1938: Skating

Figure.

The year in figure skating was high-lighted by the professional performances of Sonja Henie of Norway in her spectacular Hollywood Ice Revue. An estimated 102,000 spectators witnessed the six performances held in Madison Square Gardens Jan. 24-29, the largest crowd ever to attend a similar attraction in the Gardens. The gross receipts for tickets amounted to $165,000.

In the World Amateur Figure Skating Championships for women, held in Stockholm, Sweden, Feb. 6, Megan Taylor of England won the title before a capacity crowd of 20,000 spectators. The Men's World Figure Skating Championships went for the second successive year to Felix Kasper of Vienna, famous for the height and breadth of his leaps. In the world pair Figure Skating Championships held Feb. 18, in Berlin, Maxi Herber and Ernst Baier of Germany retained their title.

On Feb. 26, in the United States National Senior Figure Skating Championships held at Ardmore, Pa., Robin Lee for the fourth successive year captured the men's figure skating crown. Joan Tozzer and Bernard Fox of Harvard together won the National Senior Pair title. In the Junior events, the men's title went to Eugene Turner of Los Angeles, the first time a Pacific Coast skater has won this competition; Charlotte Walther captured the women's championship.

In the Eastern Amateur Figure Skating Championships, held at Lake Placid, Jan. 22, the senior crown was won by Roger Turner of Boston in the men's events and by Katherine Burbrow of Upper Montclair, N. J., in the women's events. The pairs were won by Grace E. Maddon and James Maddon of Boston. Phoebe Tucker of New York won the Junior title in the women's events, and John Leith of Walpole, Mass. won the same in the men's competition.

In Canada, Nora McCarthy of Toronto won the women's, and Jack Vigeon of Toronto captured the men's, Junior figure skating title.

Speed Skating.

During the year 1938, the Norwegian speed skaters continued to dominate the sport's major records. In the World Speed Skating Championships, held at Davos, Switzerland, Feb. 5-6, Ivan Ballengrud, crack Norwegian skater who holds the 3,000-meter speed record, won the individual World Speed Skating Championship title with a total score of 1909.07 points. In the finals of the 10,000-meter race, Ballengrud established a new world record of 17 min. 14.4 sec., three seconds faster than the previous mark set by Alexander Carlson of Norway ten years earlier. In the 500-meter event, another world record was set by Hans Engnestangen of Norway, when he finished the race in the extraordinary time of 41.8 sec., which was 1.5 seconds faster than his own former world mark and so fast that Leo Freisinger, the American skater, who placed second, also broke the former record with a time of 41.9 sec. In number of points won, Karl Wazulek of Austria ranked next to the champion Ivan Ballengrud, and Oscar Mathisen placed third in point total.

In the United States, speed skating competitions were dominated by Victor Ronchetti of Chicago. Ronchetti won both the United States Amateur Speed Skating Championship and the North American Amateur Speed Skating Championship, the first time any skater has ever held both these major titles in the same year. In the United States Amateur Championship events, which took place Feb. 20, at Oconomowoc, Wis., Ronchetti won the 440-yard dash, the one-mile and the five-mile races and placed second in the 880 and two-mile runs to amass a total of 130 points. Robert Heckenbach placed second in total score with 110 points. In the women's events, Miss Mary Dolan of Minneapolis captured the women's United States Amateur crown by winning four out of five events and finishing twenty points ahead of her nearest rival, Mrs. Eleanor Dyer of Chicago.

In the North American Amateur Championship, held Feb. 12-13 at Saranac Lake, N. Y., Ronchetti captured the 440-yards, the three-fourths of a mile, the two-mile and the five-mile races and totaled 150 points to win the championship title. Edward Schroeder of Chicago, the 1937 Champion, placed second with 60 points. In the women's events, Miss Janet Milne of Saranac Lake won the North American Amateur women's title.

In the Ten Thousand Lakes Speed Skating Championships held Jan. 15 in Minneapolis, Victor Ronchetti once more proved himself a champion by winning two of the three meet events to obtain the Ten Thousand Lakes Speed Skating title.

The eighteenth annual Middle Atlantic Championship competition was won by Edward Schroeder of Chicago in the events held Jan. 1 on Crystal Lake Newburgh, N. Y. Schroeder captured the one-mile and the three-mile races and placed second in the 440-yard dash to obtain a total of 80 points, 50 more than his nearest rivals, Joseph Bree of Tuckahoe, N. Y. and Jack Shannon of Troy, N. Y., each with 30 point. In the women's events, Miss Janet Milne of Saranac Lake won the Middle Atlantic women's title with total of 60 points.

In the fourteenth annual Silver Skates Speed Skating Carnival, held Feb. 7, at Madison Square Garden before a crowd of 14,900 spectators, Donald Johns of St. Paul won the two-mile Champion of Champions race, the climax of the meet, with a time of 7 min. 04.4 sec.