The 1960 World Figure Skating Championships

"We have been to Championships that have been well organized, but no better than here. We have been to Championships with a very fine welcome, but never to Championships where we have received the warmth of welcome that we have had in Vancouver." - Jacques Favart

Canadians had just won four medals at the Winter Olympic Games in Squaw Valley; two of them in figure skating. Women rushed to department stores to buy patterns for bell-shaped skirts and blouson silhouette dresses. A quart of milk cost twenty four cents; a dozen eggs was fifty five. John Diefenbaker was Canada's Prime Minister and everyone was bopping to Brenda Lee's latest hit "Sweet Nothin's". The year was 1960 and from March 2 to 5, Vancouver, British Columbia played host to the World Figure Skating Championships.

When Georg Häsler travelled to Colorado Springs to meet with Thayer Tutt at the Broadmoor Hotel to discuss the planning of the 1957 World Championships, his old friend Dr. Hellmut May invited him to the CFSA's AGM at the Hotel Vancouver. Häsler's talks with CFSA executives, Billie Mitchell and June Pinkerton sparked interest in bringing the world to Canada. Häsler sent Mitchell all of the necessary information pertaining to the organization of the event. She went to Granville Mayall, a CFSA executive member from Vancouver, with the idea of hosting the World Championships in Vancouver. He suggested Calgary take on the event but she persisted and he finally agreed to help make it happen. Mitchell and Mayall then enlisted the help of George Sherwood of the Capilano Winter Club. A CFSA committee was formed, chaired by Herbert Crispo. He estimated that over twenty eight thousand dollars was needed to cover the costs of advertising, transportation, publicity and room and board for the judges. The fact that the 1960 Winter Olympics were in Squaw Valley and some of the competitors actually made the long drive up the Pacific Coast instead to attend helped lower transportation costs significantly. Rather than place the burden of hosting the event on one club, Mitchell, Mayall and Sherwood devised a plan where the Burnaby, Capilano, Connaught, Kerrisdale, Vancouver and Totem clubs would share the hosting duties. Over two hundred volunteers were recruited and  the CFSA enthusiastically applied to the ISU to host the 1960 World Championships in 1957. They were provisionally awarded the event the following year, and given the official nod a year later. Though the Figure Skating Department of the Amateur Skating Association of Canada had hosted the 1932 World Championships in Montreal, figure skating was a completely different beast some twenty eight years later. The showmanship of Sonja Henie had been replaced by the athleticism of Dick Button. Outdoor competitions were slowly becoming a thing of the past and the introduction of open marking in the thirties had led to the almost instant computation, tabulation and printing of marks by 1955.

The interior of the the Vancouver Forum. Photo courtesy City Of Vancouver Archives.

Ultimately, the 1960 World Figure Skating Championships were held just after the Closing Ceremonies of the 1960 Winter Olympics. "Most of the competitors came directly from Squaw Valley, wearing their Olympic uniforms and looking tanned and healthy," recalled Patricia Shelley Bushman in her book "Indelible Tracings". Upon arriving in Vancouver, the skaters - who were relieved to be at sea level after competing at an altitude of six thousand feet at the Olympics - received welcome baskets, which included boot polish, Coca Cola soft drinks, skate laces and fresh fruit. Practice sessions were held at the Capilano Winter Club. The host venue, the Vancouver Forum on the grounds of the Pacific National Exhibition, had a dark history. During World War II it was used as an internment and processing camp for Japanese Canadians.

Left: Program for the 1960 World Championships. Right: Advertisement for Harlick & Co. Photo courtesy "World Ice Skating Guide".

The Vancouver World Championships marked and inspired an important series of firsts. Johnny Esaw, then with CFTO (a precursor of CTV) was contacted by ABC to negotiate the television rights for the event. He bought the North American rights for ten thousand dollars and turned them over to Roone Arledge, the President of ABC. Though the competition was ultimately only broadcast down in the States, it was the first World Championships broadcast in North America. Esaw's involvement led to Canadian figure skating's first televised broadcast the following year - a series of exhibitions featured on "On The Scene", a program sponsored by Simonize Wax Of Canada. The event also marked the first time that the number of entries per country per discipline was limited to three by the ISU.

Editorial cartoon from the "Vancouver Sun" in 1960: "All right Carol Heiss... never mind the fancy figure skating... just serve the tea." Photo courtesy Library And Archives Canada, Estate Of Leonard Norris.

The event drew standing room only crowds and brought in an impressive seven thousand, seven hundred and eighty three dollar profit, which went to back into the five British Columbian clubs who hosted the event. Canadian skaters enjoyed their best showing at the World Championships in many years, trumping the Americans in medal wins for the first time. Let's take a look back at how things played out in Vancouver!

THE ICE DANCE COMPETITION

Nine teams representing six nations vied for gold in the ice dancing competition in Vancouver. Though Courtney Jones forgot his skates for one of the compulsory dances - causing great distress to the Canadian referee - he and partner Doreen Denny easily took the lead after the Foxtrot, Viennese Waltz, Quickstep and Tango were completed. Writing in "Skating" magazine, Edith Ray lamented, "Dance followers saw excellent dancing [from Denny and Jones] and not-so-excellent dancing by some in the field. The general fault in the compulsory dances was the lack of individual flavour. There was bad timing, many flats and much two-footing displayed in the Viennese; the Tango was executed with some badly flatted mohawk sequences, and two couples skated this dance on the weak or secondary beat."

In matching gray outfits, Denny and Jones were the class of the field in the free dance, earning first place marks from all seven judges on the way to their second World title. It was Jones' fourth, as he had of course struck gold in 1957 and 1958 with June Markham. Edith Ray noted, "Their program was better constructed than last year, and showed masterful composition, with moves flowing into one another in kaleidoscopic variety. They covered the surface with these interesting moves and dance steps. into which they wove their highlights... although, just as everyone else does, they wasted time and motion on a few 'cutenesses'."

Canadians Virginia Thompson and William McLachhlan surprised many by finishing a decisive second behind the British favourites in their international debut, much to the delight of the Vancouver crowd. Moving up three places from the year previous, France's Christiane and Jean-Paul Guhel claimed the bronze with a free dance Ray described as "refreshing". The other two Canadian teams entered, Ann Martin and Gille Vanasse and Svata and Mirek Staroba, placed sixth and seventh.

Margie Ackles and Chuck Phillips Jr., the American team who placed fourth, earned the USFSA's new Hickok Memorial Trophy as the top placing American pair. Placing fifth and eighth were Ackles and Phillips' American teammates Larry Pierce and Roger Campbell. Though they skated with Marilyn Meeker and Yvonne Littlefield in Vancouver, they'd both team up with new partners the following season... and perish in the Sabena Crash.

