Feb. 27, 1988, is a night Elizabeth Manley will never forget. But it’s a moment that almost didn’t happen.

“I got deathly ill two weeks before Calgary,” she said, referring to the women’s figure skating event at the Winter Olympics.

“The night before the free program, I almost withdrew because I was so ill.

“But there was that inner person within me saying even if I was crawling at the end, I wanted to finish.”

For Manley, it wasn’t so much about the shiny silver medal. It was about what it took to get there, to compete that night.

“When I speak ( to audiences), I hold my medal up. I tell them, ‘I want you to look at this medal. This is not an Olympic medal, this is me winning at life.’ Please don’t get me wrong, I’m proud of it, but it’s so much more to me.

“It didn’t matter if I was first, second, third or 20th that night in Calgary, I would have felt the same way. “I accomplished something. “When that medal went around my neck, it wasn’t about that program, it was like 10 years flashed through my eyes. My mom and me, all the hardships, going through depression.

“I stood on the podium and you look at the tears coming down my eyes. It was like a movie going through my head. I saw my life ... and what it took to stand there.”

Heading into the long program, she sat in third place, behind the hugely hyped Katarina Witt and Debi Thomas. Manley skated the performance of her life, coming within a fraction of a point of winning gold.