Artifactuality, season 2, episode 5.
Kim Thuy (Voice Over) [00:00:02] On this episode of Artifactuality, can we change the culture of the oldest sport at the Winter Olympics? My name is Kim Thuy. On this podcast from the Canadian Museum of History, together we explore what objects and stories from the past can tell us about who we are today. What will resonate tomorrow? How will the events unfolding around us be remembered in the future?
Kim Thuy (Voice Over) [00:00:41] Winter Olympic Games, Calgary, 1988. 22 year old Elizabeth Manley glides on to the ice in her bright pink skating dress and waves at the crowd. Elizabeth was an underdog going into these games. Some analysts thought she had no chance of getting on the podium. But Elizabeth went on to give the performance of her life, earning her a silver medal. The result is even more impressive given the pressure she’d been under a week before the Olympics – an Ottawa newspaper published a piece that doubted Elizabeth’s prospects.
Elizabeth Manley [00:01:24] It more or less was just saying, because I was diagnosed with mental health issues, that I wasn’t going to be strong enough to win medal. And, in between the lines, said I was a waste of money for Sport Canada and Skate Canada. Now, it was absolutely devastating. They took a picture – we had just bought a dog, it was a little puppy – and they took a picture of me with a puppy on my shoulder and it said “Manley, ‘dogged’ by inconsistency, will never win a medal”. And the whole article talked about me having a breakdown, me suffering from mental health, and people feeling that I was inconsistent at competitions.
Kim Thuy (Voice Over) [00:02:04] Six years earlier, Elizabeth had lost a coach who she was very close to. Around the same time, she moved away from her family in Ottawa to train in Lake Placid, New York. The isolation and stress took its toll. Months into her move, Elizabeth lost all of her hair and gained 50 pounds.
Elizabeth Manley [00:02:26] In the 80s, we didn’t talk about mental health. So when I tried to come out with it and tell the story of the numerous things that happened to me when nobody wanted to hear it. They didn’t want to put “Canada’s Sweetheart” and “mental health” in the same sentence. And I was diagnosed as depression, anxiety, and having a nervous breakdown, and I physically completely fell apart. Athletes were training to be tough, and to be tough, you don’t have a voice. You stay quiet, you keep things hidden. You don’t project any problems that you’re going through, as you don’t want your opponents to know, your competitors to know. And you certainly don’t want your organization to know because you’ve got that spot on the team and you don’t want to lose it if there’s any hesitation that you’re not mentally prepared to compete in an elite athlete sport.
Speaker 3 [00:03:17] I would say in the newspaper. They brushed over it a little bit.
Kim Thuy (Voice Over) [00:03:21] Chloe Ouellet Riendeau is the Assistant Curator of Sport History at the Canadian Museum of History.
Chloe Ouellet Riendeau [00:03:28] They didn’t really acknowledge that it was depression, and they would really more focus on the physical aspects of the depression, like the gained weight and the hair loss, for example, were the two aspects that were mentioned by journalists at those times. And they would say, “Yeah, she’s having nervous episodes.” That’s what they would call it, not necessarily depression.
Kim Thuy (Voice Over) [00:03:49] Chloe wants to help tell Elizabeth’s story through an artifact from the ’88 Olympics. Elizabeth’s Team Canada jacket. It’s red and white with stripes on the shoulders and Canada printed in bold letters on the back. The patriotic design is meant to unite and celebrate the athletes on Team Canada. But when it comes to their media coverage, their experiences are divided. Figure skaters are often criticized about their appearance.
Chloe Ouellet Riendeau [00:04:22] This object really is the opportunity to talk about figure skating and all the aesthetics that’s around the sport. So just to look at what kind of clothing the figure skaters were wearing in the 1980s, such as this one with Elizabeth Manley, but also to see the kind of progression with today’s standards. And it’s really an opportunity to look at body image and how we’re treating body image in different eras, especially in sports and especially in aesthetic sports, because we do know there’s kind of a pressure on elite athletes, but there’s like an additional pressure that’s put on the body image of aesthetic athletes. And this object, I think, is a great way of talking about that.
