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Explore a treasure trove of articles on the history of figure skating, highlighting Olympic Medallists, World and National Champions and dazzling competitions, shows and tours. Written by former skater and judge Ryan Stevens, Skate Guard Blog also offers intriguing insights into the evolution of the sport over the decades. Delve into Stevens' five books for even more riveting stories and information about the history of everyone's favourite winter Olympic sport.
The son of Mercedes (Bellido) and Pedro Gregorio del Torro Gomez, Manuel del Toro was born August 3, 1927 in Brooklyn, New York. When he was a baby, his parents brought him to Puerto Rico. Manuel, his older sister Mercedes and younger brother Jorge grew up in the municipality of Mayagüez, where his father worked as a house carpenter.
Manuel's family returned to New York when he was ten. His father found work as an operator at a cork manufacturing company, and settled on Lorraine Street in Brooklyn. As a teenager, he studied art at the Graduate School of Industrial Art. To make ends meet, he got a job as an usher at the Center Theatre, which was famous for its lavish ice shows. Employees were permitted to use the theatre's ice stage during off hours. Manuel bought his first pair of skates and began dabbling on the ice. Though he received no formal instruction, he was able to catch on to the sport quickly after memorizing the moves of the performers in the shows he'd watched dozens of times. After only five weeks, he was invited to join one of the shows, but his skating career was delayed by his service as a Private First Class with the United States Marine Corps.
Manuel del Toro and Jerry Rehfield
After his discharge from the military, Manuel landed a role in an ice show at the Boulevard Room at The Stevens Hotel in Chicago. Billed as 'The Greco Of The Ice', he quickly earned a reputation as a multi-talented performer. Having taken some voice classes at the Minneapolis College Of Music, he was tasked with emceeing, singing and skating in many hotel ice shows.
In Manuel's professional career, which spanned four decades, he performed at the Starlight Roof of the Chase Hotel in St. Louis, Missouri, Barbara Ann Scott's Skating Sensations Of 1950 tour, Dorothy Lewis' shows at the Hotel Nicollet in Minnesota, the Terrace Room of the Hotel New Yorker, the Roxy Theatre, the Ice Vogues and Holiday On Ice tours, Wiener Eisrevue, the ice shows at the Conrad Hilton Hotel in Chicago and Johnny Flanagan's Ice Spectacular "Fiesta Tropicana" at the Cabaret Caprice at the Sheraton in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. In 1960, he also appeared in a television special hosted by Johnny Desmond called "Music On Ice".
Manuel performed everything from adagio pairs acts to barrel jumping and interpretive and comedy skating, and was hugely popular with audiences. It didn't hurt that he was six feet tall, dark and handsome. He was married at least three times and had four children - two sons named Ricardo and Alfredo and two daughters named Patrice and Vanessa. His wives included Peggy Lou Harrison, a model named Jane Conlon and the professional skater Jinx Clark.
Manuel del Toro and Jerry Rehfield
Manuel was not only a talented figure skater and singer, but an exceptionally gifted and versatile commercial artist. He did everything from oil paintings to sculpt metal (clay with aluminum coating) to sculpture. He also designed parade floats and made rugs on a loom. In his spare time, he enjoyed baseball, golf and swimming.
Manuel passed away on June 11, 1999 in his home in Florida, having lived in Pompano Beach for many years. His pioneering role as one of the America's first Latino figure skaters absolutely deserves recognition.
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.
King George VI passed away and Princess Elizabeth was proclaimed the Queen of England. The United States senate ratified a peace treaty with Japan. Harry S. Truman was President, Brylcreem and beehives were all the rage, a movie ticket was forty cents and Kay Starr's "Wheel Of Fortune" topped the music charts.
The year was 1952 and from March 26 to 29, many of America's best figure skaters gathered at the Broadmoor Ice Palace in Colorado Springs, Colorado for the U.S. Figure Skating Championships. The Broadmoor had played host to the Nationals in both 1948 and 1949.
Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine
The event was the grand finale of a long and arduous season. Most of the top skaters had already competed at the U.S. Olympic Tryouts just before Christmas in Indianapolis and at the Winter Olympic Games and World Championships, held in Oslo and Paris. Though the competition was serious business, the mild weather coupled with the popular outdoor swimming pool on the Lake Terrace of the Broadmoor Hotel provided more of a vacation vibe than anything. How did things play out on the ice? Let's take a look back! THE NOVICE AND JUNIOR EVENTS
Los Angeles' Georgiana Sutton lead the way after the school figures in the novice women's event, but was overtaken in the free by Mary Ann Dorsey. Fourteen year old Dorsey - 'Lulu' to friends - was a ninth grade student in Minneapolis who enjoyed knitting and playing ping pong. Another ninth grade student, thirteen year old Tim Brown of Baltimore, was the unanimous winner in the novice men's event. He had only been skating for three years at that point and carried around a wishbone for good luck.
