Debbi Wilkes (born December 16, 1946) is a Canadian former

pair skater Pair skating is a figure skating discipline defined by the International Skating Union (ISU) as "the skating of two persons in unison who perform their movements in such harmony with each other as to give the impression of genuine Pair Skating a ...

. With skating partner

Guy Revell Guy Revell (August 2, 1941 - March 11, 1981) was a Canadian pair skater. With skating partner Debbi Wilkes, he became a two-time Canadian national champion, the 1963 North American champion, and the 1964 Olympic silver medallist. Career Reve ...

, she became a two-time

Canadian national The Canadian National Railway Company (french: Compagnie des chemins de fer nationaux du Canada) is a Canadian Class I railroad, Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern United States, M ...

champion, the 1963

North American North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Ca ...

champion, and the 1964 Olympic silver medallist.

Personal life

Wilkes was born on December 16, 1946, in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

. She graduated from

York University York University (french: Université York), also known as YorkU or simply YU, is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's fourth-largest university, and it has approximately 55,700 students, 7,0 ...

with an honors degree in psychology and then earned a master's degree in communications at

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the fi ...

. She is currently married to Bruce McEwan.

Career

On the ice by the age of five, Wilkes took up pairs at age ten and skated with her first partner until he quit. She began skating with

, six years her elder, in 1958 after meeting at the Unionville skating carnival. Though their height difference was adequate at the start of their partnership, by the time Wilkes was seventeen in 1963, her height was to Revell's . They were coached by Bruce Hyland at Crosby Arena and represented the Unionville Skating Club throughout their career. Wilkes fell from a lift while posing for press photographs prior to the 1963 World Championships, hitting the ice head-first and fracturing her skull. The pair had to withdraw from the competition. Wilkes/Revell were awarded the bronze medal at the

1964 Winter Olympics The 1964 Winter Olympics, officially known as the IX Olympic Winter Games (german: IX. Olympische Winterspiele) and commonly known as Innsbruck 1964 ( bar, Innschbruck 1964, label=Austro-Bavarian), was a winter multi-sport event which was celebr ...

Innsbruck Innsbruck (; bar, Innschbruck, label=Bavarian language, Austro-Bavarian ) is the capital of Tyrol (state), Tyrol and the List of cities and towns in Austria, fifth-largest city in Austria. On the Inn (river), River Inn, at its junction with the ...

, while gold went to

Ludmila Belousova Ludmila Yevgenyevna Belousova (russian: Людмила Евгеньевна Белоусова; 22 November 1935 – 26 September 2017) was a Soviet and Russian pair skater who represented the Soviet Union. With her partner and husband Oleg Pr ...

Oleg Protopopov Oleg Alekseyevich Protopopov (russian: link=no, Оле́г Алексе́евич Протопо́пов; born 16 July 1932) is a former Russian pair skater who represented the Soviet Union. With his wife Ludmila Belousova he is a two-time Olymp ...

and silver to

Marika Kilius Marika Kilius (; born 24 March 1943) is a German former pair skater. With Hans-Jürgen Bäumler, she is a two-time Olympic silver medalist, a two-time World champion, and a six-time European champion. Earlier in her career, she competed with Fra ...

Hans-Jürgen Bäumler Hans-Jürgen Bäumler (born 28 January 1942) is a German former pair skater, actor, and Schlager singer. Career Bäumler became famous in pair skating with his skating partner Marika Kilius. Between 1958 and 1964, they won the German nation ...

. After taking the bronze at the 1964 World Championships in

Dortmund Dortmund (; Westphalian nds, Düörpm ; la, Tremonia) is the third-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne and Düsseldorf, and the eighth-largest city of Germany, with a population of 588,250 inhabitants as of 2021. It is the la ...

, the pair parted ways — Wilkes decided to pursue an education while Revell elected to tour professionally in ice shows. In 1966, Wilkes/Revell were informed that the silver medallists in Innsbruck,

of Germany, had been disqualified after an International Olympic Committee investigation found they had signed pro contracts before the Olympics. IOC executive James Worrall presented Wilkes/Revell with the silver medals during the Canadian Championships in Peterborough, Ont. Later, Kilius/Baumler were reinstated in the record books, but the medals were never redistributed. In December 2013, after an investigation by ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', the International Olympic Committee confirmed that Kilius/Bäumler and Wilkes/Revell share the 1964 Olympic silver medal and Joseph/Joseph of the United States are the bronze medallists. Despite the information on its website over the years, the IOC stated that this was intended to be the official result since 1987. After retiring from competition, Wilkes became a television skating analyst, an author, a coach, and Skate Canada's Director of Marketing and Sponsorship.

Results

(with Revell)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilkes, Debbi 1946 births Living people Figure skaters from Toronto Canadian female pair skaters Canadian television sportscasters Olympic figure skaters for Canada Figure skaters at the 1964 Winter Olympics Women sports announcers Figure skating commentators Olympic medalists in figure skating World Figure Skating Championships medalists Medalists at the 1964 Winter Olympics Olympic silver medalists for Canada Canadian women television personalities