Kim Thuy [00:05:07] So back in the 80’s, what would a reporter write about a figure skater that you wouldn’t hear today? What kind of language would they use?
Chloe Ouellet Riendeau [00:05:17] It was very emphasis on the curves. And even with the muscular body, we would criticize it to be maybe too fat. So when there was, like, 5 pounds too much on a body, we would say it out, right? Like, “Oh, look at this figure skater. She’s not or he’s not up to the standards of what she used to be. She put on some weight.” So they would actually write the number of what her current weight was at the time of the competition, and just saying, for example, “She’s 133 pounds, she is overweight. Is she going to be able to make it with all these extra pounds on?” Instead of focusing on the performance of the body, of what the body was able to do, its ability, it was what did it look like in these tiny, tiny little body suits or dresses?
Kim Thuy (Voice Over) [00:06:08] Elizabeth says she channeled her frustration with the media fixation on her weight into her training.
Elizabeth Manley [00:06:16] I would take like two days where I wouldn’t get out of my pajamas. I’d sleep all day, I’d eat everything in the fridge. I would just compensate my feelings, right? And then within about 24, 36 hours, all of a sudden I get that kind of fire in me and I’m like, “No, I’m going to prove to them I’m going to do this.” So I was able to turn defeat, failures, criticism, judgment, I was able to convert all those into almost a fire to prove everybody wrong.
Kim Thuy [00:06:48] So when do you step onto the ice and deliver that silver medal performance? What was going through your mind?
Elizabeth Manley [00:06:57] Just that I did it. We’ve always said this in my family: my medal – yes, it’s a silver Olympic medal – but it’s a gold medal in life. And I remember standing on that podium that night thinking, I did this for everybody in this country that’s ever suffered. And that’s a pretty powerful message back in the 80’s to realize. But that was the day I made a commitment that I was going to work with people, and I was going to help people, and I was going to be open about what I went through, because I want to help people. And I remember my father saying to me, “Why would you write a book? Or why would you want to talk about this?” And, you know, I said to my dad, “If it helps one person, that’s all that matters. That person could be the next Elizabeth Manley”. I have things that I do today. Like, I challenge myself every day to compliment a stranger because you don’t know what they’re going through, and sometimes that can get them through a week, get them through a month, just getting a compliment. And I might not have stepped on that ice that night if I hadn’t had a person that stopped me the day before the long program and call me a champion – a complete stranger. And that changed the whole trajectory of my career, because I was so sick in Calgary, and I wasn’t sure if I was going to get through that last event. And it was a hockey coach from Canada I didn’t know of at all, and he called me a champion and that’s all it took. He empowered me. It was just two words, and I went out the next night and won that night. And I realized the power of words, how important they are. And we all need to do that in a society today. We have to understand our words can really affect somebody or they can really propel somebody.
Kim Thuy [00:08:43] And have you met that person again?
Elizabeth Manley [00:08:46] Oh I did. I hadn’t seen him forever. And about, gosh, it’s got to be about ten years now, I was invited to speak in Calgary and halfway through my speech the lady got up on the stage. She goes, “I want you to turn around.” And they had him zoomed in on a screen behind me. He had no idea the impact he had on me that day, when he ran into me before the long program, and he had tears running down his cheeks, and he said, “I had no idea me running into you for two minutes, that I changed your entire life.” And I said, “You did.” And so I had that opportunity to, like, wholeheartedly thank him, you know, that he he really made Elizabeth Manley get out there.
Kim Thuy [00:09:30] So you’ve been a mental health advocate for many years and have been generous in sharing your own struggles and how you overcame them. In the last few years, we’ve seen a number of high profile athletes talk publicly about their own battles with mental health. What do you think of the way these athletes, Simone Biles, Naomi Osaka and Michael Phelps, to name a few, have been treated by the media and sport fans?
