Skiing
b. Feb. 11, 1919, Tacoma, WA
Gretchen Kunigk's Norwegian-born mother was an enthusiastic skier who campaigned for the development of public skiing on Mount Rainier in Washington. In 1939, Gretchen married Donald Fraser, who had been on the 1936 Olympic ski team. A year later, she was named to the 1940 Olympic team, but the games were canceled because of World War II.
Fraser won the national downhill and Alpine combined championships in 1941 and was national slalom champion in 1942. She then retired from competition and taught riding, skiing, and swimming to amputee war veterans in Army hospitals while her husband served in the Navy.
After the war, he urged her to get back into competition and helped with her training. She was named to the 1948 Olympic team and became the first American skier ever to win a medal. Fraser won a gold in the slalom under very difficult circumstances. She had the fastest time in the first of two runs, but had to wait in the starting gate for seventeen minutes before her second run while a telephone line linking the top of the course to the bottom was repaired. When it was finally ready, she turned in the fastest time again to win the gold medal easily. She also won a silver in the Alpine combined event.
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