The 1992 Diet Coke Skaters' Championships

Held at the Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati, Ohio from April 3 to 5, 1992, the Diet Coke Skaters' Championships were sponsored by (you guessed it) the good folks at Coca-Cola, along with MasterCard and Reebok. The event was held to mark the five-year anniversary of the 1987 World Championships, held at the same rink and featuring many of the same competitors.

In this particular CBS professional 'made-for-TV' competition, skaters performed three programs (technical, artistic and exhibition) with the technical and artistic programs scored out of 10.0. Unlike other professional events, the high and low marks were not dropped in either program and as in the amateur ranks, the technical program had seven required elements. The winners of both the men's and women's events took home a cool forty thousand dollars.

Barbara Underhill, who recently learned she was pregnant, skated a 'guest' exhibition with Paul Martini as there was no pairs event. At the time, the duo believed it may have been their final performance. Underhill wasn't the only pregnant Canadian skater in Cincinnati. Tracey Wainman, who accompanied then-husband Jozef Sabovčík, was extremely close to her due date. Sabovčík worried that she might end giving birth to their son Blade in Cincinnati.

The Diet Coke Skaters' Championships was to have been part of a planned four-part professional series organized by Jefferson-Pilot Communications called The Skater's Championships. The first event was Les Dieux de la Glace - Masters Professionels de Patinage (the first Miko Masters) held in June of 1991 in Paris. The second was the International Figure Skating Championships in Atlanta in December of 1991. The Cincinnati event ultimately ended up being the third and final stop. 

The task of promoting the event fell on the lap of Don Schumacher, the executive director of the Greater Cincinnati Sports and Events Commission. Whatever Schumacher did worked. Tickets for the three-day event, which ranged from twenty-five to thirty-five dollars per day, sold like hot cakes, with visitors from as far away as Canada flocking to the Queen City to see their favourite skaters compete. Join me in the time machine as we look back at how this overlooked event played out!

THE MEN'S COMPETITION

Making his professional debut after winning the 1992 Winter Olympic Games and World Championships, Viktor Petrenko nailed a triple Axel on his way to winning the men's technical program ahead of Brian Orser, Jozef Sabovčík and five others.

Gary Beacom, skating first in the artistic program, performed a self-choreographed avant garde program to Patrick O'Hearn's "Malevolent Landscape" clad head to toe (literally... his entire head was covered) in a black spandex bodysuit. The judges weren't amused. World Champion Alexandr Fadeev was next to skate, and he received marks that were even lower. Robin Cousins, sixth after the technical program, had the audience spellbound with his self-choreographed interpretation of k.d. lang's "Busy Being Blue". Though his program didn't include a triple jump, it did include a double Axel and his signature layout backflip. He was the only skater other than the winner to receive a perfect 10.0. Scott Hamilton, who'd faltered in his technical program and placed only fifth, rebounded with a flawless performance choreographed by Ricky Harris to a choral version of "The Battle Hymn Of The Republic". The program was dedicated to the victims of the 1961 Sabena Crash. He received 10.0's across the board and catapulted into first place. Brian Orser followed with a subdued performance to Michael Feinstein's "Where Do You Start?", doubling his only planned triple attempt and earning marks from 9.7 to 9.9. Petrenko finished well outside of the top three in the artistic program when he made the decision to perform his Olympic free skate as an artistic program, despite being advised against it by both judges and his fellow competitors. Though he was the only skater to attempt and land a triple Axel, he missed three other jumping passes. Even the commentators on CBS pondered why he hadn't chosen to perform the number he used in the Exhibition Of Champions - Chubby Checker's "Let's Twist Again" - instead. Robert Wagenhoffer and Jozef Sabovčík followed, each failing to earn marks that placed them in the top three. Hamilton took the win and Petrenko's strong technical program lead kept him in second, ahead of Orser, Cousins, Sabovčík, Wagenhoffer, Beacom and Fadeev.

THE WOMEN'S COMPETITION

Scott Hamilton, who left Verne Lundquist and Tracy Wilson to their own devices in the CBS booth during the broadcast of the men's event, offered his commentary for the women's event. Katarina Witt won the technical program with one of the most technically demanding performances of her entire professional career, skating to an early version of the "Robin Hood" program she would later use when she reinstated to the amateur ranks for the 1993/1994 season. Debi Thomas and Liz Manley, Witt's fellow medallists from the 1988 Winter Olympics, followed in second in third place. A pair of World Champions, Denise Biellmann and Rosalynn Sumners, were tied for fourth ahead of Charlene Wong and Caryn Kadavy.

Caryn Kadavy, first to skate in the artistic program, choreographed her own program to "Nessun Dorma" from "Turandot" but missed all three of her jumping passes and only managed to earn 9.5's and 9.6's. Biellmann followed, uncharacteristically missing both of her jumping passes as well. She earned marks ranging from 9.4 to 9.8. The audience came around when Rosalynn Sumners skated a clean performance to Roberta Flack's "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face", replete with four double jumps. Her marks, ranging from 9.7 to 9.9, easily broke her earlier tie with Biellmann. Charlene Wong's artistic program left her sandwiched between Sumners and Biellmann and Kadavy. 