THE MEN'S COMPETITION

Alain Giletti

With Olympic Gold Medallist David Jenkins telling the USFSA to go ahead and "suspend him" for opting to return to his studies at Western Reserve University rather than competing in Vancouver and Olympic Silver Medallist Karol Divín withdrawing due to the same hip injury he'd endured in Squaw Valley, the men's competition in Vancouver was set to be a showdown between the two French Alain's - Calmat and Giletti - and Canada's Donald Jackson. All three men were superb skaters who had studied under Pierre Brunet.

Though Donald Jackson was clearly favoured by the Canadian crowd, it was twenty one year old Giletti who amassed a thirty-three point lead and placed unanimously first in the school figures. An Associated Press writer noted, "Opportunity finally beckons for the 21-year old Giletti after 14 years of skating. Eight times he has been champion of France; four times champion of Europe. But in world skating there has always been a Dick Button, Hayes [Alan] Jenkins or David Jenkins to win for the United States."

Donald Jackson

It was standing room only for the men's free skate, and Assistant Referee Alec Gordon surprised many by insisting on doing his job despite having a temperature of one hundred and three. Though Giletti landed two double Axels, he fell twice - once just after the landing of one of the Axels and once on the entrance to a flying camel spin. Donald Jackson, who landed two double Axels and a triple Salchow, was placed unanimously first in the free skate. However, hampered by his showing in the figures, he lost the gold by one tenth of a point to Giletti, who made history as the first skater from France to win a World men's title. After the results were announced, Jacqueline Vaudecrane threw her arms around both Alain Giletti and Donald Jackson and said, "Now we have two champions; one in figures and one in free skating." In his November 2013 interview on The Manleywoman SkateCast, Jackson surmised, "Maybe it was good that [I lost] because I stayed in for another two years."

British Champion Robin Jones practicing for the event at Queen's Ice Club. He finished fourteenth. 

Moving past Austria's Norbert Felsinger, Alain Calmat claimed the bronze despite falling on a double Axel early in his program. Canada's other two entries, Donald MacPherson and Louis Stong, placed eighth and eleventh. Bradley Lord and Gregory Kelley, the American men who placed sixth and ninth, were both victims in the Sabena Crash the following year in Belgium.

Video courtesy Frazer Ormondroyd

THE WOMEN'S COMPETITION

Vancouver airport policeman Ed Perry and Carol Heiss

A whopping twenty four entries made the women's field in Vancouver the largest of the four disciplines. The start of the school figures was delayed by five hours when it was learned several competitors would arrive later than planned. To the surprise of absolutely no one, twenty year old Olympic Gold Medallist Carol Heiss took a commanding early lead ahead of Holland's Sjoujke Dijkstra and America's Barbara Roles, the silver and bronze medallists from Squaw Valley.

Video courtesy Frazer Ormondroyd

The weather, which had been beautiful, took a turn for the worse just prior to the women's free skate. A rare snowstorm prevented Frank Ross, the Lieutenant-Governor of British Columbia, and his wife from attending, but the rink proved to be standing room only anyway.

Though the Italian judge gave a lone first place vote to Sjoukje Dijkstra in the free skate, Carol Heiss' four-minute free skating effort was more than enough for her to claim her final World title... at the stroke of midnight in front of three thousand spectators. Though she played it a little safe and left out her double Axel, sportswriter Jack Hewin noted, "People who saw both performances said this was better than the free skating effort that helped win Miss Heiss an Olympic gold medal." In her December 2012 interview on The Manleywoman SkateCast, Heiss reminisced, "Worlds was a very hard competition, because you’re so excited from the Olympics, and there’s an exhaustion that sets in. And I don’t think there’s an Olympic gold medal winner who doesn’t say that. There’s such excitement winning the gold medal, and the interviews, and the crowds, even back then. It was sort of a whirlwind and it was hard to keep training, even though Mr. [Pierre] Brunet was very good about trying to keep me on the ice and keep me training. And then going to Worlds for the fifth world title - I never went in for the record, that never dawned on me. It was just finishing my career. And I probably would have gone on to Nationals, but that was the first year that they put nationals before Worlds and Olympics, and it’s stayed that way ever since. And after that, I just wanted to get married, and there was a ticker tape parade in New York. They just couldn’t have treated me better. Carol Heiss Day, the key to the city, and then Long Island did the same thing. But then the offers came in and there were decisions. The first decision was, I said, I want to get married and make the decisions together. So we managed with good friends and my dad and the Brunet's to put my wedding together in six weeks."

Barbara Roles somewhat outshone Sjoukje Dijkstra in the free skate, but the Dutch Champion bested her for the silver on the strength of her showing in the figures. Canada's three entries, Wendy Griner, Sonia Snelling and Shirra Kenworthy, placed seventh, thirteenth and fifteenth. Japan's Miwa Fukuhara placed only fourteenth, but garnered considerable attention by skating to 'Oriental' music and landing a superb double Axel.

The judges didn't know what to do with the second American woman, young Laurence Owen. Her ordinals in the figures ranged from fifth to fourteenth; in the free skating from fifth to thirteenth. She ended the competition in a disappointing ninth, and perished the following year in the Sabena Crash before her natural talent was ever rewarded on the World's biggest stage.

THE PAIRS COMPETITION

Maria and Otto Jelinek

Capping off an incredible career with a flawless final competitive performance, Olympic Gold Medallists Barbara Wagner and Bob Paul delighted the Vancouver audience and judges alike by claiming the gold in the pairs competition. They did so with unanimous first place marks from all nine judges and a smattering of 5.8's and 5.9's.

Finding redemption after their disappointment in Squaw Valley, siblings Maria and Otto Jelinek claimed the silver in a six-three split over West Germans Marika Kilius and Hans-Jürgen Bäumler, making it one-two for Canada. Nancy and Ron Ludington, who had won the bronze at the Olympics, had an off night and placed only sixth. The Jelinek's didn't skate as well in Vancouver as they did in Squaw Valley either, but they placed higher. Muriel Kay, who covered the event for "Skating World" magazine, was impressed though. She wrote, "The young Jelineks skated the most thrilling and dynamic programme of the evening - it was fast and sure, with exuberant vitality. Maria missed landing her double loop, and there were a few other minor faults - but for this, the judges would have been hard put to make their decision for first place. A year ago they were two youngsters skating very well - now they have matured and gained poise and a depth of feeling for their music which led to this first-class performance."

