Want to learn more about figure skating history? You are in the right place!
Created in 2013, Skate Guard is a blog that focuses on overlooked and underappreciated areas of the history of figure skating, whether that means a topic completely unknown to most readers or a new look at a well-known skater, time period, or event. There's plenty to explore, so pour yourself a cup of coffee and get lost in the fascinating and fabulous history of everyone's favourite winter sport!
R.S. Bailey, Tony Abbs, G. Brind, Len Seagrave and Jessie Seagrave. Photo courtesy John C. Fry.
The son of Mary and James Seagrave, Leonard 'Len' Charles Seagrave was born May 9, 1907, in London, England. He grew up on Frobisher Road in Hornsey, the second oldest of three brothers. His father worked as a stationery printer.
Len got his start in the skating world as a speedster at the age of nineteen, finishing second in the British Half-Mile Championship on rollers in 1926. The following year, he competed in the national outdoor ice speed skating contest for the King Edward VII Cup on the frozen Lingay Fen. When the National Skating Association celebrated its Golden Jubilee with a half-mile roller race at Alexandra Palace in 1929, twenty-two-year-old Len took top honours. As a member of the Aldwych Speed Club, he also won the inter-club relay championship for the Burgoyne Shield. In the late twenties, he began figure skating on both rollers and ice. In 1931, he won a 'boot and golosh' race at the Golders Green Ice Rink.
As a representative of the Alexandra Palace Roller Skating Club, Len was British Roller Figure Champion in 1932 and twice a winner of the Devonshire Park Bowl - in 1932 and 1936. Perhaps most impressively, he was one of precious few skaters to pass the National Skating Association's tests in numerous disciplines, both on rollers and ice. He was a Gold Medallist in roller speed, a Silver Medallist in roller figures, roller dance and ice dance and Bronze Medallist in English Style figures (both on ice and rollers) and International Style Figures (ice). His versatility and talent knew no bounds.
During World War II, Len was a Flight Lieutenant with the Royal Air Force's Balloon Branch. He was demobilized as a squadron leader, and upon returning home to his wife Jessie in England, returned to the skating world as an administrator. His service to the National Skating Association spanned four decades. He served on every single one of the Association's Committees and was a long-term member of the Ice Dance Committee. He was elected Treasurer in 1951 and Vice-Chairman in 1966. He served as the Association's representative to the British Olympic Association for many years and was involved in the Central Council of Physical Recreation and the Sports Council. He was also a respected figure skating and ice dancing judge, serving at numerous British Championships. In 1951 and 1960, he judged the ice dance event at the World Championships, where Jean Westwood and Lawrence Demmy and Doreen Denny and Courtney Jones took top honours. At the 1951 competition in Milan, he was the only judge on the panel to place the top seven couples in the order they ultimately finished. In the sixties, he served as a Substitute Council Member with the ISU, as well as a Substitute to the Ice Dance Technical Committee and donated cups for two very different skating events - one a women's free skating competition; the other a roller speed championship.
In 1973, Len was honoured for his 'Services To Skating' with an induction as an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE). Three years later, in 1976, the National Skating Association honoured him with an Honorary Life Membership for Distinguished Services. He was elected as President of the Association that same year, and presided over British figure skating during a golden era, when Robin Cousins succeeded John Curry as Olympic Gold Medallist. At the Association's Centenary Gala in 1979, he played host to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh.
Len sadly passed away during his term as the National Skating Association's President on January 26, 1984, in Harrow, Middlesex, at the age of seventy-six, just nineteen days before Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean made history with their stunning "Bolero" as Great Britain's first Olympic Gold Medallists in ice dancing. You may not have heard his name before, but his tireless work behind the scenes in the British skating world deserves both recognition and thanks.
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.
I'm delighted to finally share the covers of a new collection's edition set that will be coming out this fall! A Complete History of the European and World Figure Skating Championships are reference books, chock full of detailed results, pictures and interesting facts you can't find online.
If you're a true fan of figure skating, these comprehensive and painstakingly researched encyclopedias of the oldest international figure skating competitions in the world will be the perfect additions to your figure skating library.
These historical reference books offer a complete statistical record of fascinating facts, figures and firsts from the oldest international figure skating events in the world. Beautiful black and white photos of great champions are interspersed with complete and accurate results from the World and European Championships, going back to the 19th Century.
Available worldwide in November.
