Discover The History Of Figure Skating!
10 Figure Skating Books Everyone Should Have In Their Collection
The 1977 European Figure Skating Championships
THE PAIRS COMPETITION
Irina Rodnina and Aleksandr Zaitsev were the only two defending European Champions to return to defend their title in Helsinki. Six of the top ten teams had moved on at the end of the Olympic season the year prior, including Olympic Medallists Manuela Groß and Uwe Kagelmann and Romy Kermer
and Rolf Österreich.
Soviet pairs were one-two-three in the short program, with all nine judges placing Rodnina and Zaitsev first. A packed house watched the free skate final, where Rodnina claimed her ninth title and Zaitsev his fifth. Irina Vorobieva and Alexandr Vlasov, the previous year's bronze medallists, moved up to take the silver and twelve year old Marina Cherkasova and her eighteen year old partner Sergei Shakrai gained the greatest applause of the day and the bronze.
It was the second Soviet sweep of the medal podium in pairs at Europeans - the first being in Garmisch-Partenkirchen in 1969. The fourth and fifth places went to two East German pairs who would go on to achieve great things in the sport - Manuela Mager and Uwe Bewersdorf and Sabine Baeß and Tassilo Thierbach.
THE ICE DANCE COMPETITION
The defending Olympic, World and European Champions Lyudmila Pakhomova and Aleksandr Gorshkov had retired as had three time World and European Medallists Hilary Green and Glyn Watts. Irina Moiseeva and Andrei Minenkov, who had won the World Championships in 1975 and the silver medal at the 1976 Olympics, appeared to be the heirs apparent to the European dance crown and there was little surprise when they amassed a comfortable lead in the compulsories and OSP.
THE WOMEN'S COMPETITION
World Champions and Olympic Medallists Dianne de Leeuw and Christine Errath had moved on from the amateur ranks, as had Isabel de Navarre, the winner of the figures at the 1976 Olympics in Innsbruck. Anett Pötzsch, who had medalled at the 1975 and 1976 Europeans, trained alongside Errath with Jutta Müller in Karl-Marx-Stadt. She took a healthy lead in the figures and won the short program as well, giving her a two and a half point lead over West Germany's Dagmar Lurz entering the free skate.
In one of her finest performances, Anett Pötzsch landed three triples to easily win her first European title. The silver went to Dagmar Lurz; the bronze to Italy's Susanna Driano.
Fourteen year old Denise Biellmann stole the show in the free skate, earning the loudest applause and exactly the same points total in the free skate as Pötzsch. Unfortunately, as was all too often in the case, her poor showing in the figures kept her down in sixth overall in her first bid for the title.
Fourteen year old Debbie Cottrill of Solihull almost didn't compete. Shortly after the British Championships, the National Skating Association announced that they wouldn't pay for her coach Armand Perren's travel expenses. Debbie's father Clem threatened to pull her out unless her coach attended. The Midland Soccer Writers' Association heard of the unfortunate situation and with the aid of the Midland industralists, raised four hundred and fifty pounds to pay Perren's fare. It wasn't the first instance of the National Skating Association being funny about covering travel costs. If you haven't read Courtney Jones' book yet, there's an interesting little anecdote in there about that!
THE MEN'S COMPETITION
1976 Olympic, World and European Champion John Curry had turned professional and as one might expect, the British press closed in on Robin Cousins liked a zombie after brains. In a 'next big thing' article in "The Daily Mirror", the nineteen year old from Bristol told reporter Graham Baker, "The East Germans and Russians look as though they've come out of factory... Like John, I always prefer individualism to that manufactured look."
Robin Cousins placed seventh in the figures, six places higher than he'd been in 1976. It was the first time he'd cracked the top ten in the compulsories at an ISU Championship. He placed an impressive sixth on the counter, a remarkable finish considering the fact he'd broken his toe two weeks before the British Championships in Richmond the month prior. The winner of the figures was 1976 Olympic Silver Medallist Vladimir Kovalev. Former European Champion Jan Hoffmann placed second and Finland's Pekka Leskinen was third.
With a clean triple toe-loop/double loop combination and double Lutz, Robin Cousins moved up to fourth overall with the second-best short program. Though third in the short program, Vladimir Kovalev maintained a narrow lead entering the free skate.
Twenty one year old Jan Hoffmann regained his title from 1974 with a five-triple free skate, while Kovalev dropped to second with two successful triples and a fall on a triple toe-loop.
Robin Cousins earned the highest marks for presentation. He was third overall but earned a supplementary silver medal for his placements in the free skating events in addition to his bronze. Like Hilary Green and Glyn Watts in the dance, he was coached by the redoubtable Miss Gladys Hogg. She didn't fly, so Robin went alone. Joan Slater sat with him in the kiss and cry. It was in Helsinki that he began his relationship with the Fassi's. They advised him at that year's Worlds in Tokyo.