The winners of the junior pairs title were Sharon Coate and Richard 'Buddy' Bromley, teenagers from the state of Washington. Coate and Bromley were competitors in singles, pairs and dance and represented two different clubs - she Seattle; he the Lakewood Winter Club in Tacoma. He was the editor-in-chief of his high school newspaper; she collected dolls from around the world. Finishing just off the podium in fourth were Carol Ann Peters and Danny Ryan, who skated 'double duty' in the Gold (senior) Dance event.
The Silver (junior) Dance event was won by a husband and wife team from Buffalo, Elizabeth and Roger Chambers. They had both been skating for around ten years; competitively for four. She was a mother of three and he worked in the sales department of Maxson Cadillac. Both were keen amateur photographers and were quite tall for dancers at the time. She was five foot six; he six foot one.
Carol Heiss and Tenley Albright
Though she had just won the Eastern title in the senior category, twelve year old Carol Heiss competed as a junior in Colorado Springs. She represented the Junior Skating Club of New York and came behind from third in figures to convincingly win the junior women's event. In doing so, she added her name to a long list of U.S. women who'd claim national titles as both a junior and senior... Tenley Albright, Gretchen Van Zandt Merrill, Yvonne Sherman, Beatrix Loughran and Maribel Vinson among them. In her 2012 interview with Allison Manley on The Manleywoman SkateCast, Heiss recalled, "It was my first time dealing with the altitude. And I was third in school figures, and I remember thinking that I would have to work hard on them to get better. And I remember walking in and slamming the big arena doors on my finger. Even today it’s a little crooked, so I must have broken it."
When fourteen year old Ronnie Robertson, a ninth grade student at a progressive school in Colorado Springs, won the junior men's school figures, some thought his road to gold would be a cakewalk. It was anything but. He faced a serious challenge in the free skate from Cleveland's David Jenkins and California's Armando Rodriguez. When the marks were tallied, three judges had Robertson first, one voted for Rodriguez and another gave his first place ordinal to Philadelphia's William Lemmon Jr. - who ended up only seventh overall. The red-haired Robertson took the gold, followed by Rodriguez and Jenkins... and everyone agreed that the future of men's figure skating in America looked very bright indeed. THE PAIRS COMPETITION
Only two pairs competed for the Henry Wainwright Howe Memorial Trophy in the senior pairs event. To no one's surprise, Karol and Peter Kennedy easily defeated Minnesota's Janet Gerhauser and John Nightingale to win their fifth and final U.S. title. Though there was no controversy in hthe judging - all five judges had the Kennedy's first - but behind the scenes there was a very different story going on.
The February 28, 1952 issue of "The Seattle Daily Times" reported, "Dr. Michael Kennedy of Seattle and his son were involved in a fist fight with a French news cameraman tonight at the World Figure Skating Championship and were separated by police. The incident came as Peter and his sister, Karol, had left the ice after finishing their pair-skating routine. As they left the ice, Karol stepped to the side of the rink and sat down to catch her breath. Dr. Kennedy said he asked the photographer not to take her picture because she was crying, but the picture was made anyway. In the melee that followed, the doctor's glasses were broken and the cameraman received a bloody nose. The police stepped in. The Kennedys hurried from the Sports Palace by a rear door and were taken to their hotel. Peter and Karol didn't wait to change to their street clothes."
In the months that followed, the ISU had its Congress and the USFSA its Annual General Meeting. It came out that in addition to the incident in Paris, Karol and Peter had also skated an exhibition without a proper sanction in Garmisch-Partenkirchen following the World Championships. The incident in question was a performance for American G.I.'s during a Bavarian skating competition, arranged by the U.S. military. Their father believed the German sponsors had applied for a sanction from the ISU, but they hadn't. Newspapers reported the exhibition as being the reason for their suspension, but the USFSA and ISU also acknowledged the incident in Paris.
Though Karol and Peter's father had told the press that they intended to skate professionally, after the suspension Peter applied to his local draft board for induction to go fight in the Korean War. He was rejected because he had asthma. He had previously been given a deferment because he was a student at the University of Washington. He got a job at the First National Bank. THE ICE DANCE COMPETITION
Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine
Six couples competed for the Harry E. Radix Trophy in Gold (senior) Dance in Colorado Springs, with two pairings eliminated after the initial round. The unanimous winners, to the surprise of few, were Baltimore's Lois Waring and Michael McGean. They had won the event previously in 1950 but opted not to compete the year prior and were also victors at the ISU's International Ice Dance Competition at the 1950 World Championships in London. Their free dance (rather daringly) included a couple of very small lifts.