Oleg Protopopov, Maria Jelinek, Ludmila Belousova and Otto Jelinek

Ludmila Belousova and Oleg Protopopov were competing in only their second Worlds but were already garnering considerable consideration for their virtuosity. Unfortunately, a fall from Ludmila on the side-by-side double flips kept them down in eighth. Muriel Kay wrote in  "Skating World" magazine, "Their opening music sounded like the cascading of fountains, and their interpretation was exquisite and beautifully flowing... Their lifts were some of the best in the entire competition, with that quality of hovering for a long second at the peak... For those who really wondered just what 'light and shade' really means, it was demonstrated here superbly. It was just not interpretation as dictated by loudness and softness, crescendo and diminuendo and change of speed, but all the subtle variations of the moods of the music, born of the soul and not merely of the intellect. Once they perfect their skating movements and lengthen their stroke, which is still a little choppy in places, they will be serious challengers for the title."

Maribel Yerxa Owen and Dudley Richards

The American teams who finished tenth and twelfth, Maribel Yerxa Owen and Dudley Richards and Ila Ray and Ray Hadley, were among the Sabena Crash victims in 1961.

Fresh off Olympic victory, Barbara Wagner and Bob Paul

Canada's third team, thirteen year old Debbi Wilkes and fifteen year old Guy Revell, placed eleventh in their debut at Worlds.  In her book "Ice Time", Wilkes recalled, "The championships were the culmination of my Dad's dreams for me and, for one of the few competitions of my career, both my parents came... I had a great time. I tried to make friends with a Soviet pairs skater, [Ludmila] Belousova, who was skating with Oleg Protopopov... I thought [Ludmila] was my age and that we'd have great fun together. She turned out to be twenty-five. I also got word from the CFSA through my mother that I should watch out who my friends were... I was very happy about [the Canadian one-two finish], not only because of Otto and Maria, but because Marika Kilius, the German ice princess, was the most hateful person I had ever met. Years later, when Marg [Hyland] thought my competitive instinct needed a boost, she just whispered in my ear, 'Marika Kilius.'"

Postcard of the Hotel Georgia. Photo courtesy City of Vancouver Archives.

Following the competition, a who's who of figure skating gathered at the Hotel Georgia for an afternoon awards banquet. The over three hundred attendees each received a small silver maple leaf and a small slate totem pole with a silver medallion as keepsakes. The Japanese team all wore traditional costumes from their home country, and the Russian Federation presented the CFSA with a pennant of goodwill. Following the banquet, attendees went on a pleasure cruise of the Vancouver harbour and Howe Sound on a privately owned yacht and attended a cocktail party and buffet dinner and ice dancing session at the Capilano Winter Club. By this time, noted June Pinkerton, the chair of the Entertainment Committee, "It was evident... that the language barrier was no obstacle. Farewells were said, and with the end of another World Championship it was felt that a lot of new friends had been made."

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.

What Did They Do In '62?

1962 World Champions Maria and Otto Jelinek. Photo courtesy Toronto Public Library, from Toronto Star Photographic Archive. Reproduced for educational purposes under license permission.

The cancellation of the 2020 World Figure Skating Championships in Montreal, Quebec due to the COVID-19 pandemic marks the first time in history a major ISU Championship has been cancelled specifically due to a global health emergency. As we all know though, this wasn't the first time the World Championships have been cancelled. The Great War and World War II forced the cancellation of Worlds from 1915 to 1921 and from 1940 to 1946. In 1961, the ISU (despite protestations from the Czechoslovakian organizers) cancelled the Worlds in Prague after the tragic Sabena Crash that killed the entire U.S. figure skating team, along with coaches, officials and members of their families. The cancellation of the 2020 Worlds has left many speculating as to how the ISU will handle entries for the 2021 World Championships, slated for Stockholm, Sweden. Some have wondered what they did back in 1962.

Oleg Protopopov, Maria Jelinek, Ludmila Belousova and Otto Jelinek in 1962

In the fifties, the number of entries at ISU Championships was growing by leaps and bounds. The number of entries in the women's event more than doubled from fourteen in London in 1950 to twenty nine in Paris in 1958. A big part of the problem at the time wasn't the number of federations sending skaters, but the number of skaters each federation sent. The United States, for instance, sent no less than five men and women to the 1951 Worlds in Milan. At a time when strict rules of amateurism were very much at play, it often came down to who could afford to pay their own way.

Nobuo Sato, Marika Kilius and Donald Jackson in 1962

Hoping to curb the number of entries at its Championships, the ISU passed a rule change at its 1959 Congress in Tours, France allocating each member federation two entries in each discipline, with a third spot available "if such Member had a representative in the first twelve in the same event in the preceding Championship." The catch was the skater or team who earned their country a third spot had to be the one(s) to return the following year to use it. If not, they lost it.

Though the ISU based entries for the 1962 Worlds on the results of the 1960 Worlds in Vancouver, their 'use it or lose it' policy for a third spot cost the Americans (who were still grieving from the Sabena Crash) entries at the 1962 Worlds because the skaters who had earned a third spot had well, died. At the 1960 Worlds, every single American skater or team had placed in the top twelve in their respective discipline, earning a maximum of three spots for the 1961 Worlds in Prague - but one of each of those three spots would have 'belonged' to the highest finishing returning skaters or teams - Bradley Lord, Laurence Owen, Maribel Yerxa Owen and Dudley Richards and in dance, either Larry Pierce or Roger Campbell with their new partners. Rather than allowing the USFSA to send three entries per discipline as a courtesy, the ISU ruled that they could send only two entries per discipline because the skaters who earned third spots weren't returning. An exception was made for Barbara Roles Pursley, who was a past Olympic and World Medallist and had earned a spot by placing third in 1960 but took a year off in 1961.

Announcement of the 1962 U.S. World team. Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine.

The Americans weren't the only ones to get dinged by the rule. Great Britain, a powerhouse in ice dance in the sixties, was only able to send two couples after the retirement of Doreen Denny and Courtney Jones. Denny and Jones were the World Champions in 1960... but they were the only British couple entered that year.

The men's podium (Alain Calmat, Donald Jackson and Karol Divín) and the women's podium (Regine Heitzer, Sjoukje Dijkstra and Wendy Griner) at the 1962 World Championships. Photos courtesy "Skating" magazine.

If entries for the next World Championships were based on the system that was in place in 1962, here's what we'd be looking at, taking into account retirements, skaters not entered to compete at the 2020 Worlds, etc.