The top three women after the short program retained their positions in the artistic program, with Manley earning one 10.0, Thomas three 10.0's and Witt perfect 10.0's across the board. Manley, skating to Bette Midler's "Miss Otis Regrets", delivered the most energetic of the three performances. Witt was the only one to land a triple jump, but of the three she received the most tepid response from the audience. Spending most of her program to Louis Armstrong's "Let's Fall In Love" vamping it up and standing and posing, even Scott Hamilton remarked, "I think they were expecting to see a lot more skating and a lot less posing." Debi Thomas, skating an uncharacteristically classical program to "Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini", was quietly radiant but two-footed the landing of her only attempted triple. She still received a standing ovation from the audience, who booed her lower scores. It would prove to be her final professional competition until she made a comeback in the fall of 1996 to compete in two events after having her son.

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.

Zerr Woman: The Helene Engelmann Story

Helene Engelmann and Alfred Berger. Photo courtesy Bibliothèque nationale de France.

"When comparing pair skating from then and now... you must admit that today's pair skating is much more difficult, but also more beautiful. Mainly because of the interspersed solo figures, then also through the artistic skill, lifting figures, jumps and various pirouettes. If I'm honest, I like it better than earlier and I am convinced that pairs will continue to develop." - Helene Engelmann, "Der Wiener Tag", December 25, 1937

Helene Engelmann was born February 9, 1898 in Vienna, Austria. To say that she came from Vienna's most important skating family would be something of an understatement. When her father Eduard Engelmann Jr. was four, her grandfather Eduard Engelmann Sr. had taken him to see Jackson Haines perform. Her grandfather went on to construct his famous Engelmann ice rink, where her father trained to win three consecutive European titles from 1892 to 1894. Her aunt Christa von Szabó was the winner of the pairs competition at the Nordic Games in 1901. Olympic Gold Medallist and seven-time World Champion Herma Szabo was her cousin and two-time Olympic Gold Medallist and seven-time World Champion Karl Schäfer was married to her sister Christine.

Helene started skating as a very young child on her family's ice rink in Hernals. When she was only eleven years old, trainer Pepi Weiß-Pfändler paired her with an experienced older skated named Karl Mejstrik. With his first partner Helene Kuich, Karl had finished second at a pairs competition held in conjunction with the World Championships for men in 1908 in Troppau. Karl was an all-around sportsman who held memberships with the Wiener Regatta-Verein and Wiener Eissport-Klub, excelled in skiing and worked as a trainer at the 'Danube' rowing club. 

Helene Engelmann and Karl Mejstrik

Early in their partnership, Helene and Karl entered only waltzing competitions, winning first prize in a contest put on by the Wiener Akademischen Sportvereines in 1911. The "Allgemeine Sport-Zeitung" claimed this was because Helene was still "technically too weak" to do pairs. In 1912, Karl gave up his singles skating to focus on pairs and in one winter Helene "developed the utmost diligence and colossaly improved her technique within a short time." The duo won the Troppauer Challenge-Preis and in 1913, made history as the first Austrian pairs team to win the World Championships. It was their first time competing in an ISU Championship and the first time couples from Austria had entered an official World Championship in pairs skating. At the age of fifteen in 1913, Helene is still (to this day) the youngest skater ever to win a World pairs title.

