Edvard died on December 30, 1974 at the age of eighty-eight. Though they never competed at the European or World Championships, the Linna's held the distinction of being one of the very few father/daughter teams to win a national title.

ALICE KRAYENBÜHL

Photo courtesy Sveriges Centralförening för Idrottens Främjande Archive

The daughter of Fanny (Thiele) and Jean Charles Valdemar Krayenbühl, Alice Johanne Krayenbühl was born January 28, 1895 in Frederiksberg, Sweden. She grew up in Copenhagen and her father was a civil engineer. An athletic young woman, Alice was perhaps better known for her prowess on the tennis courts in the summer than on the ice in the winter. She dominated the Danish sporting scene from 1915 to 1920, winning seven back-to-back national titles in indoor and outdoor tennis.

Photo courtesy Danmarks Tekniske Universitet

As a skater, Alice represented Denmark at the Nordic Games and was her country's champion in 1917, 1922 and 1924. She likely would have won more titles had the weather not forced the cancellation of the Danish Championships several times during this period. While competing, Alice was a student at the College Of Advanced Technology, today known as the Technical University Of Denmark. She graduated in 1922 and found work at the Laboratory of Mortar, Glass and Ceramics. She married composer and music historian Knud Jeppesen in 1923.

Alice's granddaughter Nina Frederike Jeppesen Edin explained, "My grandmother Alice Krayenbühl... was employed at the Laboratory of Mortar, Glass and Ceramics at the same university for about ten years. About 1932 she got tuberculosis. She was in a sanatorium for several months (I think almost a year) and I think that put a stop to her sports as well as her career. After that she (in addition to raising a son) devoted her time and resources to helping my grandfather in his career as a professor in musicology and composer. They lived for longer periods in Italy, where she helped him take microphotographs of manuscripts from libraries in Firenze and the Vatican. She was also quite a good painter and artist. When my grandfather died in 1974, she took up many of these interests." Alice passed away on January 19, 1987 at the age of ninety-one.

THE PALM FAMILY

In the first half of the twentieth century, no family arguably made a greater impact on figure skating in Sweden than the Palm's. Hildour and Johanna (Hagström) Palm hailed from the medieval agricultural parish of Kvillinge, north of Norrköping, in Östergötland. Hildour was a stonework engineer by trade and the snowy, somewhat remote area where he raised his family proved the idyllic backdrop for a family of winter sports enthusiasts.

Hildour and Johanna Palm had at least six children, all of which took up the sport of figure skating in their youth. Gunvor, born September 22, 1904 and Solvig, born January 18, 1906, were by accounts fine skaters. Gunnar, born December 27, 1901 and Henry, born in 1897, served as board members at the Stockholms Allmänna Skridskoklubb, the home base of skating legends like Ulrich Salchow and Gillis Grafström. Gunnar, an artist by trade, served as a judge at the 1939 World Championships.

The skating career of Anders Palm, born May 27, 1900, spanned nearly two decades. Paired with Margit (Edlund) Josephson, he won his first of three Swedish pairs titles in 1926 and his last in 1935. The couple twice represented Sweden at the World Championships but had the unfortunate distinction of placing dead last on both occasions.

Helfrid and Agard Palm. Photos courtesy Sveriges Centralförening för Idrottens Främjande Archive.

The most famous of the skating siblings were Helfrid (Palm) Berghagen, born July 9, 1891, and Agard Palm, born October 23, 1892. Helfrid and Agard began their skating career in the late Edwardian era and won the Swedish pair title five times consecutively from 1915 to 1919. Had the World Championships not been cancelled for the duration of the Great War, they would have certainly been medal contenders.

Helfrid and Agard Palm. Photos courtesy Sveriges Centralförening för Idrottens Främjande Archive.

Helfrid and Agard claimed the Swedish pairs title for a sixth and final time in 1922, defeating Elna Henrikson and Kaj af Ekström - who went on to win the bronze medal at the World Championships in 1923 and 1924. During the Great War, Agard penned the popular book "Konståkning på skridskor". Though mainly instructional, the book also touched on figure skating's history and included a copy of the ISU's rules at the time. Late in his skating career, Agard also served on the board of the Stockholms Allmänna Skridskoklubb. He passed away in 1969 at the age of sixty-nine, leaving behind a wife and two children.

