Interview With Severin Kiefer

Back in April, it was my absolute pleasure to present an interview with two time Olympian Miriam Ziegler. I figured it would just be rude not to talk to the other half of this talented partnership, Ziegler's talented partner (both on and off the ice) Severin Kiefer. This twenty four year old skater, like his partner, got his start as a singles skater in Austria and actually won two Austrian junior men's titles and three senior medals without a partner before teaming up with Stina Martini and later with Miriam Ziegler. I think you're going to find Kiefer's inside view on the sport refreshing! We talked about transitioning to pairs skating, balancing an on and off partnership and updated us on the hard work he and Miriam have been doing during the off season. Enjoy!:

Q: One thing I think is so remarkable about your skating career (much like your partner Miriam) is that you have balanced both a highly successful singles and pairs career at the same time. As a singles skater, you've won eight medals at the Austrian Championships on the novice, junior and senior levels and a silver medal internationally at the Mladost Trophy in Croatia. What would you say have been the proudest and most challenging moments from your singles career?

A: First of all, thank you for doing the interview! Like you said, I had the chance to compete for Austria in many international competitions on almost every level more or less successfully. I wouldn't, however, compare my singles career to that of Miriam. My proudest moment was probably coming third at the 2008 Triglav Trophy and earning my first international senior medal just after competing in my first ISU Championships, the 2008 Junior World Championships. My most challenging time came the season after that when I couldn't seem to make any progress particularly in competition. That season had its climax in a disastrous free skate at Nationals in which I failed to land a single triple jump and was rightfully not chosen to go to Junior Worlds. I was lacking the necessary maturity to deal with the situation at the time and was seriously considering quitting figure skating until a new opportunity arose in pairs.

Q: Before teaming up with Miriam, you had an accomplished career with Stina Martini. You were three time Austrian Champions and of course competed for two seasons at both Europeans and Worlds together. What do you look back at most fondly about that time?

A: Neither Stina nor I had any prior experience in pairs skating before our coach at the time, Eva Sonnleitner, had the idea for us to try skating together. We had a massive task ahead of us, which I think we mastered fairly well, considering we were the first Austrian pairs team in over a decade and the circumstance of there not being pairs coaches in Austria. What was really helpful starting out was being able to participate in the ISU Pairs Development Camp in the spring of 2009 in Berlin where both our coach and ourselves could learn the basics of pairs skating. We ended up coming back to Berlin several times over the following seasons to get help from Rico Rex and now a full time coach of Miriam and I, Knut Schubert. We were sort of thrown into the deep end by entering the Junior Grand Prix scene right off the bat in 2009. Our first ever pairs competition was the Junior Grand Prix in Dresden in early October which was absolutely nerve wracking. Having the responsibility of another person was overwhelming for me but competing in a big event like this certainly made me stronger for challenges ahead. In the following seasons, we competed at multiple ISU Championships which was an absolute dream come true for me but at some point I realized that with double jumps, our potential was very limited. We failed to get the required technical score to qualify for the 2013 World Championships in both programs and considering the stagnation in our development, I felt that it was time to make a change.

Q: Since teaming up with Miriam, you have won another two Austrian pairs titles and had some wonderful successes internationally. What are your goals looking forward to next season and how has training been going lately?

A: We have quite a bit more time to work on new elements this off season, which we are really excited about. Last year, we had to take some time off in spring to recover from a very demanding season starting with the Olympic qualifier in September through competing and experiencing the Sochi 2014 Games and after that getting our energy back up for the 2014 World Championships in Saitama. Our goals for next season are first and foremost getting the triple twist into both programs and adding a second consistent throw triple jump to our repertoire. Training has been really exciting, as we are working on a lot of new take-offs and variations in lifts and intricate transitions between elements.

Q: How do you and Miriam balance a relationship both on and off the ice and make that work?

A: Miriam and I spend close to twenty four hours a day together and quite honestly, I wouldn't have it any other way. Our on ice relationship is very professional. We have a pretty good way of separating our on ice partnership with what we have away from skating and don't let problems that occur on the ice interfere with our relationship off the ice. We have very similar taste in music and movies, we both love to cook and just have very similar interests which is certainly a plus.

Q: The 2015/2016 season is going to be a fierce one in terms of competition. You're going to be up against of course the reigning World Champions Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford and the Olympic Gold Medallists Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov will be making a comeback. Throw in three very strong Chinese pairs and Stolbova and Klimov and it's shaping up to be quite a season already. How do you plan on making your mark ?

A: It's going to be absolutely fascinating how next season turns out at the top! It seems like our discipline is heading towards more and more quad throws and twists as well as more difficult side by side jumps. Like I said before, our primary goal is getting the triple twist in our programs as well as making the programs more sophisticated and interesting. We are working on a few other technical things too but I don't want to give everything away right now. Next season is probably a little early for us to be competing with the top teams you have mentioned but we are working towards being in that discussion. We're both still young, especially in terms of pairs skaters, and we know that we have potential to improve every aspect of our skating and will try and maximize that.

Q: If you could be a superhero, what would your super power be?

A: It probably would be the power of persuasion.

Q: Who are your three favourite skaters of all time and why?

A: Steven Cousins is one of the most entertaining skaters I've ever seen. Growing up, I loved watching him on TV and I actually got to know him as a person when I was training in Barrie, Ontario in 2007. With there only being very few Europeans there at the time that shared a passion for soccer, we would play together on the weekends. Javier Fernandez is a phenomenon to me. I've known him since we were about twelve years old spending summer training camps together and competing against each other. Watching him develop in the way he did over the last eight years was just astounding. I was so happy to see him win the world title this year especially after missing out on an Olympic medal in Sochi. Cheng Peng and Hao Zhang have also just blown my mind this past season as both their programs were up there with my favourites alongside the short program of Sui and Han and Jason Brown's free skate. The way Cheng has developed as a skater has given that team a whole new dimension and Hao is just such a nice skater to watch and cool guy to see at competitions.

