Owen, Maribel Vinson (1911–1961)

American figure skater and coach. Name variations: Maribel Y. Vinson; Maribel Vinson-Owen. Born Maribel Y. Vinson in Winchester, Massachusetts, in 1911; died in a plane crash on February 15, 1961; daughter of Thomas Vinson (a renowned skater) and Gertrude Vinson; graduated from Radcliffe College; married Guy Owen (a top-ranked skater who died in 1952); children: Maribel Owen (1941–1961, a figure skater); Laurence Owen (1945–1961, a figure skater).

Finished 4th at the Olympics (1928); won the bronze medal in figure skating (1932); won the U.S. National figure skating championships nine times (1928–33 and 1936–37); won the U.S. pairs title six times.

Born in Winchester, Massachusetts, in 1911, Maribel Vinson Owen was the daughter of Gertrude Vinson and Thomas Vinson, an accomplished skater; she was three when she donned her first skates—double runners. In 1928, she beat out Theresa Weld (Blanchard) for the U.S. National figure skating championship. A bold and daring competitor and a master of school figures, Owen placed fourth at the Olympics in St. Moritz. (Fifteen-year-old Sonja Henie took the gold, Fritzie Burger of Austria placed second, while Beatrix Loughran of the United States came in third.) "The American champion Vinson was competing for the first time. She was one of the new guard skaters," wrote Henie in her autobiography. "There was a new approach, new life, and a stiffer challenge in the field than there had been at Chamonix in my dismal 1924." In the 1932 Winter Olympics at Lake Placid, New York, Owen carried home a bronze medal, once more behind silver-medalist Burger and gold-medalist Henie. In 1936, Owen teamed up with George Hill for the Olympic pairs competition in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, placing 5th.

Upon her amateur retirement, Owen kept her hand heavily into the sport. She not only wrote of women's sports for The New York Times, but she continued as a coach; her pupils included Tenley Albright , as well as her two daughters Laurence and Maribel Owen . After her husband died in 1952, Owen became father, mother, coach and breadwinner to her eleven- and seven-year-old daughters while also supporting her own mother. In those 18-hour days, Owen would train her children in the early morning then leap "from class to class at rinks all over and around Boston," wrote Barbara Heilman . She also wrote the book Figure Skating is Fun (1961). In February 1961, Maribel Vinson Owen was killed with her two daughters and the rest of the U.S. figure skating team when their plane went down over Berg, Belgium.

sources:

Boston Globe. February 15, 1961.

Heilman, Barbara. "Mother Set the Style," in Sports Illustrated. February 13, 1961.