Men:

USA - 3 spots (1 reserved for Nathan Chen, Vincent Zhou or Jason Brown)
JPN - 3 spots (1 reserved for Yuzuru Hanyu or Shoma Uno)
CHN - 3 spots (1 reserved for Boyang Jin)
ITA - 3 spots (1 reserved for Matteo Rizzo)
CZE - 3 spots (1 reserved for Michal Březina)
FRA - 3 spots (1 reserved for Kévin Aymoz)

- Russia would lose a third spot if Alexander Samarin, Mikhail Kolyada or Andrei Lazukin weren't sent.

*All other countries would have 2 spots.

Women:

JPN - 3 spots (1 reserved for Rika Kihira, Kaori Sakamoto or Satoko Miyahara)
USA - 3 spots (1 reserved for Bradie Tennell or Mariah Bell)

- Canada would lose a third spot if Gabby Daleman wasn't sent
- Russia would lose a third spot if Evgenia Medvedeva or Sofia Samodurova weren't sent
- Kazakhstan would lose a third spot if Elizabet Tursynbaeva wasn't sent.
- Belgium would lose a third spot if Loena Hendrickx wasn't sent
- Korea would lose a third spot if Eun-soo Lim wasn't sent.

*All other countries would have 2 spots

Pairs:

CHN - 3 spots (1 spot reserved for Wenjing Sui and Cong Han or Cheng Peng and Yang Jin)
RUS - 3 spots (1 spot reserved for Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov or Aleksandra Boikova and Dmitrii Kozlovskii)
CAN - 3 spots (1 spot reserved for Kirsten Moore-Towers and Michael Marinaro or Evelyn Walsh and Trennt Michaud)
ITA - 3 spots (1 spot reserved for Nicole Della Monica and Matteo Guarise)
USA - 3 spots (1 spot reserved for Ashley Cain and Tim LeDuc)
AUT - 3 spots (1 spot reserved for Miriam Ziegler and Severin Kiefer)

- France would lose a third spot if Vanessa James and Morgan Ciprès weren't sent.
- North Korea would lose a third spot if Tae-ok Ryom and Ju-sik Kim weren't sent.

*All other countries would have 2 spots

Ice Dance:

FRA - 3 spots (1 spot reserved for Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron)
RUS - 3 spots (1 spot reserved for Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov or Alexandra Stepanova and Ivan Bukin)
USA - 3 spots (1 spot reserved for Madison Hubbell and Zach Donohue, Madison Chock and Evan Bates or Kaitlin Hawayek and Jean-Luc Baker)
CAN - 3 spots (1 spot reserved for Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier or Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Nikolaj Sørensen)
ITA - 3 spots (1 spot reserved for Charlène Guignard and Marco Fabbri)
POL - 3 spots (1 spot reserved for Natalia Kaliszek and Maksym Spodyriev)

- Spain would lose a third spot if Sara Hurtado and Kirill Khaliavin weren't sent.

*All other countries would have 2 spots

As you can plainly see, if the rules at play in 1962 were reintroduced to address the entries to the World Championships, the number of entries in every discipline would swell dramatically - perhaps to the point that the ISU would have to reinstitute qualifying rounds unless the 'two slot' rule for all other countries was reduced to one.

While it is entirely unlikely the ISU would ever consider going back to a system used to address the cancellation of the World Championships from decades past, it is interesting to consider how the worldwide popularity of the sport and increased number of member federations would substantially increase the number of entries at Worlds if this system was reintroduced today.

Now that we've talked history, I want to just say that I hope all of you are hanging in there. Whether you're in self-isolation, have lost your job or are forced to continue to work for any number of ridiculous reasons, take care of yourself. Rather than focus entirely on the present, embrace the past and look forward to a brighter future. The world may be on pause, but it is not over. Stay happy, healthy and for the love of Sonja Henie, wash your hands.

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 1993 Canadian Figure Skating Championships

Brian Mulroney was just weeks away from resigning as Canada's Prime Minister. Booker Prize winner Michael Ondaatje's novel "The English Patient" was on everyone's nightstand. Walkmans blared with the Snap! hit "Rhythm Is A Dancer". Grunge fashion was the recession rage and for some unknown reason, pacifiers were a thing. The year was 1993 and from  February 4 to 7, Canada's best flocked to Copps Coliseum in Hamilton, Ontario for the Royal Bank Canadian Figure Skating Championships.

The use of such a large venue paid off in dividends for the CFSA. With sellout crowds of upwards of over hundred and sixteen thousand over the three days of senior championship events, it was the highest attendance ever at the Canadian Championships at that point in time. In fact, more people attended the event than one of the Toronto Maple Leafs' NHL home games the week prior.

Left: Barbara Ann Scott backstage. Photo courtesy Hamilton Public Library. Right: Commemorative lapel pin sold at the event.

A who's who of Canadian figure skating were in the stands - World and Olympic Champions like Barbara Ann Scott, Donald Jackson, Donald McPherson, Brian Orser, Kurt Browning, Petra Burka, Karen Magnussen, Frances Dafoe, Barbara Underhill and Paul Martini and Barbara Wagner and Bob Paul. A CFSA Hall Of Fame ceremony was held during the event, where Suzanne Morrow and Wally Distelmeyer, Mrs. Ellen Burka, Dr. Sidney Soanes and Granville Mayall were inducted.

Clipping about Mrs. Ellen Burka's CFSA Hall Of Fame induction. Photo courtesy Hamilton Public Library.

Fans were thrilled with a new technological advancement - an electronic scoreboard which showed the standings of the top five skaters or teams right after the marks were shown. Previously, many die-hard's were forced to scribble down marks on scrap paper and try to figure out 'who was where' on their own until the announcer read the read the results at the end of each event.

Hop in the time machine - we're going to take a look back at the stories, skaters and scandals from this fascinating event!

THE NOVICE AND JUNIOR EVENTS

Left: Collin Thompson. Right: Novice ice dancers Nicole and Derek Brittain. Photos courtesy Toronto Public Library, from Toronto Star Photographic Archive. Reproduced for educational purposes under license permission.

Teams from Quebec dominated the novice pairs and ice dance events. Representing the CPA Boucherville and CPA Jonquiere, Guylaine Brasseur and Kevin Boucher were victorious in novice pairs. Julie Lirette and Jonathan Pankratz took gold in an all Quebec medal sweep in novice dance.

Although compulsory figures had been eliminated from the junior and senior events, novice men and women were still required to perform the scales of skating in addition to technical programs and free skates. Louis-Georges Dufour of Quebec City led the way after the novice men's figures but lost his early lead, finishing off the podium. The winner was Toronto's Collin Thompson.