Q: What is one thing most people don't know about you?

A: One thing people may not know is that I am very politically interested and currently pursuing a bachelor's degree in political science.

Q: What is the biggest lesson that skating has taught you about life?

A: It's so true that you learn a lot more from failures than you do from successes in that I've learned to put things into perspective and take positives out of almost every situation... however dire they may seem. Pairs has really taught me a lot about relationships and psychology. As a singles skater, I only had to worry about myself (and to a lesser extent about my coaches) but in a pairs team so much depends on how you interact and react to each other. I am quite an analytical person which has helped me immensely in dealing with difficult situations on the ice. I believe that skill, which I have developed over the past couple of years, will be very helpful later on in my personal as well as professional life.

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.

Tom Arnold's Ice Pantomimes

When World War II ended, the one thing the world needed was to smile a little. Legendary producer Tom Arnold - no, not the one that married Roseanne Barr, a different Tom Arnold - had just the answer for that. Arnold was known as The King Of Pantomime and had produced everything from classical plays to films, revues, operas, rodeos, circuses and variety productions. He knew what he was doing. When the war ended, Arnold took over The Sports Stadium, which was an ice rink built in a facility that used to be a popular swimming pool (the S.S. Brighton) in (you guessed it) Brighton. With co-producer Gerald Palmer and managing director Benny Lee, Arnold would produce some of the most lavish and popular ice pantomimes that England has ever seen.

Tom Arnold's shows featured brassy, theatrical costumes and he offered contracts to many of the greatest professional skating stars of the era. His first show debuted in the summer of 1945 and was known as "Hot Ice". It starred Armand Perren, Len Stewart and Sheila Hamilton. Even with the popularity of summer ice shows in places like Sun Valley today, they are still a novelty and imagine how novel an idea ice shows in the summer would have been to post-war Britons!

The pantomime ice shows kept coming one by one and attracted crowds of thousands - "Snow White", "Ice Caprice", "Hello Ice", "Ice Rhapsody", "Aladdin", "Dick Whittington", "Ice Express", "Sleeping Beauty On Ice", "Ali Baba (Chu Chin Chow)". Starting in 1947, Arnold also transformed the legendary Stoll Theatre in Kingsway into an ice theatre for a successful five year run that included "Ice Cascades" (an 'aqua-ice show') and three other productions. His production of "Rose Marie On Ice" at the Harringay Arena in 1950 starred Olympic Gold Medallist Barbara Ann Scott.

One highlight of Arnold's extravagant productions was the use of Britain's first radio microphones. Professional skater and electronics enthusiast Reg Moores' radio microphone allowed skaters in Arnold's shows to not only skate, but act and sing in their roles. The radio microphone was first introduced to the ice in Arnold's "Aladdin" shows.

Starting in 1951, Arnold presented seven summer ice circuses. His acts included figure skaters, sea lions, comedians, equilibrists, trapeze artists and clowns. According to Trevor Chepstow's 2006 article "The King Of Pantomime" from My Brighton And Hove, "in one of the shows, a bear owned by Elizabeth Vogelbein the trainer bounded across the ice and leapt amongst the audience. Chased by Vogelbein and various members of the staff, the bear ran up and down the gangways before finally running into the orchestra area, from where he ambled quietly back into his cage!" Oh GOOD. Apparently the Russian ice circus producers in Russia we looked at in A Skating Safari: Bears On Ice, The Swan Lake, Flying Camels And More Than A Few Asses learned nothing from Vogelbein's folly.

With the success of his ice pantomimes and circuses, Arnold brought his shows on the road to continental Europe and even to South Africa. Sadly though, it was the end of an era for Arnold's popular ice shows. In 1958, The Stoll Theatre was purchased by a developer and the iconic performance space that survived TWO World Wars would be demolished in favor of an office block in 1958. That same year, The Harringay Arena closed. In 1965, The Sports Stadium too was sadly demolished. It's incredibly sad to think that the settings of so many great ice shows that attracted whopping audiences don't even exist anymore.

Between his stage and ice pantomimes, Arnold claimed to have produced more than four hundred productions in his lifetime and judging by the research I did in putting this little blurb together, it wouldn't surprise me! I kept running into more shows, more shows, more shows... It was really incredible. Arnold was honored as a member of The Order Of The British Empire and passed away on February 2, 1969, the day after Tim Wood and Janet Lynn won U.S. titles across the pond. After Arnold's death, his business partner Palmer kept the dream alive for a time, continuing to produce ice pantomimes choreographed by Australian Reg Park at Wembley Arena.

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.

Interview With Fumie Suguri

Three would appear to be Japanese figure skater Fumie Suguri's lucky number. She's won three medals at the World Championships, three Four Continents titles and in doing so, certainly performed more than her fair share of three revolution jumps. In her incredible competitive career that spanned over three decades, Fumie also won the Grand Prix Final, won four medals at the Asian Games and finished in the top five at two Olympic Games and earned an incredible twelve medals on the senior Grand Prix circuit. Even more impressive in my mind than her competitive record and gutsy performances was her admirable longevity as a competitor, and that was just one of many things that her and I had chance to speak about in this interview that I guarantee you that you're going to just love reading: 

Q: Your competitive career was nothing short of incredible. Three world medals, three Four Continents titles, a win at the 2003 Grand Prix Final, five Japanese titles and an impressive twelve senior Grand Prix medals... I have to just say wow! Looking back on it all now, which moments stand out as both the most special and the most challenging in hindsight?

