Sherwin BADGER

Sherwin Badger was the first great American skater. He was a five-time U.S. individual champion – all in succession (1920-24) and in 1923 won the first North American championship. But his Olympic success came in pairs skating when, in 1932, he partnered with Beatrix Loughran to a silver medal. At the US Championships they won the title from 1930-1932. Previously, Badger skated in pairs events with painter Clara Frothingham and subsequently with her sister Edith Eliot Rotch, better known as a tennis player. With both he was runner-up at the US Championships in 1918 and 1920, respectively.

Badger had studied at Harvard University, graduating in 1923. His business career began that year with United Fruit Co., but in 1925 he joined Dow-Jones Publications as the banking editor of The Wall Street Journal and Barrons. In 1940 he joined the New England Mutual Life Insurance Co., and remained with that firm, serving eventually as a senior vice-president and director, until his retirement in 1972. Badger stayed close to the sport after his competing days were over and served as president of the U.S. National Figure Skating Assoc. in the 1930s. Badger's first wife was Mary Bancroft, who after their divorce and during World War II, worked as a spy in Switzerland for the United States' OSS (Office of Strategic Services), the forerunner of the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency).