By Sarah S. Brannen
The Skating Club of Boston has dedicated the main rink at its new facility in Norwood, Massachusetts, to Dr. Tenley Albright. The pandemic precluded a more festive celebration, so a few guests honored Albright on March 26 with an intimate tea party in the club’s dining room overlooking the ice.
Gathering with Albright were two of her daughters, Elin Schran and Rhys Gardiner, her niece Martina Albright, and club executive director Doug Zeghibe. Longtime club members Katharine Steeger, Paul George and Christie Allan-Piper shared fond stories of the skating icon.
George and Allan-Piper trained with Albright as youngsters; Allan-Piper remembered that when she was an inexperienced beginner at her first competition, Albright gave her her own jacket to wear and stayed at her side before she skated.
On the back wall of the main rink, a huge banner now proclaims the space the Tenley E. Albright Performance Center, complete with a photo of Albright doing a hockey stop with a radiant smile. Below, on the ice, skaters were hard at work on new programs for the coming season. In the hallways, skaters bent over their phones, watching the live stream of the ladies free skate from the World Championships in Stockholm.
Albright looked as elegant as ever, dressed in shades of peach with a trademark flower in her hair. She looked at the banner with astonishment.
“Oh my gosh, it’s so big!” she said. “When I first saw the facility, I called up Dick Button right away and I said ‘Dick, you won’t believe it. Imagine if we could have trained here!’”
Albright sat rinkside as some of the club’s top athletes performed for her. After Ashley Lin skated a lovely program to “On My Own” from Les Miserables, the 1956 Olympic champion wiped her eyes.
“I can’t stop tearing, it was so moving,” Albright said.
“Mom, do you need a Kleenex?” Schran asked.
Jimmy Ma did his “Come Together” program from last season; near the end, coach Olga Ganicheva handed him a rose, which he held in his teeth as he finished the program and then handed to Albright with a bow. Emily Chan and Spencer Howe skated a brand-new program, and Max Naumov also performed. Zeghibe watched it all with pride.
“Tenley means everything to the club,” Zeghibe said. “She has been an active member her whole life, a champion on the ice, and a champion of other skaters off the ice. No matter how far she has gone in the world — and she has gone incredibly far as skater, surgeon, humanitarian and more — she has always generously shared her encouragement, knowledge and passion for skating with others. She continues to be an inspiration to us all.”
“The Skating Club of Boston was the only place I really trained; it’s where I stayed,” Albright said. “It’s always meant a lot to me. I remember so clearly seeing [six-time U.S. champion] Gretchen Merrill at the Ice Chips show when I was little. She looked so happy on the ice, as if she was flying around, and I remember saying to my mother, ‘I’d like to try that!’”
