Joan Prince Maclagan
Figure Skating Builder - Inducted 1985
Joan Prince Maclagan competed successfully in Provincial, Western Canadian, and National Figure Skating Championships before she turned her attention to teaching, judging, refereeing, and administering the sport. She judged thousands of figure skating tests for the Canadian Figure Skating Association. She was one of the first gold medal judges in Alberta. She judged Canadian championships from 1957 to 1976. She also judged many North American, World, and Olympic competitions. Joan Prince Maclagan was a Director of the Western, Prairie, and National Figure Skating Associations from 1954 to 1977.
After Induction
Joan represented women athletes of Alberta and received an Olympic medal in 1988. In 1990 she received the Sports Builder achievement award from the Glencoe Club in Calgary. Joan was inducted into the Canadian Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 1997.
More History:
From 1954 - 1962 Joan was the Director of the CFSA Western and then Prairie Sections and organized the first amateur figure skating section publication in Canada called Ice Chips. During this time she also found time to act as Chairman of the Skating Committee for the Glencoe Club from 1958 - 1969. From 1970 - 1977, as Director of the CFSA, she served as Chairman of the Technical Advisory Committee and as a member of the Rules, Skaters Development, Judges, Competition Study, Skate Canada and 1972 Worlds Committees. She had a heavy volunteer work load - especially during the years she was responsible for training and promotions of all the judges and accountants in Canada which entailed setting and marking hundreds of annual written exams.
Joan was the author of the first official CFSA publications “Manual for Competition Referees” and “Manual for Test Referees”. Some of the judges officiating today were trained in one or more of the numerous schools or seminars for judges and referees conducted by Joan across the four Western Provinces. Joan tried to judge every level of figure skating because otherwise one would get a warped sense of values. The above are just some of the reasons why she was inducted into the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame in 1985; and, the Canadian Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 1997.
Joan is remembered most of all for her sense of humour and her fun attitude that lit up many a competition. Joan was still going strong in her later years - she was an active swimmer, a member of the Glencoe Club Ladies Synchronized swimming team and was seriously studying the ancient game of “go” with her husband Jack.
Personal Highlights
- Originating Ice Chips, the first amateur figure skating newslettter publication in Canada
- Judging at the Sapporo Olympics in 1972
- Member of the Calgary World’s 1972 Organizing Committee, responsible for music, public address and ISU Liaison.
Born: October 10, 1927 – Ocean Falls, British Columbia
Died: November 9, 2015 – Calgary, Alberta
