Remembering Toller - 7 years after his death

[Elizabeth]

Skate Ontario's "3Turn3" weekly broadcast, hosted by PJ Kwong had a special show on Sunday. It was a chance to reminisce about World and Olympic bronze medallist Toller Cranston, whose death first made headlines during the Men's Figure Skating Free final at Nationals in Kingston, ON in 2015. PJ and Charlene Bailey were joined by Toller's sister Phillippa Baran and lifelong friend and British skating legend in his own right, Haig Oundjian. Together they are ensuring that Toller's legacy lives on in an award for skaters that bears his name. [The third member of the "3Turn3" group, Mazin Thomas, was not available to be part of this show.]
The show is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHubhRcsEW8

You might be interested in other (previous) episodes of the show which are on the Skate Ontario YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLb3Ln ... rEGFLtkGAg

[kittykins]

Thanks. It was so tragic for him to die suddenly at such a relatively young age. He was only 4 years older than my current age, and I'm a reasonably youngish person, so that's sort of shocking. He shaped the skating we know today in so many ways. It's unfortunately his creative expression was not recognized or even tolerated in the era he skated competitively. My Mom and I were big fans of Toller when he was skating. However, my mother did NOT like his straight-jacket show number...

[happyheini]

Neither did I, Kitty

[fred]

Toller was my mother's favourite mens skater.

[kittykins]

Neither did I, Kitty

I think she went with my sister when I wasn't there, and as I heard it she said, "I'm not even going to clap!" lol