Barbara Ann Scott was the youngest Canadian to pass the gold figures test – the highest level – at age ten when she was skating for Ottawa’s Minto Club. In her short career, Scott dazzled the world and won the Junior Women’s National title in 1940, the National Senior Women’s title (from 1944-1948) and two European Championship titles.
The definitive moment in Barbara Ann Scott’s life came in 1942 when the young figure skater became the first woman ever to land a double Lutz jump in a competition. That unprecedented triumph propelled her to a gold-medal-winning performance at the 1948 Winter Olympics. With that victory, Scott put figure skating on the Canadian map and was dubbed “Canada’s Sweetheart” in the process. Scott won two world championships and four North American titles all told before embarking on a successful five-year professional career.
Scott remained an influential figure in the skating world, serving as a judge, publishing books and appearing in films and on TV. In 1991, Scott was made an Officer of the Order of Canada and in 2008, she was made a member of the Order of Ontario. In December 2009, she again carried the Olympic torch, this time to Parliament Hill and into the House of Commons, in anticipation of the 2010 Winter Olympics.
