Candace Jones

Candace Lynne "Candy" Jones (born March 20, 1955 in Kingston, Ontario) is a Canadian former pair skater. With her husband Don Fraser,[1] she won gold medals at the Canadian Figure Skating Championships in 1975 and 1976 and competed in the 1976 Winter Olympics. They have also won a number of World Championships as professionals. There were known as the first couple to do a one-handed overhead lift, as well as a no-hands death spiral that has yet to be attempted by other pairs.[2]

Ice-skating career

Jones has won gold medals in Figures, Free Skating, Dance and Pairs in various competitions.[3] She was originally a single skater, but when the pair skater Don Fraser split from his regular partner, he asked Jones to be his pair skating partner after seeing her in a skating ring.[4]

The skating pair of Jones and Fraser made their debut at the Canadian Figure Skating Championships in 1974, reaching fourth place that year. That year, the pair also won silver medals at the Grand Prix de Patinage Artistique in France, and the Nebelhorn Trophy in Germany.[3]

In 1975, they won Gold at the Canadian Figure Skating Championships. At the 1975 World Figure Skating Championships where they finished 11th,[5] the performed for the first time a novel move the "One Hand Press".[3]

The pair again won the Canadian Championships in 1976.[3] They were placed 12th in the 1976 World Figure Skating Championships, and 14th in the 1976 Winter Olympics.

They invented a unique move, the no-hand death spiral, during which the man as the pivot releases his handhold on the female partner while she continues to spiral on her own in a backbend position. She discovered this move when she was demonstrating to another pair how to do a pivot, the boy slipped and lost his grip, and she realized that she could do the spiral on her own, after which Fraser and Jones incorporated this routine into their performances.[3][6]

They have won a number of medals competing as professionals, including Gold medals in the World Professional Figure Skating Championships held in Jaca, Spain in 1977, 1978 and 1979,[7] the International Professional Ice Skating Championships held at Madison Square Garden, New York in 1982.[8] as well as the Professional Championships the following year.[9]

Fraser and Jones were part of the Broadway production and 1978 television broadcast of Toller Cranston's The Ice Show.[10][11]

Personal life

After her career in ice-skating ended, Jones went into medicine, having graduated with a degree in medicine at McGill University in Montreal in 1985. She did a residency in family medicine at Queen's University in Kingston until 1987.[12][13] She worked in Sharbot Lake until the early 1990s,[14] when she moved to Colchester, Vermont in the United States where she practiced family medicine at the University of Vermont and the Fletcher Allen Health Centre.[15]

Candace and Don have two children, Jesse and Mat. Their son Mat Fraser is a former weightlifter and currently a multiple CrossFit Games champion.[16]

Results

pairs with Don Fraser

Event 1974-75 1975-76
Winter Olympic Games14th
World Championships11th12th
Canadian Championships1st1st
Nebelhorn Trophy[17]2nd

Notes
  1. "Jones, Candace; Fraser, Donald". Team Canada.
  2. Schermerhorn, Keka (July 1, 2014). "The Real Deal: Mat Fraser". CrossFit.
  3. "Toller Cranston's "The Ice Show"". Playbill.
  4. Beginnings - Mat Fraser: The Making of a Champion - Part 1. April 17, 2017. Event occurs at 1:59–2:35.
  5. "Soviet pairs team takes gold medal". Montreal Gazette. March 6, 1975.
  6. "Candy Jones and Don Fraser - 1984 Pro-Skate New York AP". YouTube.
  7. "World Professional Figure Skating Championships (Jaca, Spain)". Golden Skate.
  8. "2-Dau Prp Skating Watched by 26,000". The New York Times. December 20, 1982.
  9. Green, Jeff (July 28, 2016). "Mat Fraser, the "world's fittest man" hails from Sharbot Lake". Frontenac News.
  10. Dietz, Dan. The Complete Book of 1970s Broadway Musicals. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. pp. 352–353. ISBN 9781442251663.
  11. "Toller Cranston's "The Ice Show"". Playbill.
  12. "Candy Jones". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on April 18, 2020.
  13. "Candace L. Fraser". WebMD.
  14. Green, Jeff (July 28, 2016). "Mat Fraser, the "world's fittest man" hails from Sharbot Lake". Frontenac News.
  15. "Archived copy". Fletcher Allen. Archived from the original on 2011-07-26. Retrieved 2010-07-25.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  16. "The Real Deal: Mat Fraser". CrossFit Games. July 1, 2014.
  17. "Results Book, Volume 2: 1974–current" (PDF). Skate Canada. pp. 95–101. Archived from the original on 20 September 2009.CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
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