Betty Calloway passes away

The coach who trained Torville and Dean to their Olympic gold has passed away on June 27th at the age of 83.
She was someone who saw ice dancing as art and fought hard for her vision.
Here is a video of 1984 Olympic ice dancing medal ceremony that starts off with an interview with her: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpnalqB8uqk&feature=youtu.be
RIP

Thanks for posting this. Even though she had a nice long life, this news makes me quite sad. She was a masterful coach and quite the sportswoman. Along with coaching T&D and Regoczy and Sallay to a collective full set of Olympic medals, I will always remember the very kind gesture she made to Bestemianova and Bukin by stepping in to coach them as their last Worlds in 1988 after Tarasova had her heart attack. (http://www.ifsmagazine.com/articles/364-natalia-bestemianova-and-andrei-bukin See the reference about 2/3 of the way down the page.) Can you imagine some of the coaches today being so generous? She will be missed. A true original.

I didn't recall that Calloway had helped Bestemianova and Bukin that way. Thanks for bringing it up.

As you say, it's always sad to say goodbye to someone who gave this much to her chosen career. I'm sure Torvill and Dean are feeling a great loss with her passing. To me, she seemed admirably modest and undramatic. Maybe it was that homey, ordinary first name: Betty. Of course I always revered her for the work she did with Torvill and Dean, but I also was glad that she coached one of my favorite couples from the eighties, Regoxzy and Sallay. Calloway certainly left a tremendous legacy.

From time to time, a video appears with Betty doing some ice dance color commmentary on British Eurosport. I always really looked forward to it. Her commentary was insightful without being nasty, a hard trick to pull off.
I loved that she adored Wynne & Druar's Charleston OSP as much as I did, and felt they had done the best job in the competition of bringing the Charleston to the ice.

I loved both Regoeczy and Sallay and T&D, and everything both teams did.

I'll miss Betty Calloway!

Very sad news. RIP Ms. Callaway.

An onituary about Betty Callaway:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/o...n-to-the-olympic-ice-dance-title-2309544.html