Photo courtesy Hamilton Public Library

In winning, fifteen year old Collin Thompson made history as the first black man to win a Canadian title at any level. When reporter Larry Moko asked him about the significance of this, he said, "I think I'm just a regular person. It doesn't matter what colour I am." He had been skating for six years, was coached by Osborne Colson and came from a single-parent family.

In the novice women's event, Victoria's Lisa Murdoch and Dorval's Della Pike tied for the lead in the figures, but neither skater earned a medal. In fact, Pike dropped down to eleventh. The title went to Isabelle Thibeault of the CPA Chicoutimi, who had won the Eastern Divisionals the month prior but finished only twelfth at the 1992 Canadians.

Junior men's medallists Ravi Walia, David Pelletier and Matthew Knight. Photo courtesy Skate Canada Archives.

Julie Laporte and David Pelletier of the CPA Rimouski defeated Isabelle Coulombe and Bruno Marcotte and Kelly McKenzie and David Annecca to take the junior pairs title. Laporte and Pelletier's winning free skate featured a triple twist and throw triple Salchow - tough elements for a junior pair. After winning, Pelletier said, "I think it's the international experience that helped a lot and the fact that we've been skating together for three years. Many junior teams haven't been together that long." They'd previously placed fifth at the World Junior Championships and won a silver medal at the Blue Swords event in Germany.

After the junior compulsory dances, Quebec held the top six spots. As in novice dance, Quebec dancer made a sweep of the podium, with Martine Michaud and Sylvain Leclerc besting Elizabeth Hollett and Pierre-Hugues Chouinard and Josée Piché and Pascal Denis for the gold. Nineteen year old Ravi Walia of the Kerrisdale Figure Skating Club won both phases of the junior men's event and landed five triples in his free skate to win gold ahead of future Olympic Gold Medallist David Pelletier and his twenty year old training mate in Kerrisdale, Matthew Knight.

Photo courtesy Hamilton Public Library

In the junior women's event, Keyla Ohs, a student of Linda Brauckman from Maple Ridge, British Columbia, defeated Jessica Sheard and Andreanne Plante to claim the gold medal. Ohs was the youngest of sixteen entrants in the event, having just turned fourteen the week prior the event.

Photo courtesy Hamilton Public Library

Seventeen year old Christy Ness student Tammy Smigelski had the third best free skate but was an unlucky thirteenth in the short program and only able to move up to sixth overall. A young Jamie Sale placed eighth; a young Jennifer Robinson eleventh. After winning, Keyla Ohs said, "I'm excited. My goal was top give when I came here."

THE PAIRS AND FOURS COMPETITIONS

A unique Canadian specialty, fours skating, was included on the bill of senior competitions in Hamilton and proved a big crowd favourite. A cross country team featuring skaters representing both British Columbia and Ontario came out on top: Jodi Barnes, Rob Williams, Jodeyne Higgins and Sean Rice. Tiina Murr, Cory Watson, Alison Purkiss and Scott MacDonald took the silver for Ontario, followed by Julie Leithead, Jonathon Allen, Shannon Robb and Scott Cornfoot. The number of fours skaters that came out of the Preston Figure Skating Club spoke to the strength of Kerry Leitch's school and his important role in keeping the discipline alive for so many years.

Isabelle Brasseur and Lloyd Eisler. Left photo courtesy Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec, right photo courtesy Hamilton Public Library.

It wasn't an easy year for twenty two year old Isabelle Brasseur and twenty nine year old Lloyd Eisler. Though the team took a new approach to training, focusing on having fun rather than taking things so seriously, Isabelle was grieving the loss of her father. Though they were the reigning Olympic Bronze Medallist, they'd finished off the podium at the NHK Trophy in Japan in the fall, held just two weeks after his death. Neither of the teams that had beaten them at the Albertville Olympics had competed. Just prior to the event, Isabelle told Steve Milton, "I didn't want to pack it in. You can't stop your life. I mean my Dad died, and he showed me so much stuff... He wouldn't be proud if I did that."

Left: Allison Purkiss and Scott MacDonald. Middle: Kristy Sargeant and Kris Wirtz. Right: Jamie Salé and Jason Turner. Photos courtesy Hamilton Public Library.

Whatever may have been going on in Isabelle Brasseur's head, you wouldn't have known anything was wrong in Hamilton. In the short program, she and Lloyd Eisler skated clean as a whistle to "Tequila", earning marks mostly in the 5.8 and 5.9 range and a standing ovation. They easily outranked Michelle Menzies and Jean-Michel Bombardier, Kristy Sargeant and Kris Wirtz, Jodeyne Higgins and Sean Rice and Jamie Salé and Jason Turner, with first place ordinals from all nine judges. Menzies and Bombardier and Sargeant and Wirtz were both new partnerships; Higgins and Rice were competing in seniors for the first year. Lucky to even compete were Higgins and Rice's Preston training mates Tiina Muur and Cory Watson. Watson had been in a car accident just ten days before the start of the competition. He'd spent nearly a week in the hospital with a collapsed lung and only started practicing lifts during the pre-short program practice.

Isabelle Brasseur and Lloyd Eisler. Photos courtesy Hamilton Public Library.

Despite a fall from Isabelle on the side-by-side double Axels in their free skate to Rachmaninoff's "Rhapsody On A Theme Of Paganini", Brasseur and Eisler won their fourth Canadian pairs title in a convincing fashion. They received 5.6's and 5.7's for technical merit and 5.8's and 5.9's for artistic impression and again received first place ordinals from every judge. Menzies and Bombardier remained in second and Higgins and Rice moved up to take the bronze medals. Higgins and Rice's medal win was so completely unexpected that their coach Kerry Leitch was teary-eyed.

After the event, Lloyd Eisler told "Montreal Gazette" reporters, "The program is world-calibre gold material if we do everything we're supposed to do... Axels are jumps that strong individual skaters nail all the time but if we could nail them one after another, we would be in singles not pairs... We really are revved up now for Prague, very optimistic because of our program what we feel is a good combination of artistry and athletics."

THE ICE DANCE COMPETITION

Shae-Lynn Bourne and Victor Kraatz. Photo courtesy Hamilton Public Library.

