1961 World Figure Skating Pins: Myths Dispelled.

Last Updated on February 27, 2026 by Netropolitan Museum

Three decades after the canceled event, collectors learned new information about lapel pins

Until 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic brought much of the world to a halt, the World Figure Skating Championships had been canceled only once for a reason other than a world war. That year was 1961, following the tragic loss of the entire U.S. figure skating team and many others in a plane crash in Brussels, Belgium, while en route to the World Championships in Prague, Czechoslovakia. Although the event was never held—forever footnoted with an asterisk in skating’s history—a tangible connection to what might have been remains in the form of the pins made for the 1961 World Figure Skating Championships, the subject of this blog.

Pins Gallery: 1961 World Figure Skating Championships

Displayed in the gallery are the main logo pin and three special-issue versions, all likely produced in limited numbers exclusively for those who would have had a named role in the event:

• Referee (“Rozhodčí”)
• Team Leader (“Vedení”)
• Press (“Tisk”)

At the end of the gallery is the main logo pin, shown enlarged to help clarify detail. The gold-colored metal and enamel pin features a central, multi-color design of interconnected skate blades and tracings. Opposing angled and rounded corners create variation and interest. Along the top of the pin, in Czech, is “Mistrovství Světa v Krasobruslení” (World Figure Skating Championships), while at the bottom are the location and date, also in Czech, “Praha 22. – 26. Února 1961” (Prague, 22 – 26 February 1961). The five colors of the skate blade design are the same as those used in the Olympic rings to represent the universality of sport: blue, yellow, black, green, and red. It can be theorized that the same colors were chosen for the Prague pin to symbolize the universality of figure skating. The special-issue versions are designated with a bar suspended from a coordinating grosgrain ribbon.

For many decades, collectors believed that no pins existed from the 1961 World Figure Skating Championships. According to reliable sources, when the International Skating Union (ISU) member nations voted to cancel the competition out of respect for those lost in the crash, the Prague organizing committee ordered all pins (and presumably other souvenirs) to be destroyed. Even into the late 1980s, the only known 1961 World Figure Skating Championships pin resided in the collection of F. Ritter Shumway, past president of the United States Figure Skating Association (USFSA, now U.S. Figure Skating) and its president at the time of the tragedy. However, beginning in the mid-1990s, the 1961 pin started to surface from Europe, primarily Czechoslovakia. The rise of the internet enabled collectors and sports memorabilia dealers to connect more easily, which ultimately revealed that the long-held belief in the complete destruction of the pins was incorrect. The myth was dispelled.

Now fast forward to 2001, when The Broadmoor, the renowned hotel in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and host of many championships at its old World Arena, reported finding in its vault the “long-lost pin” from the 1961 World Figure Skating Championships. The writer of the online article mistakenly suggested that the pin, which had been given to former Broadmoor president and chairman William Thayer Tutt, was the only one known to exist. By that time, The Curator of The Netropolitan knew of at least a dozen or more of these pins that had surfaced, having purchased half of that dozen to trade and sell. And going back two years earlier, to 1999, The Curator had already donated a duplicate of the 1961 World Figure Skating Championships pin to the World Figure Skating Museum and Hall of Fame. Another myth shattered.

Because of rarity, any of the 1961 World Figure Skating Championships pins can be regarded as the “holy grail” of figure skating pin collecting. If you have a pin in your collection from this event, count yourself among only a fortunate few who do.

This blog was originally published at The Netropolitan Museum of Figure Skating Pins on August 15, 2020, and has been updated with new and expanded information.

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