GAIL HAMUL A
Gail Hamula and Frank Sweiding perform a
lift en route to a silver medal at the 1977 U.S. Championships in Hartford, Connecticut.
Retired and thankful For Hamula, the time
has always been now BY LOIS ELFMAN
As a dental hygienist for nearly two
decades, Gail Hamula Gross has seen how stress affects people’s mouths. Although life has handed her some significant stress-induc- ing challenges, the two-time U.S. pairs silver medalist and two-time World team member does her best to stay positive and open to life’s possibilities. Gross, 61, discovered skating at the age of 9 after seeing an ice show. She was quite pigeon-toed and thought sports were out of the question, but she was strong and skating proved to be a good match. With her older sister also excited about the sport, they began private lessons. Her late father, Dr. Warren Hamula, was a prominent orthodontist and ferocious health
8 APRIL 2017
and wellness advocate. Tey even had a gym in the house where she did off-ice training. Te family lived in Fort Wayne, Indiana, but after she went to Colorado for high-altitude training, the family fell in love with the area and relocated. Skating had a long-lasting impact on the family. Her sister, Sharon, skated in Holiday on Ice, and her brother, David, who is an orthodontist like their father, became a national judge. “I started skating at 9 and I won my first competition at age 12, juvenile ladies,” Gross said. “Figures were not my forte. Tat’s probably the biggest thing that drove me into pairs skating.
“I was able to compete in seven consec-
utive national championships (novice and junior ladies before taking up pairs),” she con- tinued. “I was not expecting to do anything in skating. I was just doing it because I enjoyed training, intensity of focus and being the best I could be.”
At a plateau as a singles skater, but
wanting to remain in the sport, Gross looked to pairs. With a strong upper body, she felt well-suited for the discipline. Not crazy about competing, she thought having a partner would make it more enjoyable. A partnership with Phillip Grout (now
a coach at the Philadelphia Skating Club and Humane Society) helped ease her fear of heights and got her to trust her partner. In June 1976, she teamed up with Frank Sweid- ing, who is still skating and performing today, which Gross thinks is amazing and wonderful. To this day, she and Sweiding remain good friends and she described him as a special person. At their first U.S. Figure Skating Championships as a team, they won the silver medal and finished in the top 10 at the 1977 World Championships. Tey repeated those results in 1978. “I admire Frank’s work ethic,” Gross said. “He was super strong and reliable and he took
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