Megan's gliding from strength to strength on ice
November 16, 2004 Edition 1
Dianne Hawker
From Tinkerbell to Cinderella, Megan Allely is gliding from strength to strength in the world of figure skating.
The 16-year old from Edgemead is the SA Junior Ladies and Western Province figure skating champion, and will now be playing the lead role in Cinderella on Ice, which starts at GrandWest Casino on December 16.
Skating alongside her will be her Prince, Gareth Echardt, who is also a South African champion solo skater. He played Captain Hook in the Peter Pan production in 2002, the same production in which Megan was seen as the feisty Tinkerbell.
The upcoming show has a cast of 90 skaters, ranging from national champions down to
four-year-olds.
Quietly spoken Megan, who skated in the Junior World Figure Skating Championships earlier this year, has been skating since the age of four. It was her older sister Clare, also an avid skater, who encouraged her interest in figure skating.
Their father, Shern Allely, general manager of the GrandWest Casino ice rink, said: "Megan always wanted to be a skater. Her sister used to take her to the rink when she was about three months old, and she had learned to skate by the time she was four."
Megan practises for two hours every day, except Fridays when she relaxes and Sundays when she skates "for fun".
She is coached by Russian Fanis Shakirazianau and also does off-the-ice training to build strength. "We do exercises and sometimes run or lift weights. I don't have a special diet. I just have to be careful not to eat too much junk food," said Megan.
If she was not a figure skater, Megan said she would be doing gymnastics, a sport that is similar to her discipline.
"Gymnastics is similar because gymnasts have to be both artistic and physical, which is the same with ice skating," she said.
Megan and her father hope she will make it into South Africa's 2010 Winter Olympics team. However, Allely is concerned his daughter will not be able to find enough funding before then. He said that over the years it had become more and more expensive to ensure that his daughter lived out her dream.
"Skating is the most watched sport overseas, even more than Formula 1. But here in South Africa, there's just no interest in it. The Figure Skating Association usually gives about R1 000 when we go overseas for competitions, but otherwise, we have to raise the money ourselves," he said.
Allely said it was difficult to get corporate companies to sponsor the sport because skaters use different costumes for each event and sponsors are, therefore, unable to brand the clothing as they would with rugby or soccer gear.
"They can put their logos on the tracksuits, but the skaters wear those off the ice, and usually they aren't filmed or photographed in them," he said.
However, Megan is not giving up on her dream to become a world champion.
"My role model is Michelle Kwan, an American skater. She's been to the Olympics twice and hasn't won, but she still hasn't given up."