You want to talk drama? Let's talk about the ice dance competition at the 1993 Canadian Championships. To give you some perspective, we need to look back on what happened in Canadian ice dance the two years prior. In 1991, former rivals Michelle McDonald and Martin Smith joined forces to win the Canadian ice dance title ahead of Jacqueline Petr and Mark Janoschak and Penny Mann and Juan-Carlos Noria. The following year, Petr and Janoschak claimed gold in a five-four split over Mann and Noria. McDonald and Smith dropped to third. The Canadian Olympic Association kept Mann and Noria off the Olympic team even though Canada had earned two spots but the CFSA sent them to Worlds, where they finished just four spots behind Petr and Janoschak. McDonald and Smith turned professional and everyone was expecting the next two seasons to be a seesaw battle between Petr and Janoschak and Mann and Noria... and then a third team entered the picture.

1992 Canadian Junior Champions, seventeen year old Shae-Lynn Bourne and twenty one year old Victor Kraatz moved up to the big leagues and placed a strong sixth to Petr and Janoschak at the Skate Canada International in Victoria in the autumn of 1992. Rumours swirled that the talented young team was being fast-tracked forward ahead of Petr and Janoschak and Mann and Noria before they even took the ice in Hamilton. There were even whispers that Bourne and Kraatz might pull a 'Duchesnay' and skate for another country, as Kraatz was born in Germany and held a Swiss passport. Coach Josée Picard admitted that both countries had made inquiries about Kraatz. Jacqueline Petr pointed out that since her parents were born in Czechoslovakia, she could have represented another country as well but she "was born here and [wanted] to represent Canada." Both Mark Janoschak and Juan Carlos Noria weren't buying into the hype over Bourne and Kraatz. Juan Carlos Noria told Steve Milton, "I know they are very young and very talented. They are the 'dream team'. But they're pretty young and in dance you need experience. Of course it is between us and Mark and Jacqui. How could it not be?"

And so... in the compulsory dances, Bourne and Kraatz placed ahead of Petr and Janoschak and Mann and Noria. Then, in the original dance - the Viennese Waltz - Mann and Noria took top spot, followed by Bourne and Kraatz and Petr and Janoschak. In the free dance, Petr and Janoschak opted for an avant garde program set to music by Michael Nyman dressed as the King and Queen of Hearts.

Mann and Noria took a traditional route with a Fred and Ginger program and Bourne and Kraatz showed off youth, exuberance and strong edges in a gypsy-themed program. Eight of the nine judges placed Bourne and Kraatz first in free dance, with one opting for Mann and Noria. Bourne and Kraatz won their first Canadian title, Mann and Noria settled for silver and the reigning Canadian Champions Petr and Janoschak were pushed down to third... a similar scenario to the one McDonald and Smith had faced the year prior.

Quoted in the "Ottawa Citizen", Victor Kraatz said, "I'm amazed at how quickly things have picked up for us. We came here just to get experience. There was no pressure on us to win at all." Bourne added, "I'm surprised. You usually have to wait your turn. This is just amazing." Their competitors didn't hide their frustration with their losses. Penny Mann said, "It's really frustrating. We worked really hard this year, with the one goal in mind: to win. We put it all out there. I don't like to say that we got dumped on, but it is a bit of a slap in the face." Mark Janoschak said, "I'm disappointed and a little bitter. I don't necessarily agree with the results, but they were so unanimous that it's hard to disagree. At least we went out fighting. We can hold our heads high and say we did our best job." Quoted in the "Toronto Star", Bourne and Kraatz's coach Eric Gillies defended the judge's decision: "We tend to talk a lot in Canada about the so-called 'norms' and sometimes have a fear of making big moves, even when that's the right thing to do. But this time, what was right was done and the best pair in this competition was judged to be the best, the way it should be, even if it isn't the norm."

THE WOMEN'S COMPETITION

Twenty one year old Karen Preston of Mississauga, a part-time humanities student at the University of Toronto, was the reigning Canadian Champion and as is always the case, there was the expectation for her to defend her title. Prior to the event, she told reporter Larry Sicinski, "I'm really trying not to think about what's on the line. What I did last year in Moncton is a completely different competition. A lot of skaters at other times have, maybe, put too much emphasis on whether or not they were going to lose their title. So I'm just trying to look at this year's Canadians as an event by itself... A lot of personal confidence came out of last year. I worked real hard and learned what I needed to do to get my job done. What kind of schedule I needed to be on. How much on-ice, off-ice work needed to be done. I learned an awful lot about myself as an athlete and it's given me a lot of confidence."

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

Twenty two year old Kerry Leitch student Tanya Bingert pulled off an upset and won the short program, ahead of Canadian Champions Josée Chouinard and Karen Preston, who both missed their combinations. Seventeen year olds Susan Humphreys and Sherry Ball followed in fourth and fifth places. 1990 Canadian Champion Lisa Sargeant-Driscoll, coached by Michael Jiranek, bravely attempted a comeback. Overrating on a triple Axel attempt and falling on a double Lutz, she found herself buried in ninth place entering the free skate. Sargeant-Driscoll rebounded in the free skate, vaulting from ninth to fifth with an outstanding performance that featured five triples, including a two-footed triple Axel. Her only error was a fall on a triple loop. It's worth noting that she landed the triple Axel in one of the official practices.

Josée Chouinard. Photos courtesy Hamilton Public Library.

Josée Chouinard's six triple free skate was the talk of the town. Skating to Slavic folk music, she nailed her triple Lutz late in her program and captivated the audience with her charm and athleticism. She received marks ranging from 5.7 to 5.9 for technical merit, mostly 5.9's for artistic impression and received a standing ovation from the crowd for her gutsy effort.

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

Karen Preston fell on one triple and touched down on another but was rewarded with second place marks. Susan Humphreys skated very well to move up to third. She'd missed the previous season due to shoulder injury, placed thirteenth in junior in 1991 and fifteenth in novice in 1990, so her medal was considered quite a surprise to many. Tanya Bingert crumbled, falling twice and dropping to fourth place overall. Sherry Ball played it clean but safe and the judges buried her in the standings.

Behind the scenes, things weren't all rosy. In her book "All That Glitters", Chouinard recalled, "In 1993, when I was about to skate my long program that would earn me my second Canadian title, I stayed up all night fighting with Jean-Michel, who had already finished his competition. I wanted him with me during the evening, but he had other obligations with his partner. Because my nerves were raw and I was concentrating only on myself, I lashed out at him when we finally caught up with each other. Wanting to settle the argument before I went to bed, I can remember some pretty serious yelling going on in the hotel hallway. Poor Jean-Michel. Nothing he said made any difference, and I went to bed determined that I wasn't going to let him affect my skating. The following day, I didn't speak to him at all. Arriving at the rink, I realized I didn't have any toothpaste with me. Most skaters rub a little of the substance inside their mouths to keep them from getting dry. Jean-Michel ran to the store to get me a tube and I didn't even thank him. I went on the ice, stubborn and determined. But I won the championship. Afterwards, I hugged and kissed Jean-Michel as if nothing had happened. No doubt about it, I'm totally impossible to be around before a competition."

