Babes in Iceland

Both of them had crossed the Atlantic with European titles on their minds. In Prague's Winter Sports Stadium last week, Canada's 19-year-old Barbara Ann Scott had hers to defend, and New Jersey's 18-year-old Dick Button had his to win.

Just as the music was beginning and Barbara Ann was set to flash onto the ice, the loudspeaker screeched. The racket might have unnerved a lesser competitor. Cool and calm in silver-braided chiffon, Barbara Ann waited easily, then, at the first musical note, was off with a sparkle of skates. When the last strain of Babes in Toyland had crackled away, and seven international judges had gravely conferred, Barbara Ann Scott was unanimously voted, for the second year in a row, Europe's champion woman figure skater.

Barbara Ann's handlers plainly considered the European championship only a practice workout for her big try in next month's winter Olympics at St. Moritz, Switzerland. But Prague's newspapers burned up a month's supply of flash bulbs photographing her on ice; even the Communist Rude Pravo shunted the Greek civil war to an inside page. At the finale, the 12,000 spectators, many of whom had paid scalpers' prices for tickets, cheered hard for "Scottova."

It had proved a tougher contest than Barbara Ann anticipated. A sharp, high wind off the Vltava River (the Moldau) troubled all contestants in the precise school figure events. And a 53DEG temperature the day before had thawed the ice in the open-air stadium and left it bumpy and irregular, making it hard for the judges to check the tracings of the figures. Barbara Ann finished her school figures out in front--but two of the seven judges had not picked her for first place. Two days later, in the free skating, Barbara Ann easily distanced the competition, boosted her point total to the highest score (181.66) ever awarded in a Prague rink. Runner-up: Austria's Eva Pawlik.

Last year U.S. Champion Dick Button had come within a blade of winning the men's world figure-skating championship at Stockholm. When the judges picked Hans Gerschweiler of Switzerland instead, Sweden's press had howled: "The best skater lost. . . ." Last week at Prague, in the European men's championship, flashy young Button beat the man who had beaten him. Losing to Gerschweiler in the school figures, Button came from behind to clinch the title by his boldness and abandon in the free skating. That made him the first and last American title-holder (next year all non-European contestants will be barred). Said Gerschweiler: "The best man won."

The crowd self-consciously whistled its approval of Button's triumph. A Prague newspaper had carefully explained beforehand that U.S. crowds whistle when they like something instead of when they don't.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.