BASN Focus On History :: Skater Mabel Fairbanks

http://www.blackathlete.net/artman/publish/article_0381.shtml

I've never heard of her before... but something had me curious:

Olympic medalist Scott Hamilton learned from Fairbanks when he was just a young beginner.

Click to expand...

If that's the case she is the only coach that Scott does not even hint at mentioning in his book. He says Rita Lowry was his first, and after Rita and David left Bowling Green he was coached by some German(?) dude, before he moved to Wagon Wheel... so why/when did Fairbanks coach him?

I think the problem here is in the definition of the word "coach." She well may have coached him in the sense that MK and others use other specialty coaches to "coach" them on footwork, spins, or a certain area of expertise. I think this is how Fairbanks coached Hamilton and many others....she was more of an "ad hoc" adviser than a full time coach to many skaters.

I think she did have full-time students once again, in the realm of MK to Frank Carroll or Todd Eldridge to R Callahan) However, many in the LA area and others also point to various times they have "worked" with Mabel Fairbanks.

Most important is that, in her earlier years, Maribel Vinson Owen taught Fairbanks in private under the condition that she tell no one. So glad times have changed in some ways.