Margie Sandison turned 80 on February 1, but she isn’t really slowing down yet. She joked about her skates probably not fitting anymore.
“64 years is a very long time,” she said laughing.
Sandison is looking to maybe slow down soon.She hasn’t figure skated for about three or four years now, but she’s still judging.
If there’s one person who knows figure skating in Saskatchewan, it’s Sandison. She’s been a major part of the province’s figure skating community for more than six decades now.
“When we were doing the odd double jump, they are doing quadruple jumps now,” she said, “We used to have three judges, now they have at least 12 or 13… where we were fully, totally responsible for the outcome, now it’s a whole mass of people and mathematically they come out!”
Sandison smiling as soon as she greets me and continues throughout our entire chat. She has a warmth about her. She’s wearing a necklace that has two gold figure skates dangling from it. Her condo is littered with mementos of figure skating, a painting of a figure skater, a pillow embroidered with a skate and trophies and certificates celebrating her long-time dedication to the sport.
Sandison began figure skating at the tender age of three at the Wascana Winter Club in Regina. Figure skating was a family affair in her household. Her father was also a professional judge and her older sister was a professional figure skater until she went into teaching the sport.
“It was just something that was part of the family. I had a brother who had nothing to do with it, he went onto university and got a doctorate, but had nothing to do with skating. He didn’t like it all!” she said laughing.
Danielle Shaw has known Sandison for more than 19 years now. She’s the executive director of the Saskatchewan Figure Skating Association.
Shaw said Sandison is the longest running active official in the province. At 64 years judging, Sandison has dedicated her life to the sport.
Sandison began her career in judging figure skating at 16. She went on to be the first Canadian Level Dance and International Single and Pair judge from Saskatchewan.
By 1969, she was judging nationally.
Sandison has judged about 13 international competitions, too. She began in 1989 where her first competitions were at St. Gervais, France and Oberstorf, West Germany. She has since travelled to France, the Netherlands, East Berlin, Moscow, Vienna, Sarajevo, a few places in the United States and all over Canada for competitions.
One of her fondest memories was being in East Berlin when the Berlin Wall came down.
“We couldn’t get anywhere. There was no transportation to see anything...Nobody would take you to see what was happening and they didn’t know what was happening themselves in East Berlin,” she said.
She remembers her husband calling her while it was happening, but the calls wouldn’t go through. She ended up going back years later with her husband to see the spot again.
At 70, she stopped judging international competitions. She estimates in total, she’s judged hundreds of competitions.
All of this experience and expertise Sandison has accumulated has been greatly beneficial for the province.
“Within Saskatchewan that has been huge, because that is information brought back to our officials and skaters,” Shaw said.
Sandison also has done testing for figure skaters and held training for other judges.
“It would bring back the knowledge of what else was out there and how it could benefit our skaters so they knew what to do or what training techniques had to be done to get Saskatchewan skaters at that level, as well,” Shaw said.
Sandison has gained many honours through her dedication to the sport, including being inducted into the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame in 2001 and a Saskatchewan Volunteer Medal last year.
“If we need a volunteer, she’s there for us. Not only in her role as volunteer, but she helps us in any way she has the capacity to,” said Shaw.
“I’ve enjoyed the years, all of them or I would’ve quit, said Sandison, “A lot of Canada’s top judges now that are judging internationally, I judged them from seven to eight to nine years old. They’re all in their 30s and 40s now and I’m watching what they have accomplished and that’s a great feeling that you’ve done something to help other people in that way.”