Skate Guard Blog

French Connection: The Jacques Favart Story

Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine

The son of Germaine (Perdreau) and André Gabriel Marie Favart, Jacques Jean Fernand Favart was born on July 30, 1920 in Paris, France. His father was a salesman. He got his start in figure skating at a young age at the Molitor ice rink. By the time he was only thirteen, he was recognized as a skater of promise and from 1936 to 1939 won the silver medal four times at the French Championships behind Jean Henrion.

Jacques' first big success as a figure skater came during the Occupation of Paris by the Nazis, at the 1942 French Championships. He defeated Guy Pigier, Paul Gaudin and Jean Vivés to finally win the national senior men's title and finished second in the pairs event with partner Claude Martin-Chauffier. Held at the four-year old Patinoire Victor-Hugo at rue Mesnil, the same building as the Saint-Didier swimming pool, the 1942 French Championships were the only major figure skating competition held in France during World War II.

After the War, Jacques teamed up with his competitor Paul Gaudin's sister Denise to win the French pairs title four times. Coached by Jacqueline Vaudecrane, Denise and Jacques represented France at three World Championships and the first Olympics held after World War II in St. Moritz in 1948. Their best international finish was eighth at the 1947 European Championships in Davos. Their on-ice relationship blossomed to an off-ice one and the couple soon married. Denise and Jacques divorced in 1952. A second marriage to Madeleine Marie Anne Planchet lasted from 1956 to 1960.

Denise Gaudin and Jacques Favart

Jacques turned to judging in the late forties and was appointed an ISU Championship (World) judge in 1952. He served as a judge at the 1953 European Championships, 1954 World Championships and 1955 European Championships before being elected as a member of the ISU's Figure Skating Committee in 1955. He became the Committee's chair in 1957, served as a member of the Organization Committee for the 1958 World Championships in Paris and in 1959 was elected as the ISU's Vice-President for figure skating. He also served as a referee at four European and three World Championships between 1956 and 1960. As a judge, he wasn't afraid to stand up for what he felt was right. At the 1953 European Championships in Dortmund, he was only one of two judges to place silver medallist Alain Giletti over winner Carlo Fassi. At the 1954 World Championships in Oslo, he placed winner Hayes Alan Jenkins' younger brother David (a talented jumper) first in free skating.

When ISU leader Ernest Labin died in office in 1967, Jacques took over as the governing body's President - the first person from France to hold the position. During the second and third year of his Presidency, he was also the President of the Fédération Française des Sports de Glace. Off the ice, he served as the Administrative Director of La Fondation Mouvement pour les Villages d'Enfants, a charitable organization that provided assistance for orphaned and endangered children.

Skating endured monumental change during the thirteen years Jacques served as the ISU's President. Ice dancing became an Olympic sport. The North American Championships were scrapped and several new events including the World Junior Championships, Skate Canada and the NHK Trophy were introduced. When Vern Taylor landed his triple Axel at the 1978 World Championships, it was he and Sonia Bianchetti Garbato who made the call to ratify the jump as the first performed in international competition. He was the tie-breaking vote in support of a year-long suspension of Soviet judges in 1978. He was a strong supporter of the introduction of the short program and 1980 revisions to the scoring system that attempted to address the imbalance between school figures and free skating. He pushed for a minimum age of sixteen for the Olympics and World Championships and was a big supporter of a move to eliminate school figures from international competition but retain them at lower levels for training. His stance was particularly popular in Europe at the time, but faced staunch opposition from many North American coaches and officials. Interviewed for "The Globe And Mail" in 1980, he said, "The compulsory figures must die. They are a waste of time and prevent skaters from being more creative."

Jacques Favart's address from the 1978 World Championships in Ottawa

For his services to figure skating, Jacques was honoured with the title Chevalier de l'Empire with the Légion d'honneur and inducted as an Officer of the Ordre national du Mérite. At the 1980 ISU Congress in Davos, he was re-elected for his seventh term as ISU President. Shortly afterwards, he suffered a heart attack after a major heart surgery. He passed away on September 27, 1980 at the age of sixty in Le Chesnay, France. The following June, the ISU decided to honour him with a special Jacques Favart Trophy, to be given to figure and speed skaters who made remarkable contributions to their sports. Its recipients have been a very select group of Champions, including Irina Rodnina, Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean, Kurt Browning, Katarina Witt, Scott Hamilton and Natalia Bestemianova and Andrei Bukin. Jacques was also honoured with a posthumous induction to the World Figure Skating Hall Of Fame in 1993.

