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ISU championship medals for men (left), women (center) and pairs (right) used at the 1930 World Championships
From February 3 to 5, 1930, the world's best figure skaters descended on The Big Apple for the 1930 World Figure Skating Championships. To really get a sense of how big a deal this competition was, it was the first World Championships ever held on North American soil, the first time official World Championship events in men's, women's and pairs skating were held at the same time in the same location and the first time that Sonja Henie ever skated in North America. Pretty historic stuff!
Top: Karl Schäfer, Sonja Henie, Ludwig Wrede, Melitta Brunner and Georges Gautschi. Bottom: Melitta Brunner, Karl Schäfer, Maribel Vinson and Sonja Henie.
How did it all come about? In the book "First twenty-five years of the United States Figure Skating Association, 1921-1946", Charles T. Church, then president of the USFSA wrote: "Countless letters and cables had passed between the Internationale Eislauf Vereinigung and the USFSA and Henry Howe, when he was in Europe, had many conversations with Mr. [Ulrich] Salchow, I.E.V. President, before the Europeans agreed to having the World Championship Competitions held in the United States under the auspices of the USFSA and The Skating Club of New York. Permission was finally granted in the fall of 1929, and from that time, things began to hum in preparation for the great event. About February 1, 1930, the following cable from Stockholm was received: 'Internationale Eislauf Vereinigung send congratulations. Convinced first World Championships skated America will result in growing cooperation and fellowship - Salchow.'"
One of the major players in ensuring that the rules set forth by the ISU were instituted properly was Joseph Savage. The same five judges from Austria, Canada, Great Britain, Norway and the United States presided over the marking of all three disciplines - another first - and competitions in school figures were arranged at The Ice Club on West 50th Street, with free skating competitions to be held in Madison Square Garden.
William Nagle, Ludwig Wrede, Roger Turner, Bud Wilson, Georges Gautschi, Karl Schäfer, Gail Borden II and James Lester Madden at the 1930 World Championships. Photo courtesy "Skating Through The Years".
THE MEN'S COMPETITION
Karl Schäfer in 1930. Photos courtesy National Archives of Poland, "Skating" magazine.
Although he only had one second place ordinal in free skating, American Roger Turner earned the silver medal based on his strong second-place showing in the figures. His medal win was also of great historical significance as it was the first medal won by an American man in the history of the World Championships. With a strong free skating performance, Dr. Georges Gautschi of Switzerland claimed the bronze ahead of Canada's Montgomery Wilson and four other competitors. Benjamin T. Wright recalled a story concerning Richard L. Hapgood, who was a reporter for the "Boston Transcript" at the time: "He travelled from New York after the competition with the Austrian judge and asked him by he had given Schäfer 11 sixes (6.0) out of 12 (the other being a 5.9) in the compulsory figures, to which the judge, Mr. Julius Edhoffer, replied that he 'always gave a six to the best figure.'"
The only British entry in the entire event, Ian Home Bowhill, was forced to withdraw. A short footnote in "Skating" magazine noted, "Mr. Bowhill... actually arrived in New York harbor, yet could not land and skate! Other than the following, we know nothing. He is said at times to have been afflicted with heart trouble. During a storm, he became so violently ill, affecting his heart, that the ship's doctor refused to allow him to leave his room when he arrived, ordering his return to England at once. We wish to express our admiration of his sportsmanship in coming and our deepest regrets and sympathy in his great misfortune."
THE PAIRS COMPETITION
In the pairs competition, newlyweds Andreé and Pierre Brunet of France captured their third World title. The silver went to Melitta Brunner and Ludwig of Austria and the bronze to Americans Beatrix Loughran and Sherwin Badger. The Brunets' win was impressive in that there was no French judge on the panel, and there was clearly some national bias going on. Three judges put the Brunets first, one tied them with Melitta Brunner and Ludwig Wrede of Austria, and the Canadian judge placed Constance Wilson and Montgomery Wilson first... although no other judge even had them in the top three. That same Canadian judge also put Isobel and Melville Rogers third. No one had them in the top three either.
THE WOMEN'S COMPETITION
The real talk of the Championships was, of course, the women's competition. The stories, as they always did when Henie was involved, started before the competition even began. In an interview for David Young's book "The Golden Age Of Canadian Skating", Cecil Smith recalled that during a practice, "First came Sonja, swathed in furs. Then came Mother, swathed in furs. Then Papa Henie, with a fur coat and [a] cigar. Then the brother, with long blond hair, carrying Sonja's skates, and behind him one of the international judges. Sonja walked over to my patch to see what my figures were like, but I said nothing - just smiled." It was at this event that Smith competed in white boots, a statement which Henie later 'borrowed' and popularized. Despite taking a tumble in the free skate, the Canadian star recovered without missing a beat. Constance Wilson was lucky to compete at all. A faulty skate sharpening had led to an accident in practice that nearly took her out of the event altogether. Despite missed training time, she too performed quite well all things considered.
