Much Ado About Russia

Two days before Christmas in 1999, two men were seen running away from an explosion outside of an apartment building in Central Moscow. The late model BMW of Maria Butyrskaya was destroyed in the blast... just days prior to the Russian Championships. Butyrskaya told reporters, "I don't see any other reason for it than jealousy, pure human jealousy... In top level sports the stakes are high and, I guess, some people were willing to go to any lengths to get me out of their way." In a 2019 interview, Butyrskaya's rival Irina Slutskaya claimed to have been questioned by authorities over the incident.

Maria Butyrskaya

At the age of twenty-six, Maria Butyrskaya was considerably older than some of her competitors when she won the 1999 World Championships in Helsinki. There were rumblings, some not so quiet, that it was time for her to step aside and let someone else have a chance at glory. When she refused to be forced out the door, she continued to dominate at the highest level internationally but lost the Russian national title she'd won six times previously three times in a row.

Maria Butyrskaya wasn't the first Russian skater the 'powers that be' hoped to put out to pasture. In 1964 and 1968, Ludmila (Belousova) and Oleg Protopopov won Olympic gold in Innsbruck and Grenoble. They hoped to make it a three-peat at the 1972 Games in Sapporo but upon their return to Leningrad, Soviet officials suggested they retire. When they refused, they were forced to practice on 'red eye' training sessions between midnight and two in the morning - only obtaining that time slot because a friend intervened on their behalf. The scenario was akin to a supervisor making an Employee of the Month work the graveyard shift because they didn't like them.

Ludmila and Oleg Protopopov. Photo courtesy "Ice & Roller Skate" magazine.

In 2004, Oleg Protopopov recalled, "The Soviet Figure Skating Federation [used] administrative power to [cross] out our plans, pointing out that we were too old, very theatrical, athletically weak, no speed, no difficult elements in the programs. But underneath of all this 'snow job' was the hidden rumours of our sport and administrable opponents, that Belousova-Protopopov will defect if they will win their 3rd Olympic Games. It was a real hit below the belt for everything what we did for the National sport and our Motherland." The Protopopov's ultimately defected from the Soviet Union in 1979 and enjoyed success on the professional competition circuit, taking top prize - and thousands of dollars in prize money - in events in Japan and the United States. Had the couple not defected, Oleg Protopopov's salary for coaching would have been a pittance of eighty kopecks an hour.

Kira Ivanova

Kira Ivanova wasn't as lucky as Maria Butyrskaya or Oleg and Ludmila Protopopov. Though she won the Olympic bronze medal at the 1984 Games in Sarajevo, a silver medal at the 1985 World Championships in Tokyo and four medals at the European Championships, her skating career had been one of both high's and low's. She won the school figures at the 1988 Olympic Games but finished seventh overall, unable to compete with the Battle of the Carmen's, Liz Manley and Midori Ito. At the lowest point of her career, Kira Ivanova was disqualified from the Spartakiad of the Peoples of USSR and suspended from the Soviet Union's national team after skipping a mandatory doping test.

After falling out of favour with Soviet officials, Kira Ivanova was forced to find work as a coach. In the span of a six years, she got married and divorced twice, her grandmother died and her sister committed suicide, she was in two car accidents and developed a serious drinking problem. On December 21, 2001, she was found stabbed to death in her apartment on the outskirts of Moscow. Prior to her death, things had been so dire that she sold many of her belongings, including her skating cups, trophies and medals. 

Igor Pashkevich

Kira Ivanova's story might seem like an extreme example of a Russian skater's downfall, but it wasn't the only one. In recent years, two other Moscow born Olympic figure skaters - Igor Pashkevich and Ekaterina Alexandrovskaya - passed away under similarly tragic circumstances.

Canadian skating has had its own fair share of scandals over the years, but you just don't hear outrageous stories like these... and that's something worth questioning. So too is the decision made to allow Kamila Valieva to compete in the women's event at the 2022 Winter Olympic Games after a failed doping test. CAS officials claimed her disqualification would "cause irreparable harm". She was  clearly in distress after giving an uncharacteristically flawed performance today and was berated by her coach as soon as she got off the ice. Many are rightfully questioning if allowing her to continue was in fact more harmful to her mental health in the long run. 

Today was a chapter in figure skating history that champions who have long departed from this earth would have shuddered at. The event was difficult to watch from start to finish and hearkened back to that iconic Canadian Heritage Moment of Agnes Macphail shouting, "Is this normal?" No, it isn't - and the sport is undoubtedly going to see sweeping changes in the months and years to come. So too are the lives of fifteen year old Kamila Valieva and the other Russian teenagers we saw skate today.

As figure skating faces its biggest reckoning in many years, we really must seriously consider the fate - and indeed safety - of these talented young skaters who were failed by everyone around them. What can they look forward to when they follow the yellow brick road back to The Land of Sambo? Will they compete again? Will they retire and show up in the audience at the next big event, mugging for television cameras and removing masks during a pandemic? Or will they fade into complete obscurity? If the latter option brings peace, perhaps that is what we should wish for. 

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.

The Remarkable Story Of Magda Mauroy

Photo courtesy Sveriges Centralförening för Idrottens Främjande Archive

"Now it's mostly acrobatics. I think the art technique was more beautiful before." - Magda (Mauroy) Julin, 1986

The daughter of Anne Marie (Roux) and Carl Henrik Edvard Mauroy, Magda Henriette Maria Mauroy was born on July 24, 1894 in Vichy, France. At the time of Magda's birth, Vichy was a fashionable resort town for well-to-do tourists, who flocked to the region to 'cure their ills' through hydrotherapy in world-famous Thermal Baths. Her Swedish-born father ran a physiotherapy institute that was at the center of the area's health tourism industry. Late Victorian attitudes towards health and well-being might have been considered progressive, but they weren't so progressive when it came to morality... so the fact that Magda and her fraternal twin brother Karl were born almost a year before her parents were married would have almost certainly been a closely-guarded a secret at the time.

