UD skating coach to be featured on NBC’s ‘Today Show’

10:35 p.m., July 7, 2003--Barbara Roles-Williams, a figure skating coach at UD’s Ice Skating Science Development Center, will be a featured guest on NBC’s “Today Show” on Tuesday morning, July 8.

Currently a national, international and world Olympic coach specializing in freeskating and choreography, Roles-Williams won a bronze medal for figure skating in the 1960 Olympics, only to have it stolen from her in 1983.

After following many blind alleys in the hope of reclaiming her trophy, Roles-Williams finally resigned herself to the loss until a chance meeting at the U.S. championships last January led her to success. Following an introduction to a woman who collects Olympic memorabilia, Roles-Williams pursued a number of leads and eventually made contact with a collector-dealer in Long Island, N.Y., named Greg Gallacher. Gallacher possessed a bronze medal from the 1960 Olympics that he agreed to sell to Roles-Williams for $4,300. Although it was $500 more than Gallacher had paid for it himself five years before, Roles-Williams said she was eager to make the transaction until a conversation with her accountant made her wary and brought the exchange to a standstill.

When the United States Figure Skating Association (USFSA) and the World Figure Skating Museum and Hall of Fame learned of Roles-Williams’ dilemma, the wheels began to turn once again. Purchasing the medal with privately raised funds, the USFSA repossessed the medal in late June. On NBC’s Today Show on July 8, Roles-Williams will publicly reclaim her medal and recount the tale that led her to her current victory.

Article by Becca Hutchinson
Photo by Kathy Atkinson

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