Vera SMITH

Competing for the Toronto Cricket, Skating and Curling Club, Vera Smith first gained attention on the Canadian national figure skating scene in 1947, when she won that year’s Junior Championships in the women’s singles. Two years later she captured a silver medal at the North American Championships in the fours, alongside Peter Firstbrook and the non-Olympians Mary Kenner and Peter Dunfield. From then on her major successes came in the women’s singles, in which she was national runner-up in 1951 and 1952 (behind Suzi Morrow and Marlene Smith respectively) and bronze medalist in 1950 and 1954. Internationally she was tenth and sixth at the 1952 and 1953 World Championships respectively and 13th among 25 competitors at the 1952 Winter Olympics. Following her retirement from active competition, she spent three and a half decades as a figure skating instructor at the North Toronto Memorial Arena.