Magda Mauroy and Gillis Grafström 

As a girl, Magda excelled at gymnastics and dabbled in ice skating but it wasn't until her parents emigrated to Sweden that she began figure skating seriously. She joined the Stockholms Allmänna Skridskoklubb at the age of thirteen and won her first competition (for school children) less than a year later. At the age of sixteen, she entered the Swedish Championships for the first time and won, repeating as her country's national champion in 1916 and 1918. Though the ISU didn't hold the World Championships from 1914 to 1921 due to The Great War, the sport was alive and well in Sweden during this period. Magda won the Nordiska Spelen (Nordic Games) three consecutive times - 1917, 1919 and 1921 and finished second at the Internationale Skøitelop i Kristiania competition in Oslo in 1918. 

Photos courtesy Sveriges Centralförening för Idrottens Främjande Archive

A healthy rivalry with Svea Norén resulted in several second place finishes at the Swedish Championships, but in 1920, twenty-five year old Magda entered the figure skating competition at the Summer Olympic Games in Antwerp determined to come out on top. She trained for the event in St. Moritz under brutal conditions - wind, snow and temperatures that dipped to minus thirty. In Belgium, she convincingly won the school figures but had to change her free skate music at the eleventh hour. She initially planned to skate to Strauss' "Blue Danube" but she was advised against skating to the iconic Viennese waltz due to the widespread anti-German/Austrian sentiments on the Continent at the time. Magda performed well, but America's Theresa Weld Blanchard won the free skate. Magda took the gold medal on the strength of her figures and overall performance, though she received no first place ordinals. 

Most remarkable was the fact that Magda was four months pregnant at the time of her Olympic gold medal win. She had married her husband Per Johan Emil Julin just prior to the Games. Sadly, less than two years after their son's birth, Magda's husband (a sea captain) was killed. In 1925, she married his brother Fredrik Emanuel 'Manne' Julin. With Manne, Magda had a second child, a daughter.

Sadly, Fredrik (who was considerably older than Magda) passed away in October of 1945 at the age of sixty-six. As a widow, Magda supported herself and her children by working as an accounting clerk before taking over the management of the Café Java in Sveavägen. She ran the popular coffee shop for over fifty years.

Toini Gustaffson, four-time Olympic Medallist in cross-country skiing, and Magda (Mauroy) Julin

Though her personal losses must have been heavy, Magda's love of skating never wavered. She was a special guest of honour when the World Championships were held in Gothenburg in 1976 and took interest in the sport's development over the years. Swedish skating historian Lennart Månsson recalled, "Magda Julin carried on skating all her life, alongside her roles as a career woman and raising a family with two young children. In 1985, when she was over 90 years old – to the great delight of the press – she took a few steps on the ice-rink in Kungsträdgården, wearing a pair of skates which had been donated by the virtuoso skater Ulrich Salchow. Her very last performance on ice occurred in 1990 when she was 96 years old."

Magda lived out her golden years at the Danvikshem retirement home and passed away in Nacka on December 21, 1990, less than a year after her final figure skating performance, at the age of ninety-six. Though Swedish skaters like Ulrich Salchow and Gillis Grafström dominated the sport for decades, Magda remains the first Swedish woman to win an Olympic gold medal in a winter sport, the only Swedish woman to win an Olympic gold medal in figure skating and is (at least for one more day!) the only woman in history who never participated in the World Championships to win the sport's most prestigious competition.

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.

Jumping In The Olden Days

Photo courtesy "Ice & Roller Skate" magazine

The 2022 Olympic men's competition is now one for the (history) books! If you're a sucker for a quality quad or a good old fashioned triple Axel, no doubt you were jumping for joy while cheering on the world's best in Beijing. 

In the twenty-first century, figure skating is all about the jumps, whether one likes it or not. The number of times a skater rotates in the air is paramount to their competitive success and with an influx of new fans and "stans" to the sport since the IJS system has been introduced, many aficionados can't always wrap their heads around a time when jumping really wasn't considered an integral part of figure skating. 

One of the first references to jumping on skates can be found in Jean Garcin's 1813 book "Le Vrai Patineur". Monsieur Garcin describes a three jump he called the 'Le Saut de Zéphyre', which was considered a "brilliant and perilous" novelty at the time. 

Skaters in Victorian England and Scotland seemed to be of two minds about jumping in the nineteenth century. The Edinburgh Skating Club's admission 'trial' required a candidate to "skate a complete circle on either foot, and then [jump] over first one hat, then two, and then three; each on top of the other." In 1874, T. Maxwell Witham and Henry Eugene Vandervell's popular book "System Of Figure Skating" stated that "jumping in skates... seems a perilous feat at first, but it is not really so. We recommend all skaters learn it, not on account its elegance (although, by the by, one of the writers is acquainted with an old skater who likes a jump at the turn of the 3, and who was kind enough to tell him that his skating would be much improved by its introduction: it was his hobby, and to humour him he did it once or twice to show that there was no particular difficulty in it), for it is ugly in the extreme. We are, of course, speaking of a jump completely off the ice of any height the skater can attain to. The Dutch, we believe, do three feet easily. It is most useful in enabling us to clear the obstacles that are frequently met on the ice." Though Witham and Vandervell viewed jumping as a useful way of avoiding say, a clump of reeds sticking out of outdoor ice, it wasn't a part of English Style figure skating. If skaters made the slightest of hop when executing a mohawk or choctaw, it was considered bad form. Montagu Sneade Monier-Williams was clear in his belief that, "Good skaters often make their turns a means of gaining pace, although they are careful not to reveal this by indulging in anything of the nature of a jump."

Nadja Franck, Rudolf Sundgren (middle) and unidentified skater. Photo courtesy Sveriges Centralförening för Idrottens Främjande.

When Norway's Axel Paulsen performed his namesake jump one-and-a-half rotation jump in the Great International Skating Tournament of 1882 in Vienna he was applauded wildly by the crowd, but finished only third. Twelve years later when the Stockholms Allmänna Skridskoklubb in Sweden published a history of their skating club, the author skeptically mused on how Rudolf Sundgren once danced a beautiful mazurka on the ice and could jump "over a couple of garden sofas... but does anyone think he got the first prize for it? It would not surprise me if Mr. Prize Judge had never been on the ice for a day."