Helene described the experience of winning her first World title in an article that appeared in "Der Wiener Tag" on Christmas Day, 1937: "I have, in my athletic career, experienced some things a lot of things that were beautiful and some things that hurt. I remember some things as if they happened only yesterday; some other things lie in a gray, gray distance. My first success in the World Championships remains very close in my memory. It was in Stockholm on February 10, 1913. Why I have the date so precisely is because the day before, I had celebrated my birthday. On the day before the World Championships, I was with my father and partner Mejstrik at the Stockholm theater and I was thirsty to celebrate the day. I felt it very important that I drink the first glass of champagne. No sooner had I been served a such a small glass, then it was time to go to bed. That was actually the one great disappointment to me. I had expected much more from the champagne. My father was not to be trifled with. 'You have one difficult day ahead of you tomorrow, Helene. March to bed.' With a smiling face and a bleeding heart I said goodbye to the 'old people' who continued to still celebrate my birthday. Very early on February the 10th, I was woken by by father and we drove out into the bay, where the compulsory figures for men and women took place. The ice was terribly soft and bad after. At noon, when the freestyle skating was held in the Stockholm stadium - on natural ice - it was better then. My champagne grief from the day before was not forgotten. For that, I was terribly upset and excited. My partner Mejstrik spoke to me of the hype already used. 'I don't know who is in front of us or who skates after us. All I know is that we are against the long-time champion couple... The Jakobsson's were viewed as the winning pair. I was trembling with excitement like a poodle pulled out of ice water and Mejstrik had it not easy to calm me down before skating. And then it was our turn. According to a Viennese waltz, we had our program built. With the first sounds of music, every trace of nervousness had left me and I skated hand in hand with my partner - back then there were no solo figures for pairs skaters - as if there were no judges, no viewers, just the two of us on the big ice surface. It was like a dream. I stopped skating on because the music was over and then was sent by my father back to the hotel. He promised he would tell me immediately of the result of the competition. Excited, I sat in the lobby near Mejstrik, as the phone rang the bell. I followed the expression of the hotel porter on the telephone early. He said to us in broken German: 'Zerr woman... first! Mr.... and Mrs... first.' So the married couple Jakobsson had won first prize. Mejstrik told me that I was very good and he was very pleased with me. I would have so much liked to come home a World Champion. Maybe I cried too. I do not know anymore. Then my father came. I do not know why, but I was ashamed of him. He was so convinced that we would take first place and win - and now I had been deceived. 'So, how's the new World Champion doing?' was his greeting. Wasn't that impossible? It could not be. 'Mr... Mrs... first.' Those words could still be heard clearly in my ears and only gradually did I realize that meant Mejstrik and me. It occurred to me too that the smile of the doorman was an embarrassed wish of happiness, with the few broken German words he knew, from the first to know of our victory. That evening I knew that champagne tasted good, but the World Championship win was my happiest birthday gift."

Helene Engelmann and Karl Mejstrik

In 1914, Helene and Karl settled for second place behind Ludovika and Walter Jakobsson at the World Championships in St. Moritz. Just when an exciting rivalry between the two top pairs teams in the world was shaping up, it all came to a halt. "Then came the War," recalled Helene. "There was no artificial ice, no evening lighting, no music. Everything was forbidden. My partner moved. The skating world slept for a winter lasting several years."

Helene Engelmann and Alfred Berger. Photos courtesy Bibliothèque nationale de France.

After The Great War, Helene's trainer Pepi Weiß-Pfändler paired her with Freidl 'Alfred' Berger, an Austrian Champion in both rowing and bobsleigh. Helene remembered, "In 1920 I was, with my new partner Berger, invited to Klagenfurt. We had to rehearse our program without music in the Carinthian capital there was one Peasant band that played marches in the square. We had them play a Strauss at a marching pace. Our program was expanded. There were jumps and also some lifting figures but it was still a real pair program without solo elements. In 1922, we finally came back to the World Championships and competed against the Jakobsson's in Davos. We stayed victorious. What hurt me is that no World Championship medals came [by post]." Helene and Alfred did not compete internationally in 1923, but returned in 1924 to win the gold medals at the Winter Olympic Games in Chamonix, France and World Championships in Manchester, England.

Helene Engelmann and Alfred Berger. Photos courtesy Bibliothèque nationale de France.

Helene and her skating partners took very different paths after their World Championship wins. Karl Mejstrik went to England, anglicized his name to Charles and taught skating at two London rinks - the Hammersmith Ice Drome and Golders Green Ice Rink. Alfred Berger operated a seed business, married an opera singer and briefly taught figure skating and hockey at the Minto Skating Club in Ottawa. Helene married an engineer named Johann Jaroschka and had a son named Johann Jr. in 1931. Her husband enlisted with the Wehrmacht during World War II and was killed while serving with a Pionier battalion. The Engelmann rink was badly damaged by Allied bombings during the War and afterwards, Karl Schäfer helped rebuild the rink. Helene and her son were involved in the management for several years. Helene lived out her days in Pukersdorf, suffering from dementia and other health issues in her later years. She passed away at the age of eighty-seven on August 1, 1985. 

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

The 1956 World Figure Skating Championships

Held from February 16 to 19, 1956 at the same open air stadium which played host to the 1936 Winter Olympic Games where Sonja Henie won her third and final Olympic gold medal, the 1956 World Figure Skating Championships were arguably the one of the most dramatic post-Olympic World Championships in history. No Hungarian skaters participated in protest after the West German government refused to issue entry visas for a Hungarian soccer team the previous year. With the exception of the ice dancers who hadn't competed in Cortina d'Ampezzo, many skaters travelled directly from the Olympic site by train.

It was twenty degrees below zero when the Canadian contingent arrived in West Germany without their team leader Ralph McCreath only to find the hotel where they were supposed to be booked had no record of their reservations. Carol Heiss arrived around the same time only to find that she too had no reservation. It took two days to sort out the whole mess, and when McCreath finally arrived via Rome he arranged for Heiss and her mother to have private rooms in the same hotel as the Canadian team. In turn, Pierre Brunet (Carol's coach) looked after Frances Dafoe and Norris Bowden, whose coach Sheldon Galbraith had been called back to the Toronto Skating Club to help with the club's annual carnival. Skaters like America's Mary Ann Dorsey and Austria's Ilse Musyi, who hadn't competed at the Olympics but had travelled with their country's respective Olympic teams, benefited from no missed practice time due to travel and the experience of practicing with more experienced skaters on Olympic ice. 

Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine.

In West Germany, practice conditions were less than ideal for all skaters. Dafoe recalled, "At Garmisch we trained in 18 degrees below... I developed hypothermia and couldn't control my shaking. Pierre Brunet noticed what was happening and carried me into a warm room." Throw on a sweater and warm up and join me as I take an in-depth look at how each of the respective competitions in Garmisch-Partenkirchen ultimately played out.

THE MEN'S COMPETITION

A triple threat from America: Hayes Alan Jenkins, Ronnie Robertson and David Jenkins

As in Cortina d'Ampezzo, the men's competition was a three-way fight between Hayes Alan Jenkins, his younger brother David and Ronnie Robertson. And as in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Hayes all but assured himself victory by decisively winning the school figures with first place ordinals from eight of the nine judges.

Left: Men's medallists in 1956. Right: German press clipping of Hayes Alan Jenkins. Photo courtesy Julia C. Schulze.

The free skate was a completely different story. All nine judges gave the edge to Robertson, but it wasn't enough for him to unseat the newly crowned Olympic Gold Medallist. David Jenkins was almost unanimously third, with only the Czechoslovakian judge daring to place rising star Karol Divín ahead of him. Canadian Champion Charles Snelling improved upon his eighth place finish at the Olympics by placing a strong fourth ahead of Great Britain's Michael Booker.

While Hayes Jenkins had fond memories of standing on the podium with his brother and sharing a moment in the spotlight with his future wife Carol Heiss, David Jenkins' memories of this event weren't as glowing. In his April 2011 interview on The Manleywoman SkateCast, he recalled, "It was five below, and my brother said I should get my skates sharpened, and I was stubborn and I resisted. I fell on both the triples and twice trying to get back up.  I really had warmed up probably than I better had, and I thought I was on top of the world, and the crowd was getting all excited and I thought that was just great. And I think I totally stopped thinking. The next year I was world champion, and I never fell again in competition. After that one, my coach insisted that I fall in warmup whether I needed to or not, just so that he’d have some idea that I was still keeping my mind working."

THE ICE DANCE COMPETITION

Pamela Weight and Paul Thomas. Photo courtesy "Ice & Roller Skate" magazine.

With the retirement of four time World Champions Jean Westwood and Lawrence Demmy and 1955 World Bronze Medallists Barbara Radford and Raymond Lockwood, the path to gold was clear for twenty two year old Pamela Weight and her nineteen year old partner Paul Thomas. Although the young team coached by Len Liggett had only been skating together for just over a year, they had already won the silver medal behind Westwood and Demmy at the 1955 World Championships in Vienna and the British senior dance title in November 1955 in Nottingham. Unlike Westwood and Demmy, they had no long term aspirations. She planned to marry; he to move to Canada. Garmisch-Partenkirchen was their last hurrah... and a hurrah it was! Weight and Thomas dominated all four compulsory dances - the Foxtrot, Paso Doble, Tango and Westminster Waltz - and the free dance and were placed first on every judge's scorecards in every phase of the competition. 

June Markham and Courtney Jones

The British Silver and Bronze Medallists June Markham and Courtney Jones and Barbara Thompson and Gerard Rigby became World Silver and Bronze Medallists in an equally convincing fashion. That said, each of the teams ranked fourth through sixth - Americans Joan Zamboni and Roland Junso (who fell in the free dance) and Carmel and Edward Bodel and France's Fanny Besson and Jean-Paul Guhel - earned ordinals in the top three. Canada's sole entry, young Lindis and Jeffery Johnston, placed ninth of the seventeen teams who competed. The Italian team who placed twelfth, Bona Giammona and Giancarlo Sioli, had ordinals ranging from sixth to fifteenth.

BBC broadcast one hour of free dancing to skating lovers back come in Jolly Ol' England. In her book "Figure Skating History: The Evolution Of Dance On The Ice", Lynn Copley-Grave recalled, "TV commentator Max Robertson repeated publicly a statement by a well-known judge that Weight/Thomas were the best ice dance team ever produced in Great Britain. Jean Westwood refuted the statement in a letter to 'Skating World', reminding readers that she and Lawrence beat them on several occasions." Although Westwood and Demmy certainly had the more distinguished career, Weight and Thomas earned the Vandervell Trophy for their winning performance in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

THE WOMEN'S COMPETITION

Women's medallists in 1956

With her terminally ill mother in attendance, Carol Heiss did the unthinkable in the school figures, edging twenty year old Olympic Gold Medallist Tenley Albright five judges to four. Snow fell steadily as the friendly rivals took to the ice to settle the score in the free skate. Tenley skated brilliantly but Heiss only expanded her lead with her performance to Jean Martinon's "If I Were King", earning 5.9's across the board and the first place ordinals of seven of the nine judges. The result ended up five judges to four in Heiss' favour.