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.

Does Success As A Junior Translate To Success As A Senior?

Alexandr Fadeev won the World Junior title in France in 1980 and made history as the first man to translate a win at the World Junior Championships to a win at the World Championships five years later in Japan

Does success as a junior translate to success as a senior? There's absolutely no 'one size fits all' answer to this question but taking a look back through skating history reveals some interesting facts about how skaters who have won the World Junior Championships have fared later in their careers.

Today we'll take a look at how all of the past winners at the World Junior Championships have fared when they competed in the World Championships. While these results don't take into account 'surprise' Olympic medal wins by skaters who never placed in the top five at the Worlds like Adelina Sonitkova and Paul Wylie, they do reveal some interesting facts. In singles skating, for instance, fifteen women who won the World junior title never competed at the senior Worlds as compared to nine men. However, twenty-two World titles were won by women who also won the World Junior title, as compared to thirteen men.

Ilia Kulik's winning performance from the 1995 World Junior Championships

Rudy Galindo and Kristi Yamaguchi were the only pair that won the World junior title to both win medals at the World Championships as singles skaters. Only four pairs, Barbara Underhill and Paul Martini, Ekaterina Gordeeva and Sergei Grinkov, Wenjing Sui and Cong Han and Anastasia Mishina and Aleksandr Galliamov, have won both junior and senior World titles together. However, five other skaters who won the World junior title in pairs, Maxim Trankov, Maria Petrova, Anton Sikharulidze, Ingo Steuer and Aliona Savchenko were World Champions as seniors with different partners.

Ekaterina Gordeeva and Sergei Grinkov

Only two ice dance teams have won World junior and senior titles together - Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir and Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin. Marina Anissina and Ilya Averbukh won the World Junior Championships twice and were both World Champions with different partners. Madison Chock and Evan Bates both won World junior titles with different partners. Their best finishes as seniors at the World Championships with those partners was ninth in both cases, in successive years.

Dennis Coi

WORLD JUNIOR CHAMPIONS - MEN

Year	World Junior Champions	Best Result At World Championships
1976	Mark Cockerell	8^th in 1985
1977	Daniel Béland	Did not compete at World Championships
1978	Dennis Coi	Did not compete at World Championships
1979	Vitali Egorov	Did not compete at World Championships
1980	Alexandr Fadeev	1^st in 1985
1981	Paul Wylie	9^th in 1988
1982	Scott Williams	9^th in 1986
1983	Christopher Bowman	2^nd in 1989
1984	Viktor Petrenko	1^st in 1992
1985	Erik Larson	Did not compete at World Championships
1986	Vladimir Petrenko	10^th in 1988
1987	Rudy Galindo	3^rd in 1996
1988	Todd Eldredge	1^st in 1996
1989	Viacheslav Zagorodniuk	3^rd in 1994
1990	Igor Pashkevich	8^th in 1997
1991	Vasili Eremenko	13^th in 1995
1992	Dmitri Dmitrenko	11^th in 1999
1993	Evgeny Pliuta	9^th in 1998
1994	Michael Weiss	3^rd in 1999 and 2000
1995	Ilia Kulik	2^nd in 1996
1996	Alexei Yagudin	1^st in 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2002
1997	Evgeni Plushenko	1^st in 2001, 2003 and 2004
1998	Derrick Delmore	Did not compete at World Championships
1999	Ilia Klimkin	9^th in 2003
2000	Stefan Lindemann	3^rd in 2004
2001	Johnny Weir	3^rd in 2008
2002	Daisuke Takahashi	1^st in 2010
2003	Alexander Shubin	Did not compete at World Championships
2004	Andrei Griazev	11^th in 2005
2005	Nobunari Oda	4^th in 2006
2006	Takahiko Kozuka	2^nd in 2011
2007	Stephen Carriere	10^th in 2008
2008	Adam Rippon	6^th in 2010 and 2016
2009	Adam Rippon	6^th in 2010 and 2016
2010	Yuzuru Hanyu	1^st in 2014 and 2017
2011	Andrei Rogozine	13^th in 2013
2012	Han Yan	7^th in 2014
2013	Joshua Farris	11^th in 2015
2014	Nam Nguyen	5^th in 2015
2015	Shoma Uno	2^nd in 2017 and 2018
2016	Daniel Samohin	20^th in 2018
2017	Vincent Zhou	3^rd in 2019
2018	Alexey Erokhov	Did not compete at World Championships
2019	Tomoki Hiwatashi	Did not compete at World Championships
2020	Andrei Mozalev	Did not compete at World Championships

