Andrea Mead Lawrence

Andrea Mead Lawrence
— Alpine skier —

David and Andrea Lawrence at the 1956 Olympics
Disciplines Downhill, Giant Slalom,
Slalom, Combined
Club Pico Peak Ski Club[1]
Born (1932-04-19)April 19, 1932
Rutland County, Vermont, U.S.
Died March 30, 2009(2009-03-30) (aged 76)
Mammoth Lakes, California
Height 5 ft 8 in (1.73 m)[1]
Olympics
Teams 3 – (1948, 1952, 1956)
Medals 2 (2 gold)
World Championships
Teams 4 – (1948, 1950, 1952, 1956)
    includes 3 Olympics
Medals 2 (2 gold)
Medal record
Women’s alpine skiing
Representing the
 United States
Olympic Games
1952 Oslo Slalom
1952 Oslo Giant slalom

Andrea Mead Lawrence (April 19, 1932 – March 30, 2009)[2][3] was an American alpine ski racer. She competed in three Winter Olympics (and two world championships) and was the first American alpine skier to win two Olympic gold medals.

Skiing career

Mead was born in Rutland County, Vermont, to an alpine skiing family that owned and operated the Pico Peak ski area.[4] At age 14 she made the national team, and at age 15 competed in the 1948 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz, Switzerland, where she placed eighth in the slalom, and sixth at the 1950 World Championships in Aspen.

At the 1952 Winter Olympics in Oslo, Norway, she was selected as captain of the U.S. women's team at age 19. She won both the slalom and the giant slalom events. She succeeded Gretchen Fraser, who had won gold in the slalom in 1948, as the top American woman ski racer. She also competed at the 1956 Winter Olympics, placing fourth in the giant slalom. Between the 1952 and 1956 Olympics, she gave birth to three children,[5] and was inducted into the National Ski Hall of Fame in 1958[6] and carried the torch at the 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley, California, passed it to America gold medalist speed skater Ken Henry, who circled the ice rink then ascended the Tribune of Honor and ignited the Olympic flame.[7]

Olympic results

  Year    Age   Slalom  Giant
 Slalom  		Super-G Downhill Combined
1948 15 8 not run not run 35 21
1952 19 1 1 17 not run
1956 23 25 4 30

World Championship results

  Year    Age   Slalom  Giant
 Slalom  		Super-G Downhill Combined
1948 15 8 not run not run 35 21
1950 17 17 6 9 not run
1952 19 1 1 17
1954 21 did not compete did not compete
1956 23 25 4 30

From 1948 through 1980, the Winter Olympics were also the World Championships for alpine skiing.

Life after ski racing

After fighting against development at Mammoth Mountain ski area, she was elected as a Mono County supervisor in 1982, and served for 16 years.

In 2003, she founded the Andrea Lawrence Institute for Mountains and Rivers, a non-profit organization committed to conservation, specifically in the eastern Sierra Nevada mountains. A resident of the area for over 40 years, she was also a long-time advocate for the preservation of Mono Lake and other environmental concerns.

On April 29, 2010 U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer and U.S. Representative Howard P. “Buck” McKeon announced legislation to rename Peak 12,240 in Mono County “Mt. Andrea Lawrence,” in memory of Lawrence.[8]

On January 10, 2013, President Obama signed into law the Mt. Andrea Lawrence Designation Act of 2011, naming peak 12,240 near Donahue Pass on the John Muir Trail, “Mt. Andrea Lawrence”.

Lawrence is a member of the Vermont Sports Hall of Fame, inducted in the first class of 2012.

On November 8, 2013, two Vermont non-profit organizations opened a new multi-use adaptive sports and youth skiing center at Andrea Mead Lawrence's home mountain of Pico Peak, Vermont. The Andrea Mead Lawrence Lodge at Pico will serve as the permanent home and base camp for the non-profit missions of Vermont Adaptive Ski and Sports and the Pico Ski Education Foundation.

Personal life

Family

Mead married fellow U.S. Ski Team member David Lawrence in Switzerland in March 1951.[5][9] They moved to a ranch in Parshall, Colorado in 1954[5] and then to Aspen in the 1960s, where she became a member of the town's planning board. The couple separated and divorced in 1967.[10] With five young children and little money, she moved her family in 1968 to Mammoth Lakes, California, near Mammoth Mountain. Her nephew is current Wyoming Governor Matt Mead.[11]

Death

Lawrence was diagnosed with leiomyosarcoma in 2000, from which she died on March 30, 2009, several weeks before her 77th birthday.[3]

References

  1. 1 2 Andrea Mead-Lawrence. sports-reference.com
  2. ↑ Nelson, Valerie J. (April 1, 2009). "Andrea Mead Lawrence dies at 76; Olympic Alpine skier became environmentalist". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 5 April 2009. Retrieved April 2, 2009.
  3. 1 2 Martin, Douglas (April 1, 2009). "Andrea Mead Lawrence, Skiing Champion, Dies at 76". The New York Times. Archived from the original on September 4, 2015. Retrieved April 2, 2009.
  4. ↑ "Pico Peak bounces back into the skiing limelight". Lewiston Evening Journal. Associated Press. January 14, 1966. p. 10.
  5. 1 2 3 Zusy, Fred (January 5, 1956). "Mother of three, Andrea Mead Lawrence, favored in giant slalom at Grindelwald". Lewiston Daily Sun. Associated Press. p. 13.
  6. ↑ "Inductees of the U.S. National Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame". Archived from the original on 23 April 2009. Retrieved April 2, 2009.
  7. ↑ Antonucci, David C. (2009) Snowball's Chance: The Story of the 1960 Olympic Winter Games Squaw Valley & Lake Tahoe. ISBN 1-4392-5904-6. p. 65.
  8. ↑ Archives | The Sheet – Part 2439. Thesheetnews.com. Retrieved on 2015-06-12.
  9. ↑ "People in the news". Sumter (SC) Daily Item. Associated Press. July 6, 1966. p. 11B.
  10. ↑ "People in the news". Nashua (NH) Telegraph. May 9, 1967. p. 7.
  11. ↑ "Peter Bradford Mead: b. 14 Apr 1933 Rutland, Rutland Co., VT [VT birth records: Elisha Peter Bradford Mead; parents Bradford Belcher Mead (artist, b. Greenwich, CT) and Janet Bario Ross Davis (b. Pittsford, VT)]; m. 20 Jun 1958 Jackson, WY {brother of Andrea Mead Lawrence, winner of 2 gold medals at 1952 Winter Olympic Games (slalom and giant slalom)}"

External links

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