A: It is really hard to pick one - Olympics and Worlds are always special - but if I needed to pick one, that would be the 2003 Grand Prix Final. It was such a nice moment when I saw my coach Mr. Sato was crying a lot when I took that title in Colorado Springs. That was the same place that Mr. Sato finished fourth at Worlds. He couldn't reach to the podium even though everyone said his skating was incredible. I think he wasn't satisfied with this. I can imagine from his tears how hard it was for him to have that feeling for a long time. That's why I was so happy that I could skate well and earn that medal for him.

Q: One thing that just blows my mind is the longevity of your career. You first competed internationally back in 1994 and were still competing twenty years later. What motivated you most to stick with skating over the years, especially in the more difficult times?

A: My competitive career lasted twenty eight years. I love figure skating so much and this is like a gift from God to me. After I met my long time choreographer Lori Nichol in 1996, I learned so many things not only about technique but also about entertainment. There is so much good entertainment in the world which can move peoples hearts - Broadway shows, dance, ballet, music etc. Those things always have kept me up even though I had hard or difficult times. Since I met Lori, I started to dream that I wanted to make any kind of entertainment that I could to make people happy.

Q: Staying on that topic, I've always had a hearty laugh at the people out there who are for some bizarre reason critical of skaters who choose to stay in the sport and continue competing after 'they reach a certain age'. What would you say to those people?

A: To tell the truth, there are only a few people that can be in the top rankings in any sports field, like standing on the podium or winning the competition. Is just winning the goal? NO! We learn so many things from sports. For example, at figure skating competitions you can't stop even when you fall on the first jump. Whatever happens, you have to continue. Life is the same. Even though you missed something, you have to figure out how to solve the problem and how to fight back, not to give up or throw it away. From a younger age, skating teaches us many things that we are supposed to learn later in our lives. God give everyone different challenges. It is not about our age. It is about what one decides to have in one's OWN life story.

Q: If you had to pick one favourite program that you have skated, what would it be?

A: Again, I have a hard time choosing…But I think "Paint It Black". That was really challenging for me to try rock music but the costume was a challenge as well. At that time, no one wore pants at the competitions. Lori and I always wanted to try new things and we said maybe we can try pants because there is no rule that says girls can't wear pants. We were afraid that someone would say that is not a good idea so we put a skirt on the pants. After that, the ISU put in new rules that girls can wear pants at the competitions.

Q: Is it true that Michelle Kwan was the one who first taught you the triple Lutz?

A: Actually, she SHOWED me the triple Lutz. She came to our rink (Shin-Yokohama) before the Worlds for practice. The Worlds in 1994 were in Makuhari, Japan. She was my idol at that time. I couldn't believe that a girl the same age as me could land all of her triples so easily. I asked her, "Could you please show me the triple Lutz?" She also gave me advice. It is a good memory.

Q: You have competed against a who's who of phenomenal skaters over the years - people like Michelle, Yuna Kim, Mao Asada, Maria Butyrskaya, Irina Slutskaya, Sasha Cohen and countless others - Of your competitors who did you most respect most?

A: I can't pick one. I respect them all because I knew all these skaters had lots of drama in their lives and I know just how hard it is to continue skating with this going on.

Q: To say that you have obviously travelled extensively around the world is an understatement. Where have you NOT gone that you would love to and what is your favourite country to visit?

A: Egypt. I want to see the Pyramids. I also love the Middle Eastern music and culture a lot.

Q: Who are your three favourite skaters of all time?

A: Ekaterina Gordeeva and Sergei Grinkov, John Curry and Kurt Browning.

Q: What is one thing most people don't know about you?

A: (laughing) I'm like a man - very wild! People think I'm very classical but actually, I'm not.

Q: What is the best advice that you could give someone in skating who felt like giving up?

A: There are not always good sides. There are bad, difficult moment as well. It is like the weather. There are sunny days, cloudy days, rainy days, storms... But that's why flowers can bloom and animals can live. You have to ask yourself how to live with skating.

Q: What is next in life for you?

A: My goal is always the same. I want to create or make something that can make people happy. Figure skating is one way that I can do this. When I was a competitor, I tried to do by skating my programs. Now I want to make programs or produce shows and continue to try to make good entertainment in the world.

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.

Stenuf Is Stenuf: A Look At Hedy Stenuf Byram's Story

As everyone knows, in Sonja Henie's era a number of ladies posed threats to the Norwegian skater's utter dominance of ladies figure skating but none were able to topple her from the top of the podium. One of those skaters was Austria's Hedy Stenuf and I think you'll find, as I did in researching this blog, her story to be absolutely fascinating.

Hedy was born in Vienna, Austria on July 18, 1922. She started skating at the age of five and by the following year under coach Pepi Weiß-Pfändler's direction, had passed her bronze test. The following winter, she had passed her silver test. By the age of eleven, she was training alongside World Champion Karl Schäfer at the Engelmann Rink, had won several international junior competitions and even passed the Vienna Opera Ballet's test. Travelling to America, she wowed audiences in skating carnivals with her "Devil Dance" duet with Schäfer.

Stenuf and Karl Schäfer. Photo courtesy Bildarchiv Austria.

From 1935 to 1939, Hedy competed internationally as a representative of three countries - Austria, France and the United States - and twice claimed medals at the World Championships. Had World War II not broken out, she would have been a bona fide medal contender at the (cancelled) 1940 Winter Olympic Games. Her citizenship woes were explained in a 1939 article that appeared in "Skating" magazine thusly: "Shortly before [Hedy] started skating, her father had moved to the United States with the expectation of taking his family over as soon as possible. However, the Austrian quota was full and as [Hedy's] parents did not wish to interrupt her skating career, the family remained in Austria until 1936. As her club in Vienna realized that eventually they would lose her for competition, difficulties arose and obstacles were placed in her way. Therefore, in the 1937 season, she competed for France in the European Championships at Prague and the Worlds at London. This was arranged by French impresario Jeff Dickson. The Stenuf family came to the United States in March, 1937. Her father had become a naturalized citizen, but unfortunately, a new law required that children of a naturalized citizen must undergo three years of residence in the United States before they become citizens."