Laetitia Hubert

WORLD JUNIOR CHAMPIONS - WOMEN

Year	World Junior Champions	Best Result At World Championships
1976	Suzie Brasher	Did not compete at World Championships
1977	Carolyn Skoczen	Did not compete at World Championships
1978	Jill Sawyer	Did not compete at World Championships
1979	Elaine Zayak	1^st in 1982
1980	Rosalynn Sumners	1^st in 1983
1981	Tiffany Chin	3^rd in 1985 and 1986
1982	Janina Wirth	11^th in 1983
1983	Simone Koch	8^th in 1988
1984	Karin Hendschke	Did not compete at World Championships
1985	Tatiana Andreeva	Did not compete at World Championships
1986	Natalia Gorbenko	8^th in 1989
1987	Cindy Bortz	Did not compete at World Championships
1988	Kristi Yamaguchi	1^st in 1991 and 1992
1989	Jessica Mills	Did not compete at World Championships
1990	Yuka Sato	1^st in 1994
1991	Surya Bonaly	2^nd in 1993, 1994 and 1995
1992	Laetitia Hubert	4^th in 1992 and 1998
1993	Kumiko Koiwai	16^th in 1995
1994	Michelle Kwan	1^st in 1996, 1998, 2000, 2001 and 2003
1995	Irina Slutskaya	1^st in 2002 and 2005
1996	Elena Ivanova	Did not compete at World Championships
1997	Sydne Vogel	Did not compete at World Championships
1998	Julia Soldatova	3^rd in 1999
1999	Daria Timoshenko	29^th in 2004
2000	Jennifer Kirk	17^th in 2005
2001	Kristina Oblasova	Did not compete at World Championships
2002	Ann Patrice McDonough	Did not compete at World Championships
2003	Yukina Ota	Did not compete at World Championships
2004	Miki Ando	1^st in 2007 and 2011
2005	Mao Asada	1^st in 2008, 2010 and 2014
2006	Yuna Kim	1^st in 2009 and 2013
2007	Caroline Zhang	Did not compete at World Championships
2008	Rachael Flatt	5^th in 2009
2009	Alena Leonova	2^nd in 2012
2010	Kanako Murakami	4^th in 2013
2011	Adelina Sotnikova	9^th in 2013
2012	Julia Lipnitskaia	2^nd in 2014
2013	Elena Radionova	3^rd in 2015
2014	Elena Radionova	3^rd in 2015
2015	Evgenia Medvedeva	1^st in 2016 and 2017
2016	Marin Honda	Did not compete at World Championships
2017	Alina Zagitova	1^st in 2019
2018	Alexandra Trusova	3^rd in 2021
2019	Alexandra Trusova	3^rd in 2021
2020	Kamila Valieva	Did not compete at World Championships

