The 1996 Canadian Figure Skating Championships

Top news stories included the Bosnian War and the tragic crash of Birgenair Flight 301 in the Dominican Republic. The film "Mr. Holland's Opus" had just reached number one at the box office in its second week of release. Joan Osborne had a number-one single with "One Of Us" and two novel new creations - the scented crayon and stuffed crust pizza - captured people's imaginations.

From February 7 to 11, 1996, all eyes were on the nation's capital when three hundred and twenty three of Canada's top figure skater's battled it out at the 1996 Canadian Figure Skating Championships. Sponsored by Royal Bank, the event was spread over two venues - the Ottawa Civic Centre and Jim Durrell Recreation Complex. The latter venue played host to all of the novice events and the junior women's and pairs short and compulsory dances, with all senior events being held at the Civic Centre. All-event ticket packages went for one hundred and ten dollars and nearly sold out a year prior to the competition.

World Champions Barbara Ann Scott and Donald Jackson acted as co-chairs for the event, signing autographs and doing interviews to promote the competition. With Rod Black, Barb Underhill, Dan Matheson and Rob Faulds on its commentary team, CTV upped its coverage from the year prior. Leading up to the competition, Donald Jackson had performed in the Governor-General's New Year's celebration and Toller Cranston had performed in a Winterlude ice show at the Civic Centre called "The Great Canadian Ice Breaker", priming local audiences for the skating showdown ahead.

At the opening press conference, David Dore gave a speech which reporters interpreted as"fire and brimstone", repeatedly stressing the importance of young skaters being taking risks and being more aggressive on the ice. In an interview with Cam Cole of "The Edmonton Journal", Elvis Stojko responded, "If [the CFSA] is willing to lend a hand, keep it in balance, enough just to keep them on track, then it's a positive thing. Putting too much pressure on - gotta have the triple Axel at sixteen or you're not going to make it - that's the other side. Kids are going to be so stressed by that time, who wants to compete like that? That's not why they compete." How did those 'kids' fare? Let's take a look back!

THE NOVICE AND JUNIOR EVENTS

Oshawa's Sean Kelly came from behind to win the novice men's event over Carl Des Rosiers and Clinton Petersen. Petersen, who led after the short program, also finished second in novice pairs with his partner Ashley Poole for the second year in a row. That title was won by Marni Wade and Lenny Faustino. One of the more talked about skaters in the novice men's event was thirteen year old hometown favourite Fedor Andreev. Andreev, the son of Marina Zoueva, was making his debut at Canadians and had been mentored by the late Sergei Grinkov. Rebounding from a sixth place finish in the short program, he landed two triples to finish second in the free skate and fourth overall.

Martine Dagenais

Daniel Béland's students Marie-Eve Vezina and Martine Dagenais took the gold medals in the novice and junior women's events. It was the first time Lac-Brome, Quebec's Dagenais had even qualified to compete at the Canadians. The novice dance title went to Barrie's Jessica Nake and Robert Kiricsi, while the junior title was won by a pair of nineteen year olds, Jonathan Pankratz of Chateauguay, Quebec and Dara Henderson of Collingwood, Ontario. Henderson was Pankratz' seventh partner in eight years and their win was quite remarkable, considering they had placed only third at that year's Sectionals.

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

Samantha Marchant and Chad Hawse took the junior pairs title, while the junior men's title was won by Toronto's Collin Thompson, who trained in Lake Arrowhead with Frank Carroll, alongside soon-to-be World Champion Michelle Kwan. The silver and bronze medallists in junior men's, Jayson Dénommée and Ben Ferreira, would both go on to win medals in the senior men's event at Canadians. Ben Ferreira landed a rare triple Axel in his free skate.

THE ICE DANCE COMPETITION

Shae-Lynn Bourne and Victor Kraatz

As predicted, nineteen year old Shae-Lynn Bourne and twenty-four year old Victor Kraatz took a commanding lead after the Silver Samba and Tango Romantica and Paso Doble original dance enroute to winning their fourth consecutive Canadian dance title. Due to some serious partner swapping, Bourne and Kraatz and Janet Emerson and Steve Kavanagh were the only two couples of the top five at the 1995 Canadians in Halifax to return in 1996. Michel Brunet had parted ways and teamed up with Patrice Lauzon's partner Chantal Lefebvre; Lauzon had paired with Marie-France Dubreuil, who had placed fourth in 1995 with Tomas Morbacher. In the lead-up to the event, Brunet had ended up in "Frank" magazine after he got into a scrap with Juan Carlos Noria at the Minto Skating Club that ended up with the cops being called to the rink.

The ice dance podium. Photo courtesy "American Skating World" magazine.

Bourne and Kraatz took the gold in Ottawa with an outstanding performance, with Lefebvre and Brunet taking the silver over Emerson and Kavanagh. Following their win, Shae-Lynn Bourne told reporters, "Performance-wise, that felt great. We'll sit back and analyze this before the Worlds and fix up little things you might not notice that we can feel." 

THE WOMEN'S COMPETITION

Left: Josée Chouinard. Right: Jennifer Robinson.

One of the biggest stories in Ottawa was the comeback of Josée Chouinard. The three-time Canadian Champion had reinstated from the professional ranks and won a bronze medal at Skate Canada and a gold at the Trophée de France in the autumn, in the first ever Champions Series. She wasn't the only skater mounting a comeback. Twenty-three year old Shannon Allison, a coach and student at Simon Fraser University from Langley, B.C. had won the bronze medal at the 1988 Canadian Championships in Victoria but hadn't competed at the Canadians since 1989, when she placed fifth. Since then, she went through a divorce, battled an eating disorder, suffered several injuries and twice missed making it out of Divisionals by one spot. 

Jean-Michel Bombardier and Josée Chouinard. Photo courtesy Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec.

