What's Old Is New Again: New Articles Re: Figure Skating History

The second to last #SkateGuard blog of 2016 is this month's edition of #Unearthed, a long lost interview with the legendary Arnold Gerschwiler from "Canadian Skater" magazine. Shared with the permission of Skate Canada / Patinage Canada, this piece offers a rare and honest glimpse into the mind of one of skating's great coaches and his opinions of the skating world in the late seventies:

http://www.facebook.com/SkateGuard
http://skateguard1.blogspot.ca/2016/12/unearthed-1979-arnold-gerschwiler.html
 
Thank you so much for gaining permission to share that.
His views are particularly interesting when you consider what actually occured in the years following the interview.

I'm pleased that he thought so highly of Toller!
 
skatesindreams said:
Thank you so much for gaining permission to share that.
His views are particularly interesting when you consider what actually occured in the years following the interview.

I'm pleased that he thought so highly of Toller!
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You're welcome! I found his views quite fascinating in the context of the era as well. As for Toller, I'm not quite sure how ANYONE couldn't think very highly of him.
 
N_Halifax said:
You're welcome! I found his views quite fascinating in the context of the era as well. As for Toller, I'm not quite sure how ANYONE couldn't think very highly of him.
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Of course, in total agreement. :respec:

I read the blog post before seeing these comments, and I was also totally fascinated by the never ending discussion of jumps, and artistry, and musicality discussion, even in the Dark Ages of 1979:D Not to mention his love of figures........:shuffle:

Thanks for unearthing and posting.
 
el henry said:
Of course, in total agreement. :respec:

I read the blog post before seeing these comments, and I was also totally fascinated by the never ending discussion of jumps, and artistry, and musicality discussion, even in the Dark Ages of 1979:D Not to mention his love of figures........:shuffle:

Thanks for unearthing and posting.
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You're welcome and glad you enjoyed reading! These discussions have been going on for decades and it's always interesting to gain perspective of how the top coaches and judges of different eras viewed the sport.

The final Skate Guard blog of 2016 is up... The Best Of 2016: A Skate Guard New Year's Spectacular looks back at 10.0 of the most fascinating stories from skating history that have been covered over the last year:

http://www.facebook.com/SkateGuard
http://skateguard1.blogspot.ca/2016/12/the-best-of-2016-skate-guard-new-years.html
 
The latest Skate Guard blog, 'Jumpin' Jack Flash': A Jack Of All Trades, takes a brief look at the career of a Canadian hockey and speed skating pioneer who later toured Western Canada as a figure skater:

http:///www.facebook.com/SkateGuard
http://skateguard1.blogspot.ca/2017/01/jumpin-jack-flash-jack-of-all-trades.html

Also of interest to skating history buffs is this piece from Russia Daily News Today which includes mention of 1908 Olympic Gold Medallist Nikolay Panin-Kolomenkin:

http://rbth.com/sport/2017/01/02/4-legendary-athletes-from-the-tsarist-era_654365
 
Thank you for this, and for the great quote from Toller:

"In the performance that I would give, the emphasis would be totally on performing. I would perform like wild. It's not that I wouldn't do a number of things, but I would say, let the skaters doing the quadruples and the eight triples do them. I would do all the things that they don't do. I would create a certain controversy."

Wise words, even today. :respec:
 
skatesindreams said:
I would have loved if Toller had been able to do so!
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Me too! :) I think it would have been a really neat juxtaposition to the triple packed program trend that was very much the 'norm' by that time. Canada had three spots that year... can you imagine Orser, Cranston and Beacom on the same Olympic team?

el henry said:
Thank you for this, and for the great quote from Toller:

"In the performance that I would give, the emphasis would be totally on performing. I would perform like wild. It's not that I wouldn't do a number of things, but I would say, let the skaters doing the quadruples and the eight triples do them. I would do all the things that they don't do. I would create a certain controversy."

Wise words, even today. :respec:
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Agreed! I LOVE (!) that particular quote.

FYI - the latest Skate Guard blog is up... just in time for the 2017 U.S. Championships, it's a look back at the FIRST time that Kansas City played host to the U.S. Championships... The 1985 U.S. Figure Skating Championships to be precise:

http://www.facebook.com/SkateGuard
http://skateguard1.blogspot.ca/2017/01/the-1985-us-figure-skating-championships.html

Also of interest to skating history buffs:

VICE Magazine piece on Atoy Wilson: https://sports.vice.com/en_us/artic...-wilson-the-jackie-robinson-of-figure-skating
Globe And Mail piece on a historical skating haunt in Toronto, Grenadier Pond: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...a-small-win-for-torontonians/article33621612/
 
skatesindreams said:
Thanks for sharing the feature on Atoy Wilson. I followed his progress for many years during the 1960's-70's.
He was a true trailblazer, in so many ways.
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You're absolutely right. Have a 5 part series coming on the blog next month (Black History Month) looking at the contributions that people of colour have made to the sport's history... Atoy's definitely included! :)
 
N_Halifax said:
Just in time for Throwback Thursday, the latest Skate Guard blog looks at Toller Cranston's 1984 Comeback (that never was):

http://www.facebook.com/SkateGuard
http://skateguard1.blogspot.ca/2017/01/toller-cranstons-1984-comeback.html
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I'd have to think Toller does get 1 of the spots on the 1984 Olympic team, especially considering how Skate Canada ended up handling the awarding of the 3rd berth.

