Golden Memories of Bronze Medal From 1928

It’s 11 a.m. when the city bus from Philadelphia stops near the Skatium. A 91-year-old woman slowly climbs off the bus and, with frail steps, walks into the ice rink.

Inside, wearing the white, hooded coat she sewed herself, it’s almost as though Melitta Brunner is back at the 1928 Olympics.

Mothers ask whether they can take a picture of their daughters with her as she glides in an oval on the ice. Her right arm points up, the left floats 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, the oldest living former Olympic figure skater, according to the museum of the World Figure Skating Assn. in Colorado.

On and off the ice, she is a teacher.

“She gives us good pointers,” said Richard Rutenberg, who has dreams of doing double axels.

“We have to work on your positions, you know,” she interrupts.

Before taking the ice, skaters surround her. She talks about skating with Henie, tells a man how best to lace up his skates and pulls the medal around her neck from underneath her coat.

Brunner struck bronze with Ludwig Wrede in the pairs competition at the Winter Games in St. Moritz, Switzerland, in 1928. The Austrian pair 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 figure-skating 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 Olympics’ singles competition, while Henie won the second of her three gold medals. It was a disastrous day for Brunner, but not 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, and orange slices were used to mark the holes.

Brunner’s father taught her to skate 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 learned a style she described as elegant and graceful. Her teacher, Peppe Weis, would later teach Henie too. 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.

At textile school, she learned to sew costumes for herself and other skaters. At times, she competed as a dancer in shows across Europe. Meanwhile, Henie signed acting contracts in Hollywood and became the world’s first sweetheart of figure skating.

“I was too old,” said Brunner, laughing. She started skating when she was 7. Henie started when she was 2.

“She had all those years on me,” said Brunner, who now lives alone in a Philadelphia apartment building for seniors.

Despite knee-replacement surgery last year, she tries to skate several times a week. She’s a regular to employees at the Skatium.

“Weather doesn’t stop her. It could be a blizzard out there,” said Pat Feerick.

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.