In their famous 1881 book "Spuren auf dem Eise", Demeter Diamantidi, Carl von Korper Marienwerth and Max Wirth praised a jump they called the 'Ueberspringen'. It was a half-rotation jump in the air from a right forward outside edge to a left backward edge that we know today as the waltz jump. The fact that three of the most influential members of the Wiener Eislaufverein not only included a jump in a book on figure skating but mused on the possibilities of jumping on skates really spoke to how different the attitudes of the Viennese School were to the English Style of skating.

E.T. Goodrich

In North America, serious 'fancy' skaters were more seemingly more interested in performing ringlets, grapevines and intricate figures than being airborne. Jumping was largely considered 'trick skating' - the realm of speedsters who tried to clear barrels and chairs. In March of 1893, Johnny Nilsson won a contest for the long jump on skates in Minneapolis, clearing over seventeen feet in his leap. One of the first American figure skaters of note to perform a jump on the ice was a professional, E.T. Goodrich. He did a 'spread-eagle jump' in the 1860's where he "commenced by obtaining full speed by the 'plain forward movement', striking into a 'spread eagle,' and, while in this position, going at this rapid rate, he springs clear from the ice and makes a complete revolution while in the air, and, alighting upon the ice with his feet in precisely the same position, continuing the 'spread eagle' slide." Goodrich's feat was described in William H. Bishop (Frank Swift) and Marvin R. Clark's "The Skater's Textbook", published in 1868... some fourteen years before Axel Paulsen did his Axel in Vienna.

It wasn't really until the start of the twentieth century, when a parade of talented Scandinavian skaters like Ulrich Salchow and Per Thorén started leaving the ice in their free skating programs, that jumping (pardon the pun) really took off. 

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

A History-Maker From Hyōgo: The Ryuichi Obitani Story

On February 6, 2022, Shoma Uno, Yuma Kagiyama, Wakaba Higuchi, Kaori Sakamoto, Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara and Misato Komatsubara and Tim Koleto became the first Japanese skaters to win medals in the team event at the Winter Olympic Games. Their historic success followed in the footsteps of great champions like Midori Ito, who was the first figure skater from Japan to win an Olympic medal thirty years ago. Japanese skaters have won six medals at the last four Olympics, three of them gold, but ninety years ago when the country made its debut on international sport's biggest stage, participation was the real victory.

Photo courtesy Densho Digital Reposity, Nippu Jiji Photograph Archive. Used for educational purposes through license permissions.

Today we'll be exploring the story of Ryuichi Obitani, a Japanese figure skating pioneer who was one of the first two competitors from Asia at the Winter Olympic Games and World Championships in 1932. A very sincere thanks to the reference team at the National Diet Library in Tokyo and Takeyuki Tokura, Associate Professor of the Fukuzawa Memorial Center for Modern Japanese Studies at Keio University for their immense help with this piece.

Born September 4, 1908 in Sumiyoshi, Kobe in Japan's Hyōgo Prefecture, Ryuichi Obitani was the eldest son of Densaburo Obitani, an Osaka Stock Exchange trader who served as President of Osaka Securities Trading and Obitani Densaburo Shoten. His grandfather was Bunbei Sakai, a leading fish wholesaler in Osaka. 

Ryuichi Obitani (middle row, far left) with a group of students at a training camp in Morioka. Photo courtesy Takeyuki Tokura, Associate Professor of Fukuzawa Memorial Center for Modern Japanese Studies, Keio University.

In his youth, Ryuichi taught himself to skate outdoors on a frozen pond. He had no instructor. He learned the basics of figure skating through trial and error, interpreting diagrams in Shirō Kawakubo's translated editions of English books.

Yukichi Kaneko, Ryuichi Obitani, Kichizo Wada and Torazo Hayashi at Matsubara Lake in 1927. Photo courtesy Takeyuki Tokura, Associate Professor of Fukuzawa Memorial Center for Modern Japanese Studies, Keio University.

During the winter of 1929/1930, Ryuichi placed fourth in the newly-formed Japan Skating Association's National Championships, held on a manmade pond on the grounds of the Kanaya Hotel in Nikkō. The following winter at the age of twenty-two, he placed second to Kazuyoshi Oimatsu in the Japanese Championships held in Sendai City, earning a spot on the country's first Olympic figure skating team the following year in Lake Placid.

Top: Ryuichi Obitani (top row, far right) with a group of Japanese athletes. Photo courtesy Densho Digital Repository, Nippu Jiji Photograph Archive. Used for educational purposes through license permissions. Bottom: Ryuichi Obitani (middle row, third from right) with Professor Sono and the founding members of Keio University's skating in club in 1927. Photo courtesy Takeyuki Tokura, Associate Professor of Fukuzawa Memorial Center for Modern Japanese Studies, Keio University.

The journey to America was quite an adventure for Ryuichi. Along with his friend and teammate Kazuyoshi Oimatsu and Japan's ski jumpers, speed skaters and cross-country skiers, he travelled aboard the Nippon Yūsen Kabushiki Kaisha ocean liner Hikawa Maru. The ship made its transpacific voyage by way of Hawaii, arriving in Vancouver in December of 1931. Ryuichi then travelled by train through Vermont to Lake Placid, arriving just before Christmas with precious little time to prepare for the Winter Olympic Games.

Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine

In the weeks leading up to the 1932 Winter Olympic Games, four-time World Champion Willy Böckl gave Ryuichi a few pointers, but he and Kazuyoshi Oimatsu were largely left up to their own devices. He placed dead last in the Games, nearly thirty points back of the eleventh place finisher. The editors of "Skating" magazine remarked, "Obitani and Oimatsu speak only Japanese and understand very little English. One might find them standing modestly in the background of any group of skaters, trying to add to their store of knowledge. Their interpreter, Mr. Iida, was always greatly interested in what went on and promptly conveyed it all to them. Through him we learned that neither of these skaters had ever witnessed in action their 'betters,' nor acquired their skating knowledge other than from books and photographs; yet their exhibitions were truly good, and under such conditions, remarkable! From these skaters we gathered various facts on skating in Japan, among them that the only artificial ice rink is about one fifth the size of our hockey rinks, that they skate mostly on lakes in the mountains. As yet they have not attempted pair skating but have four or five young girls who are quite promising. There are no figure skating instructors in Japan."

