Martha Rockwell

Last updated

Martha Rockwell
Martha Rockwell Retired Cross-Country Skier in 2011.jpg
Rockwell in 2011
Personal information
Born (1944-04-26) April 26, 1944 (age 80)
Providence, Rhode Island
Alma mater Bennington College
Years active1967–1976
Sport
CountryUnited States
Sport Cross-country skiing
TeamU.S. Olympic Team

Martha Rockwell (born April 26, 1944) is a retired American cross-country skier and coach, who competed at the Winter Olympic Games in 1972 and 1976. [1] She has been cited in the U.S. as a "pioneer" and a "legend" in women's cross-country skiing, having been the U.S. women's cross-country ski champion 18 times between 1969 and 1975 as part of the first U.S. national cross-country ski team for women.

Contents

Personal life

Rockwell was born on April 26, 1944, in Providence, Rhode Island to Barbara ( née Webb) and Henry Benson "Ben" Rockwell. [2] She graduated from The Putney School, where her father was headmaster, and Bennington College. [3] Rockwell raced in Alpine skiing events in high school at Putney and in cross-country races where she raced on the boys' team under coach, John Caldwell. [3] Upon graduation from college, she briefly pursued a graphic arts career in Manhattan prior to starting her career in cross-country ski racing. [4]

Her October 2000 Vermont civil union and other aspects of her life leading up to it were the subject of coverage in The Washington Post . At that time, Rockwell was raising dairy goats in partnership with her sister in Cabot, Vermont. [5]

Athletic career

Rockwell during a January 1976 Olympic tryout cross-country ski race in Wisconsin Martha Rockwell 1976 U.S. Ski Team Olympic tryouts - Cross-country skiing.jpg
Rockwell during a January 1976 Olympic tryout cross-country ski race in Wisconsin

In her entry with the Vermont Sports Hall of Fame, Rockwell is cited as a "pioneer in the United States in women's cross country skiing". [6]

Soon after the organization of the (then) United States Ski Association women's cross-country ski team in 1969, Rockwell was the first women's national cross-country ski champion. [7] Rockwell and other promising skiers, including Bill Koch, received the attention of coach Marty Hall, who was instrumental in her further development as a skier and her exposure to the international racing circuit. [7] Hall said of Rockwell, "She took our program from zero to Mach 1 in just a couple of years." [4]

She was a member of the USA women's Olympic Nordic ski team in 1972—the first year U.S. women competed in cross-country skiing in the Olympic Winter Games. She raced in the 5K, 10K and Nordic relay events at the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo, Japan. The effectiveness of Rockwell's training regime was evident in a 1974 World Championship race, when she was in sixth place and closing on the leaders within reach of a podium finish and a medal; unfortunately a course worker's ski pole caught Rockwell's, causing a fall and a tenth-place finish—still a strong finish for an American at the time. [3] She also competed at the 1976 Winter Olympics. She won 18 U.S. championships in the period, 1969 through 1975. Rockwell's FIS international racing career included a 1973 win in a 7.5K event at Castelrotto, Italy, followed by five wins in six European races in 1975, making her 10th overall in the FIS Cross-Country World Cup standings. [8]

Rockwell retired from ski racing after her 1976 season. [9] In 1979, Rockwell set the women's record for running the Mount Washington Road Race at 1:19:14, a record which stood until 1985. [10] Rockwell coached the women's cross-country ski team of Dartmouth College from 1979 to 1987. [8]

Honors

Rockwell was designated "U.S. Nordic Skier of the Year" for 1975 and 1976 by Ski Magazine; [6] in its 1995 Skiing for Women issue the same magazine cited Rockwell as a skiing "legend", along with Andrea Mead Lawrence and Maria Bogner. [4] She was inducted into the U.S. Ski Hall of Fame in 1986 and into the Vermont Ski Museum Hall of Fame in 2005. She was inducted into the Vermont Sports Hall of Fame in 2017, along with former coach and cross-country skier, John Caldwell. [8] Sports Illustrated included Rockwell in a glamor photo shoot of six noted skiers in 1970. [11] Dartmouth College established a "Martha Rockwell Award", given annually to a female cross-country skier “who, in the estimation of the coaches, has performed the best throughout the season”. [12]

Cross-country skiing race finishes

Olympic Games

 Year  Age  5 km  10 km  3/4 × 5 km 
 relay 
1972 27 18 16 11
1976 31 28 36 9

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Putney School</span> School in Houghton Brook Road, Putney, VT, U.S.