Elizabeth Manley [00:10:01] First of all, I’m very proud of them. I’m very proud that they’ve taken a stand. I’m so grateful now that we’re seeing more athletes have that guts to come out and say, “This is what I’m going through and this is what’s happened, and I need to take a step back.” And what I’m seeing, and it’s taking so long, I mean, it’s, you know what, 34 years, 35 years since the Calgary Olympics, it’s taken this long for organizations and media to understand this is real. This isn’t something that we can just say, well, we’re going to take them off the team because they’re having problems. They’re helping these athletes now. They’re working with them. And I am so excited because in a small way, I’m hoping I was a part of it by being one of those athletes that just came out and said, this is what’s going on, and this needs to change and this needs to happen. And I remember the big one that happened with Simone Biles.
Kim Thuy (Voice Over) [00:10:56] Simone Biles is one of the greatest gymnasts of all time. She withdrew from several events in the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Simone experienced a sudden loss of focus and confidence. She took time off to work on her mental health before eventually returning to competition.
Elizabeth Manley [00:11:17] I have so much respect for her because she was in the middle of a games when she did it, she said, “I can’t, I just, I can’t do it.” And you know what? The world supported her. And that warmed my heart because that’s what we need. And you look at Simone Biles now, she’s better than she’s ever been. So, you know, I’m just really happy to see that we’re having the conversation. We’re talking about it. Goodness gracious. I don’t want to see athletes go through what a lot of us have gone through, but at least they’re aware and they can catch those signs that maybe something is happening. Because if you’re not in a mentally good place, you’re not going to compete well.
Kim Thuy [00:11:55] These days you’re a registered life coach and you train figure skaters as well as hockey players. How do you incorporate mental health into your training?
Elizabeth Manley [00:12:07] So I have a lot of parents that question me on that because when I’ll start a session with a kid, I will take 5, if need be 10, if need be 15 minutes, and I will talk with them before we even start anything, because I want them to feel at a safe place with me, and I want to see how their day is going, you know? Did something happen at school? Did something happen before you got to the rink? Is something happening in the locker room?And it gives them, kind of, an outlet to release some of the things that they’re not feeling great about. And I tell you, when they open up, the work ethic I get out of them after that is priceless. It is because they’ve released these emotions and now they’re ready to focus in on their training. I can usually tell by a kid when they come over to me, they’re not having a good day. So I will stop the lesson and say what’s going on. And because they know my story, they feel safe and they can talk to me and I get such great work out of them after that. And so when the parents come up and say, you were talking for ten minutes, you know what’s going on, and I say it’s part of the training.
Kim Thuy [00:13:19] So in 2020, Skate Canada released the guidelines of focus on body positivity. What do you think of what the organization is trying to accomplish?
Elizabeth Manley [00:13:31] To have healthier athletes? Not only have they gone the mental health way, but with the body image, it’s gotten to that point where in multiple sports, gymnastics, you know, a lot of sports, there’s still issues with body image and then athletes taking the wrong routes to be the way they think they need to be. I mean, I worked with an ice show for three full years. I did 1200 shows, and I was weighed every week, and if I gained 1 pound, I was fine. And if I didn’t lose that weight that I had gained within two weeks, I’d be fired. There’s a perfect example of how athletes or performers feel that they have to look, and they go to extremes to make that weight or to look that way. And, you know, I went through that my whole career, like I used to have people call my agent and say, “Well, what does she look like right now?” You know, I’m only 4’11 and I have a lot of muscle. So if I did put on some weight, I did look a little heavier. But the first question that would come out of everybody’s mouth is, “What does she look like?” And that’s where we really need to put the bathtub plug into that way of thinking. Even back in my day, Skate Canada would spontaneously show up to my rink just to see how what my weight looked like. And I think we need to recognize that that goes on in the sporting world, and it’s in multiple sports. I’ve talked to a luge girl that was criticized for her weight, I’ve talked to gymnasts, I’ve talked to downhill skiers, you know, and the whole thing about weight categories in sports, right. We’ve just got to let the athletes be athletes.
