Famous people's places / Bloomfield Hills

Detroit Skating Club

A private figure skating club founded in 1946 that trained Olympic champions, now based in Bloomfield Hills.

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01 / The story of this place

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Members of Detroit's Olympia Skating Club bought a former horse stable owned by automotive executive Charles T. Fisher in 1946 to build their own rink, and renamed the club the Detroit Skating Club in 1949. Young Tim Wood learned to skate here from age seven starting in 1955, when the club was still in the city, before going on to win the 1970 world championship and a silver medal at the 1968 Olympics. As the sport grew, the club moved to its present Bloomfield Hills campus in 1978, adding a full Olympic-size third rink in 1994. Coach Richard Callaghan trained two more Olympic-era stars here in the 1990s: Todd Eldredge, a multiple US and world champion, and Tara Lipinski, who won Olympic gold in 1998 as a teenager. The club still owns and operates its own multi-rink facility today, one of only a handful of American skating clubs to do so.

Founded 1946 as the Olympia Skating Club, renamed in 1949
Tim Wood trained here from age seven starting in 1955
Moved to its current Bloomfield Hills site in 1978
Todd Eldredge and Tara Lipinski trained here under Richard Callaghan in the 1990s
Still privately owned and operated, with three ice surfaces

Famous Detroiters

Famous people tied to this place 3

Lexicon entries for the people who lived, worked, performed or liked to spend time here.

Tara Lipinski born 1982 · figure skater, sports commentator
Played here
The historic skating club in Bloomfield Township where she trained with Richard Callaghan.
Todd Eldredge born 1971 · figure skater
Played here
The club where he trained under Richard Callaghan.
Tim Wood born 1948 · figure skater
Played here
The club where he learned to skate from age seven; in his youth it was located in Detroit and it later moved to Bloomfield Hills.