Canada’s Sweetheart dies at 84

[nonpareil]

Source: Ottawa Citizen

Legendary Ottawa figure skater Barbara Ann Scott, forever known as “Canada’s Sweetheart” for her gold medal victory at the 1948 Olympics, died Sunday evening at her home in San Fernandina, Fla. She was 84.

In the year she won Olympic gold, Scott also won the national, North American, European and world figure skating championships — an unprecedented feat that secured her a place in history alongside the country’s greatest sporting heroes, said longtime friend Pat MacAdam, who learned of her death at about 10 p.m. It remains the only gold ever won by a singles female from Canada.


Read more: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/sports/Canada+Sweetheart+dies/7322952/story.html

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One of the greats of the sport. RIP

[lunatica]

1. She was a real pioneer for women

It must have been incredibly tough to prove she was as good as any man in athletics. I have nothing but the most profound admiration for pioneers like her.

[amandabeech]

4. She didn't compete with men. All those titles were in ladies' figure skating.

She was very, very good, but the ground breaker in the modern sport of figure skating, for both men and women, really, was Sonja Henie of Norway. She was the one who introduced the jump-and-spin filled long program that we see today on TV.

That's not to take away from Scot's talent, and her long-term commitment to figure skating.

[Kindly Refrain]

2. Florida

aka "South Canada"

[DCKit]

3. Looks like she had a good life.