Tenley Albright

"Time" magazine raved that Heiss' "near-flawless execution brought the chilled crowd to its feet. Even one of the judges broke into spontaneous applause". The February, 19, 1956 issue of "The Victoria Advocate" noted that "the tiny blonde skated flawlessly, and her performance feature double Axels, double flips and loops." Heiss celebrated the victory with her mother, grandparents and coach Pierre Brunet. In her December 2012 interview on The Manleywoman SkateCast, Heiss recalled, "That was the world championship where I had worked very hard to get the double Axel. I didn’t quite have it at the Olympics - it was there but I just barely did it, it was one of those low ones. At Worlds I had more confidence, I put two in the program and landed both of them. And I’m convinced it was those clean double Axels that gave me an edge over Tenley."

Austria's Ingrid Wendl received third place ordinals from five judges to Yvonne Sugden and Catherine Machado's two apiece to take the bronze. The lone Canadian entry, Ann Johnston, placed a strong ninth of the twenty nine entries.

America had four women's entries in Garmisch-Partenkirchen: Mary Ann Dorsey, Carol Heiss, Tenley Albright and Catherine Machado

A young Sjoukje Dijkstra, competing in her second World Championships, almost didn't make it to the event. In her April 2014 interview on The Manleywoman SkateCast, she recalled, "After the Olympics, we went back to Davos and I got very sick. I had laryngitis... My parents weren't there. I tried everything, penicillin... So from there, I went from my bed to Garmisch. I was so determined that I wanted to compete. I didn't do my best. That was hard, because you know you can do better."
Dijkstra placed sixteenth. Four years later, she would stand on the podium with Heiss at the Winter Olympic Games in Squaw Valley.

THE PAIRS COMPETITION

Frances Dafoe and Norris Bowden

More than a few people felt that Canada's Frances Dafoe and Norris Bowden had been robbed of a gold medal at the 1956 Winter Olympic Games. They had narrowly lost by one point and two places to Austrians Sissy Schwarz and Kurt Oppelt and delivered one of the finest pairs skating performances the world had ever seen. The World Championships in Garmisch-Partenkirchen were their chance to settle the score and before the event even began, the writing seemed like it was on the wall. Dafoe and Bowden had been told there would be seven judges - three on one side, three on another and a neutral judge from Switzerland. When the judges trotted out, there were suddenly nine. Dafoe and Bowden skated even more brilliantly than they did in Italy, but in the end, five judges (West Germany, Italy, Austria, Czechoslovakia, America) voted for Schwarz and Oppelt and four (Australia, Canada, Great Britain, Switzerland) opted for Dafoe and Bowden. The Austrian judge placed the Canadians third behind bronze medallists Marika Kilius and Franz Ningel and the Canadian judge put Schwarz and Oppelt third behind Americans Carole Ann Ormaca and Robin Greiner, who finished fourth. Placing fifth in only their second trip to the World Championships were Barbara Wagner and Bob Paul.

Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine

Dafoe and Bowden's loss sparked an uproar of international proportions which took several years and ISU Council action to repair. Even the West German press decried the result of the event. "The Munich Abendzeitung" proclaimed, "Frances Dafoe and Norris Bowden were the true world champions of the evening... The whole arena was thrilled with excitement, and the spectators roared their delight. They were certain they were watching the world champions... This time Schwarz and Oppelt were nowhere near the precise performance of the Canadians. But not only the Austrian judge was responsible for this regrettable lapse of human objectivity. The Czechoslovak and Italian judges also obviously marked [Dafoe and Bowden] down... Schwarz and Oppelt certainly had good content with lots of pleasant moves, but the exhibition was not as clean as in Cortina, or as sovereign. They were out of balance in spins and the flow from one movement to another was imperfect. There was no ecstatic enjoyment in watching them, but their marks were very high. The Austrian judge gave 5.8 twice, while later he gave the Canadians 5.5 which provoked booing from the crowd." The "Garmisch-Partenkirchen Tagblatt" agreed that the Canadians "deserved to win first place without a doubt."

With little support from the CFSA and their coach not present, Dafoe and Bowden were left to deal with the controversy alone. Schwarz and Oppelt's coach Arnold Gerschwiler came to them after the event and said, "I am here to shake the hands of the true champions" but despite outraged protests to the ISU from coaches who called the event blatantly fixed, the suspect results of this competition remained as is.

Medallists at the 1956 World Championships. Left to right: David Jenkins, Ingrid Wendl, Gerard Rigby, Barbara Thompson, June Markham, Courtney Jones, Pamela Weight, Paul Thomas, Tenley Albright, Ronnie Robertson, Sissy Schwarz, Kurt Oppelt, Carol Heiss, Hayes Alan Jenkins, Frances Dafoe, Norris Bowden and Marika Kilius

At the closing banquet of the event, a speaker alluded to the fact the wrong skaters had won the gold medals in the pairs event. The entire Austrian team rose and walked out in a huff. One year later, the ISU handed three Austrian judges lifetime suspensions.