Join the ARC Team or pre-order your copy from select retailers today:
"Jimmy had enough seconds to [Dick] Button in his career to give a more introspective person a complex." - "The Troy Record", August 30, 1960
Surprise, surprise... skating is expensive. No one knew that more than James David 'Jimmy' Grogan, born December 7, 1931, in Tacoma, Washington. He started skating when he was ten at the Lakewood Winter Club's rink, on a pair of hand-me-down hockey skates he found in the back of a closet. He couldn't afford to pay the admission price to skate, so the rink's management struck a deal - if he cleaned up the ice shavings after the rink was resurfaced, he could skate for free. He caught the eye of Mrs. Floyd Moore, the President of the Lakewood Winter Club, who offered to buy him his first pair of figure skates, if he agreed to take lessons. They were white 'women's' skates. Jimmy was overjoyed when he claimed the Pacific Northwest juvenile title, receiving a black pair of skates as his reward.
Jimmy's mother passed away in April of 1944 and he was adopted by Mrs. Moore and her husband, a Major. They moved to California, where Jimmy attended Oakland's Technical High School. As a young man, Jimmy enjoyed tennis, swimming, baseball, dancing and keeping a skating scrapbook.
Jimmy's clear talent on the ice drew the attention of Margaret Garren, the well-to-do wife of a U.S. Army officer. She got the word out about his talent and contributed money towards his skating. Jimmy started training at the St. Moritz Ice Skating Club under the tutelage of Hans Johnsen.
While learning the finer points of figures and flying spins, Jimmy washed windows and cars, worked as a doorman at a theatre and a short-order cook to supplement the support from his benefactor and help pay for his mounting training costs. His efforts paid off when he became the first skater from his club to pass the elusive Eighth Test at Iceland.
After winning the Pacific Coast senior men's title, Jimmy made his first trip to the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in 1947 at the age of fifteen. Incredibly, the talented teenager placed an impressive third behind Dick Button and Johnny Lettengarver.
Shortly thereafter at the North American Championships in Ottawa, Jimmy claimed the silver medal behind Dick Button. It was clear Jimmy wasn't just going places... he was going places fast. The following season, he earned the silver medal behind Button at the U.S. Championships and placed in the top six at both the Winter Olympic Games and World Championships.
Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine
After repeating as the silver medallist at the U.S. and North American Championships and placing fourth at the World Championships the following season, Jimmy moved to Colorado Springs to train at the Broadmoor World Arena under the tutelage of Edi Scholdan. For a time, he enjoyed the status that came along with being Scholdan's prize pupil.
However, when Edi Scholdan began coaching two other talented teenagers - Hayes and David Jenkins - he found himself sharing his coach with two skaters who would prove to be two of his toughest competitors. Hayes Alan Jenkins recalled, "Edi was willing to take me, and he continued to coach Jimmy, and it was never awkward for me. Jimmy and I roomed together when we did exhibitions, and we were very good friends."
Jimmy missed the entire 1950 season, when he broke his ankle in a serious horseback riding accident. When he returned to the ice several months later, he overrated a double Salchow jump and injured his other ankle.
Incredibly, with two taped ankles, Jimmy returned in stellar form the following year to claim silver medals at the U.S., North American and World Championships, narrowly claiming the silver in the latter event in a four-three split with Austria's Helmut Seibt.
Skating in the shadow of Dick Button for much of his career, Jimmy earned the reputation of being something of a Susan Lucci... an outstanding skater who never quite seemed to be able to claim the gold despite finishing second countless times. In his book "Dick Button On Skates", Button described him as "a dauntless competitor" who "undoubtedly would have been champion had I retired earlier, or had I suffered a bad break in one of my tournaments... Tall, lanky, he was essentially a 'smooth' skater, yet with a great deal of ability to gain height on an Axel, and some fast steps which particularly suited his style... Jimmy's school figures would range from very fine to very poor. His free skating was always consistent." Skating historian Gunnar Bang described him as "a witty nice Yankee... though somewhat more impatient in the figures than Dick."
Barbara Ann Scott and Jimmy Grogan. Photo courtesy Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec.
Injury again plagued Jimmy in 1952, when he injured his ankle again during practice at the U.S. Championships held at his home rink. After placing third at the Olympic Games and winning the bronze medal, despite having the second-highest points total, he struggled in the figures at that year's World Championships. Though American judge Harold G. Storke had him second in that phase of the event, Canadian judge Donald Gilchrist had him as low as sixth. Again, his consistent free skating helped him move up to the medal podium.
Jimmy Grogan and Carol Heiss at the 1953 World Championships. Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine.
After Dick Button retired, it was supposed to finally be Jimmy's turn to win, but he was drafted into the Army and sent to Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri. In a January 16, 1954 interview in "The Times Record", he commented, "I really like the Army. I think a tour of Army duty is good for anybody. I didn't like it at first. I was pretty cocky when I came in. But they soon took that out of me, and I haven't had any gigs (demerits for misconduct) for a long time."
