2006 World Figure Skating Championships

The 2006 World Figure Skating Championships was a senior international figure skating competition sanctioned by the International Skating Union. It was held at the Pengrowth Saddledome in Calgary, Canada from March 19 to 26, 2006.

Competition notes

The competition was open to skaters from ISU member nations who had reached the age of 15 by July 1, 2005. The corresponding competition for younger skaters was the 2006 World Junior Championships.

Based on the results of the 2005 World Championships, each country was allowed between one and three entries per discipline. National associations selected their entries based on their own criteria.

None of the gold medalists from the 2006 Olympics competed at the 2006 World Championships. Stéphane Lambiel, the only defending World champion, won his event.

The compulsory dance was the Ravensburger Waltz.

Due to the large number of participants, the ladies and men's qualifying groups were split into groups A and B. This was the last World Championships to have a qualifying round. Following the 2006 Worlds, the ISU Congress voted to remove it. Following these Worlds, all skaters would compete in the short program, with the top twenty-four then advancing to the free skating.

Sabena Flight 548

Sabena Flight 548 was a Boeing 707 aircraft that crashed en route from New York City to Brussels, Belgium, on February 15, 1961, killing 73 people, including the entire U.S. figure skating team.

The Boeing had had to abort its landing at Brussels because of an aircraft blocking one of the runways, and tried to climb and circle towards another one. It started banking dangerously, but the attempts to level its wings caused it to spiral rapidly down to the ground, where it crashed on a farm.

The cause of the crash was never established, but is believed to have been a failure of the stabilizer-adjusting mechanism. It remains the deadliest plane crash to occur on Belgian soil, and the first fatal accident involving a 707 in regular passenger service.

Flight details

Sabena Flight 548, registration OO-SJB, was a Boeing 707 aircraft that crashed en route to Brussels, Belgium, from New York City on February 15, 1961, killing the entire U.S. figure skating team on its way to the World Championships in Prague, Czechoslovakia.

1901 World Figure Skating Championships

The World Figure Skating Championships is an annual figure skating competition sanctioned by the International Skating Union in which figure skaters compete for the title of World Champion.

The 1901 competition took place from February 10 to 11 in Stockholm, Sweden. There were only two contestants. Four out of six judges came from Sweden. None of the judges came from the German Empire. Still the placings were the same. Adams, Pettersson, and Westergren put Salchow in first position, the other three judges Fuchs.

Results

Men

Judges:

W. F. Adams  United Kingdom

G. Euler  Austria

A. Hansson  Sweden

L. Lindquist  Sweden

H. Pettersson  Sweden

Ivar Westergren  Sweden

Sources

1948 World Figure Skating Championships

The World Figure Skating Championships is an annual figure skating competition sanctioned by the International Skating Union in which figure skaters compete for the title of World Champion.

The 1948 competitions for men, ladies, and pair skating took place from February 11 to 15 in Davos, Switzerland. These were the second World Figure Skating Championships after World War II. Skaters from Germany and Japan were still not allowed to compete.

Results

Men

Judges:

Adolf Rosdol  Austria

A. Voordeckers  Belgium

Melville F. Rogers  Canada

Vladimir Koudelka  Czechoslovakia

H. Meistrup  Denmark

Hubert M. Martineau  United Kingdom

Marcel Vadas  Hungary

H. Storke  United States

E. Kirchhofer   Switzerland

Ladies

Judges:

Hans Meixner  Austria

Melville F. Rogers  Canada

K. Zemek  Czechoslovakia

Georges Torchon  France

Kenneth M. Beaumont  United Kingdom

Elemér Terták  Hungary

H. Meistrup  Denmark

M. Bernard Fox  United States

A. Winkler   Switzerland

Pairs

Judges:

Rudolf Kaler  Austria