Though not a name that many skaters today may be familiar with, Jacques paved the way for the sport as we know it today by embracing and engineering sweeping changes. At the time of his death in 1980, John R. Shoemaker remarked, "He was intelligent, fair, honest, forceful, innovative, gifted with a marvelous sense of humor, and in every way a person eminently fitted to lead our sport."

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.

Kaleidosoap Contest Winners

Pre-order is now live for the Kindle E-Book edition of "Jackson Haines: The Skating King" and to promote to the upcoming book, there was a giveaway contest for two fantastic exclusive products created by a wonderful small business from Lunenburg, Nova Scotia called Kaleidosoap - Ice shower gel and Figure Eight body butter!

The winners have been selected by random draw - congratulations to Lisa, Dawn and Megan! You will be getting an e-mail from me shortly and your goodies will be in the mail this week. Thank you to everyone that entered!

Intrigued by the giveaway and the book? Pre-order your copy of the Kindle E-Book edition of "Jackson Haines: The Skating King" today! The eBook will be officially launch alongside hard cover and paperback editions on November 1, 2023.

Free Giveaway Contest!

Pre-order is now live for the Kindle E-Book edition of "Jackson Haines: The Skating King" and to promote to the upcoming book, you can enter for a free giveaway of two really fabulous exclusive products - Ice shower gel and Figure Eight body butter!

Both products were created as exclusives for Skate Guard newsletter subscribers by Kaleidosoap, a wonderful veteran-owned small business from Lunenburg, Nova Scotia that produces incredibly unique, handcrafted bath & body products in small batches.

ICE SHOWER GEL

Scent profile: Peppermint & Shivers

Ingredients: Aqua, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, Peg-80 Sorbitan Laurate, Sodium Tricedeth Sulfate, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, Disodium Lauroamphodiacetate, Peg-150 Distearate, Sodium Laureth-15 Carboxylate, Quaternium 15, Sodium C14-16 Olefin Sulfonate, Glycerin, Peg-150 Pantaerythrityl Tetrastearate, Peg-6 Caprylic/Capric Glycerides, Aloe Barbensis Leaf Extract (and) Glycerin (and) Aqua, Phenoxyethanol (and) Caprylyl Glycol (and) Sorbic Acid, Yellow 6, Parfum

FIGURE EIGHT BODY BUTTER

Scent profile: Alpine Frost & Figure Skates

Ingredients: Shea (Butyrospermum Parkii) Butter, Grapeseed (Vitis Vinifera) Oil, Arrowroot Flour, Vitamin E (Tocopherol), Parfum

Ice and Figure Eight are exclusives but you can find all of Kaleidosoap's main line and seasonal products on their website at https://www.kaleidosoap.ca. If you haven't tried their Dragon's Blood shower gel, you are missing out!

HOW TO ENTER

1. Fill out the Giveaway Entry Form below.

2. Subscribe to the newsletter in the right toolbar of Skate Guard blog. You will receive an e-mail which asks you to confirm your subscription. Once you do, you're good to go!

Please note that these are scented products so if you are scent this is not the giveaway for you.

ELIGIBILITY AND DRAW

Three winners will be chosen by random draw on Monday, May 22. Each winner will receive one bottle of Ice shower gel and one jar of Figure Eight body butter.

This contest is only open to residents of Canada and the United States who are subscribed to the Skate Guard newsletter. All entrants must be over the age of 19.

GIVEAWAY CONTEST RULES AND CONDITIONS

Entries will be accepted until May 21, 2023 at 11:59 PM Atlantic Standard Time. Giveaway prize winner is determined by random draw from all entries received. 3 winners will be announced on Skate Guard's Facebook and Twitter channels and notified within 72 hours of the contest closing via the e-mail addresses provided. They will have 7 days to respond with their mailing address via e-mail to claim their prize. Alternate winners will be determined by random draw if any original winners do not respond via e-mail within 7 days. Prizes will be mailed to all winners within 2-4 weeks.

