United States Olympic Festival : Houston Cheers Another Miracle on Ice

There is an ugly purple scar snaking low behind her left knee, but Jill Trenary is healed.

Athletes will tell you that medals and titles do have a miraculous effect. It was a wonderful tonic for Trenary, the 17-year-old hard luck kid who Sunday night won the women’s figure skating at the U.S. Olympic Festival.

What the crowd of 11,118 at the Summit saw was an inspired free skating performance that catapulted her past Cindy Bortz of Tarzana, who finished second, and Tonya Harding of Portland, Ore., who was third.

What Trenary felt was the triumph of her return to the ice after three injuries, each of which could have ended her career. They did not. And that was her gold medal.

“I wanted this program tonight to be special, I really wanted to do well,” said Trenary, who trains in Colorado Springs, Colo., with Carlo Fassi.

Trenary wanted to begin to erase a year of pain.

Figure skating is a sport of great majesty and grace. The facility with which skaters perform belies the inherent danger and risk. The realities are that skaters move and jump at great speeds. The ice is an unforgiving landing pad and sharpened skate blades can be like steel knives.

The first of her accidents came when she was training in Vienna in late 1984, two months before the U.S. nationals. Trenary was spiked in the foot by another American skater and the cut required stitches. Trenary returned home to heal and prepare for the nationals.

The healing went well. But the adjustments Trenary made in her skating caused a severe back strain. She was out two weeks but went to the U.S. Juniors that January and won, skating in pain.

Sportswriters told of her miraculous comeback.

Last year was a good one for Trenary. With the injuries behind her, she was well into her preparations for the 1985 Sports Festival. On June 25 she was training with the usual group of about 22 skaters at the Broadmoor Hotel rink.

No one paid much attention as Trenary and Kelly Webster, skating close together, both started jumps. Each landed with one leg extended. They were skating too close and collided.

Webster’s 1/8-inch-wide skate blade sliced into Trenary’s left calf, finally stopping when it hit the bone. The blade severed her calf muscles exactly in half.

Angelo D’Agostino was also practicing that day and was in a perfect position to see what happened.

“I’ll never forget it, the day is etched in my memory,” D’Agostino said in an interview after the men’s competition, where he placed third.

“It happened that at that moment there was no music playing, it was very quiet. The sound almost echoed. The moment it happened, Jill started screaming. Carlo ran over. The other girl started to cry. Everyone was hysterical. There was blood everywhere.”

Skaters and coaches carried Trenary to the rink’s snack bar and waited for an ambulance.

“We were in shock. It was the worst skating accident I’ve ever seen. I don’t think anyone skated for the rest of the day,” D’Agostino said.

Surgeons operated for 2 1/2 hours to repair the devastated leg. They privately told Trenary’s father that if his 16-year-old daughter walked on her left leg again, it was doubtful she’d ever regain full use of it. Skating was not even discussed.

It was agreed that Trenary would not be told what the doctors had said.

Listening to Trenary, it’s doubtful she would have listened. “At first I thought maybe someone was trying to tell me something,” Trenary said of her string of injuries. “But then I realized how much I loved skating. I wanted to come back.”

After two months in a cast, Trenary went to the rink to put skates on for the first time. Her foot was so bloated that her father had to lace her skate on for her. Crying, she scratched across the ice.

“We were all devastated,” D’Agostino said. “Jill is the sweetheart of the rink. Everyone loves her. She has this real constitution about her, a stubborn streak. But it was so sad to see her get back on the ice and do jumps. She is one of the best jumpers among the women and to see her jump only two inches off the ice was depressing to us. She had no strength.”

Even though she was unable to execute even the most basic jumps Trenary plodded on. Then, her leg came back in a rush. She won the Midwestern Sectional, she was fifth in the U.S. Senior Ladies Nationals.

“It still wasn’t all there, but it was coming,” she said. “Then, this summer on the one-year anniversary of the accident, I was really nervous. I went out to skate. I wasn’t going to skate that day; superstitious. Carlo didn’t want me to. I did, it wasn’t a good practice, but I did it. I made sure I wore black.”

She wore white Sunday night, the night of her competitive rebirth. During her program, which had four triple jumps, she was loose and confident. She received a 5.9 for artistic merit, her highest score ever. If this was a comeback, what a great way to start.

Bortz was pleased with her finish. The 14-year-old skated in her first senior competition and, much to the shock of the older skaters, was the leader after the figures and short program. She had one fall in her free skating program Sunday.

Christopher Bowman of Van Nuys won the men’s competition Sunday afternoon with a free skating program that earned him five 5.9 marks.

Bowman, like Trenary, had overcome serious leg injuries to win here.

“I’m very excited,” Bowman said. “It’s a very personal thing for me right now to be back on my feet after what happened to my leg. It’s important to know that whatever obstacles I come across, I can overcome them.”