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Thursday, February 12, 1998 Olympic bronze medalist finds some fame at 91HAVERTOWN, Pa. (AP) -- It's 11 a.m. when the city bus from Philadelphia stops near the Skatium. A frail 91-year-old woman climbs off and walks slowly into the ice rink.Inside, wearing a white, hooded coat she sewed herself, it's almost as though Melitta Brunner is back at the 1928 Olympics. Mothers ask her to pose for pictures with their daughters. She glides in an oval on the ice, her right arm pointing up, the left floating in front of her. A bronze medal hangs around her neck. At the community ice rink 10 miles west of Philadelphia, Brunner has recaptured a bit of the life she led as an Olympian who skated in the shadow of her rival and friend, the great Sonja Henie. "To take place in any Olympics is an honor. No matter if you take 2nd place or 10th place," said Brunner, who is the oldest living former Olympic figure skater, according to the museum of the World Figure Skating Association in Colorado. On and off the ice, she is a teacher. "She gives us good pointers," said Richard Rutenberg, a husband and father from Haverford who dreams of doing double axels. "It's an honor." "We have to work on your positions, you know," Brunner interrupts. Before moving onto the ice, Brunner is surrounded by skaters. She talks about skating with Henie, tells a man how best to lace up his skates, and pulls the Olympic bronze medal out from underneath her coat. Brunner won the medal for Austria with Ludwig Wrede in pairs skating at the 1928 Winter Games in St. Moritz, Switzerland. The couple had only two weeks to practice after Brunner's regular partner dropped out. At the time, pairs skaters were required to hold hands during the performance, and elaborate spins and jumps weren't a part of the repertoire. "My idea of skating is to interpret the flow and the glide and not to do headsprings on the ice. That's not skating. That's for show," Brunner said. But she doesn't dismiss contemporary skaters entirely; she says Tara Lipinski and Oksana Baiul are the most fun to watch. Brunner placed seventh in the Olympic singles competition, while Henie won the second of her three gold medals. It was a disastrous day for Brunner, not only because of the skating. "It was so warm the ice started melting. We had to skate around holes in the ice," she recalled. Grass underneath the outdoor rink was poking through the ice, and orange slices were used to mark the holes. Brunner's father was a skater who taught her on the frozen Danube River near her home in Vienna. She could see the fish swimming below the ice. Her first competition was at age 10. She studied in the Austrian weiner schule, learning a style she describes as elegant and graceful. Her teacher, Peppe Weis, would later teach Henie as well. Henie, a Norwegian, and Brunner became friends. Brunner taught figure skating in Switzerland and London for several years, then moved with her students to Scotland during World War II. After the war she returned to London, where she lived so close to the ice rink she could almost walk there on her skates. She also learned to sew costumes for herself and other skaters, and competed as a dancer in shows across Europe. Meanwhile, Henie signed acting contracts in Hollywood and became the world's first seetheart of figure skating. "I was too old," Ms. Brunner laughs, noting that she started skating when she was 7, while Henie started at age 2. "She had all those years on me." Now Brunner lives alone in a Philadelphia apartment building for the elderly. Despite knee replacement surgery last year she tries to skate several times a week. Her only sibling, a brother, is dead. His son and two daughters live in Austria, but Brunner can no longer afford to visit each year. When she finishes skating, Brunner wipes off the blades on her white skates to keep them from rusting. She has painted the bottom of the boots black to make her size 7 1/2 foot look smaller. As long as the bus runs again, she will return tomorrow. |