The e-mail address used in the entry form also be signed up for the Skate Guard newsletter and the e-mail confirmation request submitted. Providing your e-mail address gives me permission to send you occasional updates and news. Your information will never be sold or used for spamming purposes. You can unsubscribe at any time. If you have any questions, comments or concerns regarding this giveaway contest, do not hesitate to contact me.

Intrigued by the giveaway and the book? Pre-order your copy of the Kindle E-Book edition of "Jackson Haines: The Skating King" today! The e-book will launch alongside hard cover and paperback editions on November 1, 2023.

Reader Mail Time

It's once again time to unpack the mail bag, answer some of your questions and share some of the interesting e-mails and social media messages that have come my way over the last few months. As always, if you have a question you'd like me to tackle or feedback on a blog please reach out via e-mail.

READER QUESTIONS

From Jennifer (via e-mail): "When did pairs start doing overhead lifts?"

A: Great question Jennifer! If you watch fabulous grainy newsreel footage of skating, you'll notice that a lot of the lifts that early pairs performed were along the lines of what we'd call dance lifts today. There were some exceptions to this though, of course. Overhead carry and adagio lifts were a thing (mostly in professional skating circles) in the 1940's. The partners doing the lifting didn't have a ton of experience in this area though and there are actually stories of men practicing off-ice by lifting arm chairs and sand bags before attempting lifts with their partners. Overhead rotational lifts really didn't start making their way into amateur skating until the 50's. As late as the early 60's, there was an ISU rule that overhead lifts could have a maximum of two revolutions. The German pair of Margret Göbl and Franz Ningel did four revolutions at the 1961 Europeans. It was very close between them and another German pair and some felt that was why they lost the title.

From Susan (via Twitter): "During the 1988 Calgary Olympics closing ceremony, Barbara Underhill & Paul Martini skated to a piece of music by a Canadian composer which to this day I really liked the program and the music but have never been able to find out what the piece was or who the composer was. I know this is rather obscure - but anyway I think they only skated this program once but it certainly stuck in my mind."

A: The music used for Underhill and Martini's program when the flame was extinguished in Calgary was "The Cello and The Girl" by Juno award winning musician Tommy Banks. While we're on the topic of that Closing Ceremony, I will say as a skating history lover, I thought the performances in that Closing Ceremony were an absolute dream. Beautifully put together and so many fabulous skaters participated - Toller Cranston, Robin Cousins, Dorothy Hamill, Barbara Ann Scott, Karen Magnussen, Don Jackson, Petra Burka, Debbi Wilkes, Brian Pockar... the list goes on and on. Brian Pockar was the Artistic Director, Kevin Cottam the choreographer and Frances Dafoe the costume designer. A beautifully done tribute to skating history. If you haven't seen it, it's on the YouTube - give it a watch!

From Jeff (via e-mail): "Why did they stop holding international competitions outdoors?"

A: Have you seen Mother Nature in action?! At the last World Championships held outdoors in Vienna in 1967, all events but the men's and women's school figures were held outdoors and the weather conditions weren't exactly lovely - competitors had to contend with changing temperatures, high winds, rain and snow. This not only put a damper on the competition, but affected ice conditions and caused delays as well. While competitors had an awful go of it skating outdoors sometimes, the real victims were the judges and officials who were outside in terrible weather conditions for prolonged periods of time, unable to move around and try to stay warm. While we might look at those stunning pictures of skaters competing in Davos and St. Moritz with the mountains in the backdrop in awe, the reality of how things often played out wasn't always as idyllic as photographs might suggest.

Engraving of skaters at the Palais de Glace, 1906

From @ismiicassie (via Instagram): "Do you have any unknown/hard to find information on the Théâtre du Rond Point in Paris that used to be an ice rink (Palais de Glace)?"

A: I took a look in my files and unfortunately, I do not have much on the Palais de Glace aside from some beautiful pictures and advertising posters. One book I'd recommend checking out is Jeanine Hagnauer's "Le patinage sur glace: historique". I'd also take a look in the collections of the Bibliothèque nationale de France. They have over sixty issues of a wonderful 19th French periodical called "Le Patineur" that was in print around the time the Palais de Glace opened. Hope this helps a little bit!