In 1940, Hedy won the silver medal in both singles and pairs skating (with Skippy Baxter) at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships held in Cleveland, Ohio. She turned professional later that year and starred with Baxter in Sonja Henie and Arthur M. Wirtz' Broadway production "It Happens On Ice" at The Center Theater.

Hedy Stenuf and Skippy Baxter. Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine.

Hedy also appeared in Ripley's Believe It Or Not after allegedly performing four hundred and seventy six revolutions in a spin. According to pre-production notes for the Eleanor Perry-Smith project "Hedy And The Secret Shoes", when she was stopped by the Ripley's producers after five minutes of spinning, Hedy said, "But I wasn't finished!"

After her professional skating career winded down, Hedy turned to coaching and had her own skating studio based in Denver, Colorado in the fifties. She was a well respected coach and a friend to some of skating's greatest luminaries... Dick Button, Barbara Ann Scott and Carlo Fassi among them. According to one of her former students, she was apparently doing the Biellmann spin long before Tamara Moskvina, Karen Iten or Denise Biellmann. Hedy later moved to Florida and coached at the Sunrise Ice Skating Center in Sunrise, Florida. She passed away on November 7, 2010 at the age of eighty eight in Hallandale, Florida. 

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 Bride Of Grimborg: A Skating Labyrinth

Labyrinths have both mystified and intrigued society for centuries. In her 2004 book "The Complete Guide To Labyrinths", Cassandra Eason explains that "labyrinths, in contrast to mazes (which set out to amaze you), are unicursal, meaning they have a single pathway leading to the center. Apart from the underground Minoan labyrinth in Crete, which was meant to keep a rather nasty being under wraps, most labyrinths are etched onto a flat surface on the ground so you can always keep the center in view during your journey. The key to experiencing a labyrinth is to keep walking even if it seems like you are being led astray or moving in the wrong direction at times. If you put one foot in front of the other, then suddenly, inexplicably, just as you were losing faith, you will step into the center."

John Algeo wrote that "all labyrinths are a kind of a game, but that does not negate their seriousness". What many people might not know is that skating has a very real connection to labyrinths and it is not only in the spiralling special figures skaters used to carve out on the ice in skating's early history. In a report of the Ethnological Survey of the Nordic Museum in Stockholm from 1985, a labyrinth game called The Bride Of Grimborg was recalled and was retold in Freyia Völundarhúsins' writing "Labyrinths and Ritual in Scandinavia": "In Västergötland, Sweden, a similar type of labyrinth game was reported in 1933: Here, people used to draw labyrinths in the snow on the ice during winter. The paths would be wide enough to skate on. In the center was a girl placed, who was called the 'Bride of Grimborg'. Grimborg is a medieval legendary hero well known from many parts of Sweden. According to the song of Grimborg, the hero forced his way through fences of iron and steel in order to reach the beautiful daughter of a king. He had to fight the king's men three times before the king allowed him to marry his daughter. In the skating labyrinth, a guard, like in the legend, would stand to protect the 'castle' – that is, the labyrinth. The guard would try to mislead and stop the young man playing Grimborg, who was trying to find his way to the bride."

The story of The Bride Of Grimborg skating labyrinth not only has that mythic charm that is hard to describe but also harkens me back a little to my skating days and the wonderful sense of play the youngest skaters I'd teach Canskate to would have when we'd play What Time Is It, Mr. Wolf, Red Light, Green Light or when they would chase me while I blowed them bubbles with a wand. I think as supporters of skating we can get so caught up in the nitty gritties and details of skating that it's hard for us sometimes to remember the sense of fun and freedom that drew us into the sport, whether by skating ourselves or just by getting lost in the feeling of watching a skater whose sense of fun or of artfulness took us to a different time and place.

Much as a skater fighting their way to the center of the labyrinth to The Bride Of Grimborg would have had to put one foot in front of the other and held onto the faith they'd eventually glide their way there, we can all hold onto faith that when we embrace the joy that drew us to skating in the first place, skating (like a labyrinth) will never really lead us astray. It's all in our perspectives.

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.

Interview With Richard Dwyer

Since winning a bronze medal behind a pair of Olympic Gold Medallists at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in 1950, Richard Dwyer has been delighting audiences around the world as Mr. Debonair, a role he played in Ice Follies and Ice Capades for decades! Inducted as a member of the U.S. Figure Skating Hall Of Fame in 1993, Dwyer continues to skate at age seventy nine and is still an active (and wonderful) performer. No words for my respect and admiration for this man and a big thank you to Karen Cover at U.S. Figure Skating and Allison Scott for connecting us. We spoke at length about everything from his amateur career to touring life, his passion for skating today and what he hopes he legacy in the sport will be. What an honor and a privilege it is to share this interview with one of figure skating's living legends:

Q: You started skating after watching the Ice Follies back in 1943 and within five years were the U.S. novice champion. The next year you won the U.S. junior men's title and the year after THAT won the bronze medal at the U.S. Championships behind Dick Button and Hayes Alan Jenkins, actually beating Hayes in the free skate. Is the "what if" of continuing in the amateur ranks something that you think much about?

A: You're right, I started skating in 1943. Our whole family went to Ice Follies at the old Pan Pacific that year. My father had skated in Nebraska as a kid. I competed from 1945 to 1950 and I won novice in 1948, junior in '49 and ended up third in senior in 1950. You know, I am at peace with what happened. I made the World team when I won junior Nationals and then I qualified again in 1950 but in that era you had to pay your own way to Worlds and my Dad just couldn't afford to send me. I was fourteen and a half and I got to skate in Ice Chips with Dick and Jacqueline du Bief instead and that was an incredible opportunity in itself.

Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine

Q: When Roy Shipstad retired, you took on the role of "Young Debonair" in Ice Follies and now, without a doubt in the world, you are MR. DEBONAIR. How did that all come about?

A: We came home by train after the Washington, D.C. 1950 Nationals. I had grown up with Eddie Shipstad's kids and when we were on the train, my father said Eddie Shipstad had called and that "you have an offer". I didn't want to go at the time. I was fired up by amateur skating so we went home. I was a freshman at Loyola High and was staying with my aunt at the time so my mother could have a rest because she was driving me to the rink early in the mornings and everything. Roy Shipstad and Oscar Johnson kept bugging my dad so we sat down with the school and arranged to do it. To be offered the role of Debonair at fourteen was such a phenomenal opportunity and I am so fortunate it happened. If I hadn't have gone pro, I'm sure some other wonderful, fabulous guy would have taken the offer to be Mr. Debonair and God knows where I'd be. Life has gone by so fast and it's been a ball. I've had a great time working some greats. It's been good.

Q: What are your thoughts on skating today?

A: I'm a big fan of the sport and I almost feel like a groupie following the amateur competitions and the shows. It's just great to see how fantastic they are and how skating is going.

Q: You're still doing axels and double salchows out there and are an inspiration to skaters of ALL ages. Look at the Protopopov's as well, still out there and still fabulous. When was the last time you were out on the ice?

A: I went today! I landed five axels and four double sals. I screwed up one. I try double loops once and a while but I didn't today. I'm seventy nine and I figure, God, if I can just keep up the pace... It's kind of a challenge and a discipline with me. I don't golf so this is my one athletic exercise. I skate Monday to Friday for forty five minutes each time. It works for me. It's also my social moment.

Q: Yet, we live in a world where you've got people in the skating community pretty much goading skaters into retirement in their twenties because they are 'past their prime'. What are your thoughts on ageism in figure skating?

A: I don't get it at all. I left Ice Follies at forty four years of age and I was still doing axels, double loops, overhead lifts, split double twists and I felt REALLY GOOD! I skated with Ice Capades until 1993. I think that nobody should ever give up because they think there's a cut off point. If you love skating you should keep skating and have fun with it. You still have that wonderful thrill of challenging yourself.

Q: Tell me about teaching in Dubai!

A: It was from about 1982 to 1988 and I'd go for a few weeks each time but I was there for one whole summer during that time. Ted Wilson had been with Ice Capades and I went over a number of times to do two week shows at the Hyatt Regency Hotel. It was one hundred and twenty degrees outside but nice and cool inside and the kids were phenomenal. I think I went about seven times.

Q: Not that I think anyone could fill your shoes but if they had to, who would you do you think could be or would you love to see be the NEXT Mr. Debonair?

A: There are so many who are qualified and have that style and grace. When it came to the role for me, I loved to perform and saw that audience and felt a friendship with them. When I went to Nationals, I was sitting with Paul George and said to him about a few of the skaters "that guy just pulls you into it!" That's what I love. I wouldn't want to pick someone, I think they're all great.

Q: You skated with Barbara Wagner for a time. What was that experience like?

A: Barbara came in when I was skating with Susie Berens. She had made the World team in 1967 and we skated pairs in the show but she had to have surgery on her knee and dropped out before Christmas that year. Barbara came in and worked for me for three months. We played in Toronto and Maple Leaf Gardens. They just went crazy when they announced her name! Her death spiral! You didn't even have to do anything! She really felt really good about our shows. I am still a good friend of Barbara's. Our lives has crossed over the year and to me, her and Bob Paul... they were fabulous. I've got to become friends with her and it's just wonderful.

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

Q: Who are your three favourite skaters of all time and why?

A: You can't do that to me! Over the span of so many years, there's been so many greats. Brian Boitano... he was fantastic. Dick Button was a big hero of mine because he was the image to follow. Scott Hamilton I love. Don Jackson, there's nobody better than him as a technician. When it comes to Canadians... Elvis Stojko was great and Kurt Browning... he's phenomenal! So you know, there have just been so many. I'm also really fond of Ryan Bradley and Jeremy Abbott. I was at Nationals in Greensboro and I just love Jeremy's skating. He's beautiful to watch and I love edges. The guys who do the edges make me proud. I grew up with Tenley Albright as well and we're still good friends. I got to work with so many other talented ladies over the years as well... Peggy, Dorothy and all my partners were great. When your life is graced with these superstars, it's got to rub off and inspire you to love skating even more.

Q: What's one thing most people don't know about you?

A: I worry a lot. I try to keep ahead of things but even when I was touring, I was always getting teased because I'd get nervous before I went on. People think it's easy for me and a lot of times it really isn't.

Q: At the end of the day, what do you want your legacy in life to be?

A: Mainly that I've shared some of the wonderful things that have happened with me in skating with many young people. I've had the chance to explain to many of them how wonderful I thinks skating is and what a great life it can be if they choose that path for THEIR life. I hope to help to set up something for skaters down the line if there's anything left in my pocket as well. Above everything though, the friendships I've made have made over the years have been tremendous to me. From Tom Collins to Ája Vrzáňová and so many others... those friendships will never die.

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.

Missing: The Story Behind The Iconic Ice Dances

I hope you have been enjoying the five part series on French figure skating history as much I have writing it... the wine and cheese have been almost as fantastic as the villas and vineyards on our little virtual journey and I want to thank you for donning your berets and going on this little journey through time with me! Part five - the final part - of this series explores the story behind two of my favourite ice dance programs of all time: "Missing" and "Missing II" from World Champions Isabelle and Paul Duchesnay.

