The Lou Marsh Legacy - Honouring Canada's Top Athletes

Practice, practice and more practice

She gripped the crowd with her charm and grace the moment she stepped on the ice. She dazzled them with a confident and daring free skate program. The audience sensed that they had just witnessed her greatest triumph even before the scores were announced. Indeed, Barabara Ann Scott, the enchanting 16-year old from Ottawa had captured the North American figure skating championships at Madison Square Gardens in New York City. She became the youngest continental champion since the international competition was started in 1923. She beat a classy field that included United States national champion Gretchen Merrill.

For Barbara Ann this was simply another rewarding step in a meticulous skating journey that she embarked on at the age of 7. By the time she was 9, skating occupied so much of her time she left school to receive private tutoring. In 1939 she was ready to compete at the national level, capturing the Canadian Junior title on her first try. At 11 she was the youngest to hold that title. In 1941 she placed sixth in her first North American Championship. She won her first Canadian Senior Championship in 1944. Now with the North American Championship in hand, Barbara Ann Scott had her sights firmly set on the European and World Championships.

International skating consists of two disciplines: the compulsory figures and free skating. Barbara Ann achieved excellence at both with her legendary work ethic, spending seven, eight, even nine hours a day at the rink. Barbara Ann was passionate about the technical side of skating. She enjoyed perfecting her school figures and was typically rewarded with commanding leads in the compulsories. Now as skating was becoming more dynamic and acrobatic, the slender, agile and light-footed Scott seemed to possess the entire arsenal needed to take on the world. Under the watchful eye of her mother and coach Otto Gold, Barbara Ann took an almost unthinkable training regimen and stepped it up even more to prepare in earnest for the World's.

HONOUR OTTAWA GIRL SKATER FIRST TO WIN MARSH TROPHY Adobe PDF,