Townsman, 1992-01, Page 7again, although this is bound to
change in the years to come as the
ramifications of the recent political
upheavals over there bring about
changes to the Red Machine. Artur
Dmitriev and Natasha Mishkutinok
are the reigning world champions and
Ekaterina Gordeeva and Sergei
Grinkov, since retired, won the last
Olympic gold. Soviet pairs have won
all seven gold medals in the Olympics
since Canadians Barbara Wagner and
Robert Paul became the first non-
European pair to win the Olympic title
in 1960. Canadians Barbara Underhill
and Paul Martini were world but not
Olympic champions in 1984 and Deb-
bie Wilkes and Guy Revell placed
second in the 1964 Olympics. This
only moderate Olympic pairs success
comes despite the fact the Canadian
Figure Skating
Association is the
largest such ama-
teur organization in
the world.
Eisler was born in
Seaforth when his
parents, Lloyd Sr.
and Bev, were visit-
ing relatives on
April 28, 1963. At
the time Lloyd Sr.
was with the Cana-
dian military sta-
tioned at Nanaimo,
B.C., a couple of
hundred kilometers
from the closest
rink. The Eislers
moved to Seaforth
when Lloyd Jr. was
six and it was then he started skating
at the Goderich Figure Skating Club
and later also in Seaforth under coach
Bruce Brady, the son of a local doc-
tor. It was he who told little Lloyd to
get back out there and finish skating
after his disastrous debut at those
1971 sectionals in St. Catharines.
Since then Lloyd has shown he is no
quitter. He has endured with flair all
manner of ups and downs — physical,
mental and emotional. The list of his
accomplishments is enough to give
you writer's cramp, starting with a
novice pairs national championship in
1977 and a sixth at the junior worlds
in France in 1978 ... right up to the
present with hopes of stepping up on
that Olympic podium. He is now on
his fourth partner and second interna-
tional level coach.
He got his foot in the door of "big
time" when he and former partner
Lorri Baier of nearby Mitchell began
skating under coach Kerry Leitch at
the National Pairs Training Centre in
Preston. It was here that Lloyd blos-
somed, picked up the nickname "Her-
bie" and developed a reputation as a
fierce competitor and a bit of a free
spirit. Lloyd skated at Preston under
Leitch for 15 years. But his partners
kept falling by the wayside.
Baier retired to marry and start a
family after an even dozen years with
Eisler. Then it was Matousek for a
partner, still with Leitch at Preston.
They won the Canadian senior pairs
with the welcoming committee at the
world junior championships in Kitch-
ener in 1986. It was here that he met
Isabelle, who had also recently lost
her partner to retirement, and her
coach Josee Picard, based in
Boucherville, Quebec, just down the
road from Montreal. Eisler soon
moved there and the "Mutt and Jeff'
combo began its climb to the Cana-
dian championship and beyond. He is
seven years older than Brasseur, and
at 5'11" is almost a foot taller than
her. He also weighed about 100
pounds more than she did when they
first began to skate. On top of all this
— he couldn't speak a word of French,
nor she a world of English. Picard
however is fluently bilingual. She
insisted that he only speak to his part-
ner in French, and vice versa.
"We spent a lot
of time in three-
way conversation
when we start-
ed," Lloyd says,
adding Isabelle's
English is now a
lot better (she
now does inter-
views in English)
than his Frcnch
five years down
the line, but he
now understands
what Picard and
Isabelle arc say-
ing without hav-
ing to ask them
what they just
said. Picard is
only three years
Eisler's senior but has been coaching
since she was 15. She is very similar
to Leitch in many respects says Eisler,
although neither will probably admit
it. Lloyd has himself matured and the
coach -skater relationship has likewise
changed with the times.
"Josee and I are more like two peo-
ple on the same wave length pushing
and striving for the same goals. She is
a very strong-willed person and we
sometimes sort of butt heads because
I'm very strong and very stubborn and
when shP wants something and I want
something it's very seldom that either
of us will back down until maybe a
few weeks have passed or we've gone
title in 1984 and finished eight in that
year's Olympics, then a world bronze
medal in 1985. Then she retired to
coach in British Columbia.
Eisler skated with Karen Westby in
1986 but back problems forced her to
pack it in. So it was back to square
one, which is a long way back in pairs
skating because so many things have
to mesh perfectly to be a success
internationally. A discouraged Lloyd
retired briefly in 1986 and went back
to school at McMaster in Hamilton
where he has since earned a degree in
physical education.
"Herbie" started rebounding from
his retirement when he was working
TOWNSMAN/JANUARY-FEBRUARY 1992 5