Sport: Gymnastics

A ponytailed teenage gymnast captivated Canadians at the 1978 Commonwealth Games in Edmonton with her Gold medal performance.

Since then, Etobicoke’s Elfi Schlegel went on to a great gymnastic career representing Canada, followed by a career with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and now with the National Broadcasting Company in the United States.

While she competed internationally for Canada, Elfi attended the University of Florida on a gymnastics scholarship in the early 1980s, where she was named a three time NCAA All American.

In 1997 she was named to the University of Florida’s Sports Hall of Fame and was named as one of the university’s Women of Distinction.

Along with her Commonwealth Games gold, Elfi was a member of the Canadian Gymnastics Team which won gold at the 1979 Pan-American Games. She was a member of the Canadian National team until 1985.

Elfi graduated from the University of Florida with a Bachelor of Science (Telecommunications) degree and forged a strong reputation as a broadcaster. She covered Commonwealth and Olympic games for CBC, commenting on not only gymnastics but also on other sports including show jumping, skiing and Grey Cup football games.

Elfi also worked at NBC covering Olympic women’s gymnastics at the 1992 Barcelona, 1996 Atlanta and 2000 Sydney Games.

Elfi grew up in the Burnhamthorpe Road area of Etobicoke. She and her husband Mark, a firefighter and former Canadian Olympic beach volleyball player, were married in December, 1999.