re: elizabeth manley
Thank you for the information, DR Jennifer. She was one skater I really enjoyed watching her.
Another skater I enjoyed was Josee Choiunard...
I never watch those profile shows. And they sort of tricked me into watching it, since it was on CBC newsworld. I just assumed it was a 2 minute profile.
She was in the news a lot here. BUt I must say I had no idea about much of her story.
They talked about how when she was a little girl, the local rink used to open for her and her friend to skate every friday night. Her mom would put her to bed at 6pm and wake her up at 1am. And her and friend would skate all night.
Then they talked about how they took her away from her mom at age 17 so she could go train in lake placid. But she developed many problems there. She became depressed. She ended up switching coaches to a lovely couple. And then right before the calgary olympics someone (i think in canadian skating) wrote a scathing article in the newspaper criticising her. She was devasted.
Then her coaches made her stay east while the calgary olympics were going on, choosing to only fly her back to calgary right before her event. But she ended up with the flu and then did not think she could compete. And to make matters worse, all the flights were booked up and she had to take a flight to calgary that landed and took off about 4 or 5 times. Her eardrums could not take it and they thought they might blow one.
Anyhow she could not complete her programs. BUt someone come show time she managed to do it. When i saw her coach bawling, it made me teary.
And then they showed her driving in downtown calgary after she won silver. Nobody knew she was there, but everyone was going crazy screaming her name and driving with people sticking out of cars.
But as i mentioned things got worse, and she did the ice capades. Blew all her money, and gained a tiny bit of weight. For some reason i think she was 5 feet 114 pounds. But they made all the skaters have weigh ins every week. And they thought she was too heavy.
It was quite upsetting watching this part. I had no idea that happened to her.