Sherri Baier and Robin Cowan

WORLD JUNIOR CHAMPIONS - PAIRS

Year	World Junior Champions	Best Result At World Championships
1976	Sherri Baier and Robin Cowan	10^th in 1997
1977	Josée France and Paul Mills	Did not compete at World Championships
1978	Barbara Underhill and Paul Martini	1^st in 1984
1979	Veronika Pershina and Marat Akbarov	5^th in 1983
1980	Larisa Selezneva and Oleg Makarov	2^nd in 1985
1981	Larisa Selezneva and Oleg Makarov	2^nd in 1985
1982	Marina Avstriyskaya and Yuri Kvashnin	Did not compete at World Championships
1983	Marina Avstriyskaya and Yuri Kvashnin	Did not compete at World Championships
1984	Manuela Landgraf and Ingo Steuer	8^th in 1995 (Ingo - 1^st in 1997)
1985	Ekaterina Gordeeva and Sergei Grinkov	1^st in 1986, 1987, 1989 and 1990
1986	Elena Leonova and Gennadi Krasnitski	Did not compete at World Championships
1987	Elena Leonova and Gennadi Krasnitski	Did not compete at World Championships
1988	Kristi Yamaguchi and Rudy Galindo	5^th in 1989 and 1990 (Kristi – 1^st in 1991 and 1992 women's, Rudy - 3^rd in 1996 men's)
1989	Ekaterina Chernyshova and Dmitri Sukhanov	Did not compete together at World Championships (Dmitri – 15th in 1993)
1990	Natalia Krestianinova and Alexei Torchinski	13^th in 1994
1991	Natalia Krestianinova and Alexei Torchinski	13^th in 1994
1992	Natalia Krestianinova and Alexei Torchinski	13^th in 1994
1993	Inga Korshunova and Dmitri Saveliev	Did not compete at World Championships
1994	Maria Petrova and Anton Sikharulidze	6^th in 1995 (Maria - 1^st in 2000, Anton - 1^st in 1998 and 1999)
1995	Maria Petrova and Anton Sikharulidze	6^th in 1995 (Maria - 1^st in 2000, Anton - 1^st in 1998 and 1999)
1996	Victoria Maxiuta and Vladislav Zhovnirski	Did not compete at World Championships
1997	Danielle and Steven Hartsell	10^th in 1999
1998	Yulia Obertas and Dmitri Palamarchuk	11^th in 1999 (Yulia – 5^th in 2005)
1999	Yulia Obertas and Dmitri Palamarchuk	11^th in 1999 (Yulia – 5^th in 2005)
2000	Aliona Savchenko and Stanislav Morozov	9^th in 2001 (Aliona - 1^st in 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2014 and 2018, Stanislav - 4^th in 2007)
2001	Dan and Hao Zhang	2^nd in 2006, 2008 and 2009
2002	Elena Riabchuk and Stanislav Zakharov	Did not compete at World Championships
2003	Dan and Hao Zhang	2^nd in 2006, 2008 and 2009
2004	Natalia Shestakova and Pavel Lebedev	Did not compete at World Championships
2005	Maria Mukhortova and Maxim Trankov	4^th in 2010 (Maxim - 1^st in 2013)
2006	Julia Vlassov and Drew Meekins	Did not compete at World Championships
2007	Keauna McLaughlin and Rockne Brubaker	11^th in 2009 (Rockne - 10^th in 2010)
2008	Ksenia Krasilnikova and Konstantin Bezmaternikh	Did not compete at World Championships
2009	Lubov Ilyushechkina and Nodari Maisuradze	Did not compete together at World Championships (Lubov - 6^th in 2017, Nodari - 8^th in 2014)
2010	Wenjing Sui and Cong Han	1^st in 2017 and 2019
2011	Wenjing Sui and Cong Han	1^st in 2017 and 2019
2012	Wenjing Sui and Cong Han	1^st in 2017 and 2019
2013	Haven Denney and Brandon Frazier	12^th in 2015 (Brandon - 7^th in 2021)
2014	Xiaoyu Yu and Yang Jin	Did not compete together at World Championships (Xiaoyu - 4^th in 2017, Yang - 4^th in 2019)
2015	Xiaoyu Yu and Yang Jin	Did not compete together at World Championships (Xiaoyu - 4^th in 2017, Yang - 4^th in 2019)
2016	Anna Dušková and Martin Bidař	11^th in 2018
2017	Ekaterina Alexandrovskaya and Harley Windsor	16^th in 2017 and 2018
2018	Daria Pavliuchenko and Denis Khodykin	Did not compete at World Championships
2019	Anastasia Mishina and Aleksandr Galliamov	1^st in 2021
2020	Apollinariia Panfilova and Dmitry Rylov	Did not compete at World Championships

