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Nancy Greene
named female athlete
of the century
Wendy Long
Vancouver November 23, 1999
On the slopes
she humbled rivals and won medals with a skiing
style that combined tenacity with an effervescent
enthusiasm for racing.
Off the slopes
she charmed spectators and media alike with
a gregarious yet direct personality that made
her a popular ambassador for her sport and
one of its greatest stars.
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Nancy Greene Raine remains one
of the most beloved and recognizable ambassadors
in alpine skiing and is the most decorated racer
in Canadian ski racing history.
So it was not surprising that
56-year-old Greene was honoured Monday as Canada's
female athlete of the century in a survey of
newspaper editors and broadcasters by The Canadian
Press and Broadcast News.
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AP Files / TOP FLIGHT:
Nancy Greene cuts down the hill during the women's
special slalom at Grenoble, France, during 1968
Winter Olympics. |
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"It's humbling, in a way,
because Canada has such a history of producing
tremendous women athletes yet people don't always
know the history, know all the names,"
she said in a telephone interview from Sun Peaks
near Kamloops.
"I am thrilled yet
overwhelmed. There are so many great women athletes,
some incredible performances."
Nancy Greene topped the poll with
933 points followed by rower Silken Laumann
at 813 and figure skater Barbara Ann Scott at
724.
Greene was the second of six children
and grew up in Rossland, honing her skills on
the steep and challenging slopes of Red Mountain.
By the age of 16 she competed in her first Olympics,
finishing 21st in downhill at the 1960 Games
in Squaw Valley, rooming with venerable Anne
Heggtveit, who won the Olympic gold in slalom.
Four years later Greene finished
seventh in the downhill at the Olympics in Innsbruck.
She later emerged as the first woman star on
the fledgling World Cup circuit, taking the
over-all title with four giant slalom victories,
plus two in slalom and one in downhill, in the
inaugural 1966-67 season.
As fate would have it World Cup
founder Serge Lang, whose vision of an international
ski circuit offered Greene the opportunities
to truly become the world's best, died of a
heart attack on Sunday
"He was an amazing man,"
she said. "He had a global vision that
went beyond the European domination of the sport."
But it was in 1968 that Greene,
by then affectionately known as Tiger for her
tenacious approach to racing, secured a permanent
spot in the minds and hearts of Canadians. At
the Olympics in Grenoble she earned a gold medal
in giant slalom and silver in slalom.
Those accomplishments alone would
make her a national hero but the combination
of skiing success, quick smile and gamine hairstyle,
and her ease in front of television cameras,
made Greene one of the most recognized and revered
of Canadian athletes, not just in 1968 but through
to today.
She capped her Olympic triumph
with another World Cup over-all victory in 1968,
then she retired at age 24. Marriage to ski
coach Al Raine followed as did the birth of
twin sons Willy and Charley.
But unlike many athletes who retire,
Greene did not leave her sport but instead found
other significant ways of remaining involved.
For more than 30 years the Nancy
Greene Ski League has served as an entry level
race program for young children.
Nancy and Al Raine went on to
develop Blackcomb Mountain at Whistler and for
several years operated a hotel there until their
1994 move to Sun Peaks.
"There's more pressure because
of the corporate sponsorship and worrying about
having to live to to the expectations of sponsors,"
she said when asked to compare her life as a
ski racer with current national team members.
"The opportunities to train are certainly
greater, we had to work in the summer to save
enough money for racing in the winter."
As is her way, Greene finds a
way to deflect conversation away from herself
and her most recent laurel: Equal cause for
celebration is today's official season opening
at Sun Peaks. And isn't it great that Nanaimo's
Alison Forsyth earned a top-five finish recently
on the World Cup?
"I think what it takes to
succeed remains the same," she continued.
"You have to have a real love of your sport
to carry you through all the bad times, you
still want to go ski even when things aren't
working. You must have a commitment to work
hard and to never give up."
TOP 10 FEMALE ATHLETES:
1. Nancy Greene (933)
2. Silken Laumann (813)
3. Barbara Ann Scott (724)
4. Myriam Bedard (693)
5. Marnie McBean (545)
6. Bobbie Rosenfeld (420)
7. Catriona Le May Doan (389)
8. Sandra Post (380)
9. Marilyn Bell (292)
10. Elaine Tanner (244)
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The
program, building off a four-year-old pilot project
in Victoria, has 200 prospective rowers lined up to
learn from experts and Olympians in seven cities across
Canada, said Laumann, the national spokeswoman.
"There
are many great sport programs reaching out to youth,"
the four-time Olympian said. "But the experience of
rowing together is a little unique. You have to depend
on each other so much. If you don't show up to practice,
your boat doesn't go out. "It's a lesson about being
dependable, being responsible to one another."
The
national co-ordinator of the program is Colleen Miller,
also an Olympian from the women's lightweight double
in 1996. The name sponsor is Dynamic Mutual Funds,
which has been the national rowing team's major sponsor
for several years.
Other
program sponsors include Rowing Canada; the Optimist
Clubs of Canada, which provides transportation to
and from rowing venues for the underprivileged kids;
the Rock Solid Foundation, a group of law enforcement
personnel who train the rowing instructors on how
to deal with high-risk youth; and Foundation 2000
Plus, a non-profit amateur athletic association dedicated
to sharing the benefits of rowing and paddling sports
with Canadians of all ages and abilities.
Laumann
said that though she wasn't a child in danger of getting
into crime, she lacked direction and self-esteem as
a youngster and rowing provided her with a set of
life skills that were transferable to other areas,
such as teamwork, discipline and communication.
"Rowing
provided a place to go, a community where people cared
about what I did and what I achieved," she said. The
national centres are in Victoria, Vancouver, Calgary,
Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Mississauga and Fredericton.
"When I see companies and organizations come forward
to help the grassroots -- after a decade when budget
cuts hurt development -- I want to jump up and down
an scream, 'Yea,' Laumann said. "It's rewarding to
see a company that's involved at the national team
level support the grassroots, too. They'e supporting
not just a few athletes, but a whole sport." It's
rewarding not only for the youth involved but the
instructors, Laumann said.
"Laryssa Biesenthal
coached one kid she thought was the roughest, toughest,
most swearing case," Laumann said. "And when the five-week
program was done, she saw he went out for his school
team. "She burst into tears. She'd reached him."
Candidates
are recommended for the program by schools, social
agencies and police groups, she said.
reprinted
with permission
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