In the short program, Josée Chouinard won over the judges and audience alike with a charming performance to "Comme ci, Comme ça" but struggled on her combination jump. Nineteen year old Jennifer Robinson, who'd thrice missed her triple Lutz in the warm-up, managed to put it all together but lost to Chouinard in a six-three split of the judging panel. Twenty-one year old Cathy Belanger landed a triple Lutz and flip but faltered on her double Axel to finish third. Susan Humphreys sat fourth, and defending champion Netty Kim - missing all three of her jumping passes - placed seventh.

Sadly, Josée Chouinard had a bit of a meltdown in the free skate, losing the title many assumed would be hers to Jennifer Robinson. Susan Humphreys landed four triples to Robinson's two, but was only able to move up to third. Netty Kim placed seventh, four spots ahead of Shannon Allison. After her loss, Chouinard was inconsolable. In her book "All That Glitters", Chouinard recalled, "I have had low points in my life, but this was the absolute lowest. It sounds selfish of me to say, but at the time, the agony felt as bad as it did when I lost my Dad. I wanted to run away and hide. I don't recollect standing on the podium. I've totally blocked it out, but I do remember feeling like I'd fallen down a very deep black hole." Susan Humphreys recalled,  "It was hard to watch Josée cry... I was holding her hand before we went out for the medals. She's so nice and so beautiful, and she's never done a mean thing to anyone in her life." Chouinard's coach Louis Stong said, "When she came off, she was in shock, I would say. No reaction other than just stunned, like she'd just witnessed a car accident." Jennifer Robinson told reporters, "Honestly, I wasn't expecting [to win] at all. I was hoping to win, but Josée [was as] well. She's Josee Chouinard! I expected to see her name there, not mine." After the women's free skate, Barbara Ann Scott went up to Barbara Underhill brandishing a piece of paper. She exclaimed, "I counted twenty nine splats!"  

THE PAIRS AND FOURS COMPETITIONS

Michelle Menzies and Jean-Michel Bombardier

The Skate Gods weren't exactly smiling on the pairs in Ottawa. Though the defending champions, twenty-three year old Michelle Menzies and twenty-five year old Jean-Michel Bombardier, appeared destined for a perfect skate in the short program, a freak fall in the short program marred what was an otherwise perfect performance. Eight out of nine judges still had them first. Bombardier had little sleep prior to the free skate, spending a restless night consoling his girlfriend Josée Chouinard. In a practice session after the short program, Kristy Sargent and Kris Wirtz hit a rut in the middle of a lift. They took a horrific fall, with Wirtz hitting his head on the ice and suffering a concussion and Sargeant wrenching her knee and suffering cuts and scrapes to her shoulder. Both were hospitalized briefly but decided to take the ice for the free skate. Their coach, Kris' brother Paul, told reporters, "I don't worry about their willingness to skate. Last year when he got up, Kris was so sick he couldn't walk, and they went out and did their long program, anyway. So I know they want to try, it's just the quality of what they can do. If he's not one hundred per cent, you're endangering the girl.''

Kristy Sargeant and Kris Wirtz

Three minutes and fifteen seconds into Sargeant and Wirtz's performance, the fire alarm went off in the Civic Centre. Once the alarm was silenced, the pair was given the option of starting over or picking up where they left off. Wirtz told the referee, "Are you nuts? I may not make it to the end as it is." The team managed to finish their program in fine fashion, but weren't able to catch up with Menzies and Bombardier, who had gave an outstanding performance. Marie-Claude Savard-Gagnon and Luc Bradet edged Jodeyne Higgins and Sean Rice for the bronze.

Higgins and Rice teamed up with Alison Purkiss and Scott MacDonald to win the fours competition for the fourth year in a row. Purkiss and MacDonald had been part of Kerry Leitch's winning four in both 1994 and 1995.

THE MEN'S COMPETITION

When Elvis Stojko was forced to withdraw from the 1995 Canadians in Halifax after an injury sustained in practice, Brossard, Quebec's Sébastien Britten had won the Canadian men's title. Stojko returned to the national stage in Ottawa happy, healthy and landing triple Axels left, right and center. He was one of three men to land the triple Axel in the short program, easily taking the lead over Britten and Christensen, who didn't attempt one. The other two men to land the Axel were Stéphane Yvars and Matthew Hall. They were ranked fifth and ninth, forcing the question as to what David Dore's message of 'aggressiveness' really meant at the end of the day. There was certainly some discussion about the judging. Both David Pelletier and Daniel Bellemare's ordinals ranged from second to twelfth, while Marcus Christensen's ranged from second to eighth. Both Stéphane Yvars and Jeffrey Langdon had marks putting them from third to seventh. One skating fan quipped that was "a lot to ask from consistency from the skaters if the judges couldn't give the same."

Left: Elvis Stojko. Right: Marcus Christensen. Photos courtesy "American Skating World" magazine.

In the free skate, Marcus Christensen suffered a mishap when his boot strap broke but managed to skate creditably to take the bronze behind Britten. Stojko was in a class by himself, returning to his winning "1492" free skate from the 1995 World Championships after ditching a program to music from the film "Last Of The Mohicans" which didn't work for him. He wasn't perfect, but he attempted a quad - which none of his competitors did. After winning, Stojko told reporters, "I wanted to take a step here, peel off another layer of the program, and I accomplished most of the stuff I went in hoping to do. But it's never easy when you go out. Never. I'm human."

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 1996 Canadian Championships in digitized video form. The YouTube playlist, which includes several of the medal-winning free skates from the senior events, can be found above or at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6c_NN6KdCfLmwh5y7Drm3eXjorGDWxbb.

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.

Playing With Fire: The Venita Berea Petersen Story

Photo courtesy "World Ice Skating Guide"

The daughter of Emma (McKinnie) and Dr. Solomon Petersen, Venita Holquina Berea 'Lucky' Petersen was born August 15, 1927 in New York, New York. She was named after her paternal grandmother Venita. Her mother came from North Carolina; her father was from the Colombian island of San Andrés, in the Caribbean sea off the coast of Nicaragua. 

As a teenager, Venita had her first exposure to figure skating in Central Park. "I took my roller skates and tried using those," she said. Her grandmother bought her a pair of ice skates and she taught herself the basics of the sport.