Photo courtesy Densho Digital Repository, Nippu Jiji Photograph Archive. Used for educational purposes through license permissions.

From Lake Placid, Ryuichi travelled to Montreal to compete in the World Championships. His effort in Quebec impressed the judges enough that he finished eighth out of nine competitors, ahead of future U.S. Champion Robin Lee. With the help of Mr. Iida, he later penned a letter about his experiences in Lake Placid and Montreal for "Skating" magazine: "I was disheartened at the Olympic Games and thought I never would be able to stand the World's Championships, but remembered that I was far from Japan and if I did not enter it would leave a bad record in my young days. These feelings made me suffer more than the training and I wanted to go away in the woods and forget. I could not sleep and felt as if I was carrying the burden of the world. Every time I came back from practicing I lay on my bed and wondered if I should appear or default, and I could not sleep a wink. After suffering for a week, I gathered courage and told our manager the night before we left for Montreal that I would enter. After I spoke to him my mind eased up and I packed my things and got ready for the trip... At last the first day of the World's Championship came. Knowing my failure at the Olympic Games I decided to use the Japanese way of skating instead of trying to copy the foreign champions' style. The result was that I did far better than at the Olympics. There I went after Mr. [Roger] Turner, who is very skillful at school figures, but this time I came after Mr. [Ernst] Baier. The first day ended about five o'clock and my tiredness reached its peak. I felt very uneasy about the free skating as my feet were cramped and my body was worn out. I was so tired I couldn't sleep, so I paid three dollars for a bath and massage and then was able to sleep... Cecilia Colledge's coach advised me to use a march or fox-trot, rather than a waltz, but I was puzzled which to use. Each skater brought his music and asked the band to play it in turn for him, the Japanese were the only ones who did not know what to use. I stood near the band and listened to all the pieces. Mr. Iida worried about our music, he was so tired that, when we stopped, he was wiping off not only our skates but those of the others without knowing it. This is just an example of how he looked after us, doing every little thing, and we were so grateful... About fifteen thousand people gathered to see the free skating. They were dressed in tuxedos and evening dresses and it was a far more beautiful sight than at the Olympics. I got up early that morning to practice free skating combinations, but I could not spin or jump and was so discouraged I wanted to default. But when I thought it over I knew I could not enter a World's Championship again and would regret not competing. Both the Olympics and the World's Championship were a great suffering for me. I realize that no one should attempt more than they are capable of, but when I look back now, the hard experiences have disappeared and only happy recollections remain."

Ryuichi (back center) and a group of fellow students formed the Keio Skating Club at Keio University. Photo courtesy Takeyuki Tokura, Associate Professor of Fukuzawa Memorial Center for Modern Japanese Studies, Keio University.

Immediately upon returning to Japan, Ryuichi graduated from the Faculty Of Economics at Keio University. After finishing fourth in his final competition, the 1933 Japanese Championships in Tokyo, he hung up his skates. 

Ryuichi Obitani (second from right in middle row) with a group of graduates from Keio University. Photo courtesy Takeyuki Tokura, Associate Professor of Fukuzawa Memorial Center for Modern Japanese Studies, Keio University.

After World War II, Ryuichi became active behind the scenes in Japanese figure skating. As a councilor with the Japan Skating Federation, he was in charge of organizing the Japanese Championships during the fifties when Nobuo Sato was competing and in the seventies served as an international judge. When Sapporo played host to the first Winter Olympic Games on Asian soil in 1972, he judged the women's event. At that event, he was the only judge to place Janet Lynn (who won the bronze medal) second. He even gave her higher marks than winner Trixi Schuba on one of the school figures, the counter. His final international judging assignment was the men's event in the first World Championships held in Japan in 1977. In addition to judging, he also did some coaching and served as a director of the Osaka Prefectural Skating Federation. Outside of the sport, he served as a director of Obitani Ryuichi Kitahama 2-chome Sanko Securities Co., Ltd. in Higashi-ku, Osaka. Little is known about his later life aside from the fact he lived in the city of Nishinomiya in his later years. He fell out of contact with the alumni association of Keio University sometime between 1997 and 2002, but his exact date of death is unknown.

Photo courtesy Takeyuki Tokura, Associate Professor of Fukuzawa Memorial Center for Modern Japanese Studies, Keio University.

Ryuichi had a front row seat to Japanese figure skating history. As a skater, he was one of his country's first Olympic and World competitors. He judged the first Winter Olympic Games and World Championships held on Japanese soil. Sadly, his contributions to the sport have never been formally acknowledged.

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.

Pioneers: The First Skaters From Each Country To Compete At The Olympics

The rink at the 1968 Winter Olympic Games in Grenoble, France

Without a doubt, some of the most memorable Olympic firsts have been figure skating ones. In St. Moritz in 1948, Barbara Ann Scott became the first North American woman to win the Olympic title. When Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean struck gold with their iconic "Bolero" in Sarajevo, they earned an unprecedented twelve perfect marks of 6.0. Four years later in Calgary, Debi Thomas became the first skater of colour to win an Olympic medal. In Vancouver in 2010, Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir became the first ice dance team in history to win Olympic gold on home ice. Eight years later, they became the first dance duo to win two non-consecutive Olympic titles... and these firsts are just the tip of the iceberg! These milestones - and so, so many others - are part of the very fabric of our sport's rich history, but today I want to explore a part of skating history that has been sadly overlooked... the first skaters in each discipline to represent their country at the Olympics.

A couple of notes about this list:

- Firsts that are open to debate or have caveats are marked with a *, **, etc.  with notes below.
- Skaters who withdrew either before or during the past Olympics are not included, but skaters who were eliminated mid-way due to a short program cut-off are. The two pairs teams who slated to make history in Beijing as the first from their respective countries are included presumptively. Wondering who they are? Check out the listings for Spain and Belarus!