The Putney School is an independent high school in Putney, Vermont. The school was founded in 1935 by Carmelita Hinton on the principles of the Progressive Education movement and the teachings of its principal exponent, John Dewey. It is a co-educational, college-preparatory boarding school, with a day-student component, 12 miles (19 km) outside Brattleboro, Vermont. Danny O'Brien became head of school in 2022. The school enrolls approximately 225 students on a 500 acres (2.0 km2) hilltop campus with classrooms, dormitories, and a dairy farm on which its students work before graduating.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bill Koch (skier)</span> American skier (born 1955)

William Conrad Koch is an American cross-country skier who competed at the international level. A native of Guilford, Vermont, he is a graduate of the nearby Putney School in Putney. In 1974, he became the first American to win a medal in international competition, placing third in the European junior championships.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beth Heiden</span> American sportswoman (born 1959)

Elizabeth Lee Heiden Reid is an American athlete who excelled in speed skating, cross-country skiing, and bicycle racing. She was born in Madison, Wisconsin. She was a speedskating bronze medalist at the 1980 Lake Placid Winter Olympics, where her brother Eric won five speedskating gold medals.

Debra Rae "Debbie" Armstrong is a former World Cup alpine ski racer from Seattle, Washington. She was the first Olympic gold medalist from the U.S. in women's alpine skiing in twelve years, winning the giant slalom at the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia.

The Skiing Cochrans are a family of American alpine ski racers from Richmond, Vermont, a dominant force on the U.S. Ski Team in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and again in 2000s, 2010s and 2020s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kikkan Randall</span> American cross-country skier

Kikkan Randall is an American Olympic champion cross-country skier. She has won 17 U.S. National titles, made 29 podiums on the World Cup, made five trips to the Winter Olympic Games and had the highest finish by an individual American woman at the World Championships, second in the Sprint in Liberec in 2009. She was the first American female cross-country skier to take a top ten finish in World Cup competition, to win a World Cup race and to win a World Cup discipline title. She won the silver medal in the individual sprint at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2009 in Liberec, becoming the first American woman to win a medal in cross country skiing at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships, and in 2013 teamed up with Jessie Diggins to win the first ever American FIS Nordic World Ski Championships gold medal in the team sprint. She and Diggins won the United States' first ever cross-country skiing gold medal at the Winter Olympics in women's team sprint at Pyeongchang in 2018.

Thomas Michael Jacobs was an American Olympic Nordic skier who competed in the 1950s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John H. Caldwell</span> Cross-country skier, coach, and author

John Homer Caldwell is a retired American nordic skier who competed in the 1952 Winter Olympics, then became a cross-country ski coach and authority on cross-country skiing. He wrote a series of books that helped popularize and develop understanding of recreational cross-country skiing in the United States. Consequently, Caldwell has been called the "father" and "guru" of Nordic skiing in North America.

Hjalmar Petterson Hvam was a competitive Norwegian-American Nordic skier and inventor of the first safety ski binding.

Peter Graves is an American television sportscaster and public address announcer specializing in Olympic, lifestyle, and action sports. He is also a former cross-country skiing coach for Harvard University.

Marilyn Cochran Brown is a former World Cup alpine ski racer from the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Carleton (skier)</span> American lawyer and Olympic skier

John Carleton was an American lawyer and competitive skier from New Hampshire. He competed in cross-country skiing and Nordic combined at the 1924 Winter Olympics in Chamonix. He was also a pioneer of alpine skiing in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jessie Diggins</span> American cross-country skier

Jessica Diggins is an American cross-country skier. She is the most accomplished cross-country skier from the United States in the sport's history having won two World Cup overall titles, three Olympic medals, six World Championship medals, and numerous other event championships. Diggins has used her status as a famous athlete to advance advocacy related to climate change and eating disorders.

Shirley Firth was a Canadian cross-country skier who competed in four consecutive Winter Olympics in 1972, 1976, 1980 and 1984.

