events

Olympic Champions Revisit 1956 Olympic Winter Games in Cortina, Italy

1956 Olympic Gold medalist Tenley Albright Photo courtesy of the World Figure Skating Museum

(2/9/06) - Tenley Albright and her daughter will take a trip 50 years back in time when they head to Torino for the 2006 Olympics.

It's hard to believe that a half a century has gone by since Albright became America's first female Olympic figure skating champion. The Olympic Winter Games were held in Cortina back then, in 1956, and Albright said she plans on taking her daughter to the site where it all happened as part of their trip to Italy to watch the Olympic figure skating events.

“It just doesn't seem possible," Albright said. "Even when I say it to some children and they say, ‘When was it, 50 years ago?' I think, ‘Wow.' "

At the time, there was no live television coverage of the Games and tens of thousands of reporters weren't filing reports on them, either. Of course, there was no Internet, much less home computers.

So, it was a treat for modern figure skating writers to reminisce with Albright about the last Italian Olympics. Albright was in St. Louis for the State Farm U.S. Championships in January. For the first time, all 12 living American Olympic gold medalists gathered together and were recognized in an on-ice ceremony during nationals. Everyone, from Albright to Sarah Hughes, Dick Button to Brian Boitano, was present.

Albright, now 70, went on to become a Harvard-trained surgeon and cancer researcher in Boston. She continues to work in the medical field and her Olympic gold medal is on display in an exhibit called "Changing the Face of Medicine" at the National Library of Medicine in Bethesda, Md.

Although she made many strides in the medical field (especially considering she was one of five women in her medical school class of 135 students), Albright always will be remembered for her winning performance in Cortina.

The 1956 Olympics marked the last year that the figure skating events were held entirely outdoors. Albright, and most American skaters at the time, trained in indoor facilities. The Europeans often mocked the Americans, calling them “hot house plants" because of their cushy training centers.

“It's a wonderful thing to skate outdoors," said David Jenkins, who won an Olympic bronze medal in Cortina and followed that up with a gold medal four years later in Squaw Valley, Calif. “It's exhilarating to be in a more natural setting than a somewhat damp and dark ice rink."

“But for competition?" Albright injected.

The conditions weren't exactly ideal, considering the wind, rain or whatever else got blown in the rink's direction.

“Sometimes, you'd be doing your program and you had it planned out to cover the whole rink, and you have to sort of rearrange the program in the middle of it."

Back in 1956, skaters also competed in school figures. Skating outdoors made it all the more difficult, as the slightest breeze could knock a skater off his or her rocker.

Albright, who won a silver medal in the 1952 Olympics, was the favorite to win the gold in Cortina. But during one of her practices, she was going backwards and hit a rut in the ice.

“It was very weird because the skate from one leg came down and hit the ankle of the other leg," Albright said. “I had trouble getting off the ice. My teammate, Catherine Machado from California, had never seen snow before, and she had to skate in it. She actually came over and quietly helped me up because you don't want to appear injured to anybody at a time like that.

“It was kind of strange because I couldn't stand on it and I couldn't skate, and they wanted to cut my skate off, and I said, ‘No, no, no. I have to have my skate.' It was jagged and they couldn't stitch it."

Albright's father, a surgeon, flew to Italy and helped her recover for the Games.

In the warmup for the free skate, Albright fell while practicing a waltz jump, the most basic move in skating. Somehow, she managed to regroup and in front of about 10,000 fans, she skated to the gold medal. Albright has an ability to focus when necessary – whether it's on the ice or in the operating room – and she credited that ability to helping her stand on top of the 1956 Olympic podium.

Still, even she couldn't help being swept up by the emotion of the moment. Skating to Barcarole, the crowd in Cortina began humming part of her music.

“That was the warmest feeling," Albright said. “It just sort of welled up, and that carries you as well.”

