Donald Edward Fraser (born December 4, 1955, in

Lloydminster, Saskatchewan Lloydminster is a city in Canada which has the unusual geographic distinction of straddling the provincial border between Alberta and Saskatchewan. The city is incorporated by both provinces as a single city with a single municipal administra ...

) is a former

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

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 his wife Candace Jones, he won the gold medal at the

Canadian Figure Skating Championships The Canadian National Skating Championships () are an annual figure skating competition organized by Skate Canada to crown the List of national championships in figure skating, national champions of Canada. While the first official Canadian Champ ...

in 1975 and 1976 and competed in the

1976 Winter Olympics The 1976 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XII Olympic Winter Games (, ) and commonly known as Innsbruck 1976 (), were a winter multi-sport event celebrated in Innsbruck, Austria, from February 4 to 15, 1976. The games were awarded to Inn ...

. 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 skating couples.

Career

Fraser and Jones made their debut in the

in 1974, reaching fourth place that year. The same year, the pair also won silver medals at the Grand Prix de Patinage Artistique in France, and the

Nebelhorn Trophy The Nebelhorn Trophy is an annual figure skating competition sanctioned by the International Skating Union (ISU), organized and hosted by the German Ice Skating Union () and held in Oberstdorf, Germany. The competition debuted in 1969 and is na ...

in Germany. In 1975, they won Gold at the Canadian Figure Skating Championships. At the

1975 World Figure Skating Championships The 1975 World Figure Skating Championships were held in Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA from March 4 to 8. At the event, sanctioned by the International Skating Union, medals were awarded in men's singles, ladies' singles, pair skating, and ice ...

where they finished 11th, the performed for the first time a new move, the " One Hand Press". They again won the Canadian Championships in 1976. They were placed 12th at the

1976 World Figure Skating Championships The 1976 World Figure Skating Championships were held at the Scandinavium in Gothenburg, Sweden from 2 to 7 March. At the event, sanctioned by the International Skating Union, medals were awarded in men's singles, ladies' singles, pair skatin ...

, and 14th at the

. They have won a number of medals competing as professionals, including Gold medals at the

World Professional Figure Skating Championships The World Professional Figure Skating Championships, often referred to as Landover, was an elite made-for-TV figure skating competition. It was created by Dick Button, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, through his production company Candid Productio ...

held in

Jaca Jaca (; in Aragonese language, Aragonese: ''Chaca'' or ''Xaca'') is a city of northeastern Spain in the province of Huesca (province), Huesca, located near the Pyrenees and the border with France. Jaca is an ancient fort on the Aragón (river), ...

, Spain in 1977, 1978 and 1979. They also won the International Professional Ice Skating Championships held at

Madison Square Garden Madison Square Garden, colloquially known as the Garden or by its initials MSG, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City. It is located in Midtown Manhattan between Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh and Eighth Avenue (Manhattan), Eig ...

, New York in 1982, which they also won the following year. As professionals, they invented a unique move, the no-hand death spiral, during which the man acting as the pivot releases his handhold on the female partner while she continues to spiral on her own in a backbend position, the man then jumps over her while she was doing the spiral. Candy Jones 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 it into their performances. Fraser and Jones were part of the 1977 Broadway production and the 1978 television broadcast of ''

Toller Cranston Toller Shalitoe Montague Cranston (April 20, 1949 – January 24, 2015) was a Canadian figure skater and painter. He won the 1971–1976 Canadian national championships, the 1974 World bronze medal and the 1976 Olympic bronze medal. De ...

's The Ice Show''.

Personal life

He married Candace and they have two sons, Jesse and Mat. He coached for a time after his skating career finished. He had a woodworking and furniture business. He worked in real estate before giving up the job to stay at home after his wife qualified and worked as a doctor, first in

Kingston, Ontario Kingston is a city in Ontario, Canada, on the northeastern end of Lake Ontario. It is at the beginning of the St. Lawrence River and at the mouth of the Cataraqui River, the south end of the Rideau Canal. Kingston is near the Thousand Islands, ...

, before moving to

Colchester, Vermont Colchester is a town in Chittenden County, Vermont, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of Colchester was 17,524. It is the third-most populous municipality and most populous town in the state of Vermont. Colchester borders B ...

. Don and Candace's son Mat Fraser is a former weightlifter and a five-times

CrossFit Games The CrossFit Games is an annual athletic competition owned and operated by CrossFit, LLC. Athletes compete in a series of events at the Games, which may be various standard CrossFit workouts consisting of metabolic conditioning exercises, weight ...

champion.

Results

pairs with Candace Jones

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fraser, Don 1955 births Canadian male pair skaters Figure skaters at the 1976 Winter Olympics Olympic figure skaters for Canada Sportspeople from Lloydminster Living people 20th-century Canadian sportsmen