Dates:
Known for:
Barbara Ann Scott was known as "Canada's sweetheart" and was the first Canadian to win the figure skating gold medal. In 1947, she was the first citizen of a non-European nation to win a world championship in skating.
Amateur Skating Career:
1940: national junior title
1942: became first woman to land a double lutz in a competition
1944-1946, 1948: won Canadian women's champion
1945: won North American skating championship
1947, 1948: won European and world championships
1948: won Olympic gold medal, women's figure skating, at St. Moritz, Switzerland
After the Olympics:
Barbara Ann Scott turned professional in June, 1948. She replaced Sonja Henie in the starring role in Hollywood Ice Revues.
When Scott retired from skating, she turned to equestrian competition.
In 1955, Barbara Ann Scott was inducted into the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame. She was inducted into the American Hall of Fame in 1980 (as North American skating champion) and into the International Hall of Fame in 1997.
More About Barbara Ann Scott:
Barbara Ann Scott was born in Ottawa on May 9, 1928. Some sources give 1929 as her birth year.
She married Thomas King in 1955 and they moved to Chicago.
Little-Known Facts About Barbara Ann Scott:
Reliable Toy Company created a Barbara Ann Scott doll after Scott's Olympic win.
Scott excelled especially in the figures part of the competition.
When Barbara Ann Scott won her Olympic crown, it was on a flawed outdoor rink. The men's hockey game was played on the ice the night before (Canada won) and, following an attempt to repair the ice's dents and unevenness by flooding it at above-freezing temperatures, the rink was slushy when Scott competed.
Eva Pawlik of Austria and Jeanette Altwegg of Great Britain took silver and bronze medals to Scott's 1948 gold.