Given a leave of absence to compete at the 1953 World Championships in Davos, he won the school figures, but Hayes Alan Jenkins' superior free skate performance again relegated him to the silver medal spot. Jimmy recalled, "I wasn't really in shape at Davos. I had been in the Army without much chance to skate, and only got 28 days of practice to get ready for the championship."
By the following year, Jimmy was serving in the Special Service office of Eighth Army and stationed in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, where entertaining the troops became one of his duties. At the Casa Carioca nightclub, he emceed, played the ukelele and skated in daily shows. The opportunity allowed him to be on the ice every day and in a much better position to vie for the World title that had persistently eluded him. However, after turning in strong figures at the 1954 World Championships in Oslo, he again lost the title to Jenkins.
Barbara Ann Scott and Jimmy Grogan. Photo courtesy Boston Public Library.
Jimmy turned professional immediately following the 1954 World Championships. Before even heading to Oslo, ice show impresario Arthur M. Wirtz had actually travelled to Garmisch-Partenkirchen at Barbara Ann Scott's suggestion to offer him a spot in the Hollywood Ice Revue. He received a leave from active duty and toured with Wirtz's show alongside Barbara Ann, Gundi Busch, Andra McLaughlin and Ria Baran and Paul Falk.
Photos courtesy Ingrid Hunnewell
Jimmy was quite open about his stance on the strict rules of amateurism that governed figure skating at the time. Keep in mind that in the fifties, Avery Brundage wanted all amateur athletes to take an oath that they never even intended to turn professional. In an August 30, 1960 interview in "The Times Record", Jimmy lamented, "When I skated in the Olympics in 1948 and 1952, we could be tossed off the team if we even spoke to anyone connected with a professional ice revue... This made it tough on the skaters, most of whom wanted to land a pro contract through participation in the Games. That is, it did if they wanted to be honest. I think what a skater intends to do with his talent in the future is his own business."
Right photo courtesy "World Ice Skating Guide"
In the years that followed, Jimmy left the military behind and toured with the Ice Capades, Sonja Henie's European show and regularly performed in shows in Sun Valley. He even appeared on "The Ed Sullivan Show" in the sixties, skating a duet with Bobby Specht.
Jimmy later turned to coaching, founding a year-round skating school in Squaw Valley and working with Ice Follies skaters. He began teaching at the Ice Castle International Training Center in Lake Arrowhead, California in 1985. He regularly brought large groups of Japanese skaters to California to train and worked with the likes of Brian Orser, Nobuo Sato, Midori Ito and Charlie Tickner. Ironically, the skater whose inconsistent figures cost him several major titles became something of a figure specialist. He was also known for using videotape replay as a teaching aid, which (though done by a handful of other elite coaches) wasn't exactly common in those days.
An avid golfer, Jimmy was a tall and handsome skater who was popular with the ladies. He dated Sherri Westerfeld, the sister of Stephanie Westerfeld, the 1961 U.S. Silver Medallist who - like Edi Scholdan - perished in the 1961 Sabena Crash. He married an Ice Capet named Diane Jacobsen and Olympic Gold Medallist Barbara Wagner before marrying his third wife, a Japanese woman named Yasuko. He had a son and a daughter.
Inducted into the U.S. Figure Skating Hall Of Fame in 1992, Jimmy founded the Ice Castle International Skating Foundation in 1997, which provided financial support to skaters training at Ice Castle. Among the many skaters who benefited from the scholarships from this fund? Why, Michelle Kwan herself.
Sadly, Jimmy passed away suddenly of multiple organ failure at the age of sixty-eight, in San Bernardino, California on July 3, 2000. He left behind the incredible story of a skater who may not have won gold but accomplished more in skating than most could ever dream of. At the time of his death, Carol Probst, the owner of the Ice Castle International Training Center said, "You felt like you were with your best friend when you were with him."
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, Bluesky, Pinterest and YouTube. If you enjoy Skate Guard, please show your support for this archive by ordering one of six fascinating books highlighting the history of figure skating: https://skateguard1.blogspot.com/p/buy-book.html.
"Skating under real moonlight with soft ocean breezes is a delight hard to express in words!" - unnamed member of the Los Angeles Figure Skating Club, "Skating" magazine, 1939
Businessman A. Frank Ruppenthal made his fortune in St. Louis, serving as the President of the Minit-Rub Corporation, which sold a topical analgesic similar to Vick's VapoRub. In the mid-thirties, he made his first venture into the world of ice sports, taking over the franchise of the St. Louis Flyers hockey team. It was through hockey that he connected with George Humiston. Humiston was the President of the Associated Piping and Engineering Company. He and Herman Vetter had patented a new ice refrigeration process. They were so confident in their product that they were able to convince Ruppenthal to invest two hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars to build an outdoor amphitheater-style rink in the blazing California sun.
