1932 World Figure Skating Championships Pins: Canadian First.

Last Updated on February 2, 2024 by Netropolitan Museum

First World Championship held in Canada features unique pins and a commemorative medal

Best laid plans, they say. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic shattered the best laid plans for French-speaking Montreal, Canada, to host the 2020 World Figure Skating Championships. The famed city on the St. Lawrence River last hosted men, ladies, and pairs competitors for the 1932 World Figure Skating Championships, an event commemorated with folksy, charming pins. The 1932 event 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 of competitors who came to Montreal is a legends of figure skating list: 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.

Pins Gallery: 1932 World Figure Skating Championships

Shown in this blog are pins issued to a Competitor and a Judge at the Montreal event. Each pin features a royal blue silk ribbon emblazoned with “Worlds Figure Skating Championships Montreal 1932” in gold foil. Attached at the top is a badge with a paper insert that denotes the wearer’s role. A Greek key design defines the perimeter of the badge, and suspended from the bottom of the ribbon is a shield made of a gold-color metal that features a winged skate blade, an early design of the Amateur Skating Association of Canada. The shield is attached with interlocking jump rings. The components combine to create a pin that is sophisticated yet exhibits a quaint, handmade quality that reflects a simpler, more intimate time in the sport. A certain je ne sais quoi.

It is easy to see on both pins that the past 80+ years have not been kind to the delicate ribbon. On the Competitor pin, the ribbon is significantly wrinkled (and much too delicate to easily restore) and on the Judge pin it has been trimmed and shortened over its lifetime. However, the pins remain important souvenirs of what must have been an exciting event.

Also from the 1932 World Championships comes a large and impressive commemorative medal given to a pairs skater at the event. The face of the relief-style medal features “Amateur Skating Association of Canada” around the circumference with an historical-style male figure skater, reminiscent of Jackson Haines, at the center. On the reverse around the circumference is “Figure Skating Department” to indicate the branch of the association. A maple leaf and winged skate blade design, representing the logo of the association, appears at the bottom. A laurel leaf sweeps upward on the right-hand side from the logo element. Engraved in the top half is “World’s Championship 1932 Pairs Second Place.”

It is unknown if the unevenness seen in the finish of the medal is intentional; it could be from the effects of aging or a failed cleaning or restoration that occurred sometime during its history.

Enjoy this week’s figure skating pins blog: 1932 World Figure Skating Championships: Canadian First.

This blog was originally published at The Netropolitan Museum of Figure Skating Pins on June 27, 2020, and has been updated with new and expanded information and an additional artifact.

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