THE OLD SMOOTHIES

From Susan (via e-mail): Just a memory of the Old Smoothies. I couldn't wait to see them in the Ice Capades. I think my first was around 1952, Buffalo, NY. We all in our family skated at Buffalo Skating Club, which was Nichols School hockey rink part of the time. I was 7 then and knew how hard it was to keep on the correct edge. I always looked forward to seeing them perform!

Photographs of a scrapbook from the family of Armand Perren. Photo courtesy Anne-Catherine Rickli.

FAMILY SCRAPBOOKS

From Anne-Catherine (via e-mail): Armand [Perren] was the uncle of my mum (the brother of her mum). The wife of one of Armand's brother just died and I got different albums of ice skating. One is about Armand, some are about Fredi (his brother) and there are also a lot of newspaper articles about them.

THE MURDER OF FRANCES RADECOP

From Richard (via e-mail): "I am a retired Navy Captain born and raised in West Seattle and graduated from West Seattle High School in '55 (Frances' school) and the University of Washington. I read your skating blog account of Frances Radecop’s murder with interest. Growing up, I lived a half-block away from both the Radecop and the Jones residences and although I did not know Frances, I knew her murderer, Carl Jones. In fact, he taught a gaggle of us younger neighborhood kids how to shoot basketball. The story of how he was finally caught is fascinating... I talked to two people who knew both Frances and Carl. One a classmate and the other my and their high school teacher. I also learned from Jack Porter, the assistant Seattle Chief of Police, who was a friend of my father’s and lived right across the alley from the Jones residence and knew him as a neighbor as well as a murderer, how they caught onto Carl. The Seattle Post Intelligencer newspaper, at the behest of the police, periodically reviewed and printed unsolved cold cases in the hopes of developing new leads. A copy of the newspaper featuring the Radecop murder with a large photo of Frances Radecop on the front page was lying on the table when Carl Jones signed up at a West Seattle boathouse for a local fishing derby. When Jones caught sight of the newspaper, his reaction was so pronounced that the woman recording the registration entries contacted the police, stating that she was convinced he knew something. Carl Jones had a police record. He had been arrested as a juvenile for burglarizing a boathouse and stealing an outboard motor. Moreover, Carl and Frances had not only been classmates but lived within a few doors of each other. It was enough. On the pretext that they were investigating another boathouse burglary, the police asked Jones to voluntarily come in and clear his name. He did so. They asked him to take a lie detector test, to which he readily agreed since he was innocent of the fictitious crime. As soon as he was hooked up they started questioning him about the Radecop murder. According to Jack Porter, Assistance Chief of Seattle Police (and later King County Sheriff), Jones confessed within 15 minutes. Omitting names, I wrote about this story, which I entitled 'I was taught to play basketball by a murderer,' in my high school creative writing class. When I finished reading the story out loud to the class, the teacher declared, 'You’re writing about the Radecop murder.' I acknowledged that that was true, to which she replied that almost everyone in the school, faculty and students, suspected Carl of the crime at the time. He and Frances had had a secret affair that she had broken off, which he took badly. Decades later I was telling this story to a group at a gathering when a woman who was a classmate of Frances confirmed this. But both the teacher and the classmate said the police never questioned anyone at the school and apparently no one thought to contact them, so he escaped justice for eight years. As a footnote, Carl Jones served honorably in the U.S. Army during the Korean War and was awarded the Bronze Star. A killer turned war hero turned convicted murderer."

Minneapolis Marvel: The Bill Swallender Story

The son of Hulda (Inenfeldt) and Carl Gustaf Swallender, Carl Gustaf William 'Bill' Swallender was born on April 22, 1908 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His father was a Swedish immigrant; his mother the daughter of German immigrants. His father, a devout Lutheran, was an engineer who worked with the E.G. Staude Manufacturing Company in St. Paul. Carl Gustaf Swallender invented, among many things, an early form of voting machine.

As a young student at Edison High School, Bill excelled at tumbling and was acted in school plays. His father's death in 1928 forced him and the family's older siblings to find jobs to support their widowed mother and younger brothers and sisters. Bill worked as a stockman at a local auto parts manufacturing company and in his spare time, studied figure skating at the Minneapolis Arena. He was mentored by A.C. Bennett, the father of 1932 Olympian Margaret Bennett.

Katherine Durbrow, Arthur Preusch, Robin Lee, William Swallender, Edith Preusch and Miss Hardoldson at the 1933 Midwestern Championships. Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine.