When PJ Kwong interviewed me for Open Kwong Podcast, she asked me what five of my favourite skating performances of all time were. Like a complete idiot, I completely drew a blank and forgot to mention Isabelle and Paul Duchesnay's brilliant "Missing" free dances which along with (of course) Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean's "Bolero" I personally consider to be two of the best and most important ice dance performances of all time. I'm pretty lucky to be able to say that I live a ten minute walk from (and get to see tons of great skating in) the rink where the Duchesnay's earned the world silver medal and five perfect marks of 6.0 for artistic impression in 1990. I have wanted to delve a little deeper into the story behind these free dances for some time because not only were these programs iconic but the message behind the movement was and is an important and political one.

In 1987, Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean first performed a stunning program to music from "Panpipes Of The Andes" skated in dim lighting and giving the idea of two people in despair on the run. Torvill talked about the program in the duo's 1995 autobiography Facing The Music: "One thing that required our attention was Chris’s response to some Andean music, which reminded him of the terrible things - particularly the officially sanctioned kidnappings - that had been happening in Chile and Argentina in recent years. The subject was very much in the air after the Falklands War, and more recently the Costa Gavras movie, Missing. Chris saw in his mind those who had vanished, the fathers, mothers, husbands, wives, lovers, friends and children, and devised a series of movements linking two people who could be seen as friends or brother and sister, confronting authority, cowering before it, searching for lost loved ones, and ending where they started, in limbo."

When Dean began choreographing for his future wife Isabelle Duchesnay and her brother Paul, he translated he and Jayne's well received professional program to an "amateur" competitive free dance for the team, again using the "Dolencias" music as part of the dance, the burnt red dress and the theme of these sanctioned kidnappings in South America. These kidnappings have been termed by international human rights law as 'forced disappearances'. Around the time of Argentina's Dirty War, between 9000 and 30000 citizens including everyone from left-wing activists to militants, students, journalists, trade unionists and alleged sympathizers (and their families) were held in clandestine detention camps or other secret locations by the country's government. In what became known as the Caravan Of Death, many of the captives were heavily drugged by Pinochet security forces, put on aircrafts and thrown out while still alive into the Atlantic Ocean. Without bodies, the Argentinian government was easily able to dismiss rumours of any knowledge or involvement these people's disappearances or deaths. It was really disgusting business and was very politically significant at the time for Torvill and Dean and the Duchesnay's to bring this story to the world's attention using the ice as their medium.

The Duchesnay's actually won the free dance at the 1990 Worlds here in Halifax ahead of Marina Klimova and Sergei Ponomarenko but a third place finish in the compulsory dances and a second place in the original dance kept them underneath the Russian pair. The "Mirror Image" free dance that Isabelle and Paul skated at the 1991 European Championships wasn't super well received there and they quickly set to work with Dean in creating a new free dance - a sequel to "Missing" that continued the story where the first program left off. This time things went differently for the Canadian turned French ice dance team and they won both the original and free dances to take the World title that year in Munich. In 1991, they fittingly entered the ice in the same position which they closed their free dance in Halifax. Again skating to music from "Panpipes Of The Andes", their choreography was just as innovative and unmistakably Christopher Dean. They made use of that wonderful repetition in three's that Dean is famous for using and that final pose with Paul on the ice holding an outstretched Isabelle (almost as if she was in flight) is really 'the stuff of memories'.

After turning professional in 1992, the Duchesnay's toured in France and in North America with Stars On Ice and the Tom Collins tour but their professional career came to a halt in late June 1995 when Paul suffered a broken disc in his back. Any chance of a comeback was put to rest when a year later he was a victim in a near fatal accident while rollerblading. Paul then moved to Florida with his parents to start a family business and Isabelle tried her hand at commentary. In his wonderful book "Ice Cream". Toller Cranston opined that "after the Duchesnay's left the scene, ice dance declined dramatically. Today it has become low-level schlock. Its future is in jeopardy. This mystical art will be salvaged only if skaters like Paul and Isabelle carry the creative torch and illuminate the minds and passions of future ice-dance couples." Today, both Isabelle and Paul have largely chosen to stay out of the public eye and as much of a shame as that is for the sport, I for one certainly respect their decision. 

That said, in an age where skaters today seem cautious of using music with lyrics after finally being ALLOWED to do so after literally over a hundred years, it almost seems like a foreign concept that many of today's skaters might be daring enough to use their competitive skating programs as a vehicle to share a political message. Skaters like the Duchesnay's and Katarina Witt WERE brave enough to take on very adult and political themes with their programs and choreography and I personally hope we'll see another skater in the future with that same interest - or even daring I guess is the right word. In these strange days of missing airplanes, civil unrest, questionable weather, water shortages and people continuing to take the mass media at face value, one has to reminisce on Isabelle and Paul Duchesnay's brave choice to put "Missing" and "Missing II" out there to the world on an unlikely stage and smile.

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.

Que Péra Péra: French Figure Skating In The Seventies

Exhausted as I am from the whirlwind virtual tour of French figure skating history on Skate Guard this week? Never fear, more is here. You're going to have to stock up on MORE wine, MORE cheese and use your imagination to take you back to the Eiffel Tower in the days of discothèque because part four of this series takes us to the not so distant past that predated the rise to popularity of French skaters like Isabelle and Paul Duchesnay, Philippe Candeloro, Laetitia Hubert, Surya Bonaly and Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat in the nineties... to figure skating in France in the seventies which proved to be an absolutely FASCINATING time full of familiar faces!

In 1968, Patrick Péra had followed in the footsteps of two Frenchmen who had each won World titles in the sixties: Alain Giletti and Alain Calmat. He won the Olympic bronze medal that year at the Grenoble Olympics and would go on to win three European and World medals and a second Olympic medal at the 1972 Games in Sapporo. North American audiences seem to unfortunately know so little about him. There's quite a bit TO know in fact. In the late sixties, Péra actually became involved with former skater and renowned designer Vera Wang, who moved to Paris, enrolled at the University Of Paris-Sarbonne and had a brief relationship with him before returning to New York City in 1970. Péra was coached by the legendary Jacqueline Vaudecrane, who herself was a two time French Champion in the thirties and a former student of The Brunet's. He was sent to New York City to train with his coach's former coach Pierre Brunet for a time, bringing three generations of French skaters together in doing so. Today, he's a successful banker in Milan, Italy.