Pekka Leskinen's fifth place finish was quite a big deal at the time. A Finnish man hadn't placed in the top five at Europeans since Marcus Nikkanen in 1935.
In a write-up for "Skating" magazine, Jean Kavalski made a point of noting how much of a standout Yuri Ovchinnikov was in Helsinki artistically. She wrote, "Great artistic strides have been taken in the men's competition, especially in the skating of Yuri Ovchinnikov. Yuri placed fourth in all aspects at Helsinki and changed his style considerably this year. He said Toller Cranston's innovativeness made him think that he should develop his own style more freely and more naturally. He does not skate like Toller and makes it clear that it was not so much Toller's own style of skating that caused him to change, but rather Toller's courage to follow his own creative desires in skating. Thus, Yuri has created a unique style which dazzled the audiences in Helsinki. In the past, Ovchinnikov's jumps were the highlight of his program, the excellence and artistry of the overall performance is now his goal."
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.
How The Almanac of Canadian Figure Skating Was Made
The Legacy Of Shirō Kawakubo
Win A Copy Of The Almanac Of Canadian Figure Skating!
John Zalvidar Machado, A Forgotten Canadian Champion With An Unforgettable Story
During The Great War, John enrolled in studies at Harvard University in Massachusetts but in 1917, he interrupted his education and travelled to France with the United States Army Ambulance Service. He earned the Croix de Guerre for his military service. A clipping from the April 10, 1919 issue of "The Ottawa Journal" noted, "Sgt. Machado offered his services in the C.E.F. in September 1916 but was turned down, and in the spring of 1917 he went to France as a volunteer, without pay, in the American Ambulance Service with the French army. In September 1917, the U.S. took over this service and since that time it has been a portion of the American Expeditionary Forces, though still serving in the French army. Sgt. Machado was second in command of his ambulance section, which was attached to the 41st division of the French army. This is one of the most famous divisions of the 'shock troops' and was known as 'La Division Granit', taking part in many of the great attacks both before and after July 18, last. Sgt. Machado saw active service with the division at many points on the front from the North Sea to Lorraine and finally accompanied the unit into Germany and was for a time stationed at Cologne. Later he returned to France with his section and when they had gathered to say good-bye to those with him they had worked so long, the French officers gathered to express their thanks and appreciation and bid them adieu. The French Government at their departure presented the American Ambulance Section with the Field Service Medal in commemoration of their service."
Upon returning from France, John immersed himself in his studies, graduating from Harvard in 1920. He returned to Ottawa to work as a salesman and spent considerable time practicing at the Minto Skating Club, focusing particularly on improving his school figures. In 1921, he made his debut at the Canadian Championships, earning top three finishes in both the men's event and pairs, skating in the latter event with Alden Goldwin. The following two years, he was a medallist in the men's event at the Canadian Championships. The February 18, 1922 issue of "The Ottawa Citizen" described his performance at the 1922 Canadians thusly: "John Machado, Ottawa, came on with a dash in an 'S' before music started. He raced down beautifully, jumped and changed to back inside circle. He tried successfully the spins that had brought [Melville] Rogers to the ice and did some very pretty spirals and seemed to combine a grapevine and Virginia creeper all in one, showing wonderful balance. He covered the whole rink with his patterns and did some wonderful spins on one foot, without touching the other to the ground or losing his balance, jumping and changing edge during the jump frequently. He finished with a long, beautifully executed jump and straight run out to the center of the ice, reversing on the way."
In 1924, John returned to the Canadian Championships with a renewed vigour, claiming both the men's and pairs titles, making history as the first skater of Latin American ancestry to win a national title. His pairs partner, Elizabeth 'Bet' Blair of Saint John, New Brunswick, became his wife that September. Unable to successfully defend his men's or pairs title in 1925, John and his wife Bet moved to Montreal and joined the Winter Club, where they took first prize in a Waltzing contest. In Quebec, they raised two children - a son (also named John) and a daughter (Nora).
Increased responsibilities couldn't keep the successful engraver from carving out time to etch fancy figures on the ice. He was a regular in skating carnivals of the period and in 1929 starting competing in fours skating. He was part of the winning Toronto Four at that year's Canadian Championships. With Veronica Clarke, Margaret Henry and Stewart Reburn, John defeated fours from the Minto Skating Club, Granite Club and Montreal Winter Club and won the Earl Grey Trophy. Three years later at the Granite Club, John, Veronica Clarke, Louise Bertram and Stewart Reburn again won the Canadian fours title, making John a four-time Canadian Champion. In 1933 and 1934, that four-time Canadian Champion succeeded J. Cecil McDougall, serving as President of the Figure Skating Department of the Amateur Skating Association of Canada. Around the same period, he was serving as a director of the Toronto Golf Club.