At the age of twenty-two, Bill won the junior men's title at the 1933 U.S. Championships. His victory was considered quite something at the time. It was his very first time competing at Nationals... and he was a working-class man from Minnesota competing against well-to-do skaters from Eastern clubs. Recalling his experience at the event in "Skating" magazine, he wrote, "Being from the Mid-West where our contact with outside skaters has been limited, I speak with modesty. With respect to the skating of figures I was particularly impressed with the general all-round ability on the part of participants to skate the figures with good form, showing that the contestants had practiced and had been well trained in fundamental principles of competitive skating. Free skating on the part of the ladies, especially, was demonstrative of good style and showmanship, with a variety of composition in their programs. I watched with a great deal of enjoyment the pair skating, noting particularly the variety of lifts, nice timing and rhythm far superior to what I have been accustomed to observe. When it cae to dance, which has received very little development in the West... it was far beyond my expectations. I was also very much interested in the novel exhibition put on by the mixed 'four' from the Boston Skating Club. I think that the performance of this four surpassed anything in this line that I have seen."

Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine

The following year, Bill won the Midwestern title and was praised for his "comprehensive grasp of technical difficulty and of good form." A reviewer note, "His figures were large, beautifully retraced, and the turns good. The free skating program was comprised of many of the standard difficult jumps and spins with the inclusion of some delightful dance steps and novel moves." However, he finished a disappointing fifth in the senior men's event at the 1934 and 1935 U.S. Championships and gave up his bid for a spot on the 1936 Olympic team due to a recurring knee injury and the fact there just wasn't the money to pay for his trip to Germany if he earned a spot.

Bill turned professional in the autumn of 1935, accepting a well-paying position as the very first coach of the newly-formed Kansas City Ice Club in Missouri. In February of 1937, he married Julius T. Nelson's daughter Genevieve, whom he met at the Minneapolis Arena when he was sixteen and she was ten. Genevieve had been part of a sister act in the Ice Follies.

Photo courtesy "The National Ice Skating Guide"

In the years that followed, Bill taught at the Ice Club Of Baltimore, Broadmoor Skating Club, Figure Skating Club of Chicago, Philadelphia Skating Club and Humane Society, Atlantic City Figure Skating Club, Detroit Figure Skating Club, Berkeley Iceland and Washington (D.C.) Figure Skating Club, as well as the hugely popular summer skating schools in Lake Placid. An intelligent, soft-spoken man with a knack for connecting with young people, Bill was widely beloved by his students. In her book "Indelible Tracings", Patricia Shelley Bushman recalled, "He had a commanding knowledge and explained everything in great detail... He thought faster than he could speak and sometimes stuttered, especially when he was excited or nervous. He told his students: 'Sometimes you might have to get me to say it twice, and get it the second time around.' His stuttering didn't slow him down nor was he embarrassed by it; one student used to mimic him, but it only made him laugh. At competitions his face became redder as his enthusiasm mounted. Sometimes he raised his voice, more in exhilaration than anger, to light a fire under his skaters. Students realized Bill's adrenaline rush stemmed from his eagerness to get on the ice. He took notes in a teaching notebook. When a student achieved a new move, he quickly wrote it down in his chart."

Ginny Baxter and Bill Swallender

Bill's very first protégé was Dorothy Snell, the runner-up in the U.S. junior women's event in 1938 and 1939. He went on to coach Ice Follies star Bess Ehrhardt and Ginny Baxter, who won the free skate at the 1952 Winter Olympic Games in Oslo and the bronze medal at the 1952 World Championships in Paris. Over the years, many of the young people he worked with went on to become great coaches and judges - skaters like Donald Jacoby, Bill Kipp, Norma Sahlin, Joy Cunningham, Edgar Newbold Black IV and Cynthia Hanson. Bill did everything for his skaters, from sharpening their skates to giving them a spare room to sleep in for a while.

Genevieve and Bill Swallender. Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine.

