Norris Bowden

Robert Norris Bowden (August 13, 1926 – April 9, 1991) was a Canadian figure skater.

Norris Bowden
Personal information
Country represented	Canada
Born	(1926-08-13)August 13, 1926 Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Died	April 9, 1991(1991-04-09) (aged 64)
Former partner	Frances Dafoe
Medal record Representing  Canada Pairs' Figure skating Olympic Games 1956 Cortina d'Ampezzo Pairs World Championships 1956 Garmisch-Partenkirchen Pairs 1955 Vienna Pairs 1954 Oslo Pairs 1953 Davos Pairs North American Championships 1955 Regina Pairs 1953 Cleveland Pairs

Born in Toronto, Ontario, Bowden won championships in every division of Canadian figure skating. He was national men's champion as a junior and senior (1947), national pairs (junior and senior), dance (1952), waltz, and 10-step champion with Frances Dafoe, and national fours champion.

Bowden and Dafoe captured four Canadian titles (1952, 1953, 1954, 1955) and two world championships (1954, 1955). They won the silver medal at the 1956 Winter Olympics in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy. Norris and his partner were the first pair skaters to do the twist lift, throw jump, ‘leap of faith’ and overhead lasso. It was because of these two that some of the rules in pairs skating were changed.[1]

Outside skating, Bowden graduated with an MBA and worked in the life insurance industry. He was founding president of the Centennial Nursery School for Retarded Children (now the Centennial Infant and Child Centre) in Toronto.

He has been inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame (1955), the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame (1958), and the Skate Canada Hall of Fame (1993).