ARGENTINA

Horatio Tertuliano Torromé (1908)

ARMENIA

Julia Lebedeva (2002)
Maria Krasiltseva and Alexander Chestnikh (1998)
Ksenia Smetanenko and Samuel Gezalian (1998)

Adrian Swan. Photo courtesy Elaine Hooper, BIS Archives.

AUSTRALIA

Adrian Swan (1952)
Nancy Burley, Gweneth Molony (1952)
Jacqueline Mason and Mervyn Bower (1960)
Monica MacDonald and Rodney Clarke (1988)

AUSTRIA

Willy Böckl (1924)
Herma Szabo (1924)
Helene Engelmann and Alfred Berger (1924)
Susanne and Peter Handschmann (1980)

Yulia Vorobieva

AZERBAIJAN

Igor Pashkevich (1998)
Yulia Vorobieva (1998)
Inga Rodionova and Aleksandr Anichenko (1998)
Kristin Fraser and Igor Lukanin (2002)

BELARUS

Alexander Murashko (1994)
Julia Soldatova (2002)
Elena Grigoreva and Sergei Sheiko (1994)
Tatiana Navka and Samuel Gezalian (1994)

Georgette Herbos and Georges Wagemans. Photo courtesy Bibliothèque nationale de France.

BELGIUM

Freddy Mésot (1924)
Yvonne de Ligne (1932)
Georgette Herbos and Georges Wagemans (1920)

BRAZIL

Isadora Williams (2014)

BULGARIA

Boyko Aleksiev (1988)
Petya Gavazova (1988)
Rumiana Spassova and Stanimir Todorov (2006)
Hristina Boyanova and Javor Ivanov (1984)

Susan Carscallen and Eric Gillies. Photo courtesy Library and Archives Canada.

CANADA

Melville Rogers (1924)
Cecil Smith (1924)
Cecil Smith and Melville Rogers (1924)
Barbara Berezowski and David Porter, Susan Carscallen and Eric Gillies (1976)*

*Joni Graham and Don Phillips participated in the demonstration of ice dancing at the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble.

Xi Hongyan and Zhao Xiaolei

CHINA

Xu Zhaoxiao (1980)
Zhenghua Bao (1980)
Luan Bo and Yao Bin (1984)
Xi Hongyan and Zhao Xiaolei (1984)

CHINESE TAIPEI

David Liu (1988)
Pauline Chen Lee (1988)

CROATIA

Tomislav Čižmešija (1992)
Željka Čižmešija (1992)

Věra Hrubá

CZECHOSLOVAKIA

Josef Slíva (1924)
Věra Hrubá, Fritzi Metznerová (1936)
Libuše Veselá and Vojtěch Veselý (1928)
Eva Peštová and Jiři Pokorný (1976)

CZECH REPUBLIC

Tomáš Verner (2006)
Lenka Kulovaná, Irena Zemanová (1994)
Radka Kovaříková and René Novotný (1994)
Radmila Chroboková and Milan Brzý, Kateřina Mrázová and Martin Šimeček (1994)

DENMARK

Per Cock-Clausen (1948)
Anisette Torp-Lind (1992)

ESTONIA

Margus Hernits (1994)
Olga Vassiljeva (1992)
Helene Michelson and Eduard Hiiop (1936)
Irina Shtork and Taavi Rand (2010)

Ludovika and Walter Jakobsson. Photo courtesy Sveriges Centralförening för Idrottens Främjande Archive.

FINLAND

Sakari Ilmanen (1920)
Leena Pietilä (1952)
Ludovika and Walter Jakobsson (1920)
Susanna Rahkamo and Petri Kokko (1992)

FRANCE

Pierre Brunet, André Malinet (1924)
Andrée (Joly) Brunet (1924)
Simone and Charles Sabouret (1920)
Nathalie Hervé and Pierre Béchu (1984)

GEORGIA

Vakhtang Murvanidze (2002)
Elene Gedevanishvili (2006)

Karina Safina and Luka Berulava (2022)
Allison Reed and Otar Japaridze (2010)

Jennifer Goolsbee and Henryk Schamberger

GERMANY*

Paul Franke (1928)
Elsa Rendschmidt (1908)
Anna Hübler and Heinrich Burger (1908)
Jennifer Goolsbee and Hendryk Schamberger (1994)

*These skaters listed represented all represented a unified Germany. The first East German skaters to compete at the Olympics were Jan Hoffmann, Günter Zöller, Sonja Morgenstern, Gaby Seyfert, Irene Müller and Hans-Georg Dallmer and Heidemarie Steiner and Heinz-Ulrich Walther in Grenoble in 1968. An ice dance team never represented East Germany at the Olympics. The first skaters to represent West Germany at the Olympics were Jürgen Eberwein, Peter Krick, Monika Feldmann, Petra Ruhrmann, Eileen Zillmer, Margot Glockshuber and Wolfgang Danne, Gudrun Hauss and Walter Häfner and Marianne Streifler and Herbert Wiesinger in Grenoble in 1968. The first ice dancers were Henriette Fröschl and Christian Steiner in Lake Placid in 1980.

GREAT BRITAIN

Arthur Cumming*, John Keiller Greig, Geoffrey Hall-Say*, Arthur Albert March (1908)
Dorothy Greenhough Smith, Gwendolyn Lycett, Madge Syers (1908)
Phyllis and James Henry Johnson, Madge and Edgar Syers (1908)
Kay Barsdell and Kenneth Foster, Hilary Green and Glyn Watts, Janet Thompson and Warren Maxwell (1976)**

*Arthur Cumming and Geoffrey Hall-Say competed in the Special Figures event at the 1908 Summer Olympic Games.
**Janet Sawbridge and Jon Lane, Yvonne Suddick and Malcolm Cannon and Diane Towler and Bernard Ford participated in the demonstration of ice dancing at the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble.

HOLLAND

Lidy Stoppelman (1952)

Olga Orgonista and Sándor Szalay. Photo courtesy National Archives Of Poland.