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.

Rocker 'n' Rollers: The Erik van der Weyden Story

Photo courtesy "Skating World" magazine

"For any dance partnership to be really successful, something more than mere technical ability is required - that is, a real love by both partners of the art for its own sake, and not merely for the sake of pot-hunting and medal-gathering... By all means, go in for medals or competitions if you are able. They are an incentive to greater effort, and set a standard to work for, which adds greatly to the interest, but, for goodness sake, let it be in a sporting and friendly way, and learn to accept defeat when comes - knowing that the experience gained will serve its purpose in the end. Above all, try to keep a sense of humour... May you all continue to enjoy your skating as much as I have." - Erik van der Weyden, "Dancing On Ice", 1950

The son of Florence (Moore) and Harry 'Hal' van der Weyden, Erik van der Weyden was born on April 16, 1897 in Paris, France. His mother was a student from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania; his father was born in Boston but raised in England, where Erik's Dutch-born grandfather was a pioneer in the use of electric light in photography. 

Though Erik's father was born in America, he came from a long line of Belgian and Dutch artists, most famously the acclaimed fifteenth century artist Rogier van der Weyden, whose religious triptychs and paintings are exhibited today at The Louvre in Paris, National Gallery in London and Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. Erik's father was a renowned artist in his own right who studied at the Académie Julian and Jean-Paul Lauren's private academy in Paris before taking up residence at the hotel d’Acary de la Riviere in Montreuil-sur-Mer. He was the winner of several medals at the Antwerp International Exposition, Le Salon de 1891 and the Atlanta Exhibition. 

The threat of War brought the van der Weyden family to England in 1914. Erik's father set up a photographic studio in London but soon served as a camouflage officer with the Royal Engineers. Erik joined the Royal Air Force himself near the end of The Great War.

Erik had first been exposed to skating at the age of eight while growing up in France, taking to the ice on country ponds wearing Acme clamp-on skates and whirling around the family home on a pair of pin-bearing roller skates. After the War, when the Cricklewood Roller Rink re-opened, he began pursuing roller skating more seriously.  He joined the famous Aldwych Speed Club in 1921 and turned professional the following year to teach at the Holland Park rink. 

It was there Erik met and fell in love with Eva Lilian Keats. Eva and Erik married in Kingston, Surrey in 1923 and formed a skating partnership, winning the newly-organized British Roller Dance title for three successive years. Hearing of plans to open the Westminster Ice Club, they decided to leave the Holland Park Rink and make the switch from teaching roller skating to ice skating. After a year abroad teaching in Antwerp, they began working at the prestigious private club, where Eva made a name for herself. She was the very first instructor of a talented youngster named Cecilia Colledge, taking her through the National Skating Association's bronze test before she went to Jacques Gerschwiler. She also worked with another of Jacques' future students -1936 Olympian Belita Jepson-Turner.

Though Eva and Erik's decision to leave the Holland Park rink proved wise - it closed within a few years of their deaprture - the Westminster Ice Club was only open for about six months a year, so they filled in the rest of the year by acting as temporary staff at other rinks, including Harringay, Golders Green, Streatham and Southampton. Erik was known to his friends and pupils as 'Van' or 'Vandy'.

In the thirties, Eva and Erik appeared in the famous three-act ice spectacle "St. Moritz" at the London Coliseum with Pamela Prior, Erich Erdös, Sidney Charlton and Hermann Scheinschaden. Erik founded the Ice Teachers Guild, a predecessor to British Ice Teachers Association and Imperial Professional Skating Association, with Jacques Gerschwiler, Howard Nicholson and Miss Gladys Hogg. For many years he served on the I.P.S.A. Technical Committee, toiling long and hard to establish "the best methods of teaching to establish a sound and lasting foundation of a skater's technique." However, the most important contributions that Eva and Erik made to skating in the decade prior to the War were in the discipline of ice dance.

