Maple Leaf Moments: Exceeding Expectations
Elizabeth Manley (Ottawa, ON) wins the silver medal in ladies’ Figure Skating at the XV Olympic Winter Games in Calgary on February 27, 1988. The competition had been billed as the “Battle of the Carmens”, featuring East German Katarina Witt and American Debi Thomas who had both chosen their music from the opera Carmen. But it is Manley who wins the free skate portion of the competition to secure second place behind Witt while Thomas takes bronze.
Manley had not been expected to contend for a medal and had battled illness throughout the Winter Games, but was poised with her home nation crowd behind her. The win would serve as a preview for later in the year when Manley captured silver at the World Championships in Budapest, Hungary.
Vancouver Lookback: February 26, 2010, marked the day Jasey-Jay Anderson (Mont-Tremblant, QC) slid to Snowboarding gold and the Speed Skating trio of Denny Morrison (Fort St. John, BC), Lucas Makowsky (Regina, SK) and Mathieu Giroux (Pointe-aux-Trembles, QC) were victorious in the men’s team pursuit. http://bit.ly/13blKMw