With a little luck from the rabbit's foot she wore around her neck and a little wheeling and dealing, no doubt from Papa Henie, Sonja won her fourth consecutive World title. However, her win wasn't unanimous. In the figures, British judge Herbert J. Clarke - who was also the ISU Vice-President at the time - had her third behind Smith and Vinson. American judge Joel B. Liberman had her second behind Smith. In the free skating, Canadian judge J.C. McDougall had Henie second behind Constance Wilson. All other judges had her first. Overall, Henie earned first place ordinals from every judge, Smith three seconds and two thirds for second and Vinson one second, two thirds and two fourths for third. Wilson, Melitta Brunner and American Suzanne Davis finished fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively.
In her book "Wings On My Feet", Henie recalled, "In the wings, preparing none too calmly to face all those thousands of eyes in the galleries, I remember checking carefully every detail I could think of - my boots, the sharpness of my blades, whether my gloves were fastened and the ornaments on my hair firmly in place... Norwegian-Americans fell upon us after the competitions, hordes of them. They came over to the Biltmore with us, and when they had crowded into our suite, it seemed we should have taken a floor instead. Several of them remembered father from his cycling days at the Bygdøy track and, to his vast pleasure, recognized him by sight despite the fact that back then he had been less than a shadow of his 1930 self."
Joel B. Liberman's report on the event in "Skating" magazine was unusually frank for the time. He wrote, "Sonja will always win over Maribel in spite of dark whisperings of disillusion about Sonja which circulate like evil spirits around a rink in practice and are blown away when the referee announces that the tournament has begun. That is - Sonja will always win unless Maribel will listen and learn. I have always felt that if our American star could give that measure of practice under efficient coaching which is accorded the foreign stars that she would be the greatest skater of them all. Her school figures are excellent (they were good enough to win a first from a foreign judge) and she skates them with daring. Her free skating has vitality and dash. She has personality plus on the ice. You may want to drag her off and lecture her on how to win, but you can't ignore her. Notwithstanding this great talent she will not reach the goal to which she is entitled unless she learns - repose. Strangely enough it has a place in skating and Sonja is a champion because she has it coupled with speed and accuracy. In her school figures Sonja is slow motion. She sticks to the trace like a veteran. Her forced turns are just good enough to get by, but at loop-change-loop she is a wizard. At the end of a long school program she will be found at the top or so near it that her remarkable ability as a free skating performer will always pull her through. She is still the same dashing free skater that she was at the Olympics and her program is practically unchanged except that she is even more complete mistress of the art of showmanship in skating than ever. Granted that Sonja has not a varied free skating program, and that she relies for her points on a wide variety of spins, a few perfect jumps, and a couple of eagle moves, yet she performs these so faultlessly and with such ease that on her performance any fair minded judge should give her practically the maximum. As to the lack of dances, spirals, original specialties... I would say that while Sonja retains her extreme youth and vivacity, she does what she does so well that we must condone what she omits. As a solo skater among women amateurs she stands alone."
Fritzi Burger didn't make the trip to New York, saying her father told her, "Why not be the first European Ladies Champion, rather than travel all that distance just to be second again to Sonja." The American press coyly alluded to a relationship between Schäfer and Henie, who were seen holding hands, to make good copy and a skater's party was thrown for the competitors by Mr. and Mrs. Church. The hugely successful competition really did generate a huge boom of interest in the sport in America and proved to the Eurocentric ISU that North Americans were fully equipped to host major international competitions. Quoted in the December 31, 1936 issue of the "New York Post", Joseph K. Savage recalled, "Those championships convinced the skeptical Garden authorities that figure skating was a paying proposition and won a large following for the sport." Perhaps Sherwin Badger summed up the event best when he said, "Judging by the enthusiasm of the audiences, the press, and the management of Madison Square Garden, it looked as if, at long last, figure skating had left its struggling beginnings behind and was about to become a firmly established sport."
Following the competition, Cecil Smith headlined the Minto Follies in Ottawa. Schäfer, Henie, the Brunets and a cast of European stars joined their American counterparts in a whirlwind series of exhibitions in New York, Boston, New Haven and Philadelphia before returning on steamers to Europe to compete in the (second) 1930 European Championships in Berlin.
The only British entry in the entire event, Ian Home Bowhill, was forced to withdraw. A short footnote in "Skating" magazine noted, "Mr. Bowhill... actually arrived in New York harbor, yet could not land and skate! Other than the following, we know nothing. He is said at times to have been afflicted with heart trouble. During a storm, he became so violently ill, affecting his heart, that the ship's doctor refused to allow him to leave his room when he arrived, ordering his return to England at once. We wish to express our admiration of his sportsmanship in coming and our deepest regrets and sympathy in his great misfortune."
Andreé and Pierre Brunet with Charles T. Church. Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine.
THE WOMEN'S COMPETITION
Constance Wilson-Samuel, Suzanne Davis, Melitta Brunner, Cecil Smith, Maribel Vinson and Sonja Henie. Photos courtesy "Skating" magazine (top) and "Skating Through The Years" (bottom).