THE MEN'S COMPETITION

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

1993 was a game-changing year for twenty six year old Kurt Browning. He was coming back from injury and a split with longtime coach Michael Jiranek that saw him move to Toronto to train with Louis Stong at the Granite Club. To top it off, he had only debuted his new programs week prior at the Western Divisionals. Though he won and received standing ovations at that event, he'd had to skate his new "Casablanca" free skate in a practice outfit as his costume at the time proved too restrictive.

Photo courtesy Hamilton Public Library

In the short program in Hamilton, both Kurt Browning and his nineteen year old rival Elvis Stojko made identical errors, stepping out of their triple Axels in the exact same spot on the ice. Seven of the nine judges placed Browning first. While Stojko received 5.8's and 5.9's for artistic impression, Browning received a slew of 5.9's and a 6.0 from judge Joy Forster for his new program to Led Zeppelin's "Bonzo's Montreux".

Left: Sébastien Britten poses right in front of the commentators, getting the audience smiling. Right: Kurt Browning gets a kiss on the cheek from a fan. Photo courtesy Hamilton Public Library.

Finishing a surprise third was twenty year old Jean-François Hebert, who was competing in the senior ranks for the first time. The twenty year old from Warwick, Quebec only started skating five years prior and had never placed higher than third at the junior level. He took a year off at one point because he "was tired of skating". Fourth through seventh were Marcus Christensen, Brent Frank, Patrick Brault and Sébastien Britten. Quoted in the "Edmonton Journal", Kurt Browning remarked, "It's not every day Elvis misses a jump... That's very strange. I know my own skating, and when I'm hot, I don't miss. But on a normal day, I miss jumps. Elvis doesn't. He's a machine. So I got a little bit lucky we chose the same time to make exactly the same mistake - and then the strength of the program came through for me."

Kurt Browning and Elvis Stojko posing for photographers after both programs. Photos courtesy Hamilton Public Library.

There was a full moon outside the night of the men's free skate - a fact that was chuckled about in the stands when some of the lower-ranked men missed jumps. Jean-François Hebert dropped to fifth and twenty two year old Marcus Christensen of the Royal Glenora Club moved up to third to claim his first senior medal and the third spot on the World team. Kurt Browning's "Casablanca" was a huge hit with the Hamilton crowd. He landed a triple Axel/triple toe-loop combination, solo triple Axel and triple Salchow/triple loop but fell on a triple Lutz and stepped out of a triple toe-loop. He received a standing ovation and two perfect 6.0's for artistic impression and was ranked first by all nine judges.

Senior men's medallists Marcus Christensen, Kurt Browning and Elvis Stojko. Photo courtesy Skate Canada Archives

Though the judges unanimously placed Kurt Browning first and Elvis Stojko second, some in the audience felt Stojko, who skated what he deemed "the best performance of his life", upstaged Browning. He received five 5.9's and a perfect 6.0 for technical merit, but his artistic marks weren't enough for first place. Quoted in the "Edmonton Journal", Stojko's coach Doug Leigh said, "I didn't see the other guy skate. I only know what Stojko did. When you see those kinds of marks in front of you, and then you go out and skate like that - well, he's got great courage. Sooner or later, he's got to break through. He can't be stopped." Browning called his performance, "One of the sweetest skates of my life... a very personal victory. Coming back from the injury, moving to Toronto, not having my parents here . . . there were a lot of things that have happened. The last month and a half have been really tough. There were a few days when I was really scared that whatever I had that made me do what I do was slipping away. But these last five or six days I felt it coming back, and tonight something just pushed me over the edge. I think it was the crowd." While Stojko handled his loss gracefully, local radio talk shows were abuzz with 'Elvis was robbed' calls.

THE PARADE OF CHAMPIONS AND AN AMUSING 'CONTROVERSY'

Canada's best let their hair down in the Parade Of Champions, the annual post-competition gala. Both Isabelle Brasseur and Lloyd Eisler and Marcus Christensen used music by Bryan Adams. Karen Preston and Josée Chouinard both selected music by Céline Dion: Karen an English piece and Josée a French one. Elvis Stojko rocked out to Van Halen's "You Really Got Me" while Kurt Browning mesmerized with a "Casablanca" reprise and a program to Louis Armstrong's "What A Wonderful World".

Photos courtesy Hamilton Public Library

And then there was a manufactured 'controversy' that was so far out of left field that it left many scratching their heads going "are you for real?" On February 9, 1993, the"Toronto Star" published a piece by humour columnist Joey Slinger suggesting that Kurt Browning be stripped of his Canadian title because he was promoting smoking by taking a drag off an imaginary cigarette twice in his "Casablanca" program. Slinger quoted an unnamed anonymous member of an anti-smoking group, who said, "I don't care. He can pee in a bottle all he wants. This is a moral outrage." Joey Slinger also cited an anonymous 'government source' who claimed, "Browning was thumbing his nose at our efforts to improve national well-being... It looked as if he was on the ice as a spokesman for the tobacco industry. What if he had pantomimed buying smack and cooking it in a spoon over a candle and filling a hypodermic syringe with it and injecting it into his vein, and claimed this was based on Frank Sinatra in the old move The Man With the Golden Arm? There would have been hell to pay. Especially if he did it twice." While the piece was obviously poking fun at the Helen Lovejoy "won't someone PLEASE think of the children?" moral outrage bandwagon against smoking in the nineties in Canada, some people missed the joke and took Slinger's article literally. The imaginary cigarette stayed in, and helped Kurt Browning win his fourth World title that spring in Prague.

Thanks to a generous donation of VHS tapes by Skate Guard reader Maureen, you can take a trip back in time and rewatch highlights of the 1993 Canadian Championships in digitized video form. The YouTube playlist, which includes a handful of performances from the men's and pairs events, can be found above or at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6c_NN6KdCfJQb_iLlcFe0hdsDU84Bppq.

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.

Sixteenth Century Skating Art

Pieter van der Borcht the Elder's "Ijsvermaak bij Mechelen", 1559

If a skating history aficionado from the twenty-third century looked back on the sport today, they might gain a sense of the sport through watching YouTube videos and checking out skater's Instagram feeds. To learn about skating in the nineteenth century, they might read old newspaper articles, books and look at ambrotype photographs and magic lantern slides.