Photo courtesy "The National Ice Skating Guide"

After being 'discovered' at the Iceland rink in 1946, Venita was cast in a show called "Derby On Ice" on an outdoor stage at the rink's restaurant alongside Carol Lynne, a star of the Centre Theatre and billed as the "champion sepia skatress". To say her start in the sport was controversial would be to put things mildly. Skater/producer Elizabeth Chandler and her husband Fritz had originally wanted to put on an an ice show with an all-black cast starring Mabel Fairbanks instead of "Derby On Ice". 

An article from the September 7, 1946 issue of "The Greater Omaha Guide" recalled, "Mrs. Chandler finally disbanded the proposed all-Negro show and quickly put an unknown Negro skater, [Holquina] 'Lucky' Petersen into a white show. Why Mrs. Chandler had not secured the same spot for Mabel was never known but conclusions amounted to this: either Producer Chandler was afraid Mabel would skate circles around any other skater she had featured and thus steal [the] show, or after realizing she was a potential money maker, by underpaying her as a star performer on the theory that it was a 'break' and that Negro ice skaters couldn't be choosy. In any event, Mrs. Chandler's many letters and wires to Mabel in Hollywood pleading her to return [to New York] were a failure because Mabel stuck out for the right thing and waited for a better chance. That chance is 'Hollywood On Ice' which will be the first time a Negro has joined the cast as an equal. Lucky Petersen, a Spanish-looking girl, does not have that equal chance. As a known inferior skater to Mabel, Lucky... skates nightly at Iceland in N.Y. to the tune of 'Shortening Bread' after being announced as 'our little Negro skater'. Mabel's music will be international and her part will be as an American." We should absolutely admire Mabel for sticking to her principles. However, it is important to recognize that Venita skating that particular number in the show would have been one of very few opportunities she would have had as a Latino skater with darker skin hoping to embark on a professional skating career just after World War II ended.

After the Iceland show, Venita joined Elizabeth and Fritz Chandler's "Hielo y Estrellas" tour of South America, performing on a portable ice rink in the forties in such exotic locales as Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, Barquismieto, Maracaibo and Caracas. As a skater of Latin American heritage she was a rarity in the professional skating scene. She recalled that on the South American tour there were "thirty-two blondes, one redhead and one brunette - me."

Photo courtesy "World Ice Skating Guide"

Throughout the fifties, Venita made a name for herself in show biz as a singer and dancer. One of her gigs was a dance act in the Voodoo Calypso at Chicago's Blue Angel night club. The show was a wild affair featuring "drums, Haitian chanting, singers, dancers and a guy who's handy at monkeying with the lights during the climax of a dance to simulate lightning."

As a skater, Venita performed in theatres, nightclubs and fairs in shows such as Ice Varieties, Silver Skates, Robin Nelson's Jamboree On Ice, Georg von Birgelen's Symphony On Ice and the Frosty Follies. Sometimes skating on ice cubes as small as nine by twelve inches, her unique act featured "Latin, Spanish, Hawaiian and Oriental interpretive dances" and employed the use of fire torches. She'd open or close every performance by singing a song.

Photo courtesy Lisa Fernandez

Venita began coaching skating in Chicago in the sixties at the Lake Meadows skating rink and taught for three decades, supplementing her income by performing dance acts in places like the Empire Room Supper Club at the Langford Hotel in Orlando.

Venita was involved in show business her entire life, dancing in senior's ballroom dancing contests and singing every chance she got. In 2011, she and her husband (an Elvis Presley impersonator) auditioned for the show "X-Factor". She passed away at the age of ninety on September 26, 2017 in Pahrump, Nevada after a long struggle with Alzheimer's Disease, her unique contributions as a pioneering Latino skater sadly overlooked.

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.

It Takes A Village

Anett Pötzsch, Frau Jutta Müller and Jan Hoffmann

The internet and social media have brought coaches from the background to center stage in recent years. Just ask Brian Orser. Just before the Sochi Olympics where his student Yuzuru Hanyu struck gold, Google searches for his name in Japan's Kanagawa Prefecture skyrocketed. In the nineties, the names Evy and Mary Scotvold, Diane Rawlinson and Dody Teachman became part of pop culture after the attack on Nancy Kerrigan. In the eighties, the introduction of the kiss n' cry brought colourful characters like Frau Jutta Müller and Alex McGowan into our living rooms.

The fact of the matter is, figure skating coaches are some of the hardest working people in this world. They're hard-wired with knowledge, fueled by coffee and driven by a deep passion for the sport. Behind every great champion are great coaches, and in today's blog I wanted to talk a little bit about the great coaches behind Olympic Gold Medallists and World Champions... and some fascinating firsts.

Jacqueline du Bief, Jacqueline Vaudecrane and Liliane Madaule-Caffin at the Molitor rink in 1949. Photo courtesy "The Skater" magazine.

We may think of figure skating today as being a sport with equal opportunities for female coaches, but this simply wasn't the case in the sport's early days. Though a small handful of elite skaters had a female as their very first coach, it wasn't until 1952, that a World Champion's primary coach at the time was a woman... and it happened in two disciplines! Madame Jacqueline Vaudecrane was Jacqueline du Bief's coach in the women's event and Miss Gladys Hogg was Jean Westwood and Lawrence Demmy's coach in ice dance. 

Photo courtesy "Skating World" magazine

Few post-1980 World Champions had one coach from the very start of their career to the finish. Some of these remarkably loyal skaters include the stars of The Battle Of The Brian's (Boitano and Orser), Katarina Witt and Rosalynn Sumners.

Petra and Mrs. Ellen Burka

A very small group of parents have coached their own children to World titles. The very first was Lipót Szollás, the father of László Szollás and his partner Emília 'Baby' Rotter in 1931. The first father to coach his daughter to a World title was Megan Taylor in 1938, and the first mother to coach her daughter to a World title was Mrs. Ellen Burka, Petra's fabulous mother, in 1965. Arnold Gerschwiler coached his nephew Hans to a World title in 1947, but a father didn't coach his son to an Olympic gold medal or World title in singles until 1964. Manfred Schnelldorfer, that year's winner in both competitions, was taught by his father Karl and stepmother Elenore.

