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A skating lesson


Devastating injury can’t keep her down


Sharon Gordon grew up ice skat- ing outside of Philadelphia as a way to combat her terrible allergies. She loved it, passing several high-level figure skating tests before hanging up her skates in college. Little did she know then that her


childhood passion for figure skating would help her “get up” from a dev- astating leg injury and surgery more than three decades later. A serious athlete throughout her


life, Gordon became enamored of rollerblading as a young adult. She’s spent more than two decades mak- ing the rounds in iconic Central Park. Her seven-mile inline loop served as ideal exercise and stress relief for the now 57-year-old. Adding to her competitive ré-


sumé, Gordon, a psychotherapist and daycare center director, recently fol- lowed in her 19-year-old son’s foot- steps and picked up veteran saber fencing for a new challenge. On March 31, 2016, Gordon was


on her seven-mile trek through Cen- tral Park when things went awry. “I stepped left to let a pack of bi-


cyclists pass me and when I went to push off on my right foot I rolled over a twig, and my right leg shot out in front of me and I fell to my left side,” Gordon said. She pulled all three of her ham-


string tendons completely off the hip bone. It was a crushing injury for some- one who lives such an active lifestyle, as well as for her family. Her partner has multiple sclerosis and her son was about to graduate from high school. “I felt bad because this is some-


thing I did to myself and they didn’t deserve this,” she said.


Fortunately for her, Gordon dis-


covered a support system in New York that helped her get back on her feet. First, doctors at New York Uni- versity Hospital performed surgery (April 11, 2016) when other hospitals refused due to the rarity of the injury and surgery, and her age. Ironically, it was her affiliation with fencing and NYU Hospital’s relationship with that sport’s national governing body that enabled her to receive world-class care.


Gordon, who spent the first


five weeks after surgery in a non- weight-bearing hip-knee-and-ankle brace, also discovered a rehabilita- tion program called the Feldenkrais Method, which uses gentle movement and directed attention to improve movement and enhance functioning. The program retaught her how to use her legs and move again. The prognosis for this type of in-


jury typically isn’t good. Studies have shown that 80 percent recovery can be expected after 18 to 36 months of rehabilitation for young male soccer players. But after six weeks, Gordon got


out of her brace and started walking with a cane. Slowly, she made daily strides and returned to a full nonim- pact array of activities that included fencing, aerobics, Pilates and bicy- cling.


With the social media support of


friends, family and those who had the same surgery, Gordon decided on Sept. 11, 2016, to face her demons. While she ruled out a return to roller- blading in Central Park, Gordon took to the ice once again in her mom’s cus- tom Harlick boots with dance blades.


“I get up, figure out what I did wrong and do it again differently.” Sharon Gordon


“I really needed to make peace,” she


said. “If I was going to hang up skates forever, it had to be a conscious de- cision, not one forced on me because of my injury. Before the “Get Up” cam- paign, I would always tell people that I was a skater and I know how to fall down; I’ve fallen a thousand times. But I get up, figure out what I did wrong and do it again differently. “When I decided to skate again af-


ter six months, I didn’t tell my Felden- krais teachers or my family. I went to Chelsea Piers and paid $10. I thought if I stand on the ice and that’s it, that’s good enough. If I skate once around the ice, that’s good enough. I stayed for 90 minutes.” Since then, Gordon has skated


twice a week. She’s taken edge class- es with Ice Theatre of New York. “The other day at Wollman Rink, I


was the only one there at 6:30 one Saturday morning and I laid out a fig- ure. It was gorgeous. The moon was setting, birds chirping. I laid out a ser- pentine, and every person who got on the ice tried it.” Gordon, who the other day tried


cross-country skiing for the first time in Riverside Park, said falling down and getting up as a childhood skater was the best lesson she ever learned.


SKATING 37


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