Figure Skating

Tiny Barbara Ann Scott, the first and only Canadian woman to win an Olympic gold medal in figure skating, is still glamorous and still famous, 61 years after her triumph.

Scott won the Order of Canada long ago, and finally received the Order of Ontario from Lieutenant-Governor David Onley at a formal ceremony in Toronto in March. And, almost 81 years old, she can still light up a room like a movie star.

Scott, originally from Ottawa, and her husband, Tom King, have lived in the United States for years. Their residence on Amelia Island, Fla., is a shrine to her glorious past and home to four cats.

They live on a beach with sand dunes and watch as people ride horses past.

They're not sitting still. Tom just issued his 10th CD; he plays the drums in a classical jazz band, just for fun. And recently they completed Holy Trinity Anglican Church. A local builder donated the land, and King the finances to build it.

"We had our first Easter Sunday in it," Scott said proudly. The church, which has already seen two baptisms and attendance of 80, uses the 1928 Book of Common Prayer, which has all but gone out of fashion.

"You don't have to wear a hat," Scott said with a laugh. "But I always wear a hat."

Another example of Scott and King's respect for tradition? They send Christmas cards to four-time world champion Kurt Browning and sign them "Grandma and Grandpa."

She's an old-fashioned girl, she admitted, with an emphasis on fashionable.
When only 19, she stirred Canada with a victory on unpredictable ice surfaces at St. Moritz, Switzerland, in 1948. With a total of 20,000 practice hours under her belt, she skated compulsory figures on an outdoor surface "just like a swimming pool," and her legendary fierce focus was tested as an airplane practically skimmed the rink. She finished first, in spite of it.

For the free skate, she competed on ice that had been chopped up from two hockey games the night before. Fellow competitor Eileen Seigh, who had fallen three times, warned Scott of all the potholes before she skated, and Scott adjusted her routine to find the best footing.

When she won the gold, two Canadian hockey players lifted the petite blond to their shoulders as the crowd yelled "Barbarelli! Barbarelli!" In a "a climate of enthusiasm" afterward, throngs of fans celebrated her triumph and sent more mail and gifts than she could handle. Some people called her home in the middle of the night, not wanting anything but to say hello.

The year before, Scott had been given the keys to a cream-coloured roadster by Ottawa mayor Stanley Lewis, who had orchestrated a city-wide homecoming for Scott. He told her he had checked with amateur athletic associations to make certain he wasn't breaching amateur rules.

But Avery Brundage, president of the International Olympic Committee, read the news stories about her homecoming and ruled that if she accepted the car, she would become professional and ineligible for the St. Moritz Olympics. After riding on the car's red leather seats for 1,000 miles to reach charity functions, Scott returned the keys to the mayor.

When Brundage met Scott at a later function, he said sheepishly: "I suppose you hate me."

Scott said: "Indeed no. I'm just so terribly grateful to you because if you hadn't spoken up, I would have had to deal with it just before the Olympics and then what would I have done?"

Scott was like that, a celebrity without arrogance. Her perspective, in characteristic quotes from the past:

"I can't stand people who make a fuss and complain and make a rumpus about things. There is always a quiet way to deal with a problem."

"I learned at an early age that a temperature of minus-20 may not be comfortable, but doesn't prevent skating."

"I think it's very good to have a coach that doesn't praise you much."
In the seven years she worked with coach Otto Gold, he complimented her only once that she had skated well.

"Flowery speeches mean nothing to me. I mistrust anyone overly complimentary."

After Scott retired, she turned professional and skated all over the continent, dashing all of the house records set by her idol, Sonja Henie.

When Scott was 10, her father took her to Montreal to see Henie perform. Gold managed to snare her an invitation to go backstage to meet the Olympic champion and movie star.

"There I was in her dressing room, with her costumes hanging there," Scott recalled.

The next time they encountered each other, each skating at different arenas in Indianapolis, the publicists called it War On Ice.

"But Barb sold out every performance," said her husband, who had worked with Henie.

When Scott ended her career, she married King with intentions of being a housewife. She wanted the white picket fence.

She did show gaited saddlebreds at little country horse shows, winning more than 400 first-place ribbons with one horse alone, a flashy bay called King's Regal Tipper. She'd load the horses onto a trailer and truck them to shows herself.

"She was just magnificent," King said.

"That's my dear husband talking," Scott said.

Scott will turn 81 years old on Saturday. Her husband is 85.

"We call ourselves the little old couple," Scott said. "We shuffle around and have a good time."