Barbara Ann Scott, OC, O.Ont (born May 9, 1928 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) is a Canadian retired figure skater. She is the 1948 Olympic Champion.
Barbara Ann Scott began skating at a very young age with the Minto Skating Club of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. She was only eleven years old when she won her first Canadian national junior title. Two years later, in 1942, the thirteen-year-old became the first female to ever land a double lutz in competition.
From 1945 to 1948, she won the North American Figure Skating Championships. In 1947 she became the first North American to win the European and World Figure Skating Championships, making her a Canadian national heroine. Subsequent to her victory, her hometown of Ottawa gave her a new convertible automobile but she had to turn down the gift in order to retain her amateur status so as to be able to compete in the 1948 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz, Switzerland. In the Winter Games she became the first Canadian to win the figure skating gold medal.
She was awarded the Lou Marsh Trophy as Canada’s top athlete of the year in 1945, 1947 and 1948. She was inducted into the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame in 1948, Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame in 1955, the Ottawa Sports Hall of Fame in 1966 and the Canadian Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 1991.
Scott turned professional, skating with the Hollywood Ice Revue in Chicago where she met publicist Tom King whom she married in 1955. As a professional she toured outside Canada. Amongst her early successes was the huge hit, Tom Arnold’s Rose Marie on Ice at the Harringay Arena in London, UK.
Ms. Scott was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1991, a member of the Order of Ontario in 2009, and in 1998 was named to Canada’s Walk of Fame.