Anne Sophie de Kristoffy, who won three French ladies titles from 1978 to 1980 became one of the country's best known skating commentators, covering the sport on TF1 as a journalist before taking over the direction of TF1 in 2008.

In 1974 and 1975, France's men's champion was none other than Didier... yes, that Didier... Gailhaguet, the perennial President of France's Federation that last year was elected for yet another term despite a challenge from Olympic Gold Medallist Gwendal Peizerat for the throne. Another embattled name from French figure skating who would join Gailhaguet in standing on the French podium in the seventies was 'the French judge' Marie-Reine Le Gougne, who won the bronze medal in the ladies event in both 1975 and 1977.

After winning two French titles in the late sixties with Fabienne Etlensperger, Jean-Roland Racle won another five more French pairs titles with two more partners: Florence Cahn and Pascale Kovelmann. Why does the name Jean-Roland Racle stand out? Racle turned to coaching in Boulogne-Billancourt and was the longtime coach of Laetitia Hubert as well as a coach to Sarah Abitbol and Stephane Bernadis and Line Haddad and Sylvain Prive. He has also held various roles in the FFSG (French Federation) over the years.

No rundown of the names, names, names of French figure skating in the seventies would be complete without mention of Muriel Boucher-Zazoui. The famous French ice dance coach was herself a competitive ice dancer and won three French titles with former partner Yves Malatier beforing turning to coaching and working with such fabulous ice dance teams as Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat, Isabelle Delobel and Olivier Schoenfelder, Nathalie Péchalat and Fabian Bourzat and Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon.

Stay tuned for the final part of this series on French skating history VERY soon - it's certainly a grand finale to say the very least!

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 Pioneers Of Ice Dancing In France

Think celebrating my birthday yesterday left me too tired out to get another blog out for all of you today? Think again, sweetie. Time to reload those picnic baskets with more wine, fromage, grapes and your favourite amuse-bouche and get ready for part three of a five part series on skating history in France... a look at the country's early ICE DANCING history.

Although history would have Great Britain high on the list of pioneers in ice dance, ice dancing as a sport was developing at a rapid pace in France at the same time... and the story of how it came to prominence in that country is really quite compelling. The early roots of organized ice dancing in France date back as early as 1896, when the Skating Club of Paris was founded. In May of 1922, another skating club in Paris merged with Skating Club of Paris and became known as The Club Of Winter Sports. The club was affiliated with the French Federation Of Skating, which became known as Fédération française des sports de glace (FFSG) in 1943. At The Club Of Winter Sports, both figure and free skating and ice dancing were practiced. One of the most influential members of this skating club was an avid ice dancer by the name of Jean Potin. He was the grandson of Felix Potin, who was one of the most influential and successful businessmen of the nineteenth century. With the support of many of the ice dancers at The Club Of Winter Sports, Potin decided to create the Elysee Skating Club in January of 1937. It was the first skating ice dance only skating club in France.

Recognizing the British were authorities in the area of ice dancing at time, Potin traveled to London, England in September of 1937 with one of the two conductors of The Ice Palace which housed the Elysee Skating Club to study both compulsory dance technique and the musical side of things. While there, Potin learned of new dance patterns which were unknown in France at the time, having straight lines and open dancing holds. He also contacted several British ice dance coaches hoping to convince them to teach in Paris. With the outbreak of World War II, ice time at The Ice Palace was sporadic and Potin's work to develop ice dance in France was effectively stalled. Sadly, Potin almost made it through the war but died as the result of an accident on March 18, 1945 and never saw the result of his pioneering work.

Henri and Jacqueline Meudec picked up where Potin efficaciously left off. The husband and wife ice dance team won the first French ice dance title in 1948 and went on to chair the ice dance club and act as international referees and judges. In 1952, Henri Meudec created The International Committee Of Dancing On Ice (CNDG) a few weeks before the 1952 World Championships which were held in Paris. He went on to judge the ice dance event which was won by Britons Jean Westwood and Lawrence Demmy.

Although they competed against each other with different partners at the 1953 French Figure Skating Championships, Fanny Besson and Jean Paul Guhel teamed up to win the French ice dance title from 1954 to 1956. They were the first ice dance team from France to ever compete at the World Championships when they finished seventh of fifteen teams at the 1955 World Championships in Vienna, Austria. With Christiane Guhel, Jean Paul Guhel would go on to win another five more French ice dance titles and the country's first World medal (a silver to Eva Romanová and Pavel Roman) in 1962.

Christiane Guhel followed in Henri and Jacqueline Meudec's footsteps and served as President of CNDG and was responsible for bringing three time European Medallist Roger Kennerson of Great Britain to France to work with the country's ice dancers. A former student of Betty Callaway, Kennerson was held in high esteem and among his students was none other than Muriel Boucher-Zazoui, a two time French champion in her own right who went on to coach a who's who of French ice dancing including Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat, Nathalie Péchalat and Fabian Bourzat, Isabelle Delobel and Olivier Schoenfelder, Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon and Anna Cappellini and Luca Lanotte, Speaking of Gwendal Peizerat, his father Pierre Eugene Peizerat served as General Secretary of the FFSG and was also a pioneering figure in supporting the same discipline that would see his son win Olympic gold in 2002.

