Gretchen Fraser
Encyclopedia
Gretchen Kunigk Fraser (February 11, 1919, Tacoma
, Washington – February 17, 1994, New York City
, New York
) was an alpine ski racer
. She was the first American to win an Olympic gold medal for skiing.
The daughter of German
and Norwegian
immigrants, Gretchen Kunigk was born in Tacoma
, Washington in 1919. Her Norwegian-born mother was a skier and Gretchen first skied at age 13, at Paradise
on the south slopes of Mount Rainier
in December 1932. Under the tutelage of Otto Lang
she became a proficient ski racer and later competed on the ski team at the University of Puget Sound
.
In 1938 she traveled to Sun Valley
to compete in the second Harriman Cup, a new international event featuring the best racers in the world. She met 1936 Olympian
and Northwest ski champion Don Fraser of the University of Washington
on the train trip to central Idaho
and their paths crossed frequently over the next year. They were married in October 1939 and Sun Valley
became their home.
She was the skiing stand-in for ice skater Sonja Henie
in the movies Thin Ice
(1937) and Sun Valley Serenade
(1941).
Fraser was a member of the 1940 Olympic
team, games that were cancelled due to World War II
. She spent the war years skiing in Otto Lang's
military training films and helping to rehabilitate wounded and disabled veterans through skiing, setting the stage for a lifelong commitment to working with disabled skiers.
After the war she finally got her chance to compete at the Winter Olympics. A week before her 29th birthday, she won the gold medal in the women's slalom
and a silver medal in the women's combined
event at the 1948 Winter Olympics
in St. Moritz
, Switzerland
.
Following the Olympics, Fraser became an ambassador for Sun Valley
(and skiing in general), easily recognized in her braided blonde pigtails. Later in life she was a mentor to aspiring female ski racers at Sun Valley, including Susie Corrock
, Christin Cooper
, Picabo Street
, and disabled skier Muffy Davis.
Fraser was inducted into the National Ski Hall of Fame
in 1960 and the Intermountain Ski Hall of Fame in Park City
in the inaugural class of 2002. She was also inducted into the State of Washington Sports Hall of Fame and the University of Puget Sound
Hall of Fame.
"Gretchen's Gold," a ski run at Sun Valley's
Seattle Ridge is named for her, as well as a restaurant in the Sun Valley Lodge, "Gretchen's."
Gretchen Fraser died at age 75 in February 1994, fittingly during the Winter Olympics
held in her mother's homeland of Norway
. Her husband of 54 years, Don Fraser, died a month earlier.
Tacoma, Washington
Tacoma is a mid-sized urban port city and the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. The city is on Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, and northwest of Mount Rainier National Park. The population was 198,397, according to...
, Washington – February 17, 1994, New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
) was an alpine ski racer
Alpine skiing
Alpine skiing is the sport of sliding down snow-covered hills on skis with fixed-heel bindings. Alpine skiing can be contrasted with skiing using free-heel bindings: Ski mountaineering and nordic skiing – such as cross-country; ski jumping; and Telemark. In competitive alpine skiing races four...
. She was the first American to win an Olympic gold medal for skiing.
The daughter of German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
and Norwegian
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
immigrants, Gretchen Kunigk was born in Tacoma
Tacoma, Washington
Tacoma is a mid-sized urban port city and the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. The city is on Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, and northwest of Mount Rainier National Park. The population was 198,397, according to...
, Washington in 1919. Her Norwegian-born mother was a skier and Gretchen first skied at age 13, at Paradise
Paradise, Washington
Paradise is the name of an area at approximately on the south slope of Mount Rainier in Mount Rainier National Park in Washington, United States. The area lies on the border of Pierce and Lewis counties and includes the Paradise Valley and the Paradise Glacier which is the source of the Paradise...
on the south slopes of Mount Rainier
Mount Rainier
Mount Rainier is a massive stratovolcano located southeast of Seattle in the state of Washington, United States. It is the most topographically prominent mountain in the contiguous United States and the Cascade Volcanic Arc, with a summit elevation of . Mt. Rainier is considered one of the most...