In 1955 - the height of the studio rink craze - Bill opened Swallender's Ice Skating Studio in Detroit. In the summers, he closed the studio and taught with Pierre Brunet and Montgomery Wilson at the Michigan State University Ice Rink in East Lansing. At that point, his latest protégé was a talented eleven year old named Douglas Ramsay. Bill began giving Douglas lessons when he was only nine years old and soon became a second father to the young skater, taking him to baseball games and inviting him to the family home for Sunday dinners. In Douglas, Bill saw a future World Champion. The path to that eventual possibility began in 1961, when Douglas finished fourth at the U.S. Championships and earned a spot on the World team when Tim Brown, the bronze medallist, was unable to attend.

Douglas Ramsay's performance at the 1961 U.S. Championships

Tragically, both Douglas and Bill perished in The Sabena Crash in Belgium on February 15, 1961. Fifty-two year old Bill left behind his wife Genevieve and two sons, Bill and Erik. Horrifically, Genevieve learned of her husband's death not from a trusted friend or family member - but instead from a nosy reporter from the "Detroit News" who telephoned her Southfield home for a quote. Bill was posthumously inducted into the U.S. Figure Skating Hall Of Fame in 2011, alongside the rest of the talented skaters, coaches and officials who perished in The Sabena Crash.

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.

Pre-Order Your Copy of "Jackson Haines: The Skating King"

"Jackson Haines: The Skating King" officially launches on November 1. You can pre-order both the eBook and paperbook version now at select stores! If you'd like to have your copy delivered to you automatically on release day, you can sign up now.

For more information about the book or to place a pre-order, click here.

The 1911 European Figure Skating Championships

In this day and age, it's hard to imagine an ISU Championship with only five competitors. Yet, back on February 12, 1911, that's precisely how many skaters were on the ice at the Yusupov Gardens in St. Petersburg, Russia for the 1911 European Figure Skating Championships.

The area of the ice that was cordoned off for the competition was decorated with festive flags, trees and strips of broad fabric, but the decorations didn't make much of a difference to the skaters or audience, who were battling bitterly cold, minus twenty two degree temperatures. The reigning European and World Champion Ulrich Salchow opted not to travel to Russia to compete after winning his tenth and final World title nine days prior in Berlin. In fact, only two skaters who competed in Berlin opted to make the trek to Russia to compete: Germany's Werner Rittberger and Hungary's Andor Szende. Szende had been started practicing for both events in October in Berlin, then spent six weeks carving out rockers and eights in Switzerland. In contrast, the lone Swedish entry, Per Thorén, had only started training fourteen days prior to his departure to Russia, and then only by moonlight. Without artificial lighting, he struggled to see the tracings of his figures on the ice. The judging panel in Russia was heavily stacked, with a Russian referee, five Russian judges, one judge from Russian Finland and one from Hungary. Thorén and Rittberger entered the event at a huge disadvantage, neither having any representation on the panel.

The competition started at ten in the morning with the compulsory figures. Per Thorén recalled, "It was raging cold and the ice so hard, that I thought that my skates would not cut into it. To protect me against the cold, for almost the full time I wrapped newsprint under my clothing. It helped some, but the cold soon penetrated through even this armour. The one who was best in this cold was Ivan Malinin from Moscow. Unaffected by the cold, he had been out one hour before the competition and practiced." Russia's Karl Ollo took the lead in the school figures and was praised for his small but accurate tracings. Thorén was second, followed by Malinin, Szende and Rittberger. However, the marks were somewhat all over the place. Two judges apiece had Ollo, Thorén and Malinin first, with the lone Hungarian judge supporting his own skater, Szende.

Ivan Malinin. Photo courtesy Sveriges Centralförening för Idrottens Främjande.

By two in the afternoon, a throng of Russians swarmed Yusupov Gardens, many pushing their way as close as they could to the ice to see Karl Ollo and Ivan Malinin skate. The St. Petersburg newspaper of that date (translated by figure skating historian Gunnar Bang) praised the Russian competitors thusly: "The latter part of the competition, the free skating, was opened by Malinin, who showed a temperament full of ruthless force executing free glides and numerous recurring combinations of steps. He went helter-skelter [through his performance] but it made little difference... The second man was Ollo, who the home crowd was well acquainted with. His musical program was safe, but not sufficiently expressive. The program was rich in combinations of figures, but he carefully avoided all of the jumps the audience was waiting to see in his program." Thorén followed with a program that received thunderous applause, and Rittberger was criticized for skating "a complete copy of Salchow's programs". Szende's program was praised for combining "athletic force" and "great beauty". Thorén won the free skate with the first place marks of three judges. Russian judge Alexei P. Lebedeff tied him and Rittberger, while two other Russians placed the German first. Again, the Hungarian judge had Szende in first. Thorén was able to overtake Ollo by 32.2 points and two placements to win the gold. Rittberger moved up to win the bronze, ahead of Malinin and Szende.

