Staff
At this rate, the Border Skating Club just might have to clear room on its calendar to be a regular stop on the “Stars on Ice” tour.
The local club is bringing 1988 Olympic silver-medalist Elizabeth Manley to Fort Frances this fall for an instructional seminar.
A decision to invite Manley came less than a week after 2014 Olympic silver-medalist Kaetlyn Osmond skated in the club’s annual ice show at the Ice For Kids Arena.
There also is a plan in motion that would see Manley return next spring to emcee the ice show—and possibly even perform in it.
“The Border Skating Club is absolutely thrilled to have Elizabeth Manley grace the ice in the fall,” said Amy Wilson-Hands, the club’ public relations director.
“To have someone like Elizabeth bring her knowledge to our skaters is just amazing. It is surreal,” she enthused.
“We were so lucky to have Kaetlyn Osmond and now Elizabeth Manley,” Wilson-Hands added.
“I am speechless.”
Manley, who will turn 50 in August, became the darling of Canadians everywhere after delivering a heart-pounding performance in the ladies’ singles division at the 1988 Winter Games in Calgary.
Her long program shot her onto the podium ahead of U.S. star Debi Thomas and just behind East Germany’s Katarina Witt, whose own routine was considered by many in skating circles to have been inferior to Manley’s effort.
A lasting image from the Games was that of Manley being lifted onto the shoulders of her teammates while sporting a white cowboy hat—waving to a deliriously-happy crowd of supporters from the host nation.
Manley later won silver at the world championships that year, and also had three national championships to her credit.
Now residing in Orleans (near Ottawa), Manley currently is a spokesperson for mental health issues after dealing first-hand with her own struggles with depression, as well as for Ovarian Cancer Canada’s Winners Walk of Hope.
Her mother passed away from ovarian cancer in 2008.
Manley hosted her own ice show, entitled “Elizabeth Manley and Friends,” on Valentine’s Day in Ottawa.
Dates and times for the seminar here have not been finalized yet.
