Rhona and Rhoda Wurtele

Rhona Wurtele
Personal information
Nationality Canadian
Born (1922-01-21) January 21, 1922
St. Lambert, Quebec, Canada
Sport
Country  Canada
Sport Alpine skiing
Rhoda Wurtele
Personal information
Nationality Canadian
Born (1922-01-21) January 21, 1922
St. Lambert, Quebec, Canada
Sport
Country  Canada
Sport Alpine skiing

Rhona and Rhoda Wurtele (born January 21, 1922) are identical twins and Canada's women's skiing pioneers and champions of the 1940s and 1950s. Together they made up the entire 1948 Olympic Women’s Alpine team for Canada.

The Wurtele twins were born in 1922 in the province of Quebec. They began skiing at age five when their father strapped two planks of wood onto their feet and pushed them out the front door; which happened to be on top of Mount Royal in Montreal. The twins never stopped skiing. By age 11 they had skied off the senior ski jump on Mount Royal (women will finally be allowed to compete in Ski Jumping at the Olympic games in 2014!).

They were Canada's first official women's Olympic alpine ski team and competed in Canada and the United States from 1942 to 1948 representing the Penguin Ski Club. They were married in a double ceremony at St. Stephen's Church in Montreal on November 13, 1948. They continued to compete through to 1959 even after they had children. As soon as they began competing in 1942, they won almost every race they entered, in Canada and the United States - including the Kate Smith International, the Alta Cup, the Roch Cup, the Silver Dollar Derby and in the 1950s, the Harriman Cup. In 1943 Rhoda swept the Taschereau downhill at Mont Tremblant Quebec, winning by 24 seconds, bettering both the women and all the men in the competition. Rhona placed second among the women, ninth overall.

World War II caused the cancellation of two Olympics in a row and the twins were finally able to compete at the 1948 Olympics in St. Moritz, Switzerland. The two of them made up the entire Women’s Alpine Team, but accidents during training and trials meant both left without medals.

Despite their disappointments at the Olympics, the Wurtele twins continued competing and eventually turned to teaching skiing, first to children (through the Ski Jays and Ski Chicks clubs, founded by the Penguin Ski Club), then in the 1960s to the mothers who brought their children to the slopes. Now 90, they are still skiing and golfing (they were at one time members of the Quebec provincial team in golfing). As pioneers, they set the stage for Canadian women in skiing, directly influencing a long line of medal winners from Lucile Wheeler, the first woman to win an Olympic skiing medal for Canada, to Anne Heggtveit, Nancy Greene, Kathy Kreiner and Kerrin Lee-Gartner.

Rhona is the mother of noted Canadian dancers Margie Gillis and Christopher Gillis and of ice hockey player Jere Gillis. Rhoda is the mother of Bruce Eaves, expert golf and ski teacher, John Eaves, world champion acrobatic skier and adventurer. All their children are high achievers and their stories can be found in their biography, "No Limits".

Honors

In 1945 the twins were awarded the Velma Springstead Rose Bowl as Best Canadian Woman Athlete (sic) of 1944, presented by the Women's Amateur Athletic Federation. In 1946 they were runners-up for the Lou Marsh Trophy, given by the Canadian Press to Canada's Most Outstanding Athlete. They were inducted into the Canadian Amateur Athletic Hall of Fame in 1953 for both their swimming and skiing achievements. Both were inducted into the U.S. National Ski Hall of Fame (now the American Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame) in 1969 and to the Canadian Ski Hall of Fame in 1982. Other honours have included:

References

  1. ↑ Flamborough Review: Canada’s skiing twins will carry Olympic torch in Oakville

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Saturday, April 23, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.