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COLOR COVER Photo by William Meyer - Skater Bonnie Blair - FIRE ON ICE ... Bonnie Blair at a speed-skating meet in West Allis, Wis. COLOR Photos ... ABOVE: Bonnie Blair at ease at a speed-skating meet at West Allis, Wis. RIGHT: Blair practicing for the meet.
Photo ... Bonnie Blair (center below), about 1974, just as enthusiastic then as now, in spite of leaving at 6 a.m. for a skating meet in Chicago. Others are her mother, Eleanor Blair, and brother, Rob and sister Angela.
BONNIE BLAIR - SKATING Toward Calgary
Story by Marsha Sanguinette
Of the Post-Dispatch Staff
Photos by William Meyer
The year was 1950; no one yet had thought to make children's clothing out of non-flammable materials. Mary Blair, age 5, and her brother, Chuck, age 8, were skating on a pond in a city park in Cornwall, N.Y. A bonfire burned on an island in the middle of the pond.
After several laps around the pond, Mary tired. She wobbled onto the island to warm herself near the fire. As she poked the flames with a stick, a spark landed on her snowsuit. It burst into flames. A quick-thinking stranger grabbed Mary, rolled her in the snow and rushed her to the hospital.
Thirty-eight years later, Mary Blair Polaski can laugh when telling the story. She still remembers the pain of having the burns debrided each day for weeks afterward, but the scars on her legs have faded. Her love of skating, however, a love that spread to her four younger siblings, still burns brightly.
Bonnie Blair, 23, is the fastest woman on Earth on ice at 500 meters. The speed skater set the world record at an invitational meet on March 19, 1987, at Heerenveen, The Netherlands, flashing over 500 meters in 39.43 seconds. Seven days later, in Medeo in the Soviet Union, she lowered the mark again, to 39.28. That time was labeled "unofficial" because only the Soviet Union and the United States competed in the meet.
Blair, who grew up in Champaign, Ill., is the United States Olympic speed-skating team's best bet for a medal when she competes in the 500- , 1,000- and 1,500-meter races in the February Winter Games in Calgary.
At the 1984...