Twenty one year old Waring had studied at the University Of Miami and twenty four year old McGean was a graduate of Dartmouth College. She enjoyed dancing and dressmaking; he photography and squash. The Sunday following the competition, the couple got married outdoors on the Lake Terrace at the Broadmoor Hotel. Many skaters and officials stayed in town for the ceremony and reception. THE WOMEN'S COMPETITION
Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine
After losing to Sonya Klopfer at the U.S. Olympic Trials in Indianapolis, sixteen year old Manter Hall School student Tenley Albright of Boston had claimed the silver medal at the Winter Olympic Games in Oslo and withdrawn from the World Championships in Paris due to a serious bronchial infection. Sufficiently recovered to compete in Colorado Springs, Albright easily won her first of five consecutive U.S. titles, leading the field of six from start to finish. She also earned the Oscar L. Richard Trophy, awarded to the most artistic 'lady' skater.
Seattle's Frances Dorsey took the silver, while St. Louis' Helen Geekie (competing in her eighth U.S. Championships) took the bronze. Sonya Klopfer and Virginia 'Ginny' Baxter, second and third at the World Championships, were notably absent. Shortly after the competition, both received suspensions from the USFSA for promising to compete at the U.S. Championships before leaving for Europe to compete at Olympics and Worlds, and failing to do so. THE MEN'S COMPETITION
Tenley Albright and Dick Button
"A superbly built athlete of immense strength, as lithe as a panther, he is concerned with his figure skating, as an endeavour to reach even greater heights. A terrific worker, he trains has few athletes have ever trained before and anyone who has seen him skate must surely realize how necessary this hard training is in order to attain such exceptional brilliance and to perform his amazing programme". These were the words of famed British skater, judge and writer T.D. Richardson, describing two time Olympic Gold Medallist, five time World Champion and three time North American Champion Dick Button. It was a delight to the skating community that Button gave "perhaps the greatest free style exhibition of his career" (according to Mrs. R. Sanders Miller in "Skating" magazine) to win his seventh consecutive U.S. title in Colorado Springs. In his final competition as an amateur, Button put the boots to his competition in the figures and landed a triple loop and three double Axels to earn unanimous first place votes from every judge and the Oscar L. Richard Trophy for the most artistic performance by a male skater. Jimmy Grogan, the winner of the U.S. Olympic Trials (which Button hadn't competed in) took the silver, ahead of Hayes Alan Jenkins, Dudley Richards and Hugh Graham. The standard of skating was so high that any other year, any of the five competitors could have easily won.
In his book "Dick Button On Skates", Button wrote, "I knew that this last national championship might be by final competition and I slaved to make it a successful one. Winning the United States title for the seventh title, I equalled the record set by Roger Turner of Boston in 1934. When I retired after this '52 tournament, I left a sport which was waxing yet stronger, with no hint of a slowdown. I was amazed in 1949 to see novice skaters incorporating in their routines jumps which had been considered daring manoeuvres for champions as late as 1945. This trend became more marked through 1952, and it seemed that an original, difficult move was no sooner introduced than it became standard equipment down the ranks of competitors, from the seniors, through the juniors, into the more talented echelon of novices. The mastery of these new ideas was not easy, but the ambition and industry of our younger skaters was so intense that they were achieving in one season what would have been the work of several years in more leisurely pre-war times. In the national and sectional championships I could appreciate best the restless urge for perfection and progress in so many skaters. Their enthusiasm and drive had carried our made-in-America school to world supremacy, and had already established it on a sounder basis when I retired than at any time during my competitive career."
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 daughter of James and Esther (Anderson) Thackeray, Esther Winsome Lorraine Thackeray was born in 1908 in Melbourne, Australia. Winsome and her three brothers William, Robert and James grew up wanting for very little at the family's large home 'White Lodge' on Marine Parade in St. Kilda.
Winsome's father was the Managing Director of Messrs. H. R. Carter & Co. Pty. Ltd., Flour and Grain Merchants and her mother was the President of the East St. Kilda Women's Hospital Auxiliary and a member of the Australia Women's National League, Seamen's Mission and English Speaking Union. While attending the Church of England Girls' Grammar School and the Oberwyl girls boarding school, her life became an endless stream of tea parties, charity fundraisers and dance lessons.
Winsome became a member of East St. Kilda junior auxiliary of the Women's Hospital and earned a cooking diploma after taking a three year course in Domestic Arts at the Emily McPherson College of Domestic Economy. In 1927, at the age of nineteen, she was finally able to achieve some semblance of control over her destiny. She showed up on the doorstep of the famed Melbourne Glaciarium and fell madly in love with figure skating. By 1930, she was skating every single day and had passed her third class test. In an interview with Beatrice Fischer in the August 21, 1930 issue of "Table Talk" she explained, "I just couldn't bear to let anything beat me! And watching those more fortunate individuals who could cut all kinds of patterns on the ice with such apparent ease, only goaded me on to do to the same. I found, that once on the ice, it was not so very difficult to make a beginning, be it ever so bad, and then after each trial I noticed an improvement, which added to my zest and gave me an exhilirating sense of power. It is a marvellous feeling in any form of activity, but particularly with skating, when it becomes quite intoxicating."