HUNGARY

Elemér Terták, Dénes Pataky (1936)
Éva von Botond (1936)
Olga Orgonista and Sándor Szalay, Emília Rotter and László Szollás (1932)
Krisztina Regőczy and András Sallay (1976)*

*Edit Mató and Károly Csanádi participated in the demonstration of ice dancing at the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble.

JAPAN

Ryuichi Obitani, Kazuyoshi Oimatsu (1932)
Etsuko Inada (1936)
Kotoe Nagasawa and Hiroshi Nagakubo (1972)
Noriko Sato and Tadayuki Takahashi (1984)

Michael Shmerkin

ISRAEL

Michael Shmerkin (1994)
Aimee Buchanan (2018)*
Andrea Davidovich and Evgeni Krasnopolski (2014)
Galit Chait and Sergei Sakhnovski (1998)

*Aimee Buchanan represented Israel in the team event in the 2018 Olympics in Pyeongchang. Israel has yet to have an entry in the women's singles event at the Olympics.

ITALY

Carlo Fassi (1948)
Grazia Barcellona (1948)
Anna and Ercole Cattaneo (1936)
Stefania Bertele and Walter Cecconi, Matilde Ciccia and Lamberto Ceserani, Isabella Rizzi and Luigi Freroni (1976)

Marina Khalturina and Andrei Krukov

KAZAKHSTAN

Yuri Litvinov (1998)
Aiza Mambekova, Elizabet Tursynbayeva (2018)
Marina Khalturina and Andrei Krukov (1998)
Elizaveta Stekolnikova and Dmitri Kazarlyga (1994)

KOREA

Lee Kwang-Young (1968)
Kim Hae-Kyung, Lee Hyun-Joo (1968)
Kim Kyu-eun and Alex Kang-chan Kam (2018)
Yang Tae-hwa and Lee Chuen-gun (2002)

LATVIA

Verners Auls (1936)
Alise Dzeguze (1936)
Hildegarde Švarce-Gešela and Eduards Gešels (1936)

Margarita Drobiazko and Povilas Vanagas

LITHUANIA

Margarita Drobiazko and Povilas Vanagas (1992)

LUXEMBOURG

Patrick Schmit (1998)
Fleur Maxwell (2006)

MALAYSIA

Julian Yee Zhi-Jie (2018)

MEXICO

Walbe Olavarrieta-Navarro (1988)
Diana Encinas-Evans (1988)

NORTH KOREA

Ho Kang (1988)
Kim Song-Suk (1988)
Ko Ok Ran and Kim Gwang Ho (1992)
Ryu Gwang Ho and Pak Un Sil (1992)

Alexia and Yngvar Bryn

NORWAY

Andreas Krogh, Martin Stixrud (1920)
Ingrid Guldbransen, Margot Moe (1920)
Alexia and Yngvar Bryn (1920)

POLAND

Grzegorz Filipowski (1984)
Grażyna Dudek (1976)
Janina Poremska and Piotr Sczypa (1968)
Teresa Weyna and Piotr Bojanczyk (1976)

PHILIPPINES

Michael Christian Martinez (2014)

Beatrice Huștiu. Video courtesy Frazer Ormondroyd.

ROMANIA

Roman Turuşanco (1936)
Beatrice Huștiu (1968)
Irina Timcic and Alfred Eisenbeisser (1936)

RUSSIA*

Nikolay Panin-Kolomenkin (1908)**
Maria Butyrskaya, Elena Sokolova, Irina Slutskaya (1998)
Ekaterina Gordeeva and Sergei Grinkov, Natalia Mishkutenok and Artur Dmitriev, Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov (1994)
Oksana Grishuk and Evgeni Platov, Angelika Krylova and Vladimir Fedorov, Maya Usova and Alexandr Zhulin (1994)

*These skaters listed represented all represented Russia. The first skaters from the Soviet Union to compete at the Olympics were Ludmila (Belousova) and Oleg Protopopov and Nina and Stanislav Zhuk at the 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley. The first singles skaters were Sergei Chetverukhin, Sergei Volkov, Galina Grzhibovskaya and Elena Shcheglova in Grenoble in 1968. The first ice dancers were Natalia Linichuk and Gennadi Karponosov, Irina Moiseeva and Andrei Minenkov and Lyudmila Pakhomova and Aleksandr Gorshkov in Innsbruck in 1976, though Pakhomova and Gorshkov made their first appearance at the Olympics in 1968. They participated in the ice dancing demonstration, as did Irina Grishkova and Viktor Ryzhkin.
**Nikolay Panin-Kolomenkin competed in the Special Figures event at the 1908 Summer Olympic Games. Igor Pashkevich, Oleg Tataurov and Alexei Urmanov were the first to compete in the men's singles, in Lillehammer in 1994.

SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO

Trifun Zivanovic (2006)

SLOVAKIA

Robert Kazimir (1998)
Zuzana (Paurová) Babiaková (2002)
Oľga Beständigová and Jozef Beständig (2002)
Lucie Myslivečková and Lukáš Csölley (2018)

SLOVENIA

Luka Klasinc (1992)
Mojca Kopač (1992)

Dino Quattrocecere

SOUTH AFRICA

Dino Quattrocecere (1994)
Patricia Eastwood, Marion Sage (1960)
Marcelle Matthews and Gwyn Jones (1960)

SPAIN

Darío Villalba Flores (1956)
Gloria Mas-Gil (1980)

Laura Barquero and Marco Zandron (2022)
Sara Hurtado and Adrià Díaz (2014)

Elna Montgomery. Photo courtesy Sveriges Centralförening för Idrottens Främjande Archive.