In the five tables below, I've compiled a list of the coaches of (almost) every Olympic Gold Medallist and World Champion. Some of these may have been long-term coaches, others may have spent time working with them on figures, taught them how to do a waltz jump or helped them keep up their technical skills as professionals. They all, in some way, played an important part in the world's best skater's journeys. 

Arnold Gerschwiler and Sjoukje Dijkstra

I'd like to preface these lists by talking a little bit about how things worked in 'the early days'. Skaters like Ulrich Salchow, who reached the height of his success during the Edwardian era, certainly had mentors but they were largely self-taught. They travelled to competitions without a coach in the stands yelling out instructions, and worked out new ideas through trial and error, conversation and collaboration at the skating resorts in Davos and St. Moritz, letters and telegrams to skaters that lived abroad, reading books and at times, blatantly copying what other skaters did if they got good marks. Most of the coaches of these 'early skaters' that I've listed gave lessons to them at one point or another, but they didn't have the exclusive one-on-one teacher/student relationship we think of today. That really didn't come about until the late roaring twenties and early thirties.

Another note I'd like to add is that the coaches listed for pairs or dance teams may correspond to other partnerships or singles careers. Kerry Leitch is listed under Isabelle Brasseur and Lloyd Eisler. Kerry coached Lloyd when he was skating with Kathy Matousek, not Isabelle. Uschi Keszler and Tatiana Tarasova are listed under Natalia Mishkutenok and Artur Dmitriev. Neither worked with the couple when they were skating together, but Keszler and Tarasova both worked with Mishkutenok when she was skating professionally with Craig Shepherd. A coach that worked with an Olympic Gold Medallist or World Champion at any stage in their careers was part of their journey, and obviously should be acknowledged.

I also want to note that these are working documents, based on research from the internet, books,  magazines, newspaper archives and correspondence with skaters. If I'm missing anybody on this list, it certainly wasn't intentional. Please feel free to contact me about any errors or omissions.

COACHES OF WORLD CHAMPIONS - MEN

Ondrej Nepela and Hilda Múdra

Gilbert Fuchs (1896, 1906)	(self-taught)
Gustav Hügel (1897, 1899-1900)	(self-taught)
Ulrich Salchow (1901-1905, 1907-1911)	(self-taught)
Fritz Kachler (1912-1913, 1923)	Pepi Weiß-Pfändler
Gösta Sandahl (1914)	(self-taught)
Gillis Grafström (1922, 1924, 1929)	(self-taught)
Willy Böckl (1925-1928)	Pepi Weiß-Pfändler
Karl Schäfer (1930-1936)	Pepi Weiß-Pfändler, Rudolf Kutzer, Eduard Engelmann Jr.
Felix Kaspar (1937-1938)	Pepi Weiß-Pfändler, Angela Hanka
Henry Graham Sharp (1939)	Phil Taylor, Bror Meyer
Hans Gerschwiler (1947)	Arnold Gerschwiler
Dick Button (1948-1952)	Gustave Lussi
Hayes Alan Jenkins (1953-1956)	Edi Scholdan, Gustave Lussi, Walter Arian
David Jenkins (1957-1959)	Edi Scholdan, Gustave Lussi, Walter Arian
Alain Giletti (1960)	Jacqueline Vaudecrane, Andrée and Pierre Brunet
Donald Jackson (1962)	Sheldon Galbraith, Pierre Brunet, Wally Distelmeyer, Otto Gold, Arnold Gerschwiler, Ede Király, Alex Fulton, Nan Unsworth
Donald McPherson (1963)	Dennis Silverthorne
Manfred Schnelldorfer (1964)	Karl and Elenore Schnelldorfer
Alain Calmat (1965)	Jacqueline Vaudecrane, Pierre and Andrée Brunet
Emmerich Danzer (1966-1968)	Herta Wächtler, Gustave Lussi
Tim Wood (1969-1970)	Ronnie Baker
Ondrej Nepela (1971-1973)	Hilda Múdra
Jan Hoffmann (1974, 1980)	Jutta Müller, Annemarie Halbach
Sergei Volkov (1975)	Viktor Kudriavtsev, Stanislav Zhuk
John Curry (1976)	Carlo and Christa Fassi, Gustave Lussi, Alison Smith, Peter Dunfield, Arnold Gerschwiler, Armand Perren, Peri Levitsky, Ken Vickers
Vladimir Kovalev (1977, 1979)	Valentin Piseev, Tatiana Tomalcheva, Elena Tchaikovskaya
Charlie Tickner (1978)	Wally and Norma Sahlin, Jimmy Grogan
Scott Hamilton (1981-1984)	Don Laws, Kathy Casey, Carlo and Christa Fassi, Evy and Mary Scotvold, Pierre Brunet, Herb Plata, Giuliano Grassi, Phyllis Hendrix, Mark Beck, Rita Lowery
Alexandr Fadeev (1985)	Stanislav Leonovich, Stanislav Zhuk, Sergei Volkov, Gennady Sergeevich Tarasov
Brian Boitano (1986, 1988)	Linda Leaver
Brian Orser (1987)	Doug Leigh, Karol Divín, Jimmy Grogan
Kurt Browning (1989-1991, 1993)	Louis Stong, Michael Jiranek, Karen McLean
Viktor Petrenko (1992)	Galina Zmievskaya, Valentyn Nikolayev
Elvis Stojko (1994-1995, 1997)	Doug and Michelle Leigh, Uschi Keszler, Ghislain Briand, Ellen Burka
Todd Eldredge (1996)	Richard Callaghan, Tommy Litz, Stacey Smith
Alexei Yagudin (1998-2000, 2002)	Tatiana Tarasova, Nikolai Morozov, Alexei Mishin
Evgeni Plushenko (2001, 2003-2004)	Alexei Mishin, Mikhail Markaveyev, Tatiana Skala
Stéphane Lambiel (2005-2006)	Peter Grütter, Viktor Petrenko, Galina Zmievskaya, Cédric Monod
Brian Joubert (2007)	Oleg Vasiliev, Veronique Guyon, Nikolai Morozov, Annick (Gailhaguet) Dumont, Katia Krier, Patrick Gueppe, Laurent Depouilly, Jean-Christophe Simond, Andrei Berezintsev
Jeffrey Buttle (2008)	Lee Barkell, Rafael Arutyunyan, Doug Leigh, Wendy Philion
Evan Lysacek (2009)	Frank Carroll, Ken Congemi, Viktor Kudriavtsev, Maria Jeżak-Athey
Daisuke Takahashi (2010)	Marina Zoueva, Utako Nagamitsu, Takeshi Honda, Nikolai Morozov
Patrick Chan (2011-2013)	Ravi Walia, Joanne McLeod, Marina Zoueva, Oleg Epstein, Johnny Johns, Kathy Johnson, Christy (Haigler) Krall, Eddie Shipstad, Don Laws, Ellen Burka, Shin Amano, Osborne Colson, Mei Yang
Yuzuru Hanyu (2014, 2017)	Brian Orser, Tracy Wilson, Ghislain Briand, Nanami Abe, Shoichiro Tsuzuki
Javier Fernández (2015-2016)	Brian Orser, Tracy Wilson, Daniel Peinado, Nikolai Morozov, Ivan Saez, Carolina Sanz, Jordi Lafarga
Nathan Chen (2018-2019)	Rafael and Vera Arutyunyan, Nadia Kanaeva, Marina Zoueva, Evgenia Chernyshova, Stephanee Grosscup, Karel and Amanda Kovar