Erlon "Bucky" Broomhall is a Vermont skier, former junior olympic ski coach, and advocate of youth skiing. He is responsible for bringing the first girls' team to the Junior Olympics in 1968.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bob Beattie (skiing)</span>

Robert Prime Beattie was an American skiing coach, skiing promoter and commentator for ABC Sports and ESPN. He was head coach of the U.S. Ski Team from 1961 to 1969 and co-founded the Alpine Skiing World Cup in 1966. His work as a ski-racing commentator for ABC included four Winter Olympic Games, from 1976 through 1988.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vermont Sports Hall of Fame</span> Athletics hall of fame in the U.S. state of Vermont

The Vermont Sports Hall of Fame is an athletics hall of fame in the U.S. state of Vermont. Above all, induction "is for accomplishments in sports and recreation that generate a great source of pride to the state." Launched as a project in 2011, the Hall of Fame inducted its inaugural class on November 17, 2012. Inductees include multiple Olympic athletes and medalists, professional sports hall of fame inductees, and historical contributors from the state of Vermont or one of its colleges and universities.

John Morton is an Olympic skier and writer from the United States. He was born in Keene, New Hampshire. Morton has participated as an athlete, coach, and team leader in seven Olympic Games for the United States in the biathlon event.

Patrick Weaver is an American former cross-country skier. He competed at the 1998 Winter Olympics and the 2002 Winter Olympics. He later became a skiing coach.

The Dartmouth College Ski Team is organized under the aegis of the Dartmouth Outing Club and is notable for both providing students access to competitive skiing and training internationally successful nordic and alpine ski racers. The Dartmouth Outing Club hosted the US's first downhill ski race on Mt Moosilauke in 1927, and Dartmouth skiing has been intertwined with ski racing ever since.

References

  1. ↑ Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Martha Rockwell Olympic Results". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on April 18, 2020. Retrieved February 8, 2018.
  2. ↑ "Henry Benson Rockwell '37". Princeton Alumni Weekly. 75. Princeton University: 17. October 8, 1974. Retrieved February 17, 2018.
  3. 1 2 3 Shinn, Peggy (2018). World Class: The Making of the U.S. Women's Cross-Country Ski Team. Lebanon, New Hampshire: University Press of New England. p. 248. ISBN   9781512601817.
  4. 1 2 3 "Martha Rockwell – For making great strides in cross-country skiing". Skiing (Skiing for Women). New York: Ziff-Davis: 49. 1995. ISSN   0037-6264 . Retrieved February 17, 2018.
  5. ↑ Rosin, Hanna (October 11, 2000). "Same-Sex Union Divides Small Vermont Community". Washington Post. Washington, DC: Washington Post Co. Retrieved February 17, 2018.
  6. 1 2 Directors (2017). "Martha Rockwell – Putney – Nordic Skiing". www.vermontsportshall.com. Vermont Sports Hall of Fame. Retrieved February 17, 2018. A pioneer in the United States in women's cross country skiing, Martha Rockwell was a member of the first USA women's Nordic ski team to compete at the Olympics in 1972, and she made a second trip in 1976.
  7. 1 2 Auran, John Henry (February 1976). "What makes Martha run?". Skiing. 28 (6). New York: Ziff-Davis: 76–8. ISSN   0037-6264.
  8. 1 2 3 Staff (January 31, 2017). "Putney's Caldwell, Rockwell to enter Hall". Brattleboro Reformer. Brattleboro, Vermont. Retrieved February 17, 2018.
  9. ↑ "Rockwell bows out". Ski Magazine. 41 (3). New York: Times Mirror Magazines, Inc.: 19 November 1976. ISSN   0037-6159 . Retrieved February 17, 2018.
  10. ↑ Stifler, John (June 20, 2017). "Mount Washington Road Race 7.6 miles (12.2 km)". Association of Road Racing Statisticians. Retrieved February 17, 2018.
  11. ↑ "The Girls From The Mountain Next Door". Sports Illustrated. Vol. 22, no. 11. New York: Time, Inc. March 16, 1970. p. 40. Retrieved February 18, 2018.
  12. ↑ Sports staff (May 20, 2019). "The Dartmouth Sports Awards: 2018-19 rookie of the year, female athlete of the year and male athlete of the year". The Dartmouth. Retrieved December 24, 2019.

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.