Linda (Scharfe) Brauckmann coached more provincial and national figure skating champions than anyone else in BC and has the distinction of being the only BC born coach to produce a world figure skating champion.

Born in Vancouver, Brauckmann began her professional coaching career in Baltimore, Maryland in 1951. From 1953-57, she coached at Lake Placid’s Olympic Arena and then moved to Boston for the next four years. She returned to BC in 1962 and began coaching at the North Shore Winter Club, where she continued to coach for decades. She also coached at the Figure Skating Center of Excellence in Burnaby Eight Rinks’s Ice Sports Centre.

Among Brauckmann’s many successful skaters were Karen Magnussen, Patrick McKilligan, Cynthia Titcombe-Ullmark, Barbara Terpenning, Neil Giorday, Dennis Coi, Susan McDonald, Rosemarie Sakic, Tanya Bingert, Mary McCaffrey, and Keyla Ohs. The achievements won by her skaters include world gold, silver and bronze; Olympic silver; North American gold; national gold, silver and bronze at the senior, junior and novice levels; as well as similar trophies at the regional, sectional, sub-section and club levels.

Brauckmann was a founding member of the BC Coach’s Association and the Professional Skating Association of Canada. She was a key member of the CFSA’s “Skaters Development” and “Best Ever” committees in the 1980s, and co-founded, with former pupil Karen Magnussen, “The Champions Way, Learn to Skate” program. Brauckmann was also a member of the International Coaching Committee, a co-founding coach of the national team training camp, and was one of two BC evaluators for Level III CFSA coaching development.

Brauckmann was also inducted into the Canadian Figure Skating Hall of Fame.