As I Am: My Life After the Olympics

by Elizabeth Manley, Lynda D. Prouse

Skating professionally for eleven years, Elizabeth Manley has experienced every facet of the figure skating and entertainment worlds. Dubbed "Canada's Sweetheart" after winning the silver medal at the 1988 Olympics, she quickly became one of the country's most popular figure skaters, and her first autobiography, released in 1989, was a Canadian bestseller.In her new book, As I Am, Liz takes readers through her tumultuous years as the star of the Ice Capades, including battles with her weight, depression, skating injuries, accusations of substance abuse and her shocking dismissal from a major skating tour. Liz also reveals the story of her obsessive and abusive relationship with one man, focusing as well on the image problems that female skaters face, which often lead to low self-esteem and eating disorders. With startling candour, Liz relates how she hit rock bottom and details her long struggle back to the top of the professional figure skating world, where she now competes and performs alongside an elite few. As I Am is a painfully honest account that will appeal to figure skating fans and women everywhere.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography

256 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 1999

Reviews

[Melissa · Rating 2 out of 5]

One of my favorite Olympic freeskate performances ever was by this tiny Canadian. Yet, her story is whiny, obnoxious, and full of finger pointing. I'm sad for her, she is an engaging performer that had the potential to inject fun and much needed spunky personality to the sport. At the conclusion of this book, I am hoping she is happy, somewhere.

[Liralen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Image management, I think? Or an attempt at image management, anyway, because I'm not sure this works in Manley's favour. A couple of factors working against this. First, a lot of it adds up to 'then I went here and performed this routine at this show and then I went there and performed that routine at that competition...' A litany of performances that don't really tell much of a story. And second... Possibly Manley felt the need to explain/tell her side of performances and competitions that didn't go as she'd hoped, either to redeem her image (I say this knowing nothing of Manley or her image other than what I've read here) or because she felt she had scores to settle and wanted to get in some digs. (Or possibly she had a mediocre ghostwriter...or there was something else entirely...) In any case, whether intentional or not, it reads an awful lot like the subtitle should be Sex, Skates, and People Who Done Me Wrong. And even if that's completely unintentional, it's not a great feeling to be left with.

Things learned from this book: Don't ever date someone who dumps you, wants you back, dumps you, wants you back, dumps you, and says, "I've changed, Liz, and I want you back. Asking this was going to be my Christmas present to you" (124). What kind of 'gift' is that??

[Julie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wow -the subject of this book comes off as whiny, immature, self-absorbed and completely unlikable which is so dissimilar from her public persona. If I had any idea that what I was about to read was the story of a woman who spent years dating/living with a man who was cheating on her the entire time, I would have skipped it because I have zero interest in reading about emotionally damaged people making the same mistakes over and over and over again. Then there was the obligatory, "I skated this program in this competition and landed these jumps" repeated ad nauseum. I picked this up hoping for more insight into her time with Ice Capades, both under Dorothy Hamill and the previous management. There was a little about weigh-ins and how unhappy she was because she felt she was underpaid but nothing about what life was really like for the skaters. I understand the experiences of a headliner would be different from those in the chorus but Manley mostly talked about buying stuff for her mother. Overall, I found the book to be a combination between boring and annoying. I hope that Ms. Manley feels more comfortable in her own skin these days, a good 15 years or so after the book was published.

[Surreysmum · Rating 3 out of 5]

As the title says, this is Liz's account of her life as a pro, including her trials and tribulations with Tom Scallen, the owner of Ice Capades, and her general outsider status in the pro world. It is no great surprise, though, that the largest subdivision in the index under "Manley, Elizabeth" is "romantic life of…"