On March 9, 1990, a line of vehicles left the Village of Arborg.

We were heading to the 1990 Interlake Regional Precision Competition in Stonewall, Manitoba. The final competition of the season for our 16-member Arborg Junior team.

The Stonewall Figure Skating Club hosted the competition that warm, spring-like day. It was the finale of a successful season for the Arborg Junior, Juvenile, and CanSkate teams. And it’d be the Arborg Junior team’s swan song. After searching high and low, merging skaters from three clubs, and pulling skaters out of retirement, our team would dissolve after this competition.

This Interlake Regional Precision Competition was held earlier than the previous year. Since our parents were working, my older sister and I carpooled with a teammate. Carpooling comes with precision territory.

Inside the Stonewall arena, we waited for our teammates and two other Arborg teams. We could smell the aroma of the rink. Most skaters agree arenas have an aroma. It’s fresh and minty. With a hint of ammonia, but that fades. The stench of changing rooms is another story.

We found our assigned room for the Arborg Junior team. Just the 16 of us. As we were settling inside, most of us missed the cork board outside our dressing room. It’s also called the competition board, where categories, teams, order of skate and results are posted.

Someone said, “Do you see who we’re up against?”

We were one of two teams in the advanced category. However, we didn’t celebrate a medal by default.

The other team was the St. Andrews Novice Precise-ettes. The best team in our region. One of the top teams in Manitoba. No one in the Interlake dethrones the St. Andrews Novice Precise-ettes.

Yes, the Arborg Junior team were 1990 Manitoba Precision Champions in our division, Recreational C. However, St. Andrews won gold at the 1989 and 1990 Interlake Winter Game trials. In 1989, they placed at the Manitoba Precision Championships in Novice and advanced to the Canadian Precision Championships in Edmonton, Alta.

We couldn’t concentrate on “who” we were against though, because we were competing against ourselves. The competition was speeding fast – and we learned there wasn’t a warm-up for our category. Teams skated cold – in an unusually warm arena.

The advanced category dropped the curtain on the competition, with St. Andrews on the ice first. Giving us time to breathe and share a laugh or two as we lined the hall. Our team stood in our on-ice order, and I was third from the front. I could see St. Andrews’ program through the chicken-wire-covered window in the arena door.

They had poise and grace, they were pure panache. However, to our surprise, a Precise-ette fell. As our team stepped down the concrete stairs, another Precise-ette went down. There was another fall as we all stood at ice level. I glanced at one of my teammates with raised eyebrows.

St. Andrews looked shocked as they exited the ice. We were shocked. I think everyone in the building was shocked.

They announced our team, and we stepped onto the ice and into our entrance block formation. A four-by-four square of skaters. Slap legs, shoulder hold, left-right-left, change line at the corner, turn, regroup into the original block.

Maybe we couldn’t match St. Andrews’ technical level or artistic elegance – but we had speed, power, and a funky style. Think Viktor Petrenko and Kurt Browning during the early-90s. We were a team of Kurts.

We hit our starting position – an “A.” Yes, “A” for Arborg. I don’t recall much about the program, I’ve heard those are either the best or worst. Considering the reaction from the crowd, it must have been good. One moment stands out. Near the end of the program, we performed a forward kickline with a shoulder hold into a perfectly timed lunge. And zero falls.

After our program, we sat in the changing room. We were fixing our hair. Pretending to dig in our skating bags. Trying to keep busy until the results were posted. But within 10 minutes, we were back on the ice for the medal ceremonies with the results shrouded in mystery. Our coach, Joanne, and our team manager were also in the dark.

At the previous Interlake Regional Precision Competition, our team learned we won a silver medal before the ceremonies. Rarely is a result an on-ice or near-podium surprise. This felt like the 1988 Winter Games in Calgary. When the audience didn’t know which Brian – Boitano or Orser – won the gold until the winner was announced during the medal ceremony.

Stonewall SC skaters brought medals out on wooden dowels. The Arborg CanSkate team won bronze, and the Arborg Juveniles won a silver in their respective division. A month either, the Juvenile team earn a silver at the Manitoba Provincial Championships. We cheered and started the precision chant of, “We are proud of you, hey, we are proud of you, say.”

Meanwhile, the St. Andrews Precise-ettes Novice and the Arborg Junior team stood side-by-side. St. Andrews seemed less jubilant than last season’s Regionals when they were doing the wave during the ceremonies.

We were furthest for medal delivery, and we weren’t paying attention to how many categories were in the competition because in 1990, the amount of precision teams had doubled.

Maybe there was a miscommunication, but during a stretch of silence, medals appeared for the advanced category teams.

And 16 faces fell.

Gold medals were facing our team. Some of us glanced at St. Andrews, where there was a row of silver. We started to whisper and turn to each other, shrugging our shoulders with a “What’s going on?” reaction. St. Andrews was silent. A few were digging their toe picks into the ice.

Was this a mistake? Were the skaters on dowel duty going to switch spots? Murmurs were heard throughout the arena. The P.A. announcer hesitated before they said, “And the silver medal in the advanced category goes to … the St. Andrews Precise-ettes.”

Our screams made the announcement that we’d won the gold medal almost inaudible. I’ll never forget cheering from our families and friends. Our teammates were hugging, and we saw Joanne on the sidelines, pumping her arms into the air. One of my friends leapt at least 24 inches off the ice before she threw her arms around me.

We were still hugging and laughing as people from the Stonewall SC awarded our medals. We looked at the medallions, then we almost huddled, flipping them front and back, admiring them, clenching them to our chests.

We were giggling like little girls while the Interlake Spectator – our local paper – gathered us together for a photo.

Joanne was waiting in our changing room, crying, and when we returned she was hugging everyone, saying how proud she was of us. Once she left, our team was buzzing, talking about our season, winning provincials. A teammate said, ” … and our name was in the Free Press,” Manitoba’s largest newspaper. At that time, when you live in a small town – a village – and your precision team’s name appears on the same page as NHL scores, it’s a thrill.

Our first competition, also the Interlake Regional Precision Competition, was 35 years ago today – March 10, 1989. My dad videoed each Arborg team, including the medal ceremony.

The 1990 Regionals were bittersweet. It was still daylight as we drove home. We were happy, ecstatic, name the adjective. However, it didn’t hit me until the next competitive season that my precision days were over. There weren’t enough people in my age category for a team.

The majority of the Arborg Juniors hung up their competitive skates, a couple for the second time. Those of us who continued skating focused on singles. A handful of our younger members balanced both disciplines.

At times, I wonder does the 1990 Arborg Junior team ever think about that season. I hope the answer is “once in awhile.”

Especially that day in 1990, when the impossible was possible.

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A modified version of this post will be included in a memoir about my figure skating career and published in 2025

In 1998, synchronized skating replaced the term precision, a sport founded in 1956. When these posts reference a team who skated prior to 1998, precision will be used for historical and preservation purposes.

(Resource: US Figure Skating)

Photos: Family archives, 1990 Arborg Skating Club ice show, Movie Mania
Newspaper clippings: Interlake Spectator
Arborg officially became a town in November 1997