Kim Thuy (Voice Over) [00:15:23] Chloe Ouellet Riendeau says the Skate Canada guidelines signal a big step towards changing the culture of figure skating.
Chloe Ouellet Riendeau [00:15:31] They really introduced these guidelines to promote healthy practices and behaviors when working with athletes. So the guidelines are really put forward for the coaches, for anyone that’s in the vicinity of the athletes and how to help them and use language and practices and behaviors that are going to make sure that the athletes are protected. So these efforts really aim to protect and to prevent dropouts, because we know, especially among girls who are most likely to leave sports by late adolescence, well, mental health and body image is a really key factor of why a lot of them decide to drop out, because the pressure is just too much and they have to take care of themselves. So by putting guidelines there in the sport itself and having people know how to act and how to be a positive person in the athletes lives, well, we’re hoping that they’ll stay in the sport that they love practicing.
Kim Thuy [00:16:33] So despite efforts to be more thoughtful about language, how often do you think figure skaters still hea coaches or reporters use words like fat or thin to describe their physique?
Chloe Ouellet Riendeau [00:16:46] I think it’s still present, even if there’s guidelines there, because there are some studies that did ask recently retired figure skaters their experience in the sport. And still they had a lot of focus on their weight and their appearance. And a lot of them talked about that. It led them to disordered eating, and it led them to injuries because if you’re not nourishing your body properly because of appearance expectations, well, there’s physical aspects to it, too. And of course, long term mental health issues among those female athletes. And there’s another study in 2021, that has shown that female athletes in aesthetic sports experience emotional abuse through body shaming. So they’ve compared the consequences of this body image shaming to symptoms resembling post-traumatic stress disorder. So it’s still prevalent today.
Kim Thuy [00:17:49] Given that figure skating is a sport where athletes are judged on their aesthetic performance, it’s not surprising that skaters can become preoccupied with their physique, right? But is it possible to help them avoid that?
Chloe Ouellet Riendeau [00:18:05] Yes, it’s possible if the sport itself and the organizations and the people that surround these athletes help them and change their vocabulary, change the way that they talk about the body, focus more on the ability of the body, what it can do, and less so on its appearance.
Kim Thuy [00:18:24] What kind of conversations do you hope this artifact from Elizabeth Manley, this jacket, can inspire in museum visitors?
Chloe Ouellet Riendeau [00:18:33] At the museum, when we’re trying to do when telling sports stories, is really to go beyond just the statistics, the wins and the failures. We want to go beyond and say that sports is part of Canadian culture. And even if you’re not an athlete yourself, you can see yourself in this story of Elizabeth Manley’s. So by looking at this object, you can see how other people have had mental struggles and are still having them, but that the conversation is shifting and that can help you be part of that shift.
Kim Thuy [00:19:07] And what does Elizabeth Manley hope that people will say?
Elizabeth Manley [00:19:11] That that jacket was on a young girl who was told she was never going to do anything. And that jacket made it to one of the greatest moments in sports history.
Kim Thuy (Voice Over) [00:19:30] Thank you to Elizabeth Manley, a two time Canadian Olympian and silver medalist in figure skating at the 1988 Olympics. Thanks as well to Chloe Ouellet Riendeau, the Assistant Curator of Sport History at the Canadian Museum of History. Thanks for listening to Artifactuality, a podcast from the Canadian Museum of History. I’m Kim Thuy. Artifactuality is produced by Antica Productions. Ann Lang is our producer. Soobin Kim is the researcher. Laura Regehr and Stuart Coxe are Executive Producers at Antica. Mixing and sound design by Alain Derbez. Jenny Ellison, Robyn Jeffrey and Steve McCullough of the Canadian Museum of History are the executive producers of this podcast. Check out historymuseum.ca for more stories, articles and exhibitions from the museum. For more information about Elizabeth Manley’s Team Canada jacket, check out the links in our show notes.