Elizabeth Cain and Peter Cain Step Back in Time
Australia had enjoyed a long history in figure skating before Elizabeth Cain and Peter Cain burst onto the international scene in the 1970s, but the brother and sister duo were the first skaters from down under to find success on the global stage.
Their bronze-medal finish at the 1976 World Junior Championships put Australia on the skating map. It was the first-ever international medal for a pairs team from the Antipodes.
Forty-one years would pass before another Australian team ranked higher on the junior stage.
In an ironic twist, Peter was in the building the night he and his sister’s record was finally surpassed.
Though their parents had met at an ice rink many years earlier, it was by sheer chance that Elizabeth Cain and Peter Cain got into the sport in 1972 at ages 9 and 13.
While watching a cartoon show one morning an advertisement popped up about a contest. The prize? A pair of ice skates.
Elizabeth submitted a story detailing how her parents had met at an ice rink in Sydney. She did not win the skates, but scored skating passes to a local ice arena.
“When we got there it turned out that mum and dad knew some of the people that managed the rink and they set us up with skates and that was how it all began,” Elizabeth recalled.
FLASHBACKS
The siblings started taking lessons as singles skaters at a local club. Their first introduction to pairs came about when they were asked to perform together in a Christmas show. It was the spark that lit the fire.
The following year Elizabeth and Peter went to Brisbane to watch nationals where they saw a pairs team compete. “We both thought it looked cool,” said Elizabeth.
“But I think our journey into pairs was decided for us in a way by a few people at the federation. To them it made sense to have a brother and sister skate together so we just went along with it. I was pretty small so there was a good height difference.”
Th ough they continued to improve their skills as singles skaters, pairs became their main focus. Elizabeth said she soon found singles to be a lonely discipline. “I would be out there thinking to myself, ‘this isn’t as much fun.’”
Like many skaters of their era, Elizabeth and Peter learned pairs elements by watching films of other teams such as Irina Rodnina and Alexander Zaitsev from the Soviet Union, and the American duos of Tai Babilonia and Randy Gardner and JoJo Starbuck and Ken Shelley.
The siblings also made use of the large backyard at their home to try out the elements. “We did a lot of lifting there. It wasn’t really the best environment to do lifts because we were on grass, but that is what we did. Sometimes the grass would be a little slippery. We didn’t have anyone to spot us and we took a fair few face plants out there, but it was fun,”
