Oakwood School students learn about inspirational qualities
Oakwood School students learn about inspirational qualities
n By Marilyn Dubil
Staff Writer
Morgan Hill – Wide-eyed Oakwood School students listened intently as Olympic gold medalist Peggy Fleming spoke about the values of hard work, focusing on dreams and striving for success.
Fleming, who lives in Los Gatos, visited the school Monday morning to help students open their fourth Olympic games. Teacher Penny Ciraulo organizes the games at the school every two years to coincide with the real Olympics.
Having spent a part of her childhood in this area, “running around all those hills,” Fleming said she was glad to be back, this time as someone who would like to help kids.
One of four girls in the family, Fleming said she was “pretty shy” when she was growing up. When her father took his girls to the ice skating rink for the first time, she was 9 years old, and she knew she had found her niche.
Later that year, she entered her first competition, in San Francisco, and won.
Ciraulo said students learn about the countries they are “representing” in the Olympics. The level of study of the different countries varies with the grade level of the students, she said. During the week of the Oakwood Olympics, students participate in a number of activities based on actual Olympic events.
Fleming was 19 in 1968 when she won the gold medal for figure skating in Grenoble, France. She told students that her second time in the Olympics, she was much more focused than the first time.
“I didn’t spend that much time in the Olympic village, I stayed in the hotel with my mother,” she said. “I really felt the pressure, I needed to perform well, do my best.”
Since her retirement from competitive skating, Fleming has worked as an ABC sports broadcaster, appeared on several TV programs and spoken to many groups around the country.
“It’s about doing your best every day,” she told students Monday. “Use your growing up years to try a variety of things, give yourself an opportunity to find things you enjoy doing.”
Another dimension was added to Fleming’s speaking topics – and to her life and her family’s lives – when in 1998 she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She fought that battle with the help and love of her family, she said in a video about her life she played for students. Now she is cancer-free.
“The years that I spent competing, training, facing the life lessons that sports offers, all of that played a role in the way I went through this part of my life,” she told students.
“The Olympics aren’t just about the medals,” she said. “Participating in the event is special just to be there,” she said. “The camaraderie of the village, the feeling of walking into a stadium filled with 80,000 people, representing your country. There’s nothing like it.”