Photo courtesy National Library Of Australia
Finding an unlikely partner in Cyril MacGillicuddy, a doctor almost twenty years her senior, Winsome entered every pairs, Waltzing and singles skating competition imaginable in Australia in the late twenties and early thirties... and placed in the top three in almost every one. Contrasting with her curly fair hair, she always skated in all black and wore a short dress with a flared skirt. She added a hat and stockings for exhibitions. In 1933 - her most successful year - she won the national women's and pairs titles in Sydney and the Victorian women's, pairs and waltzing titles in Melbourne, setting a record for the most Australian skating titles held by any person at the same time. In total, she won two Australian women and pairs titles and one Australian Waltzing title. In 1935, she again made history by becoming the first woman in Victoria to pass the first class skating test. Quoted in the September 24, 1935 issue of "The Argus", she explained, "I love skating and it is a great joy to me to be able to be on the ice nearly every day." What made Winsome's achievements all the more heartening was the fact that at the height of her success, she was grieving the death of her father.
Winsome Thackeray and Dr. Cyril MacGillicuddy. Photo courtesy National Library Of Australia
Though she retired from competitive figure skating in 1935, Winsome remained a fixture at the Melbourne Glaciarium, helping to organize charity skating galas for the Women's Hospital and performing in carnivals as part of the 'Glaciarium Eight' (a team of two fours) with Edith Adams, Alison Lyons, Gwen Chambers, Graham Hobbs, Nate Walley, Ron Chambers and Jack Gordon. Though coverage of figure skating competitions was scant in the Australian press at the time, numerous mentions were made of Winsome's elegance and grace on the ice. She told Beatrice Fischer, "I really think my dancing helped me tremendously with skating. It is quite noticeable that those who have never danced make very much slower progress on the ice, than others who have. Dancing seems to instil a certain balance and poise, which is so necessary to possess in order to become a graceful skater."
By the time World War II started, Winsome had hung up her skates. She returned to the life her mother had charted out for her - volunteer work, volunteer work and more volunteer work. She worked tirelessly with the St. Kilda League Of Helpers and the Mission of St. James and St. John and lived a relatively quiet life. In 1947, her partner and friend Dr. MacGillicuddy passed away and on Good Friday in 1963, the long vacant Melbourne Glaciarium burned to the ground. Winsome never married and lived at 'White Lodge' her entire life, dying in relative obscurity at the age of sixty-eight on March 26, 1976... exactly forty years after she made first made Australian figure skating history.
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.
Triskaidekaphobia, a word you'd never want to wind up with in a spelling bee, is defined as a fear of the number 13. For centuries, people around the world have considered the number unlucky. There have been suggestions that the ancient Babylonians and Mayans were wary of the number. In a 2015 article in "National Geographic" magazine, a scientist from Newark named Thomas Fernsler attributed fears of the number 13 to the fact that numerologists considered 12 a whole number. "There are 12 months in a year, 12 signs of the zodiac, 12 gods of Olympus, 12 labors of Hercules, 12 tribes of Israel, and 12 apostles of Jesus," he noted. To this day, there are many hotels without a thirteenth floor or room and scores of people who avoid travelling or doing business on the thirteenth day of the month, particularly if its a Friday.
Over the years, figure skating has its own fair share of superstition surrounding the number 13... some of it good, some bad. Barbara Ann Scott considered the number 13 lucky because her armband at the 1948 Winter Olympics was the number 13 and she skated on Friday the 13th at that year's World Championships in Davos. Dorothy Hamill won her Olympic gold medal in Innsbruck on 1976 on Friday the 13th. Karen Magnussen was 13th in the starting order in the free skate at the 1972 World Championships and won a medal in her home country. A handful of skaters have placed 13th at the World Championships and then gone on to win World titles in the years that followed.
Ludmila and Oleg Protopopov. Photo courtesy Chicago Public Library.
The first were Ludmila Belousova and Oleg Protopopov in 1958. They were followed by Diane Towler and Bernard Ford, Tim Wood, Lyudmila Pakhomova and Aleksandr Gorshkov, Krisztina Regőczy and András Sallay, Irina Lobacheva and Ilya Averbukh, Roman Kostomarov, Isabelle Delobel and Olivier Schoenfelder, Brian Joubert and Anna Cappellini and Luca Lanotte. The most recent skaters to translate a 13th place at the World Championships to gold were Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron. The only skater in history to translate a 13th place finish at the Olympics to a gold medal at a future Games was Shizuka Arakawa.