in December 1932. Under the tutelage of Otto Lang
Otto Lang (film producer)
Otto Lang , born in Tešanj, Bosnia-Herzegovina, was a skier and pioneer ski instructor in the United States. He founded ski schools on Mount Rainier, Mount Baker and Mount Hood beginning in the 1930s, and as the director of the ski school at Sun Valley became the ski instructor for Hollywood stars...
she became a proficient ski racer and later competed on the ski team at the University of Puget Sound
University of Puget Sound
The University of Puget Sound is a private liberal arts college located in the North End of Tacoma, Washington, in the United States...
.
In 1938 she traveled to Sun Valley
Sun Valley, Idaho
Sun Valley is a resort city in Blaine County in the central part of the U.S. state of Idaho, adjacent to the city of Ketchum, lying within the greater Wood River valley. Tourists from around the world enjoy its skiing, hiking, ice skating, trail riding, tennis, and cycling. The population was 1,427...
to compete in the second Harriman Cup, a new international event featuring the best racers in the world. She met 1936 Olympian
1936 Winter Olympics
The 1936 Winter Olympics, officially known as the IV Olympic Winter Games, were a winter multi-sport event which was celebrated in 1936 in the market town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Bavaria, Germany. Germany also hosted the Summer Olympics the same year in Berlin...
and Northwest ski champion Don Fraser of the University of Washington
University of Washington
University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...
on the train trip to central Idaho
Idaho
Idaho is a state in the Rocky Mountain area of the United States. The state's largest city and capital is Boise. Residents are called "Idahoans". Idaho was admitted to the Union on July 3, 1890, as the 43rd state....
and their paths crossed frequently over the next year. They were married in October 1939 and Sun Valley
Sun Valley, Idaho
Sun Valley is a resort city in Blaine County in the central part of the U.S. state of Idaho, adjacent to the city of Ketchum, lying within the greater Wood River valley. Tourists from around the world enjoy its skiing, hiking, ice skating, trail riding, tennis, and cycling. The population was 1,427...
became their home.
She was the skiing stand-in for ice skater Sonja Henie
Sonja Henie
Sonja Henie was a Norwegian figure skater and film star. She was a three-time Olympic Champion in Ladies Singles, a ten-time World Champion and a six-time European Champion . Henie won more Olympic and World titles than any other ladies figure skater...
in the movies Thin Ice
Thin Ice (1937 film)
Thin Ice is a United States comedy/romance film directed by Sidney Lanfield starring Tyrone Power and figure skater Sonja Henie.-Plot:...
(1937) and Sun Valley Serenade
Sun Valley Serenade
Sun Valley Serenade is a 1941 musical film starring Sonja Henie, John Payne, Glenn Miller, Milton Berle, and Lynn Bari. It features The Glenn Miller Orchestra as well as dancing by The Nicholas Brothers and Dorothy Dandridge, performing "Chattanooga Choo Choo", which was nominated for an Academy...
(1941).
Fraser was a member of the 1940 Olympic
1940 Winter Olympics
The anticipated 1940 Winter Olympics, which would have been officially known as the V Olympic Winter Games, were to be celebrated in 1940 in Sapporo, Japan.The games were cancelled due to the onset of World War II...
team, games that were cancelled due to World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. She spent the war years skiing in Otto Lang's
Otto Lang (film producer)
Otto Lang , born in Tešanj, Bosnia-Herzegovina, was a skier and pioneer ski instructor in the United States. He founded ski schools on Mount Rainier, Mount Baker and Mount Hood beginning in the 1930s, and as the director of the ski school at Sun Valley became the ski instructor for Hollywood stars...
military training films and helping to rehabilitate wounded and disabled veterans through skiing, setting the stage for a lifelong commitment to working with disabled skiers.
