Skater Hamill wows Maine delegation

NEW YORK – All of the delegates were especially excited to be at Madison Square Garden Thursday night to watch President Bush officially accept his party’s nomination for a second term. But Mark Ellis, a delegate from Augusta, and Sen. Susan Collins also were thrilled to see 1976 Olympic skating gold medalist Dorothy Hamill host a salute to the American athletes who competed in this year’s Olympic events in Athens.

Both are amateur figure skaters, and although Collins does not don her blades as often as she would like, she does try to get on the ice if time permits. Ellis pursues the sport a little more seriously and is the first vice president of the Skating Club of Maine.

He described himself as a “huge fan” of Hamill’s and said he had never had the opportunity to see her in person. At 43, Ellis still hopes to skate competitively at some point in his life and hasn’t been impeded by a fall a few years ago that resulted in a broken leg.

All skaters like to have signature moves such as the “Hamill Camel,” and Ellis has his own as a result of the mishap.

“I call it the double-toe, double-fracture combination,” he joked.