 Heggtveit with her Olympic gold medal | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1939-01-11)January 11, 1939 (age 86) Ottawa, Ontario, Canada |
| Occupation | Alpine skier ♀ |
| Height | 5 ft 3 in (1.60 m) |
| Sport | |
| Skiing career | |
| Disciplines | |
| Club | Ottawa Ski Club |
| Olympics | |
| Teams | 2 – (1956,1960) |
| Medals | 1 (1 gold) |
| World Championships | |
| Teams | 4 – (1954,1956,1958,1960) includes two Olympics |
| Medals | 2 (2 gold) |
Medal record | |
Anne Heggtveit,CM (born January 11, 1939) is a formeralpine ski racer from Canada. She was an Olympic gold medallist and double world champion in1960.[1][2]
Born inOttawa, Ontario, Heggtveit was raised inNew Edinburgh, one of the oldest areas of the city. She was encouraged into alpine skiing by her father,Halvor Heggtveit, a Canadiancross-country champion who qualified for theWinter Olympics in1932,[3] but did not compete.[4] Her parents had emigrated fromNorway toNorth Dakota.[5] She learned to ski atCamp Fortune ski area[6][7] in the nearbyGatineau Hills ofQuebec, northwest of Ottawa, and was a student atLisgar Collegiate Institute in Ottawa. Heggtveit was a ski racingprodigy, invited at age seven to serve as a forerunner to a downhill race atLake Placid in 1946.[8]
At the age of 15 in 1954, Heggtveit first gained international attention when she became the youngest winner ever of theHolmenkollen giant slalom event inNorway.[9][10] She also won the slalom and giant slalom at the United States national junior championships, and finished ninth in the downhill and seventh in the slalom at theWorld Championships in March atÅre, Sweden.[11][12] After leading the top half of the giant slalom, she fell twice near the finish was well back in 31st,[13] which dropped her final placing in the combined to 14th.[12]
Although Heggtveit suffered several injuries between 1955 and 1957,[4] she still earned a spot on Canada's Olympic team at age 17 in1956 atCortina d'Ampezzo, Italy.[14]
At a time when Europeans dominated alpine skiing, Heggtveit was inspired by the breakthrough performance of teammateLucile Wheeler ofQuebec, who won Olympic bronze in thedownhill in 1956, and three medals at theWorld Championships in1958 atBad Gastein, Austria. Wheeler won gold in thedownhill andgiant slalom events, and took silver in thecombined. Heggtveit finished in the top ten in three events, with an eighth in the slalom, seventh in the downhill, and sixth in the combined.[15][16][17][18]
At the1960 Winter Olympic Games inSquaw Valley, California, Heggtveit won Canada's first-ever Olympic skiing gold medal.[14][19] Her victory in theOlympic slalom also made her the first non-European to win the world championship in slalom andcombined. Heggtveit was the first North American to win theArlberg-Kandahar Trophy, the most prestigious and classic event in alpine skiing.
| Year | Age | Slalom | Giant Slalom | Super-G | Downhill | Combined |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1954 | 15 | 7 | 31 | not run | 9 | 14 |
| 1956 | 17 | 30 | 29 | 22 | — | |
| 1958 | 19 | 8 | 15 | 7 | 6 | |
| 1960 | 21 | 1 | 12 | 12 | 1 |
From1948 through1980, theWinter Olympics were also theWorld Championships for alpine skiing.
At the World Championships from1954 through 1980, the combined was a "paper race" using the results of the three events (DH, GS, SL).
| Year | Age | Slalom | Giant Slalom | Super-G | Downhill | Combined |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1956 | 17 | 30 | 29 | not run | 22 | not run |
| 1960 | 21 | 1 | 12 | 12 |
Heggtveit was awarded theLou Marsh Trophy as Canada's outstanding athlete of 1960. She was also the first recipient of theJohn Semmelink Memorial Award in November 1961,[20] named for her fallen teammate.[21][22] Her performance on the world stage was again recognized in 1976 when she was made a member of theOrder of Canada, the country's highest civilian honor.[2]
Heggtveit was inducted intoCanada's Sports Hall of Fame in 1960, theCanadian Olympic Hall of Fame in 1971, and was among the first group inducted into the newCanadian Ski Hall of Fame in 1982.
Heggtveit has a road named after her at theBlue Mountain Ski Resort in theTown of the Blue Mountains, west ofCollingwood, Ontario. She also has a ski run named after her atCamp Fortune, an extremely difficultdouble black diamond run.[23]
Anne Heggtveit was inducted into theOntario Sports Hall of Fame in 1995.[24]
She was in the first induction of theLisgar Collegiate Institute Athletic Wall of Fame, as part of the 160th Anniversary celebrations.[25]
Following her competitive career, Heggtveit married James Ross Hamilton in August 1961,[26][27] and resided in Quebec. They had two children and later relocated to nearbyVermont in the United States.[20][28][29] She was later an accountant and photographer.[5]
She is sister to Alexander Heggtveit, MD, cardiac pathologist with ties to Brooklyn, NY, Ottawa, Hamilton, and Seaforth, Ontario, and great-aunt to Katie Heggtveit, granddaughter of Alexander, a social entrepreneur with ties to Toronto, Ontario, currently living in Nashville, Tennessee since 2023, recently inducted into the Toronto Sport Hall of Honor.
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Women's World Champions:Downhill • Super-G • Giant Slalom • Slalom • Combined • Combined Team • Parallel Giant Slalom • Mixed Team |