Photo courtesy Los Angeles Public Library
The Tropical Ice Gardens were built in 1938 at Wilshire Boulevard and Gayley Avenue in Westwood Village, Los Angeles. A two-hundred and fifty-ton refrigeration plant was constructed to service two ice surfaces: the main rink (110 X 210 feet) and the children's rink (60 X 40). The main rink itself could accommodate up to two thousand skaters. A steep hill west of the rink was terraced to provide seating for up to ten thousand spectators.
Photo courtesy Los Angeles Public Library
The Tropical Ice Gardens had every modern convenience: a café, sportswear and skate shops, dressing and club rooms and showers. There were also projection rooms where lighting effects could be used to illuminate the ice. It was the first year-round artificial outdoor ice rink in North America, predating the famous rink in Sun Valley by six months.
Before the Tropical Ice Gardens even opened, it was the talk of the town. Two months before the grand opening, Irene Dare, the child star of the film "Everything's On Ice", was invited to test out the ice. A week before the grand opening, the Westwood Businessmen's Association hosted a dinner party and 'pre-show' at the rink. The one-thousand-person guest list included well-to-do philanthropists, businessmen and film stars. Just two days before the rink opened to the public, Mother Nature dealt the rink a considerable challenge. The November 26, 1938 issue of "The Los Angeles Times" noted, "The fires burning in the hills surrounding Westwood put the new Tropical Ice Gardens skating surface to its severest test yesterday, but despite an increase of 20 degrees in the temperature, the refrigerating plant withstood the test without the least difficulty. With this source of worry eliminated, everything is in readiness for the opening of the new institution."
Photo courtesy Los Angeles Public Library
The Tropical Ice Gardens opened to the public on November 28, 1938, with a performance of the ice revue "St. Moritz Express". The Swiss-produced show featured an international cast, including Frick and Frack, Adele Inge, Eric Waite, Lois Dworshak, Gloria Nord and Red McCarthy. During the production's one-month run, the temperature reached an "unprecedented winter peak of 92 degrees". A January 1939 article in "Gas" magazine recalled, "One day recently, when the beaches, customarily deserted at this season, were crowded with people escaping from the inland heat, Herman Vetter, refrigeration engineer who installed the plant, checked temperatures in and above the ice. The ice itself registered at 28 degrees... and at two feet the temperature was 124 degrees! He concluded, with apparent justification, that they would be able to hold the ice during the summer."
On March 8, 1939, three hundred people were on the ice when a fire broke out in the rink's wooden engine room building. Fortunately, no one was injured, but the fire caused approximately ten thousand dollars in damage to freezing apparatus and machinery. Incredibly, the rink only had to close for about a week.
Donna Atwood
In early 1942, a roof was added to the Tropical Ice Gardens because the rink was seen as something of a 'sitting target' in the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Though the decision to cover the rink was a necessary safety precaution, U.S. Champion Theresa Weld Blanchard noted after it was added, the Tropical Ice Gardens "lost much of its charm". The All-Year, Mercury and Los Angeles Figure Skating Clubs all practiced at the rink and various women's gyms held skating classes. U.S. Champions Eugene Turner and Donna Atwood both practiced there.
Maribel (Vinson) and Guy Owen took the ice at the Tropical Ice Gardens in "Ice Frolics"; Belita Jepson-Turner wowed in "Ice Revels of 1943". A Columbia newsreel was shot there, featuring Tinsel Town A-listers like Mickey Rooney, Rita Hayworth and Ann Sheridan. MGM triple-threat Jane Powell met her husband Geary Steffen there when she was taking skating lessons. However, the big name that was most associated with the rink was none other than the queen of the ice herself, Sonja Henie.
Sonja Henie, Clark Gable and Carole Lombard. Photo courtesy Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec.
In November of 1945, Sonja Henie and Arthur M. Wirtz secured a long-term lease on the Tropical Ice Gardens under the name Sonja Henie Ice Palace Cooperation. Though a 2009 LAist article attempted to rebut the fact that Henie had a stake in the rink, this was something that was widely reported internationally in Associated Press articles and noted in Henie's biography "Queen Of Ice, Queen Of Shadows".