In April 1933, an ice dance competition open to both amateurs and professionals was held at the Westminster Ice Rink in London. Eva and Erik took home first prize. Two months later, a competition for professional ice dancers only was held at the Queen's Ice Club in London. Perhaps controversially dancing with a woman other than his wife, Erik took first prize with Elsie Heathcote. At these events and others, Eva and Erik presented a series of dances of their own creation, which went on to become compulsory dances that have been skated around the world, from tiny rural rinks to large stadiums at ISU Championships - the (Keats) Foxtrot, Rocker Foxtrot, Viennese Waltz and Westminster Waltz. The Westminster was originally called the Waltz 48, because it was skated at forty-eight bars per minute. The Rocker Foxtrot and Viennese Waltz were originally created for the stage. British Champion Michael Booker recalled, "The [Westminster Waltz] was choreographed to weave around and between the pillars at the Westminster Club, it not having a clear span roof over the ice... The Rocket Foxtrot was performed such that the rocker at the beginning of the dance was executed on left hand side of the proscenium with the leg thrown high revealing the ladies bloomers, the so-called 'promenade' section in a deep curve to center back stage, and the cut-back, Choctaw, on the right side of the proscenium again with the leg lifted high to reveal the bloomers - those bloomers got plenty of airing!  The Viennese Waltz was performed in a circle round the stage, in the round... How do I know all of this?  I was a pupil of Mr. Van at Queen's Ice Club where he coached me through to the equivalent of the Canadian seventh test, after which I went to Arnold [Gerschwiler].  He could skate English Style figures and he told me so much about those days and the old-time skaters."

Erik was very protective of the compulsory dances he and Eva created. As the steps, holds and character of dances regularly became distorted through rule changes, different instructor's interpretations and bad habits, he wasn't shy about penning articles to the skating magazines of his day to reiterate his original intentions. In "Skating World" magazine in 1950, he wrote, "The 'right way to do it' merchants have been so active that nothing will shake large numbers of skaters from these mistaken beliefs. Among those steps which are frequently the subject of discussion is the step following the man's counter and lady's rocker in the Westminster Waltz. Numerous skaters still insist on crossing behind, whereas this has never been intended... Another bad habit that refuses to die, even among leading dancers, is the incorrect and ugly hold in the Foxtrot. The proper hold was developed at the time the dance was created, and not as an afterthought... At the time when the Foxtrot made its debut (in pre-dance-test-days) partners were holding so far apart in the Waltz, Fourteenstep and Tango (the only dances of that time), each leaning forward so much that one could almost have pushed a dinner wagon between them without necessitating any change in position. It was because of this of absence of style and deportment that my wife and I were prompted to design a dance which could not only be skated closely together, but actually demanded it. The correct hold, as has frequently been pointed out, is with the lady's left hand on the man's right shoulder blade - in much the same position as is his hand on her back. This permits the elbows to be dropped, with the partners skating shoulder to shoulder and hip to hip in the simultaneous forward movements, and close at other times... Another argument I have heard more than once during the season has been over whether the man crosses his left foot over the right in the Rocker Foxtrot after the lady's rocker. This point was thoroughly thrashed out soon after the creation of the dance, and the decision of that time has never been altered. A little trouble spent in referring to the NSA schedules of steps, or any of the articles which have appeared in the press during the past dozen years, would easily check all doubts on this matter."

During World War II, Erik worked in an aircraft plant, but made time to help Eva out with giving lessons some evenings during the blackout. After the War, Eva and Erik divided their time between Queen's Ice Rink and the outdoor ice rink in Wengen, Switzerland. 

Photo courtesy "Ice Skating" magazine

By the late forties, poor health forced Eva to retire from coaching but Erik was still going strong at Queen's. He worked alongside the grande dame of British ice dance, Miss Gladys Hogg, and worked with a who's who of British ice dance, including many teams associated with the Southern Counties Ice Dance League, as well as a number of up-and-coming singles skaters. One thing that was often written about him was that he was very unassuming, modest and not one for pretenses. 

Photo courtesy "Skating World" magazine 

In 1950, Erik published the first edition of his famous book "Dancing On Ice". The compilation of dance test information included became the National Skating Association's handbook supplement "Ice Dances". In 1957 came his second book, "Instructions To Young Skaters", which was translated into French. Both books were extremely popular and widely read by skaters and instructors alike.

Top: A party in the bar of Queen's Ice Club in 1951 celebrating the publication of Erik van der Weyden's book. Left to right: Don Crothswaite, Geoffrey Byatt, Myrtle Leeds, Angela Alsing, Erik van der Weyden, Leslie Ward, Daphne Ward Wallis and Eva Keats and Erik van Weyden's daughter. Bottom: Christmas greetings from Eva Keats and Erik van der Weyden. Photos courtesy "Skating World" magazine

Around the same time his first book came out, Erik passed the newly-created Gold Dance test with fellow professional Joan Hawkins. He was in his fifties at the time, and in doing so he made history. Cyril Beastall remarked, "Try to imagine the hard work which must have led to van der Weyden's achievement in passing no less than six first-class proficiency tests of the National Skating Association of Great Britain. No other skater in history can equal this record. The six 'golds' acquired include four first-class tests passed on ice and two on rollers - namely, International and English Style Ice Figure Skating, Ice Dance, Instructors' (ice), Roller Dance and English Style Roller Figure Skating. Additional to these, he has passed the second class test for both roller figure skating in the International Style and roller speed skating and third class pair skating on ice!"