Per Thorén

Women's and pairs events were also held in St. Petersburg, but these were treated as separate categories from the European Championships. Ludovika Eilers and Walter Jakobsson won the pairs; Eilers the women's event over two Russian women - Xenia Caesar and Lidia Popova.

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.

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Subscribers not only receive a quarterly e-mail newsletter with new blogs and skating history news... they also will get early notifications about upcoming book releases and bonus content... like a free e-book exclusively for subscribers that was just released today called "Dinner, Drinks and Double Lutzes: A Chronicle of Hotel and Nightclub Ice Revues in North America".

To get in on the fun, all you have to do is fill out the form in the right sidebar and confirm your e-mail address. A download link for the free e-book will be delivered right to your inbox!

Asian Heritage Month and Canadian Jewish Heritage Month

May is Asian Heritage Month and Canadian Jewish Heritage Month! Skate Guard celebrates the important history of skaters of Asian and Jewish heritage with extensive timelines from Canada and around the world, as well as required reading lists of past stories featured on the blog.

You can find all of the special content for Asian and Jewish Heritage Month by tapping on the top menu bar of the blog or visiting the following pages:

Asian Heritage Month (Canada)

Canadian Jewish Heritage Month (Canada)

Jewish American Heritage Month (United States)

International Jewish Skating History

For a timeline of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, head on over to U.S. Figure Skating!

To nominate skaters of Asian and Jewish heritage to the Skate Canada Hall Of Fame, click here.

Behind The Scenes: What To Expect In The Jackson Haines Book

Photograph of Jackson Haines, The Father of Figure Skating

Photo courtesy KHM-Museumsverband, Theatermuseum Vienna. Used with permission.

Self-publishing is a one-pony show and writing a manuscript is just the tip of the iceberg. You have to edit, design a cover and back matter and work on the layout and formatting. You have to find ARC readers and do everything you can to get those all-important reviews on Amazon and Goodreads. When the book comes out, you have to deal with promotions, marketing, pricing, pitching your book to libraries and advertising through interviews, ads and social media.

After releasing my first three books, I wasn't sure if I really wanted to go through it all again - but once I started the process of putting together this biography of Jackson Haines, I couldn't stop. In the end, of all of the projects I have worked on - I really think I am proudest of this one.

I have a more or less finished, edited manuscript that I am continuing to tweak here and there and I wanted to give you all an idea as to what the book is going to look like. Following an Introduction, there is a chapter covering the year of his birth to 1863. Then, there are twelve chapters - each covering a year. The content serves almost like a diary of his travels through Europe but there are also many fascinating behind the scenes stories of his adventures. One of my favourite stories is about the time he rode a velocipede in Sweden.

Illustration of a man riding a velocipede, 1868. Photo courtesy National Archives.

A chapter on Jackson's legacy follows. It takes a deep dive into Jackson's personal life and rumours surrounding his time in Gamlakarleby (Kokkola) Finland and talks about his family members, grave and the skaters he inspired. I interviewed an actor that played him in a play in Finland and the 101 year-old great, great granddaughter of Jackson's uncle for this section. You might be quite surprised to know there's even a story that reads like something out of a Stephen King novel!

There is also a meticulously researched section on Jackson's family genealogy and a chapter on figure skating competitions. The book ends, of course, with acknowledgments to dozens of people who have helped along the way and detailed information on the provenance of the photographs in the book. There are over two dozen in all - several of which have never seen the light of day before.

One of the things I really tried to avoid in this book was waxing poetically about Jackson's role as a figure skating pioneer. I really want to let the material speak for itself.

Jackson Haines' story is nuanced and quite different than the narrative that has been passed down for decades... and rather than give the people what they want, this book is going to give them everything and let them come up with their own opinions.

Through the process of researching and writing this book, I really feel like I got to know someone who passed away over a hundred years ago - and I can't wait for you to have the same experience this fall.

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.