Van Johnson and Sonja Henie
Not long after Arthur M. Wirtz and Sonja Henie took over the lease, the Tropical Ice Gardens were renamed the Sonja Henie Ice Palace and renovated to enlarge the seating capacity. The big grand re-opening was on February 15, 1946, and featured seven performances by Henie herself, including her famous hula dance. Actor Van Johnson filled her dressing room with orchids that night. The February 16, 1946 issue of the "Los Angeles Evening Citizen News" reported, "Once again the 'darling of the rinks' won the hearts of an appreciative audience of 8500 at a premiere opening of the Sonja Henie Hollywood Ice Revue of 1946 at her Westwood arena. Before a typical Hollywood first-nighter of filmland stars, Sonja gracefully demonstrated her silver-bladed skill... combining intricate spins and whirls of ballet." The "National Ice Skating Guide" confirms that the manager of the rink under Henie and Wirtz's management was none other than Bert Clark, a former manager of the Polar Palace who was employed by Henie to act as her stand-in during rehearsals with choruses when lighting and camera angles were tested.
Photos courtesy "National Ice Skating Guide"
The good folks at UCLA can be thanked for the demise of the Sonja Henie Ice Palace. The land that the rink was constructed on had previously belonged to the government but fell under the jurisdiction of UCLA's Board of Regents. Though the government had made upwards of ten thousand dollars a year from the rink during the forties, they decided to give the land to UCLA so that they could build a medical research center. The Sonja Henie Ice Palace closed unceremoniously in 1949 but the rink's ultimate demise was to be a dramatic and unexpected one.
On May 4, 1950, Southern California was inundated with brush fires, dust storms, gales and rain. Workers were in the process of tearing down the Sonja Henie Ice Palace when a big windstorm hit Westwood Village. An article in the "Los Angeles Mirror" noted, "Bob Sims... was on the skeleton of the roof when the trusses and wall frames began to sway and crack in the wind. He tight-roped along a truss to a ladder, 75 feet away, and got down safely just as the structure fell."
Today in Westwood, where they once did layback spins and loops, you can find places to park your car and restaurants that sell soups. Though it looks like any other quiet little neighborhood you might stroll through without really noticing, Westwood was once home to an ice rink worth remembering.
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, Bluesky, Pinterest and YouTube. If you enjoy Skate Guard, please show your support for this archive by ordering one of six fascinating books highlighting the history of figure skating: https://skateguard1.blogspot.com/p/buy-book.html.
Held from March 2 to 8, 1970 in the the historic Slovenian capital of Ljubljana, Yugoslavia, the 1970 World Figure Skating Championships marked the first and only time in history that Yugoslavia would play host to the World Championships. The organizers in Ljubljana - known as 'Little Switzerland' because of its rugged beauty and great mountain climbing and skiing - pulled out all the stops to ensure the event was a great success.
The 1970 Canadian World team. Photos courtesy Mary Petrie McGillvray.
An opening ceremony at the three-hundred-year-old Ljubljana Town Hall hosted by ISU Vice-President John Shoemaker was well-attended, and skaters raved about the service at the illustrious host Hotel Lev at Vosnjakova 1.
Photo courtesy Judy Sladky
The hotel staff extended their hours to serve meals well into the wee hours of the morning to accommodate the schedules of the skaters and officials and adapted their menu to suit varied international tastes. Each country's team was provided an interpreter to make communication a breeze.
Sandra and Val Bezic with their parents at the airport in Toronto before leaving for Yugoslavia. Photo courtesy Toronto Public Library, from Toronto Star Photographic Archive. Reproduced for educational purposes under license permission.
Transportation wasn't an issue either - Ljubljana's six-year-old Sportna Hala, the Sports Hall in the Tivoli Gardens, was only a short fifteen-minute walk from the hotel. American figure skating fans who had shelled out six hundred and sixty dollars for a two-week package tour to the event sponsored by the Central California Inter Club Association appreciated the fact that Ljubljana's lightly falling snow matched the picture on the brochure perfectly. They also appreciated the fact that the competition itself was one of the most exciting they had seen in years! How did it all play out? Let's take a look back! THE ICE DANCE COMPETITION
Ice dance medallists. Photo courtesy Judy Sladky.
The retirement of Diane Towler and Bernard Ford paved the way for a classic East/West showdown between Soviets Lyudmila Pakhomova and Alexander Gorshkov, Americans Judy Schwomeyer and James Sladky and West Germans Angelika and Erich Buck. After eighteen teams had weaved their way through three compulsory dances - the Westminster Waltz, Rocker Foxtrot and Silver Samba - the Soviets and Americans were in a virtual tie. Pakhomova and Gorshkov had 150.1 points to Schwomeyer and Sladky's 149.8. Judy Sladky recalled, "Computers were a new thing for scoring and so we went back to the hotel thinking we were second. At that point, I was in bed, I had washed my hair and put it into the rollers. I didn't have a hair dryer or anything. I heard, 'All ice dancers please report to the arena after this event' so I had to get dressed, somehow get my hair done, get make-up on and everything else and go over the rink and that's when we found out we were first. There was something with the ordinals that hadn't been done in the computer. We thought we were second!"
