Manley was born in 1965 in Belleville, Ontario, and raised in Trenton. She is the fourth child and only daughter in her family. Her father's military career necessitated occasionally moving, and when Manley was eight years old, her family moved from Trenton to Ottawa.[1] After her parents' divorce in the 1970s, she was raised by her mother, Joan.[2]
Competitive career
Manley began skating at an early age. Her mother invested time and money in her daughter's figure skating career.[2]
In the 1982–83 season, Manley relocated from Ottawa to Lake Placid, New York, to receive more intensive training but became depressed and homesick, which resulted in her hair falling out and weight gain.[4] She finished off the podium at the Canadian Championships and briefly dropped out of the sport, but resumed her skating career after Peter Dunfield and Sonya Dunfield agreed to coach her in Ontario.[4] They worked with her at the Gloucester Skating Club in Orleans, Ontario.
Manley competed at the 1984 Winter Olympics, placing 13th,[5] and the World Championships between 1984 and 1987. At the 1987 Worlds, she was in a position to vie for the world title after compulsory figures and the short program, but a poor result in the long program left her in fourth place overall in the competition.
Entering the 1988 Winter Olympics, few skating know-hows and media analysts considered Manley to be a contender for an Olympic medal. Battling illness, she nevertheless did well in compulsory figures and the short program. Heading into the long program, she was in third place behind the East German skater Katarina Witt and the American skater Debi Thomas. Witt and Thomas were both favourites for the gold medal, and the media had dubbed their rivalry as the "Battle of the Carmens", as both women chose to skate to music from the opera Carmen.[6] Witt skated her long program cleanly but conservatively, and Thomas fell apart in her long program. Elizabeth Manley, however, gave the performance of her career, one so widely recognized as a very special performance that announcer Jim McKay said, "Wouldn't it be great if every human being could have a moment like this once in their lives?" [7] Manley won the long program and came within a fraction of a point of beating Witt for the Olympic title.[6] Figure skating writer and historian Ellyn Kestnbaum calls Manley's Olympic free skating program "athletic", with a triple loop, a triple lutz, a Salchow jump, and a toe loop jump. Kestnbaum also states that Manley skated with "a cheerful and outgoing style that...[was] pleasing to the audience".[8] Her come-from-behind placement made her a national celebrity in Canada.
Manley performed in ice shows and television specials, and competed in professional events, for a number of years afterwards, being notable for her unusually imaginative programs. She now works as a figure skating coach and occasional media commentator. In 1988, she was made a Member of the Order of Canada.[9]
In 1990, Manley published an autobiography: Thumbs Up!;[10] a second volume of autobiography, As I Am: My Life After the Olympics, followed in 1999.[10]
In September 1990, radio personality The Real Darren Stevens launched a radio stunt, admitting that he suffered from a rare affliction: he was a Canadian who couldn't skate. While on the air, he openly "stalked" fellow Ottawa native Manley and begged her to teach him how to skate. Finally, after several months, Manley replied in January 1991, put skates on Stevens, and taught him how to skate.
Manley starred as Red Riding Hood in CBC's 1992 television film The Trial of Red Riding Hood which premiered on the Disney Channel two years later.[10]
Manley married television producer David N. Rosen in June 2019.[1]
.[12][1]
Manley is a spokesperson for mental health issues due to her own battle with depression, which began before the 1984 Olympics.[13] As of 2009, she is also an official spokesperson for Ovarian Cancer Canada's Winners Walk of Hope.[10] Her mother died from ovarian cancer in July 2008 and her father died of Alzheimer's disease in 2010.[2][13]
^Kestnbaum, Ellyn (2003). Culture on Ice: Figure Skating and Cultural Meaning. Middleton, Connecticut: Wesleyan Publishing Press. p. 137. ISBN0-8195-6641-1.