SWEDEN

Richard Johansson, Ulrich Salchow, Per Thorén (1908)
Elna Montgomery (1908)
Britta Lindmark and Ulf Berendt (1952)

SWITZERLAND

Alfred Mégroz (1920)
Elvira Barbey (1928)
Elvira and Louis Barbey (1928)
Eliane and Daniel Hugentobler (2002)

TURKEY

Tugba Karademir (2006)
Alisa Agafonova and Alper Uçar (2014)

Oksana Baiul

UKRAINE

Viktor Petrenko (1994)
Oksana Baiul, Lyudmila Ivanova, Elena Liashenko (1994)
Elena Belousovskaya and Igor Maliar (1994)
Svitlana Chernikova and Oleksandr Sosnenko, Irina Romanova and Igor Yaroshenko (1994)

UNITED STATES

Irving Brokaw (1908)
Theresa Weld Blanchard (1920)
Theresa Weld Blanchard and Nathaniel Niles (1920)
Judi Genovesi and Kent Weigle, Susan Kelley and Andrew Stroukoff, Colleen O'Connor and James Millns (1976)*

*Judy Schwomeyer and Jim Sladky participated in the demonstration of ice dancing at the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble.

Roman Skorniakov 

UZBEKISTAN

Roman Skorniakov (1998)
Tatiana Malinina (1998)
Natalia Ponomareva and Evgeni Sviridov (2002)
Dinara Nurdbaeva and Muslim Settarov, Aliki Stergiadu and Juris Razgulajevs (1994)

YUGOSLAVIA

Miljan Begovic (1984)
Sanda Dubravčić (1980)

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.

Black History Month

February is Black History Month in Canada and Skate Guard celebrates key milestones of black and brown people in figure skating with extensive timelines from Canada and around the world and a required reading list of past stories featured on the blog. 

You can find all of the Black History Month content by tapping on the top menu bar of the blog or clicking here. For an extensive timeline of American firsts not listed here, check out the February issue of "Skating" magazine!

You can also check out Skate Guard's Black Lives Matter Pinterest board, for photographs, newspaper clippings, videos and more. 

To nominate black and brown skaters to the Skate Canada Hall Of Fame, click here. 

#Unearthed: Queen Barbara Of The Silver Blades

When you dig through skating history, you never know what you will unearth. In the spirit of cataloguing fascinating tales from skating history, #Unearthed is a once a month 'special occasion' on Skate Guard where fascinating writings by others that are of interest to skating history buffs are excavated, dusted off and shared for your reading pleasure. From forgotten fiction to long lost interviews to tales that have never been shared publicly, each #Unearthed is a fascinating journey through time. This month's 'buried treasure' is an article called "Queen Barbara Of The Silver Blades", which first appeared in "Coronet" magazine in January of 1950. It was penned by Harry Henderson and Sam Shaw.

"QUEEN BARBARA OF THE SILVER BLADES" (HARRY HENDERSON AND SAM SHAW)

It took courage and hard work for a little Canadian girl to become Olympic champ and machine-gun fire in World War I helped to make Barbara Ann Scott the women's figure-skating champion of the world. Incredible bot if you know the determination, courage and inspiration behind this twinkling blonde Canadian girl who has captured virtually every skating honor in the world. Acclaimed as the greatest  spinner ever seen on skates, she is the first girl star to grip public imagination since Norway's Sonja Henie of a decade ago. 

Representatives of Hollywood studios camp outside her door. She numbers Presidents, Kings, and Prime Ministers among her friends. In Canada, she ranks with Princess Elizabeth in popularity. And when she won the Olympic title, the whole Dominion took a bow. 

"From one end of Canada to the other there is great rejoicing... at the high honor you have brought yourself and your country," cabled sedate Mackenzie King, then Prime Minister. The story of how this pretty young girl finally achieved the championship really begins 13 years before she was born, in April, 1915. A young lieutenant named Clyde Scott, leading his men in the battle of St. Julien, was caught by shrapnel and machine-gun fire, and left for dead on the field. A German patrol found him and carried him to their base hospital. It was two years before he got back to Canada, where he found his parents had held memorial services for him. But although he was badly crippled, Clyde Scott possessed indomitable spirit. As he gradually recovered strength, he went to work in the Canadian Department of National Defense. Presently he fell in love and married. Soon he was the father of a pretty little blonde- Barbara Ann. 

As she grew up, a tremendous attachment developed between the girl and her father. Because he could barely walk, he was determined that his daughter be able to do everything he couldn't do - and do it perfectly. Under his tutelage, she became an expert swimmer, horsewoman, and all-round athlete. Years later, because her father had been deeply interested in aviation, she even learned to fly. In learning to skate, however, Barbara Ann got off to a later start than most Canadian children, whose icy winters provide a long skating season. 

What delayed her  was a series of mastoid operations, which left her in delicate health. In the belief that cold winds would prove too rugged for their only child, the Scotts steadfastly ignored her pleas for skates. These pleas had begun, her mother says, virtually in infancy. But she was six years old before she got her first pair of skates - a present from Santa Claus. However, her parents had bought her the old-fashioned, double-runner type. "I was heartbroken," says Barbara Ann. "I had my heart set on the single-runner boot type. But they were skates... and I went to bed wearing them." 

She struggled on the double-runners until the following Christmas, when a wiser Santa brought her swift single-runners. Better still, her parents allowed her to join the Minto Skating Club, headquarters for skating in Ottawa. There she watched older people practice figure skating, and soon was begging for lessons. Her parents agreed - on two conditions. One, Barbara Ann had to stay among the first six in her class at the Ottawa Normal Model School. Two, she had to keep up her daily hour of piano practice. Now this was a big order. In order to do her homework, and practice skating and piano, Barbara Ann followed a rigorous schedule. arising an hour earlier than the rest of the family. But she met the conditions... and she skated. Like any novice, she got her bumps and bruises with painful regularity. "In fact." she says, "it sometimes seemed that I did nothing but fall. But I learned that if you're afraid to fall, you'll never make a figure skater. One winter I wore out a pair of heavy slacks falling - just learning one new jump." But gradually she learned to skate on the edge of the blade, and then mastered the first figures - eights, brackets and counters. 