Judy Schwomeyer and James Sladky performed a Paso Doble for their OSP and managed to overtake Pakhomova and Gorshkov by the slimmest of margins. Things looked good for the talented young American couple who managed to fit their practices around Jim's military duties at West Point.
Video courtesy Frazer Ormondroyd
With an unconventional free dance set to a modern piano arrangement of the music of Grieg, Moniuszko and Beethoven, Pakhomova and Gorshkov won the free dance - and the gold medal - in one of the closest ice dance events at the World Championships in history to that point. The judging panel was split five-four and only one-tenth of a point (511.4 to 511.3) separated the top two couples. Had it not been for low marks from British judge Mollie Phillips, Schwomeyer and Sladky would have made history as the first American couple to win a World title in ice dance. Phillips had told Sandra Stevenson that she placed Schwomeyer and Sladky lower because "his bottom stuck out". She told Benjamin T. Wright she gave them lower marks "because they weren't the North American Champions". Donna Taylor and Bruce Lennie, the Canadians who had won the title in 1969, had since retired. Instead, Pakhomova and Gorshkov made history as the first Soviet couple to win the title. Not long after, they returned to the Soviet Union and got married.
Video courtesy Frazer Ormondroyd
The Bucks took the bronze in Ljubljana, some ten points back of the leaders and fifteen points ahead of the European Bronze Medallists, Tatiana Voituk and Viacheslav Zhigalin. However, Voituk and Zhigalin's fourth place finish was quite remarkable as they had only been fourteenth at Worlds the year prior, and had stood in sixth after compulsories. Canada's only entry, Mary Church and David Sutton, placed a disappointing fourteenth after David missed a considerable amount of practice time leading up to the event due to illness.
Left: Judy Schwomeyer and Jim Sladky. Photo courtesy Judy Sladky. Right: Lyudmila Pakhomova and Alexander Gorshkov. Photos courtesy "Skating" magazine.
Peter Bojanczyk of Poland finished thirteenth with his partner Teresa Weyna. He recalled, "It was my first Worlds and it was very interesting to see and watch many skaters from the U.S. and Canada, and other countries (outside Europe). I was very impressed with Judy Schwomeyer and Jim Sladky. They presented a slightly different dance style than we were used to. Different than British and different than Russian styles. My mother arranged a trip to Ljubljana so she could watch us competing (it was unusual at that time in Poland). I still remember a tour to the famous Postojna Cave, the world's biggest underground cave complex."
Not everyone was thrilled with Pakhomova and Gorshkov's victory. Their free dance was widely criticized for its excessive side-by-side skating, toe work and posing. In fact, Ann Udell, who reviewed the event for "Skating" magazine remarked, "On the whole, the free dance was a let-down. Few couples held dance positions for any length of time, and most of the free dances can be best described as 'liftless, spinless pairs.' A notable lack of unison and the inability of the dancers to skate to the beat or in reasonable time with the selected music generally characterized the dances. Some programs contained so many changes in the music that it became distracting, abrupt transitions destroying the flow and continuity of the program as a complete, unified dance."
Judy Sladky recalled, "Pakhomova and Gorshkov used classical music, which was absolutely outlawed but Lawrence Demmy said 'Oh no, we didn't want to bother them at the competition.' They didn't tell the judges. I think at that time the judges couldn't watch the skaters in practice, so I don't think they heard their music 'til the day of... There was a Czechoslovakian judge [Miroslav Hansenöhrl] there that we'd met when we won the St. Gervais competition in '68. He was there when the Russian tanks had come into Czechoslovakia. He and a bunch of us sat down and talked about what his choices were - he couldn't go back or he could but he didn't know what to do. At the end of that conversation in '68 he said, 'Boy, I hope I get to judge you when you're World Champions'. Well, he was on the panel in '70 and he didn't put us first - he was East Bloc. He actually came up to me afterward and sided up and said, 'Well, I couldn't help it. They wouldn't let me out of the country if I [voted for you]. That was the time."