COACHES OF WORLD CHAMPIONS - WOMEN

Barbara Ann Scott and Sheldon Galbraith

Madge Syers (1906-1907)	(self-taught)
Lili Kronberger (1908-1911)	Viktor Seibert
Zsófia Méray-Horváth (1912-1914)	Viktor Seibert
Herma Szabo (1922-1926)	Pepi Weiß-Pfändler, Eduard Engelmann Jr.
Sonja Henie (1927-1936)	Howard Nicholson, Martin Stixrud, Oscar Holthe, Pepi Weiß-Pfändler, Hjørdis Olsen
Cecilia Colledge (1937)	Jacques Gerschwiler, Howard Nicholson, Eva Keats
Megan Taylor (1938-1939)	Phil Taylor, Ernest Batson
Barbara Ann Scott (1947-1948)	Sheldon Galbraith, Otto Gold, Howard Nicholson, Gustave Lussi, Sylvia Seeley
Ája Zanová (1949-1950)	Arnold Gerschwiler, Karel Glogar
Jeannette Altwegg (1951)	Jacques Gerschwiler, Armand Perren
Jacqueline du Bief (1952)	Jacqueline Vaudecrane, Lucien Lemercier
Tenley Albright (1953, 1955)	Maribel Vinson Owen, Willie Frick, Eugene Turner
Gundi Busch (1954)	Thea Frenssen, Howard Nicholson
Carol Heiss (1956-1960)	Pierre and Andrée Brunet
Sjoukje Dijkstra (1962-1964)	Arnold Gerschwiler
Petra Burka (1965)	Ellen Burka, Don Laws
Peggy Fleming (1966-1968)	Carlo and Christa Fassi, John Nicks, Bob Paul, Peter Betts, Doroyann Swett, Bill Kipp, Tim Brown, Eugene Turner, Harriet Lapish
Gaby Seyfert (1969-1970)	Jutta Müller
Trixi Schuba (1971-1972)	Leopold Linhart, Hilde Appeltauer, Inge Solar, Hellmut Seibt
Karen Magnussen (1973)	Linda Brauckmann, Edi Rada, Dr. Hellmut May, Otto Gold
Christine Errath (1974)	Inge Wischnewski
Dianne de Leeuw (1975)	Douglas Chapman
Dorothy Hamill (1976)	Carlo and Christa Fassi, Peter Burrows, Sonya and Peter Dunfield, Gustave Lussi, Howard Nicholson, Otto Gold, Pierre Brunet, John Bryant Renn
Linda Fratianne (1977, 1979)	Frank Carroll
Anett Pötzsch (1978, 1980)	Jutta Müller, Gaby Seyfert, Brigitte Schellhorn
Denise Biellmann (1981)	Heidi Biellmann, Otto Hugin
Elaine Zayak (1982)	Peter Burrows, Marylynn Gelderman
Rosalynn Sumners (1983)	Lorraine Borman
Katarina Witt (1985-1986, 1987-1988)	Jutta Müller
Debi Thomas (1986)	Alex McGowan, Barbara Toigo Vitkovits, Beth Callan
Midori Ito (1989)	Machiko Yamada
Jill Trenary (1990)	Carlo and Christa Fassi, Kathy Casey, Carol Heiss Jenkins
Kristi Yamaguchi (1991-1992)	Christy Kjarsgaard Ness, John Nicks, Jim Hulick, Ann Cofer
Oksana Baiul (1993)	Galina Zmievskaya, Valentyn Nikolayev, Stanislav Korytek
Yuka Sato (1994)	Nobuo Sato, Kumiko Sato, Sonya and Peter Dunfield
Lu Chen (1995)	Li Mingzhu, Liu Hongyun
Michelle Kwan (1996, 1998, 2000-2001, 2003)	Frank Carroll, Rafael Arutyunyan, Scott Williams, Derek James
Tara Lipinski (1997)	Richard Callaghan, Jeff DiGregorio, Megan Faulkner, Scott Gregory
Maria Butyrskaya (1999)	Elena Tchaikovskaia, Vladimir Kotin, Viktor Kudriavtsev, Vladimir Korolov, Irina Nifontova
Irina Slutskaya (2002, 2005)	Zhanna Gromova
Shizuka Arakawa (2004)	Nikolai Morozov, Evgeni Platov, Nanami Abe, Tatiana Tarasova, Richard Callaghan, Minoru Sano, Kumiko Sato, Hiroshi Nagakubo
Kimmie Meissner (2006)	Chris Conte, Richard Callaghan, Todd Eldredge, Pam Gregory
Miki Ando (2007, 2011)	Valter Rizzo, Yuko Monna, Nikolai Morozov, Carol Heiss Jenkins, Nobuo Sato, Kumiko Sato, Sachiko Kozuka
Mao Asada (2008, 2010, 2014)	Nobuo Sato, Kumiko Sato, Reiko Kobayashi, Hiroshi Nagakubo, Tatiana Tarasova, Rafael Arutyunyan, Nadezda Kanaeva, Machiko Yamada, Mihoko Higuchi, Yuko Monna
Yuna Kim (2009, 2013)	Brian Orser, Shin Hea-sook, Ryu Jong-hyun, Peter Oppegard, Kim Se-yol, Chi Hyun-jung
Carolina Kostner (2012)	Alexei Mishin, Michael Huth, Friedrich Juricek, Frank Carroll, Christa Fassi, Edoardo De Bernardis
Elizaveta Tuktamysheva (2015)	Alexei Mishin, Tatiana Prokofieva, Svetlana Veretennikova
Evgenia Medvedeva (2016-2017)	Eteri Tutberidze, Brian Orser, Tracy Wilson, Sergei Dudakov, Daniil Gleikhengauz, Lubov Yakovleva
Kaetlyn Osmond (2018)	Ravi Walia, Josée Picard, Jessica Gosse
Alina Zagitova (2019)	Eteri Tutberidze, Sergei Dudakov, Natalia Antipina

