Eighty-eight years before the Covid-19 pandemic shattered plans for Montreal, Canada, to host the 2020 World Figure Skating Championships, the French-speaking city on the St. Lawrence River hosted men, ladies, and pairs competitors for the 1932 World Figure Skating Championships. It was the first World Championship to be hosted by Canada and only the second held in North America, the other being the 1930 World Figure Skating Championships, held in New York City.
The roster from Montreal reads like a legends of figure skating: Sonja Henie, Maribel Owen, Cecelia Colledge, Karl Schäfer, Ernst Baier, and Andrée Brunet and Pierre Brunet, to name just a few. Among the judges for the event were Walter Jakobsson, 1920 Olympic champion and three-time world champion (with partner and wife Ludowika Eilers Jakobsson). The Judge pin shown in this gallery was acquired from the Jakobssons’ estate.
The components combine to create a pin that is sophisticated yet exhibits a charming, handmade quality that reflects a simpler, more intimate time.
A royal blue silk ribbon emblazoned with “Worlds Figure Skating Championships Montreal 1932” in gold foil boldly marks the event. The ribbon is attached at the top to a badge with a paper insert that denotes the wearer’s role in the championship. A Greek key design adorns the perimeter of the badge. Suspended at the bottom of the ribbon is a gold shield made of metal that features a winged skate blade, perhaps an early design of the Amateur Skating Association of Canada. The shield is secured in place by interlocking metal jump rings. The components combine to create a pin that is sophisticated yet exhibits a charming, handmade quality that reflects a simpler, more intimate time in the sport. A certain je ne sais quoi.
Featured in the gallery below are two pins from the 1932 World Championships, one having belonged to an unknown competitor and the other to Mr. Jakobsson.
