ORIGINS OF CANADIAN FIGURE SKATING ASSOCIATION
Montreal’s love affair with “fancy skating” began in 1862, with the opening of the Victoria Skating Rink on Drummond St. near René Lévesque Blvd.
It is best known for holding the first documented indoor hockey game in 1875 and first Stanley Cup playoffs in 1894.
But the Victoria Skating Club’s first mandate was skating.
Contestants performed “‘threes,’ ‘eights,’ ‘grapevine,’ ‘scissors,’ ‘rocking turns,’ ‘crosscuts,’ ‘locomotive steps,’ and in fact all the steps known to skaters,” the Montreal Daily Witness reported on March 19, 1878.
Club skater Louis Rubenstein, who won an unofficial world championship in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1890, was determined to establish international standards. In 1887, he organized the Amateur Skating Association of Canada to regulate speedskating and figure skating.
In 1912, the Winter Club replaced the out-dated Victoria Rink, which was demolished in 1925.
The Figure Skating Department of the Amateur Skating Association was founded in 1914, with Rubenstein as president, a position he held until his death in 1931.
In 1939, the department, headquartered at the Winter Club, became the Canadian Figure Skating Association (CFSA). In 1947, the CFSA joined the International Skating Union (ISU) and moved to Ottawa. It was renamed Skate Canada in 2000.