The real talk of the Championships was, of course, the women's competition. The stories, as they always did when Henie was involved, started before the competition even began. In an interview for David Young's book "The Golden Age Of Canadian Skating", Cecil Smith recalled that during a practice, "First came Sonja, swathed in furs. Then came Mother, swathed in furs. Then Papa Henie, with a fur coat and [a] cigar. Then the brother, with long blond hair, carrying Sonja's skates, and behind him one of the international judges. Sonja walked over to my patch to see what my figures were like, but I said nothing - just smiled." It was at this event that Smith competed in white boots, a statement which Henie later 'borrowed' and popularized. Despite taking a tumble in the free skate, the Canadian star recovered without missing a beat. Constance Wilson was lucky to compete at all. A faulty skate sharpening had led to an accident in practice that nearly took her out of the event altogether. Despite missed training time, she too performed quite well all things considered.
Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine
With a little luck from the rabbit's foot she wore around her neck and a little wheeling and dealing, no doubt from Papa Henie, Sonja won her fourth consecutive World title. However, her win wasn't unanimous. In the figures, British judge Herbert J. Clarke - who was also the ISU Vice-President at the time - had her third behind Smith and Vinson. American judge Joel B. Liberman had her second behind Smith. In the free skating, Canadian judge J.C. McDougall had Henie second behind Constance Wilson. All other judges had her first. Overall, Henie earned first place ordinals from every judge, Smith three seconds and two thirds for second and Vinson one second, two thirds and two fourths for third. Wilson, Melitta Brunner and American Suzanne Davis finished fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively.
In her book "Wings On My Feet", Henie recalled, "In the wings, preparing none too calmly to face all those thousands of eyes in the galleries, I remember checking carefully every detail I could think of - my boots, the sharpness of my blades, whether my gloves were fastened and the ornaments on my hair firmly in place... Norwegian-Americans fell upon us after the competitions, hordes of them. They came over to the Biltmore with us, and when they had crowded into our suite, it seemed we should have taken a floor instead. Several of them remembered father from his cycling days at the Bygdøy track and, to his vast pleasure, recognized him by sight despite the fact that back then he had been less than a shadow of his 1930 self."
Joel B. Liberman's report on the event in "Skating" magazine was unusually frank for the time. He wrote, "Sonja will always win over Maribel in spite of dark whisperings of disillusion about Sonja which circulate like evil spirits around a rink in practice and are blown away when the referee announces that the tournament has begun. That is - Sonja will always win unless Maribel will listen and learn. I have always felt that if our American star could give that measure of practice under efficient coaching which is accorded the foreign stars that she would be the greatest skater of them all. Her school figures are excellent (they were good enough to win a first from a foreign judge) and she skates them with daring. Her free skating has vitality and dash. She has personality plus on the ice. You may want to drag her off and lecture her on how to win, but you can't ignore her. Notwithstanding this great talent she will not reach the goal to which she is entitled unless she learns - repose. Strangely enough it has a place in skating and Sonja is a champion because she has it coupled with speed and accuracy. In her school figures Sonja is slow motion. She sticks to the trace like a veteran. Her forced turns are just good enough to get by, but at loop-change-loop she is a wizard. At the end of a long school program she will be found at the top or so near it that her remarkable ability as a free skating performer will always pull her through. She is still the same dashing free skater that she was at the Olympics and her program is practically unchanged except that she is even more complete mistress of the art of showmanship in skating than ever. Granted that Sonja has not a varied free skating program, and that she relies for her points on a wide variety of spins, a few perfect jumps, and a couple of eagle moves, yet she performs these so faultlessly and with such ease that on her performance any fair minded judge should give her practically the maximum. As to the lack of dances, spirals, original specialties... I would say that while Sonja retains her extreme youth and vivacity, she does what she does so well that we must condone what she omits. As a solo skater among women amateurs she stands alone."
Fritzi Burger. Photo courtesy National Archives of Poland.
Following the competition, Cecil Smith headlined the Minto Follies in Ottawa. Schäfer, Henie, the Brunets and a cast of European stars joined their American counterparts in a whirlwind series of exhibitions in New York, Boston, New Haven and Philadelphia before returning on steamers to Europe to compete in the (second) 1930 European Championships in Berlin.
Annulled results from the 1930 European Championships (take one) in Štrbské Pleso
The results of the men's event in Štrbské Pleso had been declared null and void by the ISU because Yugoslavian ISU judge Ivo Kavsek had been swapped out for a non-certified judge named Victor Vadisek. Judging under Kavsek's name, Vadisek led a bloc of judges from Czechoslovakia, France and Yugoslavia to place Josef Slíva ahead of Karl Schäfer. Schäfer had the last laugh in Berlin, easily winning his second European title and putting to bed a controversy that had made front page news in both Czechoslovakia and Austria.
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 eight fascinating books highlighting the history of figure skating: https://skateguard1.blogspot.com/p/buy-book.html.
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 eight fascinating books highlighting the history of figure skating: https://skateguard1.blogspot.com/p/buy-book.html.