In January of 1936, John became a naturalized Canadian citizen. Interestingly, he was actually an American citizen at the time of all four of his Canadian title wins. His eleventh hour citizenship allowed him the opportunity to travel to Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, where he was to act as Canada's judge at the Winter Olympic Games. It didn't all go as planned. After spending six hours outside in a snowstorm evaluating the men's school figures while suffering from pneumonia, John ended up deathly sick and had to pull out. He was replaced mid-competition by a German judge. National bias and politics were very much a thing in judging back in those days and without a Canadian judge on any of the panels, no medals were won by the Dominion's top skaters.
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.
You've Read The Blog... Now Read The Book!
Veterans' Week
Triple/Triple Trivia Time
After Canada's Vern Taylor made history at the 1978 World Championships by landing the first triple Axel in an ISU Championship, the jump became the benchmark of technical achievement that chroniclers of the sport focused on ad nauseum. The triple Axel continued to be a media hyperfocus well into the late nineties. If a [male] skater didn't have the jump in their repertoire, warned commentators, they couldn't possibly be a contender internationally. While focus on the Axel - and later the quad - grew in its scope, the early history of another technical achievement didn't receive nearly the same amount of hoopla. That marvel was the triple/triple combination.
One of the first men to master the triple/triple combination was America's Robert Wagenhoffer. He included a triple toe-loop/triple toe-loop in his free skate at the 1978 Pacific Coast Championships in Burbank, California. At the 1980 World Championships in Dortmund, West Germany, thirteen year old Gzregorz Filipowski landed an incredible nine triple jumps, including the first triple toe-loop/triple toe-loop combination in an ISU Championship. Only eighteenth in figures, Filipowski managed to move up several places as a result of his free skating in his first trip to the Worlds. Many - including Olympic Gold Medallist Manfred Schnelldorfer - felt that his marks (in the 5.2 range, even for technical merit) were way too low.
In the following two seasons, other men quickly added the risky triple/triple to their repertoire. Heiko Fischer and Mark Cockerell both mastered the toe-loop/toe-loop and by 1984, Alexandr Fadeev had upped the ante considerably, landing two new triple/triples - the Salchow/toe-loop and Lutz/toe-loop - at the European and World Championships. By the fall of 1985, junior skater Michael Shmerkin was including the Salchow/toe-loop in his free skate as well.
A small club of fearless Canadians, including Kurt Browning and Neil Paterson, began attempting the triple Salchow/triple loop in the mid-eighties. Browning landed the first triple Salchow/triple loop in competition at the 1990 Nations Cup in Gelsenkirchen, West Germany. By 1991, Browning had mastered a slew of impressive triple/triple combinations, including the Axel/toe-loop and flip/toe-loop. He made history at that year's World Championships in Munich as the first skater to manage to stay upright on three triple/triple combinations in one program. Three years earlier at the Winter Olympic Games in Calgary, Brian Boitano made history as the first Olympic Gold Medallist to include a triple/triple combination in his winning free skate.
Triple/triple's were the in thing in the nineties. France's Surya Bonaly rattled them off without batting an eyelash. Midori Ito landed the triple Axel/triple toe-loop in a practice at the Albertville Olympics in 1992. At a World Junior team selection event in Woodridge, Illinois in the autumn of 1997, Timothy Goebel landed a triple toe-loop/triple toe-loop/triple loop combination. Irina Slutskaya became the first woman to add a loop to a Lutz in 2000.
A woman didn't land a triple/triple in the short program until the autumn of 1996 - because the ISU didn't allow 'the ladies' to attempt such a risky element. Krisztina Czakó of Hungary was the first woman to land it in competition.
The extremely difficult triple loop/triple loop combination was first landed in an ISU Championship by Éric Millot at the ISU Champions Series Final in 1995. The following year at the U.S. Postal Service Figure Skating Challenge in Philadelphia, Tara Lipinski became the first woman to complete the challenging combination of edge jumps in competition. Tonya Harding had practiced the daring combination, but never attempted it in 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.
Exploring The Collections: The Belita Collection
Every Skate Guard blogdraws 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. 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 bit about the Belita Collection. As many of you know, back in 2017 I published a lengthy biography of figure skater, actress and dancer Belita Jepson-Turner. If you haven't read it yet, you can find it here. In the process of researching this feature, I amassed a great deal of material on Belita thanks to donations by her family, friends, BIS Historian Elaine Hooper, World Champion Randy Gardner and others.
This material included a thirty-six page typewritten memoir penned by Belita that was used as the feature's introduction, a copy of a rare audio interview from the collection of the Pro Skating Historical Foundation, numerous photographs, letters, programs, videos and other memorabilia. Most of these items are physical copies, but there are many items are digitized as well.
A great deal of this material was included in the biography, but there was a ton that wasn't included either. This was mainly just due to space when it came to focusing on certain aspects of her story - in particular her film career.
If you have a special interest in her any aspect of Belita's story, I'd be more than happy to share whatever materials that are in the Skate Guard Collections. If you've got memorabilia pertaining to her career 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 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.