Tatiana Durasova and Sergei Ponomarenko

WORLD JUNIOR CHAMPIONS - ICE DANCE

Year	World Junior Champions	Best Result At World Championships
1976	Kathryn Winter and Nicky Slater	Did not compete together at World Championships (Nicky - 5^th in 1983 and 1984)
1977	Wendy Sessions and Mark Reed	Did not compete together at World Championships (Wendy - 11^th in 1981)
1978	Tatiana Durasova and Sergei Ponomarenko	Did not compete together at World Championships (Sergei - 1^st in 1989, 1990 and 1992)
1979	Tatiana Durasova and Sergei Ponomarenko	Did not compete together at World Championships (Sergei - 1^st in 1989, 1990 and 1992)
1980	Elena Batanova and Alexei Soloviev	7^th in 1984
1981	Elena Batanova and Alexei Soloviev	7^th in 1984
1982	Natalia Annenko and Vadim Karkachev	Did not compete together at World Championships (Natalia - 4^th in 1986, 1987 and 1988)
1983	Tatiana Gladkova and Igor Shpilband	Did not compete at World Championships
1984	Elena Krykanova and Evgeni Platov	Did not compete together at World Championships (Evgeni - 1^st in 1994, 1995, 1996 and 1997)
1985	Elena Krykanova and Evgeni Platov	Did not compete together at World Championships (Evgeni - 1^st in 1994, 1995, 1996 and 1997)
1986	Elena Krykanova and Evgeni Platov	Did not compete together at World Championships (Evgeni - 1^st in 1994, 1995, 1996 and 1997)
1987	Ilona Melnichenko and Gennadi Kaskov	Did not compete at World Championships
1988	Oksana Grishuk and Alexandr Chichkov	Did not compete together at World Championships (Oksana - 1^st in 1994, 1995, 1996 and 1997)
1989	Angelika Kirkhmaier and Dmitri Lagutin	Did not compete at World Championships
1990	Marina Anissina and Ilya Averbukh	Did not compete together at World Championships (Marina - 1^st in 2000, Ilya - 1^st in 2002)
1991	Aliki Stergadiu and Juris Razgulajevs	13^th in 1994
1992	Marina Anissina and Ilya Averbukh	Did not compete together at World Championships (Marina - 1^st in 2000, Ilya - 1^st in 2002)
1993	Ekaterina Svirina and Sergei Sakhnovski	Did not compete together at World Championships (Sergei - 3^rd in 2002)
1994	Silwia Nowak and Sebastian Kolasiński	9^th in 1999 and 2000
1995	Olga Sharutenko and Dmitri Naumkin	Did not compete at World Championships
1996	Ekaterina Davydova and Roman Kostomarov	Did not compete together at World Championship (Roman - 1^st in 2004 and 2005)
1997	Nina Ulanova and Mikhail Stifounin	Did not compete together at World Championship (Mikhail- 18^th in 2001)
1998	Jessica Joseph and Charles Butler	25^th in 1998
1999	Jamie Silverstein and Justin Pekarek	12^th in 2000
2000	Natalia Romaniuta and Daniil Barantsev	16^th in 2000
2001	Natalia Romaniuta and Daniil Barantsev	16^th in 2000
2002	Tanith Belbin and Benjamin Agosto	2^nd in 2005 and 2009
2003	Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin	1^st in 2009
2004	Elena Romanovskaya and Alexander Grachev	23^rd in 2006
2005	Morgan Matthews and Maxim Zavozin	16^th in 2006
2006	Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir	1^st in 2010, 2012 and 2017
2007	Ekaterina Bobrova and Dmitri Soloviev	3^rd in 2013
2008	Emily Samuelson and Evan Bates	9^th in 2010 (Evan - 2^nd in 2015)
2009	Madison Chock and Greg Zuerlein	9^th in 2011 (Madison - 2^nd in 2015)
2010	Elena Ilinykh and Nikita Katsalapov	4^th in 2014 (Nikita - 1^st in 2021)
2011	Ksenia Monko and Kirill Khaliavin	8^th in 2015
2012	Victoria Sinitsina and Ruslan Zhiganshin	7^th in 2014 (Victoria - 1^st in 2021, Ruslan - 7^th in 2015)
2013	Alexandra Stepanova and Ivan Bukin	4^th in 2019
2014	Kaitlyn Hawayek and Jean-Luc Baker	9^th in 2019 and 2021
2015	Anna Yanovskaya and Sergey Mozgov	Did not compete together at World Championships (Anna - 19^th in 2019)
2016	Lorraine McNamara and Quinn Carpenter	Did not compete at World Championships
2017	Rachel and Michael Parsons	Did not compete at World Championships
2018	Anastasia Skoptsova and Kirill Aleshin	Did not compete at World Championships
2019	Marjorie Lajoie and Zachary Lagha	14^th in 2021
2020	Avonley Nguyen and Vadym Kolesnik	Did not compete at World Championships

A Mélange Of Reader Mail

It's once again time to unpack the mail bag, answer some of your questions and share some of the interesting e-mails and social media messages that have come my way over the last few months. As always, if you have a question you'd like me to tackle or feedback on a blog please reach out via e-mail.