COACHES OF WORLD CHAMPIONS - PAIRS

Marina Cherkasova, Stanislav Zhuk and Sergei Shakhrai

*Ernst Baier is listed as a coach for Maxi Herber and Ernst Baier because he was actually Maxi's singles coach before they formed a partnership. Their Olympic teammate Günther Lorenz served as a manager and mentor after the 1936 Games in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

Anna Hübler and Heinrich Burger (1908, 1910)	(self-taught)
Phyllis and James Henry Johnson (1909, 1912)	(self-taught)
Ludovika and Walter Jakobsson (1911, 1914, 1923)	(self-taught)
Helene Engelmann and Karl Mejstrik (1913)	Pepi Weiß-Pfändler
Helene Engelmann and Alfred Berger (1922, 1924)	Pepi Weiß-Pfändler
Herma Szabo and Ludwig Wrede (1925, 1927)	Pepi Weiß-Pfändler
Andrée (Joly) and Pierre Brunet (1926, 1928, 1930, 1932)	(self-taught)
Lilly Scholz and Otto Kaiser (1929)	Pepi Weiß-Pfändler
Emília Rotter and László Szollás (1931, 1933-1935)	Lipót Szollás, Zoltán Balázs, Ivort Farkas
Maxi Herber and Ernst Baier (1936-1939)	Ernst Baier*, Günther Lorenz
Micheline Lannoy and Pierre Baugniet (1947-1948)	Charles Landot
Andrea Kékesy and Ede Király (1949)	Arnold Gerschwiler
Karol and Peter Kennedy (1950)	Edi Scholdan, Cecilia Colledge, Clarence and Fayette Hislop, Mary Rose Thacker Temple, Eugene Turner, Sheldon Galbraith, Michael Kennedy
Ria Baran and Paul Falk (1951-1952)	(self-taught)
Jennifer and John Nicks (1953)	Gladys Hogg, Eric W. Hudson
Frances Dafoe and Norris Bowden (1954-1955)	Sheldon Galbraith, Sadie Cambridge, Albert Enders, Otto Gold
Sissy Schwarz and Kurt Oppelt (1956)	Herta Wächtler, Arnold Gerschwiler, Jacques Gerschwiler
Barbara Wagner and Bob Paul (1957-1960)	Sheldon Galbraith
Maria and Otto Jelinek (1962)	Bruce and Marg Hyland, Arnold Gerschwiler, Gustave Lussi, Jean Westwood, Karel Glogar
Marika Kilius and Hans-Jürgen Bäumler (1963-1964)	Erich Zeller, Lothar Müller, Bernd Häusel, Werner Franz, Sigrid Knake, Günther Koch, Friedrich Wilhelm Berntheusel
Ludmila (Belousova) and Oleg Protopopov (1965-1968)	Igor Moskvin, Pyotr Petrovich Orlov, Stanislav Zhuk
Irina Rodnina and Alexei Ulanov (1969-1972)	Tatiana Tarasova, Stanislav Zhuk, Miloslav Balun and Soňa Balunová, Lev Mikhailov, Yakov Smushkin, Svetlana Smirnova, Viktor Kudriavtsev
Irina Rodnina and Alexander Zaitsev (1973-1978)	Tatiana Tarasova, Stanislav Zhuk, Miloslav Balun and Soňa Balunová, Lev Mikhailov, Yakov Smushkin
Tai Babilonia and Randy Gardner (1979)	John Nicks, Mabel Fairbanks
Marina Cherkasova and Sergei Shakhrai (1980)	Stanislav Zhuk
Irina Vorobieva and Igor Livosky (1981)	Tamara Moskvina, Igor Moskvin, Alexei Mishin
Sabine Baeß and Tassilo Thierbach (1982)	Irene Salzmann
Elena Valova and Oleg Vasiliev (1983, 1985, 1988)	Tamara Moskvina
Barbara Underhill and Paul Martini (1984)	Louis and Marijane Stong, Sandra Bezic, Sheldon Galbraith, Anna Forder McLaughlin, Judy Henderson
Ekaterina Gordeeva and Sergei Grinkov (1986-1987, 1989-1990)	Marina Zoueva, Stanislav Zhuk, Stanislav Leonovich, Nadezhda Shevalovskaya, Vladimir Zakharov
Natalia Mishkutenok and Artur Dmitriev (1991-1992)	Tamara Moskvina, Tatiana Tarasova, Uschi Keszler
Isabelle Brasseur and Lloyd Eisler (1993)	Josée Picard, Eric Gilles, Kerry Leitch, Fran and Bruce Brady
Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov (1994)	Natalia Pavlova, Ludmila Velikova, Nuria Pirogova, E. Beilina
Radka Kovaříková and René Novotný (1995)	Irina Rodnina, Ivan Rezek
Marina Eltsova and Andrei Bushkov (1996)	Natalia Pavlova, Igor Moskvin
Mandy Wötzel and Ingo Steuer (1997)	Monika Scheibe
Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze (1998-1999)	Tamara Moskvina, Ludmila Velikova, Nikolai Velikov
Maria Petrova and Alexei Tikhonov (2000)	Ludmila Velikova
Jamie Salé and David Pelletier (2001)	Jan Ullmark, Richard Gauthier
Xue Shen and Hongbo Zhao (2002-2003, 2007)	Yao Bin, Sun Zhiping, Sun Yu, B. Han, Q. Wang
Tatiana Totmianina and Maxim Marinin (2004-2005)	Oleg Vasiliev, Natalia Pavlova
Qing Pang and Jian Tong (2006, 2010)	Yao Bin, Liu Wei, Wenyi Cong
Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy (2008-2009, 2011-2012, 2014)	Ingo Steuer, Halyna Kukhar, Alexander Artychenko
Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov (2013)	Nina Mozer, Stanislav Morozov, Ingo Steuer, Galina Kukhar, Nikolai Morozov, Oleg Vasiliev, Artur Dmitriev, Tamara Moskvina, Nikolai Velikov, Valeri Tiukov, Valentina Tiukova
Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford (2015-2016)	Bruno Marcotte, Richard Gauthier, Sylvie Fullum, Lee Barkell, Brian Orser
Wenjing Sui and Cong Hang (2017, 2019)	Hongbo Zhao, Bing Han, Jinlin Guan, Yao Bin, Luan Bo, Cai Weibin
Aliona Savchenko and Bruno Massot (2018)	Alexander König, Jean-Francois Ballester, Ingo Steuer, Halyna Kukhar, Alexander Artychenko