Before heading to Ljubljana, Janet Lynn spent some time training in Switzerland. In her book "Peace And Love", she recalled, "It snowed every day. Every morning [Slavka Kohout] and my mom would be out there shoveling up to a foot of snow off the rink themselves. They worked as hard as i did. Mom would have to keep shovelling patches throughout the day while I spent fix to six hours on figures. When it came to practicing my program, there was simply no way to shovel the entire rink. So I just had to go plowing through drifts. [Slavka would] keep making me do it, skating right behind me until, out of sheer desperation, I landed every jump."
In the women's school figures, defending World Champion Gaby Seyfert had a serious case of déjà vu. She found herself in exactly the same position as she'd been the year prior at the World Championships in Colorado Springs, over twenty points behind eighteen-year-old Trixi Schuba of Austria. Hungary's Zsuzsa Almássy was third after the first two figures, but an uncharacteristic error on the paragraph loop dropped her to fifth, behind America's Julie Lynn Holmes and Great Britain's Patricia Dodd. Janet Lynn placed as high as fifth on one figure but placed a disappointing eighth after the final figure, the paragraph bracket, one spot behind Canada's Karen Magnussen, who was skating in her first World Championships.
As was so often the case during that era, the stars of the free skate were Janet Lynn and Karen Magnussen. Though they finished second and third in that phase of the event, the audience at the Sportna Hala gave them both ovations that surpassed the eventual unanimous winner, Gaby Seyfert.
Seyfert's free skate was set to gypsy music. Seven judges gave her 5.9s for technical merit; the other two gave her 5.8s. On the second mark, she received one 6.0, six 5.9s and two 5.8s.
Trixi Schuba, Gaby Seyfert and Julie Lynn Holmes
Trixi Schuba placed a disappointing seventh but still managed to win the silver medal, some fifteen points ahead of the bronze medallist, Julie Lynn Holmes. Karen Magnussen ended up fourth and Janet Lynn sixth, but both skaters received a second-place ordinal overall. Magnussen's was from the British judge; Lynn's was from the Swiss. Canada's second entry, Cathy Lee Irwin, delivered an outstanding free skate of her own to move up from an unlucky thirteenth after figures to tenth place overall. THE MEN'S COMPETITION
Ondrej Nepela, Tim Wood and Günter Zöller
Winning five of the six school figures, nineteen-year-old Ondrej Nepela of Czechoslovakia took an early lead over defending World Champion Tim Wood of the United States. East German auto mechanic Günter Zöller placed a strong third, ahead of the winner of the final figure, France's Patrick Péra. Harvard student John 'Misha' Petkevich and Kenneth Shelley (the only skater to compete in both singles and pairs) sat in fifth and eighth places, and Canadians David McGillivray and Toller Cranston were twelfth and fifteenth.
Though Nepela was a master at figures and had made great strides in his free skating, not even a triple Salchow would allow him to overtake Tim Wood in the free skate. Though Wood overrotated his triple Salchow attempt, he landed a fine triple toe-loop and received two 6.0's for technical merit and one for artistic impression for his free skating performance.
John 'Misha' Petkevich stole the show with his performance to "On The Waterfront" and finished second in the free skate... but remained fifth overall behind Nepela, Zöller and Péra. The same fans who expressed frustration with the fact that Janet Lynn and Karen Magnussen hadn't won medals in the women's event were positively outraged by Petkevich's result in the men's event. Toller Cranston finished an unlucky thirteenth in his debut at Worlds, two spots back of David McGillvray, and Didier Gailhaguet of France placed second to last. One of the most interesting tidbits about the judging in the men's event was the fact that both North American judges - Yvonne Sherman McGowan and Ralph McCreath - placed Tim Wood behind Ondrej Nepela. THE PAIRS COMPETITION
Lyudmila Smirnova and Andrei Suraikin, Irina Rodnina and Alexei Ulanov and Heidemarie Steiner and Heinz-Ulrich Walther
The absence of two-time Olympic Gold Medallists Ludmila and Oleg Protopopov was certainly felt in Ljubljana. The talented pair had fallen out of favour with the 'powers that be' in the Soviet Union and placed only fourth at the Soviet Championships, missing a spot on the World team. This paved the way for a two-way battle between two other Soviet pairs, Irina Rodnina and Alexei Ulanov and Lyudmila Smirnova and Andrei Suraikin.