Anuschka Gläser, Stefan Pfrengle and Claudia Leistner
For many skaters, placing 13th at the World Championships appeared to be something of a curse. German pairs skater Stefan Pfrengle placed 13th at the World Championships three times with two different partners. Skaters who very well could have been World Champions like Toller Cranston, Elizabeth Manley, Sergei Chetverukhin, Petr Barna, Susanna Rahkamo and Petri Kokko and Tanith Belbin and Benjamin Agosto may have had a 13th place finish at the World Championships to blame for their bad luck.
Anna Galmarini
Several skaters who have placed 13th at the World Championships have sadly died under tragic circumstances. Hana Mašková and Anna Galmarini both perished in automobile accidents. Rob McCall placed 13th at two consecutive World Championships with his first partner and died as a result of HIV/AIDS complications. Chris Reed, who placed 13th at the 2011 World Championships and 13th at the 2018 Olympics, died of cardiac arrest in 2020 at the age of thirty. Denis Ten, who was 13th at the 2010 World Championships, was murdered at the age of twenty-five in 2018. His birthday was on June 13th.
THIRTEENTH PLACE FINISHERS AT THE WINTER OLYMPIC GAMES
Prior to 1928, there were always fewer than thirteen entries in every discipline at the Winter Olympic Games. The skater marked in bold went on to win an Olympic gold medal.
Year
Men
Women
Pairs
Ice Dance
1928
Montgomery Wilson
Edel Randem
Kathleen Lovett and A. Proctor Burman
N/A
1932
(none)
Elizabeth Fisher
(none)
N/A
1936
Erle Reiter
Angela Anderes
Irina Timcic and Alfred Eisenbeisser-Ferraru
N/A
1948
Zdeněk Fikar
Dagmar Lerchová
Grazia Barcellona and Carlo Fassi
N/A
1952
Kalle Tuulos
Vevi Smith
Bjørg Skjælaaen and Reidar Børjeson
N/A
1956
Allan Ganter
Joan Haanappel
(none)
N/A
1960
Peter Jonas
Dany Rigoulot
Marcelle Matthews and Gwyn Jones
N/A
1964
Charles Snelling
Kumiko Okawa
Margit Senf and Peter Göbel
N/A
1968
Philippe Pélissier
Linda Carbonetto
JoJo Starbuck and Ken Shelley
N/A
1972
Didier Gailhaguet
Cathy Lee Irwin
Florence Cahn and Jean-Roland Racle
N/A
1976
Pekka Leskinen
Emi Watanabe
Ingrid Spieglová and Alan Spiegl
Susan Carscallen and Eric Gillies
1980
Rudi Cerne
Karin Riediger
(none)
(none)
1984
Mark Cockerell
Elizabeth Manley
Claudia Massari and Leonardo Azzola
Jindra Holá andd Karol Foltán
1988
Petr Barna
Charlene Wong
Lisa and Neil Cushley
Sharon Jones and Paul Askham
1992
Masakazu Kagiyama
Patricia Neske
Danielle and Stephen Carr
Anna Croci and Luca Mantovani
1994
Michael Tyllesen
Lenka Kulovaná
Anuschka Gläser and Axel Rauschenbach
Aliki Stergiadu and Juris Razgulajevs
1998
Szabolcs Vidrai
Shizuka Arakawa
Danielle McGrath and Stephen Carr
Kateřina Mrázová and Martin Šimeček
2002
Ivan Dinev
Sarah Meier
Tiffany Scott and Philip Dulebohn
Sylwia Nowak and Sebastian Kolasiński
2006
Emanuel Sandhu
Susanna Pöykiö
Marcy Hinzmann and Aaron Parchem
Federica Faiella and Massimo Scali
2010
Artem Borodulin
Min-jeong Kwak
Caydee Denney and Jeremy Barrett
Nóra Hoffmann and Maxim Zavozin
2014
Brian Joubert
Kaetlyn Osmond
Maylin and Daniel Wende
Sara Hurtado and Adrià Díaz
2018
Daniel Samohin
Ha-nul Kim
Tae-ok Ryum and Ju-sik Kim
Kana Muramoto and Chris Reed
2022
Deniss Vasiljevs
Viktoriia Safonova
Nicole Della Monica and Matteo Guarise
Marjorie Lajoie and Zachary Lagha
THIRTEENTH PLACE FINISHERS AT THE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
Prior to 1914, there were always fewer than thirteen entries in every discipline at the World Championships. Skaters marked in bold went on to win World titles.