COACHES OF WORLD CHAMPIONS - ICE DANCE

*In 1950 and 1951, International Ice Dance Competitions were held in conjunction with the World Championships in London and Milan. Though these events haven't been recognized historically by the ISU as World Championships, I've included the winners and their coaches nonetheless.

Gennadi Karpsonosov, Elena Tchaikovskaia and Natalia Linichuk

Lois Waring and Michael McGean (1950*)	Rudy and Else (Derksen) Angola, Lewis Elkin, Gustave Lussi
Jean Westwood and Lawrence Demmy (1951*, 1952-1955)	Gladys Hogg, Len Liggett, Jack Wake, Thelma Jenkinson, Joan Lister, Ellen Dallerup, Peri Levitsky,
Pamela Weight and Paul Thomas (1956)	Len Liggett, Ivy Wilder
June Markham and Courtney Jones (1957-1958)	Kay Simcock, Don Crosthwaite, Gladys Hogg, Doreen and Len Sayward, Jack Santall, Rosetta Ramsay
Doreen Denny and Courtney Jones (1959-1960)	Kay Simcock, Don Crosthwaite, Gladys Hogg, Roy Callaway, Arnold Gerschwiler, Jack Santall, Rosetta Ramsay
Eva Romanová and Pavel Roman (1962-1965)	Míla Nováková, Frantisek Roman
Diane Towler and Bernie Ford (1966-1969)	Gladys Hogg, Ken Vickers
Lyudmila Pakhomova and Aleksandr Gorshkov (1970-1974, 1976)	Elena Tchaikovskaia, Stanislav Zhuk, Viktor Ryzhkin, Alexandra Naryadchikova, Tatiana Tomalcheva
Irina Moiseeva and Andrei Minenkov (1975, 1977)	Tatiana Tarasova, Natalia Dubova, Lyudmila Pakhomova
Natalia Linichuk and Gennadi Karponosov (1978-1979)	Elena Tchaikovskaia
Krisztina Regőczy and András Sallay (1980)	Betty Callaway, Roy Callaway
Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean (1981-1984)	Betty Callaway, Janet Sawbridge, Len Sayward, Norma Bowmar, Thelma Perry
Natalia Bestemianova and Andrei Bukin (1985-1988)	Tatiana Tarasova, Eduard Pliner, Betty Callaway
Marina Klimova and Sergei Ponomarenko (1989-1990, 1992)	Natalia Dubova, Tatiana Tarasova
Isabelle and Paul Duchesnay (1991)	Martin Skotnický, Christopher Dean, Bernard Ford
Maya Usova and Alexandr Zhulin (1993)	Natalia Dubova
Oksana Grishuk and Evgeni Platov (1994-1997)	Tatiana Tarasova, Natalia Linichuk and Gennadi Karponosov, Natalia Dubova
Angelika Krylova and Oleg Ovsiannikovv (1998-1999)	Natalia Linichuk and Gennadi Karponosov
Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat (2000)	Muriel Boucher-Zazoui
Barbara Fusar-Poli and Maurizio Margalio (2001)	Roberto Pelizzola, Paola Mezzadri, Natalia Linichuk and Gennadi Karponosov
Irina Lobacheva and Ilya Averbukh (2002)	Natalia Linichuk and Gennadi Karponosov, Natalia Dybinskaya, Oleg Epstein
Shae-Lynn Bourne and Victor Kraatz (2003)	Nikolai Morozov, Uschi Keszler, Natalia Dubova, Tatiana Tarasova, Marina Klimova and Sergei Ponomarenko, Josée Picar and Eric Gilles, Paul Wirtz
Tatiana Navka and Roman Kostomarov (2004-2005)	Alexandr Zhulin, Natalia Linichuk and Gennadi Karponosov, Elena Tchaikovskaia, Natalia Dubova
Albena Denkova and Maxim Staviski (2006-2007)	Natalia Linichuk and Gennadi Karponosov, Alexei Gorshkov
Isabelle Delobel and Olivier Schoenfelder (2008)	Muriel Boucher-Zazoui, Romain Haguenauer, Tatiana Tarasova, Lydie Bontemps
Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin (2009)	Natalia Linichuk and Gennadi Karpanosov, Alexei Gorshkov, Oleg Sudakov, Larisa Filina
Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir (2010, 2012, 2017)	Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon, Romain Haguenauer, Marina Zoueva, Oleg Epstein, Johnny Johns, Igor Shpilband, Carol Moir, Paul MacIntosh, Suzanne Killing
Meryl Davis and Charlie White (2011, 2013)	Marina Zoueva, Oleg Epstein, Johnny Johns, Igor Shpilband, Seth Chafetz
Anna Cappellini and Luca Lanotte (2014)	Paola Mezzadri, Marina Zoueva, Valter Rizzo, Igor Shpilband, Nikolai Morozov, Muriel Boucher-Zazoui, Romain Haguenauer, Roberto Pelizzola, Barbara Riboldi
Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron (2015-2016, 2018-2019)	Romain Haguenauer, Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon, Catherine Pinard, Muriel Boucher-Zazoui, Catherine Papadakis

