Manley visits Hensall to share Olympic experience with Exeter Skating Club ehind a table at the head of a long line of children sat a woman signing autographs for them
By Jordan Baker
Friday May 09, 2008
Behind a table at the head of a long line of children sat a woman signing autographs for them, but it was their parents who were more giddy about the hand wielding the pen.
It was them, afterall, who watched live back in 1988 Elizabeth Manley skate her way to an Olympic silver medal as the hometown girl in Calgary.
Manley was in Hensall on April 19 to give some instruction to former Ice Capades co-star Kathy McLlwain's group of young figure skaters from the Exeter Skating Club.
Though she stresses the need to work hard, she says the most important thing she can tell the skaters is to enjoy what they're doing. Having gone through a spell in her life of depression and uncertainty, she says, "Dreams can come true. I know it's cliche."
For the children to hear her tell her success story they can see someone who has "gone through all that [depression] and gotten through it."
After the skate the skaters got to ask questions and got to watch a tape of the silver medal winning skate. She says during this session the skaters really get to know her.
She tells the children, "Don't waste time, take advantage of it. What's the good old Canadian Kleenex? Your sleeve. It saves a lot of time."
The sport has changed, she says it isn't just about jumping anymore and says they need to be flexible.
After living in Pennsylvania for the last several years she has recently returned to Ottawa. Her mother, of whom she says they are "attached at the hip," is fighting ovarian cancer.
"I've been carrying a lot of guilt," she admits, saying she has lived her whole life making other people happy. She hasn't spent as much time as she'd like with her mother because of other obligations she felt needed to be upheld. It was her husband who told her to take time for herself and be with her mom.
Manley's father is suffering from Alzheimer's and being closer to him is a plus. She was worked with several organizations like World Vision Canada and the Council on Drug Abuse, and is talking the Alzheimer's Society on doing something with them.
She was a spokesperson for the Canadian Mental Health Association because of her depression.
"I do things that are close to the heart. I only work with things that interest me."
As a teenager she says she stopped taking care of herself. "I lost my hair, my body broke down."
She stopped skating. "I forgot why I was skating ... I was skating for me."
She says she didn't tell any of her problems to her parents. She stayed in her room.
She got back into skating and in the next four years went the the Olympics.
Now back in Ottawa she is coaching at the Elizabeth Manley International Training Centre.
"It seemed natural to go back to Ottawa. I love being back ... It's funny how life takes you full circle. It's been enlightening."
She has been a commentator at the past two Winter Olympic Games but with the 2010 games coming to Vancouver she says she's been talking with Skate Canada about the possibility of going with the team.
"I may work with the skaters." The home pressure makes for a very different atmoshpere, she says, something she can coach them on.
Back in the days of the Ice Capades, for three years when McLlwain and Manley skated together, Manley she says often sent McLlwain out the back to sign autographs for her. "They thought she was me," she says. But on Saturday there was no chance of fooling the kids so they all got the real deal.
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