Year
Men
Women
Pairs
Ice Dance
1914
Sergei Wanderfliet
(none)
(none)
N/A
1922
(none)
(none)
(none)
N/A
1923
(none)
(none)
(none)
N/A
1924
(none)
(none)
(none)
N/A
1925
(none)
(none)
(none)
N/A
1926
(none)
(none)
(none)
N/A
1927
(none)
(none)
(none)
N/A
1928
(none)
(none)
(none)
N/A
1929
(none)
(none)
(none)
N/A
1930
(none)
(none)
(none)
N/A
1931
Theo Lass
(none)
(none)
N/A
1932
(none)
Elizabeth Fisher
(none)
N/A
1933
(none)
(none)
(none)
N/A
1934
(none)
Ester Bornstein
(none)
N/A
1935
(none)
(none)
(none)
N/A
1936
Toshikazu Kagiyama
Audrey Peppe
(none)
N/A
1937
(none)
(none)
(none)
N/A
1938
(none)
(none)
A. Wächter and Fritz Lesk
N/A
1939
(none)
Britta Rahlen
(none)
N/A
1947
(none)
Gun Ericson
(none)
N/A
1948
Per Cock-Clausen
Suzanne Morrow
Joan Ogilvie and Bobby Thompson
N/A
1949
(none)
Beryl Bailey
(none)
N/A
1950
(none)
Valda Osborn
(none)
(none)
1951
(none)
Betty Hiscock
(none)
(none)
1952
(none)
Eva Weidler
(none)
(none)
1953
György Czakó
Elaine Skevington
(none)
(none)
1954
(none)
Rosi Pettinger
(none)
(none)
1955
Tilo Gutzeit
Ilse Musyl
(none)
Claude Weinstein and Claude Lambert
1956
Hans Müller
Fiorella Negro
(none)
Lucia Fischer and Rudolf Zorn
1957
Yukio Nishikura
Joan Haanappel
(none)
(none)
1958
Norbert Felsinger
Margaret Crosland
Ludmila Belousova and Oleg Protopopov
Adriana Giuggiolini and Germano Ceccattini
1959
Hubert Köpfler
Carla Tichatschek
(none)
(none)
1960
Hubert Köpfler
Sonia Snelling
(none)
(none)
1962
Sepp Schönmetzler
Eva Grožajová
Mieko Otwa and Yutaka Doke
Marlise Fornachon and Charly Pichard
1963
Hugo Dümler
Karen Howland
(none)
Helga and Hannes Burkhardt
1964
Robert Dureville
Kumiko Okawa
(none)
Diane Towler and Bernard Ford
1965
Tim Wood
Hana Mašková
Ingrid Bodendorff and Volker Waldeck
Gabriele Rauch and Rudi Matysik
1966
Robert Dureville
Sally-Anne Stapleford
Susan and Paul Huehnergard
Annerose Baier and Eberhard Rüger
1967
Sergei Chetverukhin
Rita Trapanese
Betty Lewis and Richard Gilbert
Lyudmila Pakhomova and Aleksandr Gorshkov
1968
Michael Williams
Linda Carbonetto
Betty and John McKilligan
Donna Taylor and Bruce Lennie
1969
Tsuguhiko Kozuka
Rita Trapanese
Evelyne Schneider and Willy Bietak
Ilona Berecz and István Sugár
1970
Toller Cranston
Charlotte Walter
Evelyne Scharf and Willy Bietak
Teresa Weyna and Piotr Bojańczyk
1971
Jacques Mrozek
Kazumi Yamashita
Linda Connolly and Colin Taylforth
Anne-Claude Wolfers and Roland Mars
1972
Didier Gailhaguet
Gerti Schanderl
Gabriele Cieplik and Reinhard Ketterer
Teresa Weyna and Piotr Bojańczyk
1973
László Vajda
Gerti Schanderl
Gale and Joel Fuhrman
Krisztina Regőczy and András Sallay
1974
Bernd Wunderlich
Barbara Terpenning
Florence Cahn and Jean-Roland Racle
Anne and Harvey Millier
1975
Didier Gailhaguet
Emi Watanabe
Grażyna Kostrzewińska and Adam Brodecki
Susan Carscallen and Eric Gillies
1976
Christophe Boyadjian
Karena Richardson
Gabrielle Beck and Jochen Stahl
Judi Genovesi and Kent Weigle
1977
Kurt Kurzinger
Heather Kemkaran
Kyoko Hagiwara and Sumio Murata
Susi and Peter Handschmann
1978
Konstantin Kokora
Claudia Kristofics-Binder
Gabrielle Beck and Jochen Stahl
Stefania Bertele and Walter Cecconi
1979
Brian Pockar
Natalia Strelkova
Elizabeth and Peter Cain
Karen Barber and Nicky Slater
1980
Jean-Christophe Simond
Carola Weißenberg
Susan Garland and Robert Daw
Marie McNeil and Rob McCall
1981
Falko Kirsten
Manuela Ruben
(none)
Marie McNeil and Rob McCall
1982
Grzegorz Filipowski
Elizabeth Manley
Luan Bo and Yao Bin
Wendy Sessions and Stephen Williams
1983
Gary Beacom
Sanda Dubravčić
Susan Garland and Ian Jenkins
Judit Péterfy and Csaba Bálint
1984
Mark Cockerell
Karin Telser
(none)
Isabella Micheli and Roberto Pelizzola
1985
Petr Barna
Susan Jackson
Shuk-Ling Ngai and Kwok-Yung Mak
Noriko Sato and Tadayuki Takahashi
1986
Grzegorz Filipowski
Agnès Gosselin
Kerstin Kimminus and Stefan Pfrengle
Sharon Jones and Paul Askham
1987
Falko Kirsten
Claudia Villiger
Shuk-Ling Ngai and Cheuk-Fai Lai
Sharon Jones and Paul Askham
1988
Neil Paterson
Yvonne Gómez
Anuschka Gläser and Stefan Pfrengle
April Sargent and Russ Witherby
