by Jacquelyn Thayer Sweden’s Magda Mauroy Julin, the woman who captured figure skating gold at the 1920 Summer Olympics, is generally remembered through two pieces of trivia. She was, until the 2022 Olympics, the only woman to win a skating…
by Jacquelyn Thayer Olympic figure skating commentators tend to keep the sport’s coverage in a classic 6.0 mindset: there is a technical elements mark, obviously used to score things like jumps and twizzles, and an “artistic” or “presentation” mark —…
by Jacquelyn Thayer We’ve written previously on the systemic circularity of funding in figure skating: money can help breed success; success yields the money that may be denied to those athletes who need it most. It is certainly a dollhouse…
by Jacquelyn Thayer After dreaming of the Olympic Opening Ceremony as newly-minted members of Team Canada, the real thing proved no disappointment for ice dancers Alexandra Paul and Mitch Islam. “It was the most unbelievable feeling, walking into that stadium,…
by Jacquelyn Thayer Since its introduction under the International Judging System in 2004, the program component score (PCS) has in popular view functioned as a sort of equivalent to the previous system’s “second mark” — that score which weights the…
by Jacquelyn Thayer Six dance and five pairs teams representing the U.S. and Canada will take on Sochi ice in the two weeks to come (with some competing as well in the first-ever Olympic team event this weekend). As ever,…
The 1994 Winter Olympic Games in Lillehammer, Norway, proved a great year for North American pairs, with Canada’s Isabelle Brasseur & Lloyd Eisler, 1993 World champions, capturing their second Olympic bronze and Jenni Meno & Todd Sand of the U.S.…
In these last weeks before Sochi, we’ll be revisiting a few notable Olympics past, and the 1988 Calgary Olympics seem as fair a jumping-off point as any — delivering dance and pairs bronze for Canada and the U.S. alike in…
Kelly Johnson today is known primarily as a coach and choreographer with the Mariposa School of Skating in Barrie, behind programs including Alexandra Paul and Mitch Islam’s 2012-13 short dance. But in the 1980s Johnson was one-half of Canada’s number…
