1963 World Figure Skating Championships

1963 World Figure Skating Championships
Type:	ISU Championship
Date:	February 28 – March 3
Season:	1963
Location:	Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy
Champions
Men's singles: Donald McPherson
Ladies' singles: Sjoukje Dijkstra
Pairs: Marika Kilius / Hans-Jürgen Bäumler
Ice dance: Eva Romanová / Pavel Roman
Previous: 1962 World Championships
Next: 1964 World 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 1963 competitions for men's singles, ladies' singles, pair skating, and ice dance took place from February 28 to March 3 in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy. The competition was held in the open-air ice stadium, with events running as late as 1 or 2am, by which time it was very cold. This caused the ice to become hard and brittle, as well as causing discomfort to those in attendance.

Perhaps due to the poor ice conditions, the men's competition was marred by many falls. Both the winner Donald McPherson and second-place finisher Alain Calmat fell on triple loop attempts, but neither Manfred Schnelldorfer nor Karol Divín, who had been placed 1-2 after the compulsory figures, performed well in the free skating.

Marika Kilius and Hans-Jürgen Bäumler won the pair competition, although some questioned whether some of their lifts, including a "triple Axel lift" (an Axel lasso lift with 3.5 rotations), were legal under the ISU rules of the time. The Canadian team of Debbi Wilkes and Guy Revell had to withdraw after Wilkes suffered a head injury in a fall while posing for press photos.

Disaster also struck the American dance team Yvonne Littlefield and Peter Betts. They placed 9th in the compulsory dances, but in the free dance Betts's blade came unscrewed from the boot and they were unable to finish their program. Meanwhile, the defending champions Eva Romanová and Pavel Roman came from behind to retain title after being defeated in the compulsory dances by the British team, Linda Shearman and Michael Phillips, who had also defeated the Romans at the European Championships earlier that year.

Defending champion Sjoukje Dijkstra also retained her title, building a big lead in the compulsory figures and following it with a good performance in the free skate, in which she now included a double Lutz for the first time. Nicole Hassler, second in the free skate and third overall, had two strong double Axels at the end of her program. The Japanese competitor Miwa Fukuhara, who finished 6th overall, included a triple salchow in her program.

Medal table

  *   Host nation (Italy)

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Canada	1	0	1	2
	West Germany	1	0	1	2
3	Czechoslovakia	1	0	0	1
	Netherlands	1	0	0	1
5	France	0	1	1	2
	Soviet Union	0	1	1	2
7	Austria	0	1	0	1
	Great Britain	0	1	0	1
Totals (8 entries)		4	4	4	12

Results

Men

Rank	Name	Places
1	Donald McPherson	18
2	Alain Calmat	22
3	Manfred Schnelldorfer	22
4	Karol Divín	34
5	Scott Allen	40
6	Peter Jonas	59
7	Sepp Schönmetzler	71
8	Donald Knight	79
9	Emmerich Danzer	80
10	Nobuo Satō	83
11	Monty Hoyt	88
12	Robert Dureville	117
13	Hugo Dümmler	122
14	Jenő Ébert	130
15	William Neale	136
16	Valeriy Meshkov	144
17	Giordano Abbondati	145
18	Malcolm Cannon	159
19	Wouter Toledo	161

Judges:

• Charlotte Benedict-Stieber
• Zdeněk Fikar
• Edwin Kucharz
• J. A. McKechnie
• Giovanni de Mori
• Pamela Peat
• John R. Shoemaker
• Néri Valdes
• Adolf Walker

Ladies

Rank	Name	Places
1	Sjoukje Dijkstra	9
2	Regine Heitzer	22
3	Nicole Hassler	30
4	Wendy Griner	36
5	Petra Burka	39
6	Miwa Fukuhara	68
7	Inge Paul	73
8	Jana Mrázková	73
9	Helli Sengstschmid	75
10	Lorraine Hanlon	89
11	Diana Clifton-Peach	97
12	Ingrid Ostler	110
13	Karen Howland	130
14	Franziska Schmidt	128
15	Eva Grožajová	138
16	Ann-Margreth Frei	140
17	Junko Ueno	147
18	Sandra Brugnera	160
19	Christine Haigler	161
20	Shirra Kenworthy	167
21	Zsuzsa Szentmiklóssy	191
22	Karin Dehle	198
23	Tatyana Nemtsova	204
24	Elżbieta Kościk	215

Judges:

• Charlotte Benedict-Stieber
• Walter Fritz
• Theo Klemm
• Oskar Madl
• E. R. S. McLauchlin
• Gérard Rodrigues-Henriques
• Ardelle Sanderson
• Emil Skákala
• Sergey Vasilyev

Pairs

Rank	Name	Places
1	Marika Kilius / Hans-Jürgen Bäumler	9
2	Lyudmila Belousova / Oleg Protopopov	20
3	Tatyana Zhuk / Aleksandr Gavrilov	31
4	Gertrude Desjardins / Maurice Lefrance	31.5
5	Milada Kubíková / Jaroslav Votruba	51.5
6	Gerda Johner / Rüdi Johner	58.5
7	Judianne Fotheringill / Jerry Fotheringill	64
8	Vivian Joseph / Ronald Joseph	66.5
9	Patti Gustafson / Pieter Kollen	84
10	Sonja Pfersdorf / Günther Matzdorf	84
11	Linda Ward / Neil Carpenter	95
12	Gunilla Lindberg / Gunnar de Shàrengrad	107

Judges:

• Zdeněk Fikar
• Walter Fritz
• Walter Malek
• E. R. S. McLauchlin
• Ardelle Sanderson
• Elemér Terták
• Néri Valdes
• Sergey Vasilyev
• János Zsigmondy

Ice dance

Rank	Name	Places
1	Eva Romanová / Pavel Roman	14
2	Linda Shearman / Michael Phillips	15
3	Paulette Doan / Kenneth Ormsby	26
4	Janet Sawbridge / David Hickinbottom	36
5	Donna Mitchell / John Mitchell	47
6	Mary Parry / Roy Mason	62
7	Sally Schantz / Stanley Urban	66
8	Lorna Dyer / John Carrell	71
9	Györgyi Korda / Pál Vásárhelyi	82
10	Carole Forrest / Kevin Lethbridge	93
11	Marlyse Fornachon / Charly Pichard	96
12	Armelle Flichy / Pierre Brun	116
13	Helga Burkhardt / Hannes Burkhardt	117
14	Jitka Babická / Jaromír Holan	120
15	Christel Trebesiner / Georg Felsinger	132
16	Ghislaine Houdas / Francis Gamichon	141
17	Yvonne Littlefield / Peter Betts	152
18	Maria Toncelli / Vinicio Toncelli	153

Judges:

• Cia Benacchi-Bordogna
• Claude Lambert
• J. A. McKechnie
• Hans Meixner
• Mollie Phillips
• John R. Shoemaker
• Emil Skákala
• Elemér Terták
• Hermann Wollersen

Sources

• Result List provided by the ISU