READER QUESTIONS

Sonja Henie. Photo courtesy National Archives of Poland.

From Marisa (via e-mail): "Do you happen to know where I can find books about Sonja Henie?"

A: A great place to start would be at your local library. If they don't have any in their own collections, they may be able to obtain a copy through inter-library loan for low or no cost. Another option would be buying books on EBay, Biblio.com, AbeBooks.com or Thriftbooks. EBay, Biblio and AbeBooks have booksellers around the world. Thriftbooks is U.S. based, but their shipping costs are often times more reasonable than the others. "Wings On My Feet" and "Queen Of Ice, Queen Of Shadows" would be two books to look out for, but there are also some great write-up's on her in several other books.

From John (via e-mail): "Hope you don't mind after reading your interesting site I thought you would be the ideal person for me as I'm seeking advice on these Edwardian? skates I picked up. I have attached a few picks for you too as may be of interest to you. I'm looking for knowledge and also to sell. I know they are plenty of skates around but these have some makers mark on the blades and also probably not relevant but a name in each on the inside, I would say around size nine."

A: I'm not sure if I'm the best person to help. I do write about figure skating history but skate design isn't something that I really look at very much. I do know T.H. Deane & Co. skates would have been popular during the Edwardian era. They were manufactured in Knightsbridge during the heyday of Prince's Skating Club and used by many skaters during that period. I can't quite make out what the name written on the inside says?

From @hughster3 (via Twitter): "I read your blog on Norton Skate, thanks for that, and wondered if you had any more info about skaters and placements. I recall Johnny Esaw saying that Gary Beacom blew them away. Would love to see a full list of results if available."

A: The full results for Norton Skate (a.k.a. Flaming Leaves) were published in the October 1979 issue of "Skating" magazine. Lots of big names!

Photos courtesy "Skating" magazine

From Andrea (via e-mail): Do you happen to have anything on Granville Mayall from Vancouver?

A: I don't have a ton of material on Mr. Mayall unfortunately, aside from his obituary from the "Vancouver Sun". I do know he grew up South Vancouver in a working-class Methodist family. He was an important figure in the development of skating in British Columbia in the 1920's and 30's, a judge at the Canadian and North American Championships and the CFSA's President from 1959 to 1961. He was the team leader for figure skating at the 1960 Olympics in Squaw Valley and played an important role in the organization of the 1960 Worlds in Vancouver. He was a senior partner in the law firm Mayall and Dallas and a freemason. He passed away on February 2, 1963 at the age of fifty-seven and was posthumously inducted into the CFSA (Skate Canada) Hall Of Fame in 1992. Hope this helps a little!

Canadian figure skating contingent at the 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley. Left to right: Sheldon Galbraith, Barbara Wagner, Bob Paul, Wendy Griner, Granville Mayall, Maria and Otto Jelinek, Sandra Tewkesbury, Donald Jackson and Donald McPherson

SKATING STEREOVIEWS

From Andy (via e-mail): "Thanks to your great site I was able to identify one of the stereoviews attached as being taken at Prince's, London, I estimate 1910 or so. The other, the outdoor skaters, I haven't yet ID'd.... does that building in the background look familiar to you at all? All of the stereoviews I've identified in the lot where these were found are London, but the hill or mountain in the outdoor scene makes that location unlikely. I'd appreciate any thoughts you have on the stereoviews."

The first stereoview is definitely Prince's Skating Club at Knightsbridge during the Edwardian era. The latter looks like it may (?) be Elsa Rendschmidt but I'm terrible at identifying locations in photos - perhaps a skating resort in Switzerland? If anyone has a keen eye and has any suggestions or information about the second stereoview, let me know and I will pass on the message to Andy.

FIGURE SKATING BOOKS IN THE WORKS

Over the past year, I've learned of several very interesting books that are in the works. One is a historical fiction novel based on the story of Alois Lutz - inventor of the Lutz jump. The other an autobiography of World Champion Courtney Jones. I recently did an interview with Helen Cox about the latter book. Stay tuned for more information about these projects!