By the time this column appears, the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympics will be wrapped up. I’ve been writing about historic Winter Olympics of the past and their connection to this year’s games. So this week will be collection of topics to wrap up my Olympic coverage.
Chris Rynne answered one of my trivia question about the 1976 Olympics and actually had sort-of a trivia question for me concerning the 1956 Olympics: Who was the first American woman to win a figure skating gold?
That would be Tenley Albright in the 1956 Cortina Olympics. I know she’s not a skier, but I found her story so interesting that I just had to share it.
Tenley Albright was born on July 18, 1935 in Newton Centre, Massachusetts. She began skating at age 8, but a diagnosis of pre-paralytic polio at age 11 changed skating from fun on a backyard ring to required rehab at the Boston Skating Club. She is quoted as saying, “Did you ever notice how many athletes my age once had polio? I think it’s because being paralyzed makes you aware of your muscles and you never want to let them go unused again.”
By age 16 she was a world class skater and won the silver medal at the 1952 Oslo Winter Olympics. This would lead to her achieving the gold medal in 1956 at Cortina. However that was not without some challenge as she suffered a serious injury less than two weeks before the competition. A fall in practice resulted in a severe cut on her ankle that required surgery which her surgeon father performed.
Albright retired from competitive skating after her gold medal and continued her education. She graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1961 and followed in her father’s footsteps to become a surgeon. And in 1976 she would serve as the chief physician for the United States Winter Olympics Team.
Chris Rynne also mentioned that Tenley Albright came to Stowe and put on a skating exhibition. While I couldn’t find a specific date, I did find that it was held on an outdoor skating rink behind what was then called the Stowe Center (now Apple Tree Learning Center and Stowe Bee Bakery.)
And Tenley Albright was in Milan Cortina for this year’s Olympics! At age 90 she was there to celebrate the 70th anniversary of her gold and to cheer on the U.S. figure skaters! She welcomed Alysa Liu to the exclusive group of 8 women who have won an Olympic Gold.
Staying on the 1956 Olympics, but getting back to skiing, I wrote about how 3 Gold Medal winner Toni Sailer also won the 1957 American International Cup race here in Stowe. Mike Leach, MMSC historian, shared the following:
“I believe that was the race that Toni Sailer hopped over the electric eye at the finish. Billy Hazelett talks about that in an interview on the ISHA (International Skiing History Association) website. Bill said Sepp ran into the timing shack and asked if they got Sailer’s time. Bill said yes, but apparently he didn’t and made up a time ….. Sailer beat Buddy Werner in that downhill by only .3 second, which was quite a tight margin in those days. Maybe Buddy actually did win that race… “
Hazelett and the Mount Mansfield Ski Club had developed a very advanced timing system which was ahead of its time. It’s perhaps in the running for the first optical/electrical timing systems for ski racing in the world. But obviously in 1957 it may have needed some tweaking!
As a winter sports fan I really enjoy the Winter Olympics. But sometimes I forget that winter sports don’t garner the following of warmer weather sports. The majority of sports fans don’t understand many winter sports. They don’t know the athletes, they don’t understand the different events, they don’t understand the rules.
As an example, arguably the most famous alpine skier for Americans going into this Olympics was Mikaela Shiffrin. She was in the news and certainly NBC made her a focus of the hype surrounding the coverage. There was a lot of pressure on her to dispel the demons that affected her performance at the previous Olympics. And in her signature event, the slalom, she certainly did, dominating both runs.
The New York Times has a weekly news quiz with multiple choice questions covering headline topics from the previous week’s reporting. Last Friday one of the questions asked in what event did Mikaela win her Gold. The choices included the Alpine events plus a couple of throwaways like “Aerials”. Only 47% of responders got it right!
Imagine if they asked in what event Ryan Cochran-Siegle got his silver medal!
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