1989
Axel Médéric
Yvonne Pokorny
(none)
Susanna Rahkamo and Petri Kokko
1990
Oliver Höner
Beatrice Gelmini
Sharon Carz and Doug Williams
Małgorzata Grajcar and Andrzej Dostatni
1991
Oliver Höner
Simone Lang
Cheryl Peake and Andrew Naylor
Małgorzata Grajcar and Andrzej Dostatni
1992
Michael Slipchuk
Tatiana Rachkova
Anuschka Gläser and Stefan Pfrengle
Anna Croci and Luca Mantovani
1993
Konstantin Kostin
Lisa Ervin
Svetlana Pristav and Viacheslav Tkachenko
Margarita Drobiazko and Povilas Vanagas
1994
Aren Nielsen
Rena Inoue
Natalia Krestianinova and Alexei Torchinski
Irina Lobacheva and Ilya Averbukh
1995
Vasili Eremenko
Marina Kielmann
Marina Khalturina and Andrei Krukov
Elizaveta Stekolnikova and Dmitri Kazarlyga
1996
Takeshi Honda
Tatiana Malinina
Dorota Zagórska and Mariusz Siudek
Kati Winkler and René Lohse
1997
Laurent Tobel
Nicole Bobek
Silvia Dimitrov and Rico Rex
Kateřina Mrázová and Martin Šimeček
1998
Michael Tyllesen
Joanne Carter
Marsha Poluliaschenko and Andrew Seabrook
Elena Grushina and Ruslan Goncharov
1999
Stefan Lindemann
Lucinda Ruh
Valerie Saurette and Jean-Sébastien Fecteau
Galit Chait and Sergei Sakhnovski
2000
Vitali Danilchenko
Sabina Wojtala
Kateřina Beránková and Otto Dlabola
Anna Semenovich and Roman Kostomarov
2001
Sergei Rylov
Tatiana Malinina
Inga Rodionova and Andrei Krukov
Isabelle Delobel and Olivier Schoenfelder
2002
Brian Joubert
Zuzana Babiaková
Yuko Kawaguchi and Aleksandr Markuntsov
Tanith Belbin and Benjamin Agosto
2003
Ryan Jahnke
Ludmila Nelidina
Jacinthe Larivière and Lenny
Faustino
Kristin Fraser and Igor Lukanin
2004
Ben Ferreira
Sarah Meier
Kathryn Orscher and Garrett Lucash
Svetlana Kulikova and Vitali Novikov
2005
Ivan Dinev
Idora Hegel
Marilyn Pla and Yannick Bonheur
Kristin Fraser and Igor Lukanin
2006
Tomáš Verner
Mira Leung
Marilyn Pla and Yannick Bonheur
Christina and William Beier
2007
Christopher Mabee
Elena Sokolova
Dominika Piątkowska and Dmitri Khromin
Anna Cappellini and Luca Lanotte
2008
Adrian Schultheiss
Valentina Marchei
Laura Magitteri and Ondřej Hotárek
Ekaterina Bobrova and Dmitri Soloviev
2009
Sergei Voronov
Susanna Pöykiö
Stacey Kemp and David King
Alexandra and Roman Zaretski
2010
Denis Ten
Alena Leonova
Anaïs Morand and Antoine Dorsaz
Ekaterina Rubleva and Ivan Shefer
2011
Ryan Bradley
Cynthia Phaneuf
Zhang Yue and Wang Lei
Cathy and Chris Reed
2012
Adam Rippon
Elena Glebova
Maylin Hausch and Daniel Wende
Kharis Ralph and Asher Hill
2013
Andrei Rogozine
Alena Leonova
Marissa Castelli and Simon Shnapir
Penny Coomes and Nicholas Buckland
2014
Ivan Righini
Gabby Daleman
Maylin and Daniel Wende
Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron
2015
Sergei Voronov
Anna Pogorilaya
Lubov Iliushechkina and Dylan Moscovitch
Alexandra Paul and Mitch Islam
2016
Alexei Bychenko
Nicole Rajičová
Tarah Kayne and Danny O'Shea
Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Nikolaj Sørensen
2017
Moris Kvitelashvili
Anna Pogorilaya
Nicole Della Monica and Matteo Guarise
Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Nikolaj Sørensen
2018
Keiji Tanaka
Nicole Schott
Annika Hocke and Ruben Blommaert
Marie-Jade Lauriault and Romain Le Gac
2019
Moris Kvitelashvili
Ekaterina Ryabova
Minerva Hase and Nolan Seegert
Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson
2021
Han Yan
Madeline Schizas
Annika Hocke and Robert Kunkel
Shiyue Wang and Xinyu Liu
2022
Deniss Vasiljevs
Ekaterina Kurakova
(none)
Natálie Taschlerová and Filip Taschler
2023
Deniss Vasiljevs
Madeline Schizas
Daria Danilova and Michel Tsiba
Maria Kazakova and Georgy Reviya
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 launch of my new book "Jackson Haines: The Skating King" is just around the corner! The book will be officially launched on November 1. I couldn't be more excited to get this important history out into the world. That said, writing, editing and designing the book was definitely just the beginning. The real work hasn't even started yet and I wanted to give you a little behind the scenes look at what goes into an indie book launch!