Photo courtesy German Federal Archive
With a confident performance, Rodnina and Ulanov took a strong lead over Smirnova and Suraikin and East Germans Heidemarie Steiner and Heinz-Ulrich Walther in the compulsory short program. In the warm-up before the first phase of the event, America's Melissa Militano collided with East Germany's Annette Kansy. Annette was so badly cut that she was taken directly to the hospital, given stitches and admitted for the duration of the competition. Then, in a practice session before the free skate, Melissa fell from a lift and suffered a concussion. She skated the free skate with her brother Mark sporting a huge bruise on her forehead... and actually managed to move up two places from tenth to eighth. In her "BBC Book Of Skating", Sandra Stevenson recalled, "Melissa and Mark Militano were executing a death spiral at the same time as an East German couple were practicing flying camels. The East German girl jumped into Melissa's path and had an artery in her leg slashed. Melissa said later that she could find no blood on her skates, although it covered the ice, and she felt that the injury might have been inflicted by the German boy's blade, colliding with his partner as he lost unison in the jump. In any case, the German girl never skated again."
Protocols for pairs short program. Photo courtesy Mary Petrie McGillvray.
Rodnina and Ulanov managed to defend their World title, but it wasn't exactly smooth sailing. Ulanov fell on the pair's first side-by-side jump - the double Salchow - and two-footed the landing of a double toe-loop. Though the judges from East and West Germany had Smirnova and Suraikin first, the rest of the panel still favoured the dynamic Rodnina and Ulanov. Steiner and Walther were unanimously third, over ten points ahead of the third Soviet team, Galina Karelina and Georgi Proskurin.
Galina Karelina and Georgi Proskurin
Canadian Champions Sandra and Val Bezic - who had Yugoslavian roots - were the clear audience favourites in Ljubljana. In her review in "Skating" magazine, Ann Udell remarked, "A colourful highlight were Canadians Sandra and Val Bezic who were skating in their first World Championships. Appearing in embroidered costumes with Sandra's hair in pigtails, this up-and-coming team of Yugoslavian descent did a charming routine to a Slovenian folk dance drawing wild cheers not reflected in their marks which placed them fourteenth." Sandra reflected on the event in her book "The Passion To Skate" thusly: "Because I was only thirteen years old, I required special permission from the International Skating Union to compete in the World Championships... For my father, who had left Croatia as a refugee during the war and was now returning home for the first time, it was an emotional event. He was pleased that his children had won a national title and were representing his adopted country on the world's stage. On the tiny island of Šolta, where many of our relatives still lived, the entire village gathered around the only TV to watch us. Even though we were just a couple of kids competing against the best... we proudly placed fourteenth."
Sandra and Val Bezic's teammates Mary Petrie and Bob McAvoy had an equally memorable experience in Ljubljana. Before the event, the Canadian team trained at an army base in Lehr, West Germany. Unfortunately, Bob McAvoy fell ill on the plane and was admitted to the army hospital before even making it to Lehr. Even though he was extremely sick, Toller Cranston encouraged him to fly with the rest of the Canadian team to Ljubljana. Petrie and McAvoy made it through the short program - but the free skate was a different matter entirely. In his book "Zero Tollerance", Cranston recalled, "Everything appeared to be fine in Bob and Mary's warm-up and at the beginning of the performance. They did a number of difficult manoeuvres: double flips, throw Axels, and whatever else one did then. But right in the middle of the program, during an extended overhead lift, the fact that Bob had no strength hit him like a bolt of lightning. He was paralyzed. He just stopped. His face turned green, and his arms buckled like spaghetti. Mary dropped flat on her face and lay there on her stomach, her legs splayed. Bob also fell on his stomach and lay where he landed. The music kept going, which added a macabre touch. The referee [Karl Enderlin] - the person who was supposed to do something - did nothing. The audience was flabbergasted... They must have lain on their faces for at least thirty seconds. Bob then raised himself up a bit. His face was scraped, and he had blood on his cheeks. On his hands and knees, he made his way to his semi-conscious partner, put his arm around her, and pulled her up. Somehow they managed to stand. Her face was severely scraped. The audience remained in a state of shock. No one knew what to do, and the music played on." Then, Bob gestured to Mary asking if she'd like to continue. She nodded yes, and within seconds of them re-starting their program, the roar of the audience in support of them was so loud that the music was drowned out. They went on to skate the performance of their lives, received a massive standing ovation... and were rewarded with dismal marks despite their bravery - finishing fifteenth of the seventeen pairs entered.
It is hard to believe that over fifty years have passed since this star-studded competition took place. Looking back at fascinating figure skating competitions like this one is a wonderful reminder that every decade of the sport's history is peppered with interesting anecdotes worth learning more about. The stories of past champions and cherished performances will remain relevant for generations to come.
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, Bluesky, Pinterest and YouTube. If you enjoy Skate Guard, please show your support for this archive by ordering one of six fascinating books highlighting the history of figure skating: https://skateguard1.blogspot.com/p/buy-book.html.
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