After the war she finally got her chance to compete at the Winter Olympics. A week before her 29th birthday, she won the gold medal in the women's slalom
Alpine skiing at the 1948 Winter Olympics - Women's slalom
The women's alpine skiing slalom event was part of the alpine skiing at the 1948 Winter Olympics programme. It was the first appearance of the event. The competition was held on Thursday, February 5, 1948.Twenty-eight alpine skiers from ten nations competed....
and a silver medal in the women's combined
Alpine skiing at the 1948 Winter Olympics - Women's combined
The women's alpine skiing combined event was part of the alpine skiing at the 1948 Winter Olympics programme. It was the second appearance of the event...
event at the 1948 Winter Olympics
Alpine skiing at the 1948 Winter Olympics
At the 1948 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz, Switzerland, the six alpine skiing events were held from Monday, February 2 to Thursday February 5, 1948.After these games, the combined event was dropped as an Olympic medal event for four decades, until 1988...
in St. Moritz
St. Moritz
St. Moritz is a resort town in the Engadine valley in Switzerland. It is a municipality in the district of Maloja in the Swiss canton of Graubünden...
, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
.
Following the Olympics, Fraser became an ambassador for Sun Valley
Sun Valley, Idaho
Sun Valley is a resort city in Blaine County in the central part of the U.S. state of Idaho, adjacent to the city of Ketchum, lying within the greater Wood River valley. Tourists from around the world enjoy its skiing, hiking, ice skating, trail riding, tennis, and cycling. The population was 1,427...
(and skiing in general), easily recognized in her braided blonde pigtails. Later in life she was a mentor to aspiring female ski racers at Sun Valley, including Susie Corrock
Susan Corrock
Susan Corrock is a former American alpine ski racer, a member of the U.S. Ski Team in the early 1970s. Talented in all three disciplines, she had 16 Top Ten finishes in World Cup competition: 8 in downhill, 2 in giant slalom, and 6 in slalom.From Ketchum, Idaho, Susie Corrock made her World Cup...
, Christin Cooper
Christin Cooper
Christin Elizabeth Cooper is a former alpine ski racer and Olympic medalist from Ketchum, Idaho.-Racing career:...
, Picabo Street
Picabo Street
Picabo Street is a retired American alpine ski racer. She won gold medals in super G at the 1998 Winter Olympics and in downhill at 1996 World Championships, along with three other Olympic and World Championship medals. She also won World Cup downhill season titles in 1995 and 1996, the first...
, and disabled skier Muffy Davis.
Fraser was inducted into the National Ski Hall of Fame
National Ski Hall of Fame
The U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame and Museum is located in the City of Ishpeming in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, the birthplace of organized skiing in the United States...
in 1960 and the Intermountain Ski Hall of Fame in Park City
Park City, Utah
Park City is a town in Summit and Wasatch counties in the U.S. state of Utah. It is considered to be part of the Wasatch Back. The city is southeast of downtown Salt Lake City and from Salt Lake City's east edge of Sugar House along Interstate 80. The population was 7,558 at the 2010 census...
in the inaugural class of 2002. She was also inducted into the State of Washington Sports Hall of Fame and the University of Puget Sound
University of Puget Sound
The University of Puget Sound is a private liberal arts college located in the North End of Tacoma, Washington, in the United States...
Hall of Fame.
"Gretchen's Gold," a ski run at Sun Valley's
Sun Valley, Idaho
Sun Valley is a resort city in Blaine County in the central part of the U.S. state of Idaho, adjacent to the city of Ketchum, lying within the greater Wood River valley. Tourists from around the world enjoy its skiing, hiking, ice skating, trail riding, tennis, and cycling. The population was 1,427...
Seattle Ridge is named for her, as well as a restaurant in the Sun Valley Lodge, "Gretchen's."
Gretchen Fraser died at age 75 in February 1994, fittingly during the Winter Olympics
1994 Winter Olympics
The 1994 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XVII Olympic Winter Games, was a winter multi-sport event celebrated from 12 to 27 February 1994 in and around Lillehammer, Norway. Lillehammer failed to win the bid for the 1992 event. Lillehammer was awarded the games in 1988, after having beat...
held in her mother's homeland of Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
. Her husband of 54 years, Don Fraser, died a month earlier.