The goal of any well-organized book launch should never be to get your book in front of as many people as possible. It should be to reach your target audience. "Jackson Haines: The Skating King" is not the kind of book that will explain the difference between a toe-loop and a toe-pick - it's a book for lovers of figure skating who already have a basic knowledge of the sport and its history... and that's who I want to reach.
How do I plan on doing that? In addition to promoting the book on social media (Facebook, X/Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, TikTok and Threads) I will be reaching out to people who have signed up to my newsletter and placing targeted ads on Amazon, Facebook, X/Twitter and Instagram. I tried to think outside of the box and get a little creative in my marketing strategy. I partnered with a local business for a giveaway of custom skating-themed bath and body products, hired a voice actor to read an excerpt from one of Jackson Haines' letters for a video promotion and will be hosting a live discussion about the book on social media.
I made a lot of the mistakes the last time around that I have learned from:
- Not 'going wide' and staying exclusive to one platform.
- Not investigating audience quality/engagement before running targeted ads to followers of influencers.
- Free promotions - great for the first book in a fiction series, not at all for a standalone nonfiction book! As they say, 'exposure' doesn't pay the bills.
- Marketing to general audiences instead of those specifically interested in figure skating.
- Not seeking out ARC Readers and organizing a street team.
- Getting the word out at the wrong time. Facebook's algorithms, for instance, won't show a post to people unless people like or comment right away. I'm an early riser in the Atlantic Time Zone. If I post something at 6 AM, it's 2 AM in Vancouver.
Marketing is a constant learning process. It is a good thing I love to read because I've been learning something new every day over the past six months preparing for this book's launch... but there's one challenge that is absolutely unavoidable.
Libraries are one of the best ways to get your book in the hands of target readers. However, getting your book into them isn't an easy task whatsoever for any indie author. Libraries are particularly discerning with acquisitions of self-published titles. Many won't even consider self-published books unless they have been reviewed by Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews, Booklist, Publisher’s Weekly, Quill & Quire, etc. The cost of a Kirkus Review alone is $450 USD and unfortunately, many self-published authors report that these paid editorial reviews have not provided a good return on investment. A key part of my launch strategy involves pitching the book individually to over two hundred North American libraries as well as dozens more in the UK, Europe and Australia - focusing on local connections when I reach out to them if possible.
Social media marketing and library pitches are just two of many things that happen behind the scenes when you launch a book. There are dozens of other things that go on: pricing, press releases, creating ad copy for multiple platforms, organizing digital deposit with Library and Archives Canada, writing blogs, sending and answering e-mails, making phone calls and engaging on message boards.
When you go the traditional publishing route, all of these fun things are handled by a team of people. When you don't, it's a one-pony show.
If you want to be amazing and help ensure this book succeeds, there are a few small things you can do that won't take more than five minutes of your time...
- Tell people that love history or figure skating about the book!
- Leave a short, honest review on bookish sites like Goodreads, The Storygraph, Bookbub, Litsy and Librarything and copy it over to the retailer's site you purchased the book from. You can absolutely share the same review on more than one site... in fact I'd love if it you did. Whether you loved it or hated it, a review would be so appreciated!
- Go to your local library's website and fill out a 'Suggest A Purchase' form. All of the information you might need for this form can be found on the site you purchased your copy on.
Thank you so much for your support and I really hope you enjoy reading the book.
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.
.png "The book \"Jackson Haines: The Skating King\" by Ryan Stevens, placed artistically on a stepladder")
.png "Learn about the important history of Latin American figure skaters with special content for Latin American Heritage Month 2023")
