happyheini wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2020 1:09 pm
Saw your 50 years anniversary of watching skating notice, Kitty, it is closer to 60 years for me! I stared watching with my Mom back in Germany in the days of Ina Bauer, Kilius-Baeumler vs. the Protopopovs etc....
Still an amazing sport evolving and changing and producing awesome athletes year in year out.
Come on Worlds!
I watched live "local" skating from a very young age and my first memory of watching "high level" skating goes back goes back to about 1953-54 - my mother took me to Halifax, NS by train and she and my father took me to a performance of
Ice Capades [or perhaps
Ice Cycles (at that time part of the Ice Capades "empire" visiting smaller cities) or
Ice Follies (which broke away on their own in 1949)] at the old Halifax Forum. Once we got television (in 1956), I watched whatever was available on the stations we were able to access, first only a CBC affiliate and eventually the American networks.
Moving to Ottawa brought opportunities to see more higher level and live skating - both tours/shows and competitions at various levels.
My first live World Championship was in Ottawa in 1978 and I believe 2020 Worlds will be the 15th that I have attended.
Ina Bauer (1941-2014) was West German Champion 1957-1959; she retired in 1960. The Klius-Baeumler vs Protopopovs years would have been about 1962-1964 with them winning gold and silver respectively at the European Championships three years in a row and at the World Championships in 1963 & 1964.
I had the pleasure of see the Protopopovs skate live several times in Lake Placid - on one occasion they demonstrated all their variations of the death spiral, which they preferred to call the "live spiral".
Definitely looking forward to Worlds in Montreal, in the meantime there are the Four Continents Championships, the Bavarian Cup, and Russian Junior Nationals (with a life stream & commentary by Ted Barton), etc.