Canada's Olympic Skiing/Snowboarding Memories
1976 Innsbruck, Austria
Originally awarded to Denver, USA, the city withdrew its bid for the 1976 Olympic Winter Games when its citizens voted against the use of public funds to host the event, the result of a referendum held on November 15, 1972.
Facilities from the 1964 Winter Games, however, remained in good condition prompting the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on February 4, 1973, to return the Winter Games to Innsbruck for the second time in 12 years.
The cross country team of Sharon and Shirley Firth, Joan Groothuysen, Sue Holloway, Esther Miller, Ernie Lennie, Ed Day, Hans Skinstad, Reijo Puiras, and Bert Bullock had strong representation in each event, but no top-20 placings were achieved.
Kathy Kreiner - CSM# x2004.13.1
It was the year that all Canadian eyes would be glued to television sets as the Crazy Canucks downhill team emerged as a real threat to challenge the dominance of the Europeans. Although they didn't win a medal, Ken Read, Dave Irwin, Jim Hunter, and Dave Murray placed 5th, 8th, 10th, and 18th respectively in the downhill event, an outcome considered to be one of Canada's most outstanding performances in Olympic skiing history. Most remarkable perhaps was Dave Irwin's result, as he was still recovering from two broken ribs and a concussion sustained in a crash at over 120km/hr, three weeks earlier in Wengen, Switzerland.
With the attention of the media focused almost exclusively on the men's downhill team, it was hardly surprising that there was only one reporter and a few fans present to witness Canada's only gold medal being won by Kathy Kreiner in the women's giant slalom event. As snow conditions improved for each succeeding competitor, at least for the first 15, Kathy's performance was all the more remarkable as she was the first athlete down the course, a situation generally considered to place a competitor at a disadvantage.
Canadian Olympic jumping and nordic combined teams [L to R]: Ron Richards (jumping manager), John Armstrong (manager of nordic combined), Kurt Sjolund, Richard Grady, Donald Grady, Kim Fripp, Peter Wilson, Pentti Ranta (jumping coach), Jiri Gabera (nordic combined coach) - CSM# © Canadian Olympic Association (publication)
Autographed postcard "Crazy Canucks" - CSM# x2003.16.1
Opening date: February 4, 1976
Closing date: February 15, 1976
Candidate cities: Denver (USA), Sion (SUI), Tampere/Are (FIN), Vancouver (CAN)
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For a brief history of the Olympic Games, please click here.
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