figure skating podcast interview
figure skating podcast interview
November 2013
An interview with Donald Jackson, four-time Canadian Champion, 1960 Olympic Bronze Medalist, show skater, coach, author of several books, creator of Jackson skates, and member of more than a few halls of fame. He’s most notable in the history books for being the first person to land a triple lutz in competition (see video below) and was the subject of a short documentary called King of Blades (see that video below too). He talks about how many times it took him to pass the first figure test, that tremendous triple lutz, how he worked on quad salchows, and why it’s his fault that Carmen is so popular for skating music. 1 hour, 27 minutes, 12 seconds.
King of Blades by Stanley Clish, National Film Board of Canada
Thanks to Fiona Mcquarrie for transcribing these interview highlights:
On his most embarrassing skating moment: After I won the world championships and I started skating with the Ice Follies, we only came to Toronto and Montreal, and my first trip was to Toronto, to the Maple Leaf Gardens. And there they had a full house, they had advertised me, and there was a great big picture of the Queen at the front of the building. So I came out, they gave me this nice introduction, there was lots of applause, and I went out and did my axel and I was supposed to stop at the bang boards. And I fell. I had to pull myself up at the bang boards and all I could see was the Queen, and I started to giggle [laughs]. It was kind of funny being announced with all that I had done, and all of a sudden I’m sitting on my…seat [laughs].
On starting in skating: I was in a public school that had a little carnival, and I didn’t have skates, I had to borrow skates, and my mother created a costume. She dressed me as a snowman and I won first prize for the costume. And then they had races afterwards, and I couldn’t skate very fast, and I mentioned to my mum very casually that I’d like to learn how to skate. So that was it. And the year went by, and in the summer I was swimming in the Oshawa creek, which you wouldn’t do now, and I met David Lowery there, he was with the Oshawa skating club, and he said, well, why don’t you join us and you can learn how to figure skate. I was fortunate that I was born in Oshawa, in Ontario, because the skating club was the fifth largest club in Canada. The president was Dick McLaughlin who was also a world judge, and the club had someone in every event at the Canadian championships. So I was fortunate to be here with a club that strong.
I loved what I was doing and I stuck with it. I had second-hand figure skates, girls’ skates dyed black, and that first year I played a lot of tag. And on Saturdays they had a special day where they had what they called the Grand March, where you lined up in ones and came around and then came back in twos, then fours, then eights, and then sixteens. And we’d get at the end of the group and they’d swing you around the ice and you had to keep your balances. And we had races where they put benches on the ice and we had to skate under them, and then we’d have to skate backward to another bench, and then step over it and skate forward.
So the club gave me a bit part [in a carnival] where I was the runaway child. They had a fellow with a big skirt, and he was wondering where I was, and I was under the skirt. So I came running out and he chased me off the ice. That was my spot. And to get the spot, my first coach, Nan Unsworth, had to go to the executive and ask for me to be allowed, because you usually had to be at the club for a longer time to get a bit part. I think it helped that I was a boy and there weren’t that many boys in the skating (laughs).
On developing as a skater: I took from Ede Király, who was from Budapest and who was second in the world championships in 1939 behind Dick Button. He had the double axel the same year that Dick Button had the double axel. So he left[...]
