Kathy Kreiner

Kathy Kreiner
— Alpine skier —

Kreiner-Phillips in 2010
with her 1976 Olympic gold medal
Disciplines Giant Slalom, Slalom,
Downhill, Combined
Club Timmins Ski Club
Born May 4, 1957
Timmins, Ontario, Canada
Height 5 ft 8 in (1.73 m)
World Cup debut January 18, 1972 (age 14)
(first top ten)
Retired March 1981 (age 23)
Olympics
Teams 3 – (1972, 1976, 1980)
Medals 1 (1 gold)
World Championships
Teams 5 – (1972, '74, '76, '78, '80)
    includes three Olympics
Medals 1 (1 gold)
World Cup
Seasons 10 – (1972–1981)
Wins 1 – (1 GS)
Podiums 7 – (1 DH, 6 GS)
Overall titles 0 – (10th in 1974)
Discipline titles 0 – (4th in GS, 1977)

Katharine "Kathy" Kreiner-Phillips (born May 4, 1957) is a former World Cup alpine ski racer and Olympic gold medalist from Canada. She won the giant slalom at the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria.[1][2] First out of the gate on Friday the 13th, Kreiner prevented double gold medalist Rosi Mittermaier from sweeping the women's alpine events, as Mittermaier won the silver medal.[3][4] It was Canada's only gold medal in Innsbruck.[5][6]

Born in Timmins, Ontario,[7] Kreiner was an alpine racing prodigy in Canada,[8] the youngest of six children of Margaret (Peggy)[9] and Harold O. Kreiner (1920–1999), a Timmins physician and her coach[10] until she made the national team.[11] He was the team doctor for the Canadian alpine ski team for the 1966 World Championships in Portillo, Chile, and the Canadian Olympic team for the winter games in 1968 in Grenoble, France.[9][10][12]

Kreiner made the national 'B' team at age 13 for a year, and was promoted to the 'A' team in the summer of 1971. She had her first World Cup top ten result in mid-January 1972, a sixth place in a downhill at Grindelwald, Switzerland. Three weeks later, Kreiner placed 14th in the slalom at the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo, Japan. She made her first World Cup podium in 1973 at Alyeska in Alaska in giant slalom,[13] and gained her first and only World Cup victory at age 16 in 1974 at Pfronten, West Germany.[14] Kreiner raced 10 seasons on the World Cup circuit and finished with 1 victory, 7 podiums, and 46 top tens. After her Olympic victory, she was named the Canadian Female Athlete of the Year in 1976.[4][15]

From 1948 to 1980, the Winter Olympics also served as the World Championships for alpine skiing, making the Olympic champion the concurrent world champion.[4] Kreiner was immediately inducted into the Canada's Sports Hall of Fame at age 18.[16] She was also inducted into the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame in 2002.[17]

Kreiner's Olympic win in 1976 surprised even her; she had shipped home most of her items from Innsbruck and had to borrow a uniform for the medal ceremony.[1] Her older sister Laurie was also a World Cup racer and two-time Olympian; she had the 28th starting position (of 43) and had tears of joy for Kathy while still in the starting gate and finished 27th.[1] Laurie had just missed an Olympic medal in 1972 with a fourth place in the giant slalom.[18]

At the 1980 Winter Olympics at Lake Placid, Kreiner finished fifth in the downhill and ninth in the giant slalom, held at Whiteface Mountain. During her final season in 1981, Kreiner ascended her only World Cup podium in downhill, and raced independent of the Canadian national team.[19][20] Her sixth and final podium in giant slalom came nearly four years earlier at Sun Valley in March 1977.[21]

Kreiner married Dave Phillips, a former freetyle skier with the Canadian national team. As of 2010, she remains the only Olympic gold medalist from Timmins.

World Cup results

Season standings

Season Age Overall Slalom Giant
 Slalom 		 Super G Downhill Combined
1972 14 31 — — not
run 		15 not
awarded
1973 15 24 17 12 16
1974 16 10 13 8 20
1975 17 12 25 8 15
1976 18 23 — 8 — —
1977 19 13 — 4 19 not
awarded
1978 20 25 21 18 15
1979 21 71 — — 42
1980 22 31 — 20 20 12
1981 23 27 — 30 15 17

Race podiums

Season Date Location Discipline Place
1973 7 Mar-1973 United States Anchorage, AK, USA Giant Slalom 3rd
1974 6 Jan 1974 West Germany Pfronten, West Germany Giant Slalom 1st
1975 7 Mar 1975 Canada Garibaldi, BC, Canada Giant Slalom 3rd
1976Austria 1976 Winter Olympics
19 Mar 1976 Canada Mt. Ste. Anne, QC, Canada Giant Slalom 3rd
1977 20 Jan 1977  Switzerland  Arosa, Switzerland Giant Slalom 2nd
6 Mar 1977 United States Sun Valley, ID, USA Giant Slalom 2nd
1981 12 Dec 1980 France Val-d'Isère, France Downhill 2nd

Video

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Gilbert, Doug (February 14, 1976). "Kathy collars a gold, but loses her buttons". Montreal Gazette. p. 14.
  2. ↑ "Golden girl". Montreal Gazette. UPI photo. February 14, 1976. p. 1.
  3. ↑ "Rosi misses 3-gold bid". Deseret News. UPI. February 13, 1976. p. 1D.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 "Kathy Kreiner runaway choice". Montreal Gazette. Canadian Press. December 21, 1976. p. 13.
  5. ↑ Sufrin, Mel (February 13, 1976). "Gold at last". Ottawa Citizen. Canadian Press. p. 1.
  6. ↑ "1976". Montreal Gazette. Canadian Press. January 3, 1977. p. 11.
  7. ↑ "Olympics". sports-reference. Retrieved 15 December 2012.
  8. ↑ "Kathy Kreiner does it again". Montreal Gazette. February 9, 1970. p. 22.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 "Obituary for Margaret Kreiner (1921–2011)". Timmins, Ontario: Miron-Wilson Funeral Home. Retrieved January 31, 2014.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Allan, Chris (March 13, 1970). "Small mountain produces leader in ladies skiing". Montreal Gazette. p. 26.
  11. ↑ Young, Bob (March 20, 1971). "Time for bed, Kathy. Don't forget to...". Montreal Gazette. Canadian Magazine (weekly insert). p. 20.
  12. ↑ "Harold O. Kreiner (1920-1999)". La Fédération québécoise des sociétés de généalogie. Retrieved January 31, 2014.
  13. ↑ "Kathy Kreiner is third in World Cup GS". Montreal Gazette. Associated Press. March 8, 1973. p. 17.
  14. ↑ "Kathy wins slalom race". Ottawa Citizen. Canadian Press. January 7, 1974. p. 15.
  15. ↑ "Kreiner named top Canadian athlete". Lawrence Journal World. Associated Press. December 21, 1976. p. 16.
  16. ↑ "Hall award to Kreiner". Spokesman-Review. Associated Press. February 14, 1976. p. 14.
  17. ↑ "Kathy Kreiner". http://oshof.ca/''. Retrieved 25 September 2014.
  18. ↑ "Canadian fourth in slalom". Montreal Gazette. Canadian Press. February 8, 1972. p. 27.
  19. ↑ "Kathy Kreiner well back as Irene Epple wins GS". Montreal Gazette. Canadian Press. December 5, 1980. p. 32.
  20. ↑ "Kreiner expected to hang 'em up". Montreal Gazette. Canadian Press. March 10, 1981. p. 20.
  21. ↑ "Stenmark puts lock on World Cup title, Kathy Kreiner nipped by Morerod in GS". Associated Press. March 7, 1977. p. 24.

External links