Barbara Wagner and Bob Paul stand tall in Canada's Olympic figure skating history.

Canada has won only three gold medals in Olympic figure skating, and Wagner and Paul's gold in the pairs event at the 1960 Squaw Valley Olympics was one of them.

In February, Wagner and Paul will celebrate the 50th anniversary of their Olympic win, and the Vancouver Olympics will also bring back memories of their final amateur victory, in the 1960 world championships in Vancouver, immediately after Squaw Valley.

Since then, Wagner and Paul have remained in the skating world, both as coaches in the United States, and Paul as a choreographer.

Over the past 50 years, both have lived relatively quietly.

Winning an Olympic gold medal did not change Wagner's life, she said from her home in Atlanta. "It was an achievement in itself," she said.

"I'm proud that I did it. But it didn't result in more revenue or stardom. For a fleeting moment, we were heroes. And after that, I went on with my life.

"But I don't regret it for any reason. I learned a lot about myself.

Perseverance is important. You just don't give up."

They had a ticker-tape parade at home in Toronto, but Paul recalls that it happened at lunchtime, and the city didn't stop the streetcars from running as their cavalcade toured down Bay Street.

At the time, Wagner and Paul were dominant forces in the sport, even though they were told they wouldn't amount to anything.

They were matched together from the time they were 12 and 13.

Paul was known as a shy guy, and Wagner was the vivacious one. Coach Sheldon Galbraith considered them such opposites that he thought if he paired them together, they'd help each other out.

They were joined in 1952.

Eventually Paul grew to six feet (11 inches taller than Wagner) and she remained petite. Because of their height differential, they had to work hard to maintain similar body lines and their spins could easily go off-balance.

"I was just stubborn and determined," Wagner said. "Bob was the talent. We didn't think it couldn't be done."

In their day, Wagner and Paul were such solid competitors that over four years, they won four world championships. "We were expected to win [Olympics]," Paul said.

But Olympic day brought its own stresses. Paul was the Canadian flag-bearer, treading through a foot of snow during a sudden snowstorm, and then at 10 the next morning competing in the five-minute long program.

In those days, there was no short program and the long program was their only shot at a medal.

They had skated only once around the rink when somebody's coat sleeve caught on the record player's arm and caused the needle to skip across the vinyl.

Wagner and Paul had to start again. They had originally been scheduled to compete in the afternoon, but a hockey game bumped them to the unusual morning time slot.

Paul says now that it was Galbraith who jostled the archaic sound system during the event.

"He didn't tell us for months," Paul said. "The sound system for the Olympics in 1960 was a 78-rpm record player sitting in a box in the penalty box in the rink. That was it.

"Sheldon stood there as a place to watch us skate. It only jumped maybe two bars of music, but that was enough to throw us off, make us late for everything, and we had to rush to catch up to the music. So I made the decision to stop."

While they waited to start again, Paul said to his partner: "That was our warm-up.

"We were able to psychologically take advantage of it. It was better the second time around."

They stuck around for the closing ceremonies, but that meant they had little opportunity to practise for the world championships. Paul didn't mind. "We had a week to just do nothing after our event," he said.

"It was exhilarating. I remember laying back and having fun."

Paul said they went into the world championships with only about a weekend of practice.

"We had to stay focused," he said. They did, and skated just as well as they did at the Olympics to win their fourth world title.

After his skating career, Paul sought his fortune in Los Angeles - where he still lives - to become an actor, taking singing and dancing lessons.

Eventually, he landed a role in the hit television show Bewitched, but he was typecast, playing a skating teacher.

To pay the bills, Paul taught figure skating on the side, and luck followed him again.

His first student was Peggy Fleming, at 15, a gangly little junior who he coached to finish third at the 1965 world championships.

Later, under coach Carlo Fassi, Fleming became the 1968 Olympic champion.

But Paul made his biggest mark as a choreographer, and he was on the cusp of a significant trend in figure skating: the importance of choreography to programs. He was one of the first to do specialized work.

Before, coaches did all the work, and choreography tended to be happenstance.

Paul gave Fleming her presence on the ice, and was a factor in her Olympic victory.

At the time, television was becoming a major force in society. Fleming created the first figure skating television special, and asked Paul to do the choreography for it.

She did five specials, all with Paul at the choreographic helm.

His growing reputation also led to him doing choreography for the Donny and Marie Osmond television show. He also designed routines for 1976 Olympic champion Dorothy Hamill and world champion Linda Fratianne, of the United States.

For 16 years Paul worked as director of choreography and talent scout for the Disney skating productions, becoming an expert on how to design the ebb and flow of genies, dwarfs and princes charming their way across unusual ice surfaces.

Since the job ceased in 1986, Paul has been leading a tranquil life as a coach in Los Angeles, but once again, he found talent in a youngster.
For eight years he coached U.S. prodigy Mirai Nagasu, who won the 2008

U.S. championships at 14 and was too young to go to the world championships that year. But he hasn't seen her for more than a year, and it's been a troubled year for the skater, who sustained a nagging injury.

Now both Wagner and Paul teach children from opposite ends of the United States. Wagner married several years after she retired and had a son, but moved to Atlanta to live with him, his wife and her two grandchildren in their Atlanta basement.

She's also busy writing a book.