The Charles Snelling reference is interesting cause I'm not sure if Snelling had stayed in any kind of competitive shape while in medical school (in his early -mid 20s) despite not competing.
 
Seerek said:
I'd have to think Toller does get 1 of the spots on the 1984 Olympic team, especially considering how Skate Canada ended up handling the awarding of the 3rd berth.

The Charles Snelling reference is interesting cause I'm not sure if Snelling had stayed in any kind of competitive shape while in medical school (in his early -mid 20s) despite not competing.
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I really don't think it would have been a stretch at all for Toller to nab that third spot on the Canadian men's team in '84. He wouldn't have had the technical (jumping) content of Orser or Beacom but his artistic marks and somewhat ironically - his figures - should have kept him in the top three.

Charles Snelling regularly skated in carnivals during the period he was in medical school, doing comedy numbers with a friend. In an interview in the late 70's in the "Canadian Skater" magazine, he explained his decision to come back quite simply: ""I wanted to have some more fun. I enjoyed it and I felt I could still compete."
 
Lots of figure skating history in the news this week!

The latest Skate Guard blog looks back thirty years to when Ottawa hosted The 1987 Canadian Figure Skating Championships:
http://skateguard1.blogspot.ca/2017/01/the-1987-canadian-figure-skating.html

PJ Kwong's historical list of top ten Canadian Champions: http://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/w...0-canadian-figure-skating-champions-1.3939485

Meagan Duhamel's Lutz Of Greens blog on her own history at the Canadian Championships: http://www.lutzofgreens.com/a-canadians-journey/

Documentary on Yvonne Dowlen: http://www.9news.com/entertainment/...ear-old-figure-skater-yvonne-dowlen/387179450

Wonderful Nick Reynolds piece on Cornell University's skating history: http://www.ithaca.com/special_secti...cle_cde64390-ddbb-11e6-852a-a3ee5213a49b.html
 
The latest Skate Guard blog, Bridging Borders: The Stories Of The First Two Canadian Men's Champions, tells the stories of Ormonde B. Haycock and Douglas H. Nelles, two Ottawa skaters who paved the way for the men of today:

http://www.facebook.com/SkateGuard
http://skateguard1.blogspot.ca/2017/01/bridging-borders-stories-of-first-two.html

Debbi Wilkes did a wonderful piece that aired on TSN's coverage of the men's and pair's short programs last night on Frances Dafoe, Ellen Burka and David Dore. There's a link to watch here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aM4mVqgUyMM
 
Thanks for the feature on Atoy Wilson, Ryan. The network clip on Mabel Fairbanks' pioneering life in figure skating I recall seeing at the time. It's nice to see it again all these years later.

I discovered an old clip from @floskate showing silent movie-like scenes of the 1913 World championships. Looking at it, I suddenly realized that the championships for various disciplines were held in different locations (Vienna for the men in 1913, and Stockholm for the ladies and pairs in 1913). It also looks like all the ladies and men did was to figure skate, i.e. skate figure eights on the ice. The pairs looked more like they were dancing together than anything else. :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggU8TcivI1I 1913 Worlds

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIz-cDy7sv8 1924 Winter Olympics (Henie & Grafstrom)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjYF8ThHkuA U.S. Nationals singles program by Tenley Albright 1953

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpKNkVpDORs U.S. Nationals singles program by Carol Heiss 1960
 
Didn't write this particular feature on Atoy Wilson but I do have a five-part series on the blog coming up shortly in conjunction with Black History Month that does touch on Atoy's career... There is a piece on Mabel in the archives.

Many free skating programs at the turn of the century were basically demonstrations of specialities (spins, special figures, difficult combinations of dance steps, footwork, etc.) and less cohesive programs to music like we think of them today.
 
N_Halifax said:
... Many free skating programs at the turn of the century were basically demonstrations of specialities (spins, special figures, difficult combinations of dance steps, footwork, etc.) and less cohesive programs to music like we think of them today.
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Yes, that's what makes it so interesting to see the actual clips and to realize how exclusive and small the skating world was, and how rather disjointed and kind of thrown together the competitions were, and how they evolved over the years. Even going from watching clips of Laurence Owen, to Peggy Fleming, and jumping ahead about 25 years later to Debi Thomas is amazingly informative and entertaining, in just noticing the changes in how programs were structured, how skills evolved and emphasis on some skills decreased, the change from outdoors to indoors, from small rinks to midsize, to the large ones of today. Nowhere for the skaters to go after skating, to the recognition they need a place to sit down to receive their marks. It's all very fascinating. :)
 
Part 3 of the Skate Guard Back In The USSR series on Soviet skating history looks at the pre-glory days of ice dance in the USSR:

http://www.facebook.com/SkateGuard
http://skateguard1.blogspot.ca/2017/01/back-in-ussr-part-three-ice-dancings.html

Some other recent goodies in the news of interest to skating history buffs:

Michelle Kwan's interview with 360 Sports: http://sport360.com/article/other/m...bi-hosting-2019-special-olympics-world-games/

Austrian Olympic Committee piece on the 1924 Olympics in Chamonix: http://corporate.olympics.com.au/news/the-first-olympic-winter-games-chamonix-1924
 
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