1956 Olympic Silver medalist Carol Heiss Photo courtesy of the World Figure Skating Museum

Albright was joined on the medal stand by another American, Carol Heiss. Heiss, who went on to win the gold medal in 1960, celebrated her 16th birthday while in Cortina. She still remembers the posh resort town and likened it to St. Moritz, Switzerland.

Heiss also remembers Cortina's outdoor stadium, which had wooden stands on one side. The practice rink didn't have any rails on the side. All of the athletes stayed in hotel rooms. The concept of an athletes' village didn't start until four years later in Squaw Valley.

“Cortina was like a different era for the Olympics," Heiss said.

Cortina will always be special to Heiss for other reasons. It was in Cortina where she and Hayes Jenkins, the Olympic gold medalist, first began dating.

“I gave her a birthday kiss for her 16th birthday," Hayes Jenkins said. “We started dating. Four years later, she won the gold medal and on April 30, 1960, we got married."

Carol Heiss Jenkins and Hayes Jenkins now live in Cleveland. Heiss Jenkins will be in Torino coaching Miki Ando, a top skater from Japan. Hayes Jenkins is a retired attorney.

Heiss Jenkins went back to Cortina several years ago, when one of her skaters at the time, Tonia Kwiatkowski, was competing in a nearby town. Hayes Jenkins has not been back.

“I can still picture the American team walking down the main street to the arena," Heiss Jenkins said. “I walked down that same street with Tonia. I saw a plaque honoring all of the Olympic gold medalists and all of the memories came back to me."

Hayes Jenkins, who had finished fourth in the 1952 Olympics, was hoping to emerge from Dick Button's shadow in Cortina. He was able to enjoy the 1952 Games in part because he knew he wasn't the gold-medal favorite. But that all changed in 1956, when Hayes Jenkins was under intense pressure.

“I was really nervous," Hayes Jenkins said. “I had the desire to win, but in the context of the Olympics, I had a little bit of fear of losing, too. I was always nervous when I skated, but I always tell skaters now, ‘Don't focus on being nervous. It can heighten your adrenaline.' ”

The field was especially deep that year. Although Hayes Jenkins had an edge on the competition when it came to school figures, he knew he'd face formidable challenges in the free skate. One of his top rivals was Ronnie Robertson, considered one of the best spinners in the sport, and Jenkins' younger brother, David, who was landing triple jumps.

“I skated after my brother, David, and Ronnie Robertson, but I didn't watch either of them skate," Hayes Jenkins said. “I wanted to do the best I could do. I'll never forget that my coach, Edi Scholdan, told me right before I skated, ‘Whatever you do, don't fall, because if you fall, you'll lose.'

“I had a very slim lead in the figures, and I knew he was right. When I was done, there was a mixture of deep satisfaction for all of the years that you had skated and that you had worked so hard for this, but there was also a tremendous sense of relief.

1956 Olympic Gold medalist Hayes Alan Jenkins Photo courtesy of the World Figure Skating Museum

“To watch my brother compete in 1956 was absolutely the most agonizing experience imaginable," David Jenkins said. “Yet I loved it because he was so fantastic,'' Albright said.

In the modern era of instantaneous results, it's hard to believe Hayes Jenkins had to wait about a half hour to find out that he had won. Judges had to compute scores from hand-tabulated results. When the results became official, Hayes Jenkins was sitting in the locker room.

The Olympic podium was special in Cortina because it was the only time the Americans swept the medals. Hayes Jenkins won the gold, Robertson was second and David Jenkins captured the bronze.

For the Jenkins brothers, it also marked the first time brothers reached the medal podium in the same year. Hayes and David are especially close. They grew up sharing a room, and Hayes even helped coach David leading up to the 1960 Games.

“He'd get me up and make sure I was there at practices and my skates were sharpened and my boots were polished," David Jenkins said. “It was a special burden to him at the '56 Olympics that I was there, and he always felt some responsibility for me, God love him.

“To be on the pedestal in third place was more than satisfying. But to be able to look and see your brother on the top step and the flag waving and the Anthem playing, that's some Hollywood script.”