Thanks largely to the pioneering efforts of Potin, The Meudecs and The Guhels and also the innovation and breaking down of walls of The Duchesnays (who we'll come back to later in this series - don't you worry!), France have been leaders in this discipline for decades. With a whole new generation of French ice dancers on the rise led by the CURRENT World Champions Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron, it appears the future looks as bright as the past illuminated.

Stay tuned for parts four and five our little virtual trip through French skating history - you do NOT want to miss them!

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.

Le Vrai Patineur: Skating In Napoleonic France

Grab your berets, baguettes, wine bottles and skate guards... because this week the blog will be featuring five back to back blogs taking a look at skating history in France! We start today by going back - way back - to Napoleonic France.

These days, not many instructional books on figure skating have a chapter on "the dangers of skating" providing advice on what a safe temperature of ice to skate on is or how to pull yourself safely out of the water should you fall through, but 1813 was a different time and Napoleonic France was a different place.

Over half a century before Jackson Haines revolutionized figure skating with his icy pilgrimage to Europe, France's Jean Garcin penned "Le vrai patineur, ou Principes sur l'art de patiner avec grâce (The true skater, or the art of skating with grace)". "Le Vrai Patineur" was an instructional book created in an effort to popularize ice skating - ice skating with a little grace at that - to the French masses during a tumultuous time in gay Paris. It is considered to be one of the first books devoted entirely to figure skating in history, its predecessor being the British "Art Of Skating" book written by Robert Jones in 1772 and was developed as a result of Garcin's involvement in a skating fraternity known in France as the Gilets Rouge (red waistcoats) who emphasized artistry over athleticism when it came to venturing out on the ice. Their credo was artistic sophistication and Garcin's book was dedicated to Geneviève Gosselin, the premier dancer at the Academy Of Music in Paris at the time.

1810 engraving of skaters in Paris. Photo courtesy "Le Bon Genre de Paris".

Parisians of the era travelled in droves to the frozen fields outside of the city near Paris at the hamlet known as La Glacière (the Glacier, then near Gentilly) or to the Canal de l'Arsenal. Skating in France during that period was generally considered a 'gentlemen's sport'. Their female companions would sit in sleighs on the sidelines in sleighs and carriages designed like gondolas, as swans with wings abreast or as crocodiles with their mouths open and would join their male friends in between bouts on the ice at beverage tents pitched around the natural rinks for a nice stiff cocktail and perhaps... a good Christian cigarette.

Skaters on the Bois de Boulogne, 1899

Later in the century, the best place to skate in France would be a private skating club within Napoleon III's own court called the Cercle des Patineurs, named after a pond constructed in a secluded portion of the Bois de Boulogne called "la pelouse de Madrid". The skating club was personally endorsed by the Emperor, who would host extravagant skating parties on the pond. French author Arsène Houssaye (who attended many of these skating parties) wrote in 1885 about the grand and very exclusive affairs: "One could imagine that the Marshals' Salon on the day of a ball had been magically transported to the Bois de Boulogne. The Emperor and the Empress, all of their esteemed court; the ministers, the ambassadors, their coterie from the Tuileries and Compiègne would all relocate themselves there, at times beneath the fog of three o'clock, at times under the evening stars accompanied by paper lanterns." In his 2003 essay "From place to espace: Napoleon III's transformation of the Bois de Boulogne", John S. Hopkins talked more about The Cercle des Patineurs and Napoleon III's interest in skating: "The Emperor's interest in skating spread throughout Parisian society, although the Cercle des Patineurs was off limits to most. Some people tried skating on the Grand Lac, but the depth of the water and successive mild winters often made that a dangerous proposition. The Cercle des Patineurs remained the best place to skate and the private haunt of the court. Indeed, within the international circles of high society, the complex earned the sardonic nickname, "chez les Happy Few." Further evidence of the private nature of the space may be found in the travel memoirs of Americans who frequented the Bois de Boulogne during the Second Empire. Accomplished world travelers such as Charles Warner, John W. Forney, and Junius Henri Browne reported at length on the tours des lacs and the races at Longchamps yet made no mention of the Cercle des Patineurs. Given the highly restricted nature of the place, it is likely that these foreign writers never saw it. Napoléon III's use of the Cercle des Patineurs transformed a simple skating club and pond into a space as private, exclusive, and official as any room in the Tuileries Palace." I think it suffices to say that Jean Garcin's efforts to popularize ice skating in France as an art and social activity paid off royally.

In his book, Garcin gives an account of the crowds gathered to skate at the Canal de l'Arsenal in the early 1800's: "men of every age and class were there, the most experienced competed in agility, whilst others clung desperately either to their neighbours or to their valets in an attempt to keep their balance." His illustrations and writings aimed to raise skating to the prominence of a serious art with its inspiration from dancing. He included a large number of 'steps' to which he gave names such as the Renommée (fame), the Saut du Zéphyre (the zephyr's leap) and the Pas d'Apollon (the step of Apollo) and the Roi de Rome (King of Rome). Unlike Jones in "Art Of Skating", Garcin placed equal importance on skating forwards and backwards and thus laid important groundwork for many of the figures skated in that day.

Garcin's book was praised in esteemed French novelist and playwright Honoré de Balzac's "Illusions Perdues" and served as important groundwork to the later efforts of Haines and many others who would effectively change figure skating from the 'old boys club' it was then to the balance of compulsory figures and free skating and later, the 'free skating only' sport that we marvel in today. It makes you sit back and ponder just where figure skating will be in another hundred years and what Garcin (and Napoleon III for that matter) would think of the twists, turns and twizzles figure skating has enjoyed so many years after "Le Vrai Patineur" was written. I find it fitting and to the credit of many of the wonderfully creative skaters that have been coming out of France for decades that as a result of Garcin and the Gilets Rouge's efforts, France adopted the term 'patinage artistique' for figure skating, which translates to 'artistic skating'. There's simply something very special about the connection the French people have with the ice and it started a long, long time ago.

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.