The darling of Canadian figure skating, Barbara Ann Scott, did not escape controversy in her career. There was the time she put her amateur status in peril by accepting a car from her hometown of Ottawa. She returned the convertible and went on to win the Olympic gold medal in 1948. Later, after turning pro, she got tangled up in a media-fueled feud with fellow ice princess Sonja Henie. Scott had replaced Henie in the touring Hollywood Ice Revue, and Henie in turn organized her own competing show. In 1955, Scott married Chicagoan Thomas King and retired to the city’s Gold Coast. That’s pretty much it. What did you expect, the Canadian mafia?
Width of an ice-skate blade, in inches: 15/100ths.
Percentage of a skater’s score derived from compulsory figures in 1948: 60. In 1973: 30. In 2002: 0.
During the 1993-94 season of the Tonya Harding/Nancy Kerrigan scandal, percentage increase in U.S. Figure Skating Association membership: 14.
