WellesleyWeston Magazine

Winter 2015-2016

Launched in 2005, WellesleyWeston Magazine is a quarterly publication tailored to Wellesley and Weston residents and edited to enrich the experience of living in two of Massachusetts' most desirable communities.

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Wellesley resident John Powers, The Boston Globe's Olympic writer since 1966, recalls the glory days of American figure skating, observing that all the way through the 1990s, the World Championships vied for popularity with basketball's March Madness. John notes that interest peaked in 1994, when Boston's Nancy Kerrigan was attacked by a hit man hired by the ex-husband of fellow skater, Tanya Harding, to take rival Kerrigan out of contention for a spot on the 1994 US Olympic team. The twisted plot failed, Kerrigan competed in Lillehammer, Norway, and won a silver medal. Ironically, the broadcast of that year's women's skating final was the sixth highest-rated program in US tele- vision history. Unfortunately, no American woman has won the World Championship since Kimmie Meissner in 2006 and no American man since Evan Lysacek in 2009. Wellesley's Amy Webster Berg began her skating jour- ney in the fall of 1975 at age six. "Shortly after I started skating, I remember watching Dorothy Hamill win Olympic gold, jump-starting the dreams of every young, aspiring skater in the country, including me!" After attending the 1981 World Championships in Hartford, Connecticut, and becoming mesmerized by live skating, Berg began skating with a partner in her hometown of Yarmouth, Maine. Together they competed in the 1982 fall season. With New England and Eastern regional competition wins in hand, Amy moved to Wellesley to train with famed ice-dance coach Barret Brown. She enrolled at Wellesley High School, lived with a family in exchange for after-school childcare, and trained at the Babson rink from 5:00 am to 9:15 am each day. Amy and her partner won bronze at the US Nationals at the junior level during her senior year of high school. Upon graduation from high school, Amy entered Bowdoin College and played on the women's ice hockey team. But, after watching the 1988 Calgary Olympics on TV in her dorm room, Amy decided she wasn't "done with figure skating." She returned to Boston to train, 72 2016 World Figure Skating Championships W e l l e s l e y W e s t o n M a g a z i n e | w i n t e r 2 0 1 5 / 2 0 1 6 top: Amy Webster Berg skating with her partner, Ron Kravette, at the 1997 US Figure Skating Championships in Nashville; left: At the 1993 US Olympic Festival in San Antonio; right: At the 1997 World Figure Skating Championships in Washington, DC

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