Photo courtesy "Skating World" magazine

For his contributions to the sport, Erik was bestowed an Honorary Life Membership to the National Skating Association in 1976. He sadly passed away in Kenton, Middlesex on December 3, 1983 at the age of eighty-six. Despite conceiving no less than four compulsory dances, he has yet to be inducted posthumously to the World Figure Skating Hall Of Fame for his contributions to ice dancing.

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 1939 Canadian Figure Skating Championships

Dorothy Caley and Mary Rose Thacker. Photo courtesy University Of Manitoba Digital Collections.

Filming had just got underway for "Gone With The Wind", tea dances were jitterbugging with The Andrews Sisters' hit "Hold Tight - Hold Tight" and Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King was acutely aware that War was on the horizon.

The year was 1939 and on January 27 and 28, some of Canada's top skaters gathered at the Toronto Skating Club to compete at the Canadian Figure Skating Championships, then commonly referred to as the Dominion Championship. The event was held less than a week before that year's North American Championships at the Granite Club.

Mary Rose Thacker. Photo courtesy University Of Manitoba Digital Collections.

Many of the same faces that had competed in 1936 when Toronto last played host to the event returned, but there were still only entries from four Canadian provinces - Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. The fact that there were less than a dozen of skaters from Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Quebec combined highlighted just how much skaters from Toronto and Ottawa dominated Canadian skating in those days. How did things play out? Let's take a look back.

THE JUNIOR EVENTS

Left: Joan McNeil. Photo courtesy New York Heritage Digital Collections. Right: Dick Salter.

Seventeen year old Sandy McKechnie of the Toronto Skating Club outskated his training mate Donald Gilchrist and Dick Salter of the Wascana Winter Club in Regina to win the junior men's title that had eluded him the year prior. McKechnie had started skating as a toddler and had made his debut at the national level in 1937. In 1938, Theresa McCarthy's sister Norah won the Canadian junior women's crown. When Norah moved up to the senior ranks, it was Theresa's turn to shine in 1939. Second and third were Joan McNeil of the Minto Skating Club and Elizabeth Ann McKellar of the Winnipeg Winter Club.

Peter Chance and Kay Lopdell. Photo courtesy New York Heritage Digital Collections.

Patricia Chown and Philip Lee, the 1938 Canadian junior pairs winners, did not compete in Toronto. The title instead went to young Kay Lopdell and Peter Chance of the Minto Skating Club. Second and third were Toronto pairs Margaret Wilson and Peter Killam and Florence McNamara and George Reid.

THE PAIRS, ICE DANCE AND FOURS COMPETITIONS

Aidrie Cruikshank. Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine.

The previous year's Waltz Champions, Janet and Fraser Sweatman of Winnipeg bettered Aidrie (Main) and Donald B. Cruikshank in the Tenstep, while the Cruikshank's defeated legends Constance Wilson Samuel and Montgomery 'Bud' Wilson in the Waltz. Constance was a fixture at the Canadian Championships since the early twenties, holding the record for the most titles in both women's singles and pairs. This would be her final medal win at the event, and it was fitting that she won it with her brother.

Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine

An all-new Toronto four - Gillian Watson, Ruth Hall, Sandy McKechnie and Donald Gilchrist - won the fours title. In the pairs, Norah McCarthy and Ralph McCreath bested the Cruikshank's and Kay Lopdell and Peter Chance, who were 'skating up' in the seniors. McCreath had won the pairs the last three years with Veronica 'Biddy' Clarke, who had retired from competition after getting married.

THE MEN'S COMPETITION

Bud Wilson

Montgomery 'Bud' Wilson unanimously won his ninth Canadian men's title, tying his sister Constance's record for the most Canadian singles titles - records that still hold strong to this very day. Ralph McCreath was a unanimous second. Wingate Snaith took the bronze by a slim margin over Jack Vigeon and Peter Chance. In winning, Wilson received a 5.8 from one judge - a very high score by any standard in the pre-War years.

THE WOMEN'S COMPETITION

Nine young women vied for the women's title. The gold went to sixteen year old Mary Rose Thacker, the second youngest skater in the competition. Four out of five judges had the Winnipeger, who had missed the previous year's event due to an ankle injury, first despite the fact she struggled on jumps in her free skate.

Mary Rose Thacker. Photo courtesy University Of Manitoba Digital Collections.

The star in that phase of the event was Toronto's Norah McCarthy, the 1938 junior titleholder. Defending Champion Eleanor O'Meara, who trained at the Granite Club with the Brunet's, came up short and took the bronze, just ahead of her training mate Dorothy Caley. Thacker's win was historic. It was the very first time the Canadian women's title had gone to a skater from Western Canada.

Mary Rose Thacker

Bud Wilson and Mary Rose Thacker "were assured" of their spots at the 1940 Winter Olympic Games at the conclusion of the competition. That autumn at the Montreal Winter Club, the twenty-six club, ten thousand member Figure Skating Department of the Amateur Skating Association Of Canada became the Canadian Figure Skating Association of the Amateur Skating Association Of Canada.

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.