If one wanted to delve even further back, one of the few clues available about the sport's existence would be the art of the period. While beautiful winter scenes depicted in paintings and woodcuts from the seventeenth century clearly depict skating, several of their sixteenth century counterparts are far more ambiguous.

WINTER

Photo copyright The Trustees of the British Museum. Used for educational purposes under license permissions.

Flemish painter and etcher Hieronymous Cock (now there's a name!) created a cycle of "The Four Seasons" in 1570, after the work of Hans Bol. An engraving of his fourth plate, "Winter", was by printmaker Pieter van der Heyden. No stranger to winter scenes, van der Heyden also made engravings from other artists of the period who featured skating in their work - artists like Pieter Bruegel the Elder and Hieronymus Bosch.

"Winter" is a fascinating piece of art. In the fore of the scene, a man can be seen tying an old-style pair of skates to his shoes. In the center, you can see skaters skating (and falling) and to the right, a drowning man who has fallen through the ice being rescued by a man with a long pole. Behind the skaters is a tavern full of hard-drinking locals. Were they having a pint before they skated or after? Perhaps that's one of those 'chicken or the egg' questions.

DE WINTER

Engraved by his student Jan Saenredam circa 1594, "De Winter" was one of four cycles of winter drawings depicting The Four Seasons by Hendrick Goltzius. German born Goltzius was one of the most acclaimed engravers of the early Baroque period in Holland despite the fact he drew with his right hand, which was malformed after he was burned by a fire in his infancy.

In the scene, a young couple dressed in the fashions of the era skates hand in hand on steel blades. They are joined on the ice by a wee pup. The inscription in the lower corner roughly translates to, "Young people saluting, in winter... the old ones." Saenredam's engraving of Goltzius' "De Winter" was obtained by The British Museum in 1840.

Interestingly, another of Goltzius' winter drawings from this cycle also depicted skaters. Christiane Lauterbach's journal article "Masked Allegory: The Cycle of the Four Seasons by Hendrick Goltzius, 1594-95" noted, "In the cold months, work comes to a standstill. 'Winter' shows us an old couple seated at the table in a living room warmed by a log fire. A roast fowl is being served to them, and through the window skaters can be seen in a wintry landscape."

DIVERSARUM NATIONUM HABITUS

An interesting piece is this plate from Italian typesetter and editor Pietro Bertelli's 1594 two volume "Diversarum nationum habitus...". Although at first glance the man and woman in the pictures appear to be wearing snow-skis to hunt, the fact they don't have poles to propel themselves along is certainly curious. The inscription 'Finmarchorum' likely references the Norwegian region of Finmarchia, and the artist's design of the footwear on the man and woman's feet was likely conceived by an Italian who had never been to Norway, let alone seen skating.

SARMATIAE EUROPEAE DESCRIPTIO, QUAE REGNUM POLONIAE

Even more curious is a folio in Polish writer Aleksander Gwagnin's 1578 book "Sarmatiae Europeae descriptio, quae Regnum Poloniae". The book itself is controversial, as Gwagnin's assistant Maciej Stryjkowski claimed that Gwagnin stole the manuscript and claimed it as his own. The image in question depicts a duke or knight who appears to be wearing what looks like a curlicued toe skate on his foot. Many of the characters portrayed in the "Sarmatiae Europeae descriptio, quae Regnum Poloniae" were based on Lithuanian nobility, so this image suggests that there may have been skating in that region of Europe during that era.

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.

Unlucky Timing: The Harald Rooth Story

Photo courtesy Sveriges Centralförening för Idrottens Främjande Archive

The son of Otto and Ellen (Herzman) Rooth, Harald Rooth was born January 25, 1892 in Stockholm, Sweden. He grew up in Östermalm, an Eastern district of the city, with his brothers Ivar and Gunnar.
He started skating as a boy at the Stockholms Allmänna Skridskoklubb. His first victory came in 1908, when he defeated future World Champion Gösta Sandahl in a club competition.

Four years later, Harald headed to Manchester, England to compete in his first World Championships. Though he placed fourth, four judges gave him first place ordinals in the free skate. While in England, he checked out Prince's Skating Club... and won a waltzing competition with one of the locals - a Miss Somerville.

Unfortunately, similar scenarios as the one that occurred in Manchester played out at the 1913 European Championships in Oslo - where Harald won the free skate - and the 1913 and 1914 World Championships, where he received top three ordinals for free skating. At the 1913 Nordic Games, he won the free skate but lost the gold to Gösta Sandahl. Harald really had the unfortunate luck of being a strong free skater who was comparatively weak in the school figures during the era when Ulrich Salchow, Gösta Sandahl and Richard Johansson dominated the Swedish skating scene.

It wasn't until 1915 - after the ISU halted its organization of the European and World Championships due to the Great War - that Harald finally claimed the Swedish men's title. He also finished second in the pairs event that year with Svea Norén, who would go on to claim the silver medal in the women's event at the 1920 Summer Olympic Games in Antwerp. His brother Gunnar, a fine skater in his own right, placed third in that event with his partner Ingeborg Carlsson. That same winter, he finished second behind Martin Stixrud at an international competition hosted by the Stockholms Allmänna Skridskoklubb, but managed to defeat future Olympic Gold Medallist Walter Jakobsson. During this period, his father served as the Stockholms Allmänna Skridskoklubb's President, succeeding ISU President Viktor Balck.

Harald Rooth, Gösta Sandahl and Richard Johansson

Harald retired from competitive figure skating in 1920 at the age of twenty eight after finishing second twice more at the Swedish Championships but remained involved in the sport as a judge and official. He sat on the executive of the Swedish Federation, frequently getting in disagreements with Ulrich Salchow about how the sport should be managed. Perhaps as a result of his strained relationship with Salchow, he received few international judging assignments, though he did manage to sit on judging panels at two World Championships.

Photo courtesy Nasjonalbiblioteket Norway

Off the ice, Harald worked for a company that sold metal separators for automobiles and as the manager of the Swedish 'Moneylottery'. He lived in Ljungby with his wife and children. His son was an artist of some renown in Sweden and his older brother Ivar was a well-respected lawyer and economist who served as Governor of the Swedish National Bank for close to twenty years.

Ilse Adametz and Harald Rooth at the Nordic Games. Photo courtesy Nasjonalbiblioteket Norway.

Harald passed away in the Stockholm suburb of Hjulsta on August 4, 1967 at the age of seventy five, his successes as a figure skater all but forgotten. Had school figures not existed at the time he was competing, he would have been a World Champion.

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.