She made her first public appearance when she was eight in the Minto Follies as "The Spirit of the New Year." The Ottawa Journal called her "the darling of the show." The following year, Barbara Ann announced her goal: she wanted to become the world's greatest figure skater. "We encouraged her in her ambition," says her mother, "but I told her that if she ever displayed signs of temperament, her skating was finished." Soon Barbara Ann made her competitive debut in the annual Canadian skating tournament. When the tiny girl darted out on the ice, a gasp of surprise was followed by gales of prolonged laughter. There was no mistake. Waves of laughter were sweeping the crowd, people were pointing at her and roaring their amusement. Biting her lips, even forcing an occasional smile, she glided on unevenly until she had completed her last figure. Then, with tears streaming down her face, she sped off the ice and buried her head in her mother's shoulder. "Oh, Mother," she sobbed. "they're laughing at my skating!" It took days for her parents to convince Barbara that people had merely laughed at her tiny size - and at her audacity in competing against bigger girls. Once convinced, she began to overcome flaws in her skating. 

A year later, when she was ten, she became the youngest skater ever to win the gold. medal test, awarded for passing eight tests in basic school figures. But that is also when she got what Barbara still calls her "worst bump." As she came off the ice. she was met by her coach, Gus [Lussi], the Swiss expert who has become America's No. 1 champion-maker. Instead of congratulating her, he said: "Now we'll go back to the beginning and really learn how to skate." Barbara Ann gasped as Gus, with brutal frankness, pointed out her weaknesses and insisted she still needed intensive training in figure skating. But she paid heed. "He taught me humility," she says today. "I went back to fundamentals as if I had never seen skates." [Lussi] drilled her relentlessly. She spent up to eight hours a day on ice. Sometimes she skated the equivalent of 11 miles a day in figure eights. But no sooner had she mastered one aspect of a figure than [Lussi] was pushing her toward correcting another fault. She fell, she says, thousands of times. 

Often, she came home from the Minto Club in tears. The cause was nearly always the same: "flats." A "flat" is caused by skating on the flat of the blade rather than its edge. "It took me years to get the flats out of my figures," she says. "I'd think I had done a figure perfectly and go back and look at my track on the ice. There would be those awful flats. Sometimes the only thing that helped was tears." In the summertime, Barbara Ann swam, rode horseback and lived an active social life. But when skating season rolled around, she had to pass up the parties. She couldn't go to dances or movies with friends because it would interfere with her studies or skating. Another discouragement was the fact that her goal seemed to recede as she neared it. 

For instance, at 11, she won the Canadian junior championship; but by so doing, she put herself into the tougher senior division, competing against much older and more experienced skaters. Then, in 1941, something happened which made Barbara Ann even more determined to succeed. Her father died from overwork as a confidential secretary of the Department of National Defense. 

"I used to practice eight hours a day and think I was working very hard." she says, "and then I would come home and find him still working, sometimes long after midnight. No matter how tired he was, he never stopped." After her father's death, expenses became a big problem. Barbara Ann and her mother economized in every way to pay for instructors and travel to distant competitions. All of this had to come out of a pension of about 83,000 a year. But now her tireless practice began to pay off. That year and the following one, she was runner-up for the Canadian championship. 

In 1944, she won the title, and defended it successfully the following year. In 1945, she came to New York and won the North American title by topping graceful Gretchen Merrill of Boston and six other contenders. And now a group of Ottawa businessmen came to the Scotts' financial aid. They raised thousands of dollars to make it possible for her to compete for the European championship in Switzerland. She won, and two weeks later went on to capture the world championship tournament in Stockholm. 

The victory was celebrated all over Canada, and the welcome she received on returning home surpassed that which greeted the British royal family in 1939. Business firms bought newspaper space to congratulate her. Prime Minister Mackenzie King welcomed her in person. Toronto suspended the anti-noise ordinance for 20 minutes upon her arrival. And in Ottawa, the City Council appropriated 83,500 to buy a cream-colored convertible as a present. Nobody had prepared Barbara Ann for the welcome in Ottawa. Thousands of people were milling about the station: the rotunda was crowded with government officials and members of Parliament The cream-colored convertible, however, set off an uproar that rocked Canada for weeks. Avery Brundage, chairman of the U.S. Olympic Committee, protested her acceptance of the car on the grounds of "professionalism." Canadians were infuriated at this interpretation of their gratitude. For days no other subject was discussed in Canada. However, the Canadian Olympic Committee regretfully suggested that it would be best for Barbara Ann to give the car back if she wanted to continue skating as an amateur. What was at stake was her chance to win the Olympic title. Tearfully, she gave the car back... and prepared to defend her European and world titles, and win the Olympic crown. She returned to Europe early in 1948 and outskated contenders for her [European title].

By the time the Olympic competition rolled around, Barbara Ann's record book showed that she had put in - during her career - more than 20,000 hours of practice. At the Olympics, all this practice equaled perfection, which, in turn, equaled the championship. But instead of hustling off to her dressing room, she stayed to applaud the other skaters. This lack of temperament and her ladylike manners create friends for her among competitors. But the latter are also made uneasy by the fact that behind that politeness is the determination of a champion. 

Like most champions, Barbara Ann is slightly superstitious. She believes that No. 13 on her arm band will help her win. At the Olympic matches, she drew No. 13. A competitor's coach, thinking she would be upset, was dumfounded to discover she was delighted. In the summer of 1948, with all the world's most important skating titles in her grasp, Barbara Ann turned professional. She says it was the hardest thing she ever had to do. 

When she finally agreed to turn professional, it was with the stipulation that part of her earnings were to support institutions for crippled children. As a result, she has one of the most unusual contracts in show business. The St. Lawrence Foundation to Aid Crippled Children pays her a salary and expenses. To them she refers all Hollywood offers, skating promoters, and manufacturers seeking endorsements. There have been other benefits. The cream-colored convertible, which she once had to give up, has been returned to her by grateful Canadians. The Scotts' financial problems are at an end. And to her own surprise, Barbara Ann even shows signs of liking show business. 

After years of wearing modest costumes, she takes delight in flashy and bespangled outfits. Yet she re-mains her polite, considerate self. During an appearance at New York's Roxy Theater, she shocked blasé autograph seekers, who are accustomed to being brushed off, by leaning from her dressing-room window and yelling: "Hi, gang! I'll be right down." Although her name has recently been linked romantically with several young men, Barbara Ann says she has no serious matrimonial plans at present. "I won't get married until I have finished my career as a professional skater," she says. Then she adds: "And that is something I have barely begun!" 

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.