Gordon McKellen
American figure skater (born 1953)
title: "Gordon McKellen" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["american-male-single-skaters", "olympic-figure-skaters-for-the-united-states", "figure-skaters-at-the-1972-winter-olympics", "1953-births", "living-people", "sportspeople-banned-for-life", "20th-century-american-sportsmen"] description: "American figure skater (born 1953)" topic_path: "geography/united-states" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_McKellen" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary American figure skater (born 1953) ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox figure skater"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Gordon McKellen |
| image | Gordon McKellen, RIT NandE 1973 Oct26 Complete.jpg |
| caption | McKellen circa 1973 |
| country | United States |
| birth_date | |
| birth_place | Reading, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| retired | 1975 |
| :: |
| name= Gordon McKellen | image=Gordon McKellen, RIT NandE 1973 Oct26 Complete.jpg | caption=McKellen circa 1973 | fullname= | altname= | country= United States | birth_date= | birth_place= Reading, Pennsylvania, U.S. | hometown= | height= | beganskating= | retired= 1975
Gordon Riley "Gordie" McKellen Jr. (born August 26, 1953) is an American former competitive figure skater. He is the 1973–75 U.S. national champion and placed tenth at the 1972 Winter Olympics.
Personal life
McKellen was born on August 26, 1953, in Reading, Pennsylvania. His parents, Leila and Gordon "Tuffy" Sr., owned an ice rink, and his father was a member of the 1940s ice skating duo, the McKellen Brothers. In 1977, McKellen married American figure skater Kath Malmberg, who gave birth to their two children in the 1980s.
Career
McKellen won three consecutive U.S. national titles. He was selected to represent the United States at the 1972 Winter Olympics and finished tenth. His highest placement at the World Championships was 5th, in 1975.
Although other skaters had practiced triple axels before then, McKellen was the first skater to attempt them in public performances. He landed several in exhibition in 1974–1975, as King of the Lake Placid Winter Festival exhibition and during the exhibitions following his third National championship win in Providence. The triple axel was not landed in competition until Vern Taylor did it in 1978.
McKellen retired from competitive skating after the 1975 season after his coach, Slavka Kohout, left her position at the Wagon Wheel rink in Rockton, Illinois, where McKellen had been training. He toured with Toller Cranston's "The Ice Show" company after turning professional.
McKellen was inducted into the United States Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 1998. In July 2001, he was banned for life from U.S. Figure Skating because of allegations of inappropriate behavior and actions with underage female skaters.
Results
::data[format=table]
| International | Event | 64–65 | 65-66 | 66-67 | 69–70 | 70–71 | 71–72 | 72–73 | 73–74 | 74–75 | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winter Olympics | 10th | ||||||||||
| World Champ. | 9th | 8th | 7th | 6th | 5th | ||||||
| Prague Skate | 1st | ||||||||||
| U.S. Champ. | 6th N | 7th J | 2nd J | 6th | 3rd | 3rd | 1st | 1st | 1st | ||
| N = Novice level; J = Junior level | |||||||||||
| :: |
References
Navigation
References
- (October 2001). "Grievance Report". Skating magazine.
- (18 October 2001). "Olympics: Here and There". [[Los Angeles Times]].
- Mazurkiewicz, Frank. (February 12, 1984). "Olympic memory on ice". Reading Eagle.
- "GRIEVANCES". [[U.S. Figure Skating]].
- "Gordie McKellen Jr.".
- "Muskegon Area Sport Hall of Fame - Class of 1992".
::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::