Wheeler, Lucille (1935—)
Wheeler, Lucille (1935—)
Canadian skier . Name variations: Lucile Wheeler. Born in 1935 in St. Jovite, Quebec; daughter of Harry Wheeler; married Kaye Vaughan (an Ottawa Roughrider football player).
Won an Olympic bronze in the downhill (1956), behind gold medalist Madeleine Berthod of Switzerland; won the World championship in skiing (1958).
At Grey Rocks Inn, a large resort in the Laurentian Mountains north of Montreal founded by her grandmother in 1902, Lucille Wheeler grew up on skis, plunging down slopes at age three. The resident ski instructor, Herman Gadner of Austria, began her instruction at age 5; by age 10, Wheeler was competing against Canada's best of all ages. At 12, she won the Canadian Junior championship; at 14, she competed at the World championships in Aspen, Colorado. Wheeler moved to Kitzbuhel, Austria, in 1952, for rigorous winter training under the tough tutelage of Pepi Salvenmoser. In February 1958, at the World championships in Bad Gastein, Austria, she blitzed the downhill, finishing a full five seconds ahead of the second-place finisher. She then went out and won the giant slalom, becoming the first Canadian to win a skiing World championship. Following her victory, she promptly retired, married, and settled down to raise a family.
sources:
Batten, Jack. Champions: Great Figures in Canadian Sport. Toronto: New Press, 1971.