COACHES OF OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALLISTS

The coaches of World Champions who have also won an Olympic gold medal are included in the tables above. In the table below are the coaches of Olympic Gold Medallists who haven't won a World title.

I've also included winners in the team event, because if a skater has an Olympic gold medal sitting in a safety deposit box somewhere, they're an Olympic Gold Medallist... not “an Olympic Gold Medallist... in the team event.” The same applies to their talented coaches.

Oksana Kazakova, Tamara Moskvina and Artur Dmitriev. Photo courtesy Ekaterina Filistovich, Figure Skating Federation Of Russia. Used with permission.

Nikolay Panin-Kolomenkin	Alexei P. Lebedeff, Alexander Nikitich Panshin
Wolfgang Schwarz	Herta Wächtler
Robin Cousins	Carlo and Christa Fassi, Gladys Hogg, Pamela Davies, Gordon Holloway
Alexei Urmanov	Alexei Mishin, Nina Monakhova, Natalia Golubeva
Ilia Kulik	Tatiana Tarasova, Viktor Kudriavtsev
Magda (Mauroy) Julin	(self-taught)
Sarah Hughes	Robin Wagner, Jeff DiGregorio, Ron Ludington, Patti Johnson
Alina Zagitova	Eteri Tutberidze, Sergei Dudakov, Natalia Antipina
Oksana Kazakova and Artur Dmitriev	Tamara Moskvina, Natalia Pavlova, Viktor Teslia
Julia Lipinitskaia	Alexei Urmanov, Eteri Tutberidze, Sergei Dudakov, Elena Levkovets, Marina Voitsekhovskaya
Ksenia Stolbova and Fedor Klimov	Nina Mozer, Vladislav Zhovnirski, Ludmila Velikova, Natalia Golubeva
Elena Ilinykh and Nikita Katsalapov	Elena Kustarova, Svetlana Alexeeva, Olga Riabinina, Nikolai Morozov, Maria Voitsekhovskaia, Denis Samokhin, Tatiana Tarasova, Alexandr Zhulin, Oleg Volkov, Irina Lobacheva, Petr Durnev, Marina Zoueva
Ekaterina Bobrova and Dmitri Soloviev	Alexandr Zhulin, Oleg Volkov, Elena Kustarova, Svetlana Alexeeva, Olga Riabinina
Gabby Daleman	Lee Barkell, Tracy Wilson, Brian Orser, Andrei Berezintsev, Inga Zusev, Kent Grice

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.

Exploring The Collections: Guides

 

Every Skate Guard blog that is put together draws from a variety of different sources - everything from museum and library holdings and genealogical research to newspaper archives and dusty old printed materials I've amassed over the last ten years or so. This year, I thought it would be fun to give you a bit of a 'behind the scenes' look at the Skate Guard Collections, which include books, magazines, VHS tapes, show and competition programs, photographs and many other items. These Collections date back to the nineteenth century and chronicle figure skating's rich history from the days of quaint waltzes in coats and tails to quadruple toe-loop's. Whether you're doing your own research about a famous 'fancy' skater in your family tree or a long-lost ice rink in your community or just have a general skating history question you can't find the answer to online, I'm always happy to draw on these resources and try to help if I can. 

This month, I'd like to talk a little bit about one of my absolute favourite resources - the National and World Ice Skating Guides. These Guides, edited by Arthur R. Goodfellow and published by National Sports Publications in New York, were first sold for fifty cents a pop during World War II and continued until the late sixties or early seventies. They focused primarily on professional skating and rink management and included articles on everything from coaching to how to make your own rink. They also included travel itineraries of major touring productions like the Ice Capades, Ice Follies, Hollywood Ice Revue and Holiday On Ice and detailed information about hotel shows and smaller tours. Professional skaters paid to include advertisements with photographs that detailed their resumes and provided contact information should show promoters be interested in hiring them. 

There were lists and prices of skating books, short biographies of top skaters and coaches and a listing of just about every ice rink in North America - as well as many in Europe - along each rink's physical address, seating capacity, the months it was open and its ice surface size. This carefully curated and maintained list included a list of coaches at each rink in later editions, which is something that is super useful if you're trying to learn more about your club's history or trace a certain skater's coaching career from season to season.

In the Guides, you could also find competition results and schedules, advertisements for skates, costumes and accessories and historical tidbits. These black and white Guides, which averaged between one hundred and fifty to two hundred pages in length, were literally chock full of just about everything. Unfortunately, unlike skating magazines and books, they are exceedingly rare as there was only one printing of each year's Guide. 

If you've got copies of these Guides collecting dust in your attic or basement that you'd like to donate, I'd love to hear from you!

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.