Susan Patterson (born October 11, 1955, in Sun Valley, Idaho) is an American former World Cup alpine ski racer who competed in the 1976 Winter Olympics. She was fourteenth in the downhill, younger brother Pete (b.1957) was also on the U.S. Olympic team and was thirteenth in the men's downhill.
Two years earlier at the U.S. Alpine Championships, she won the slalom event at Pats Peak in Henniker, New Hampshire. [1]
In 1990, Patterson married explorer Ned Gillette in a ceremony at the Roundhouse on Sun Valley's Bald Mountain. [2] Eight years later, while they were trekking in the mountains of northern Pakistan, Gillette was shot and killed at their encampment; Patterson was hospitalized and recovered. [3] [4]
Sun Valley is a resort city in the western United States, in Blaine County, Idaho, adjacent to the city of Ketchum in the Wood River valley. The population was 1,783 at the 2020 census. The elevation of Sun Valley is 5,920 feet (1,805 m) above sea level.
Anne Heggtveit, is a former alpine ski racer from Canada. She was an Olympic gold medallist and double world champion in 1960.
Richard Henry Durrance was a 17-time national championship alpine ski racer and one of the first Americans to compete successfully against Europeans.
Picabo Street is an American former World Cup alpine ski racer and Olympic gold medalist. She won the super G at the 1998 Winter Olympics and the downhill at the 1996 World Championships, along with three other Olympic and World Championship medals. Street also won World Cup downhill season titles in 1995 and 1996, the first American woman to do so, along with nine World Cup downhill race wins. Street was inducted into the National Ski Hall of Fame in 2004.
William Dean Johnson was an American World Cup alpine ski racer. By winning the downhill at the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, Johnson became the first American male to win an Olympic gold medal in alpine skiing and the first racer not from an Alpine country to win an Olympic downhill race.
Christin Elizabeth Cooper is a former World Cup alpine ski racer and Olympic medalist from the United States.
Cynthia Lee Nelson is former World Cup alpine ski racer from the United States.
Susan Corrock Luby is a former World Cup alpine ski racer, a member of the U.S. Ski Team in the early 1970s. Talented in all three disciplines, she had 16 top ten finishes in World Cup competition: 8 in downhill, 2 in giant slalom, and 6 in slalom.
Corey Engen was the captain of the U.S. Nordic ski team at the 1948 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz, Switzerland. He was the youngest of the three Engen brothers that pioneered and popularized alpine skiing in the intermountain west, primarily in Utah and Idaho.
Andrea Mead Lawrence was an American alpine ski racer and environmentalist. She competed in three Winter Olympics and one additional World Championship, and was the first American alpine skier to win two Olympic gold medals.
Gretchen Kunigk Fraser was an American alpine ski racer and nurse. She was the first American to win an Olympic gold medal in skiing, as well as the first American to win an Olympic silver medal in skiing. She was also the first American to be awarded the Pery Medal by the ski club of Great Britain. She was also the skiing stand-in for ice skater Sonja Henie in the movies Thin Ice (1937) and Sun Valley Serenade (1941). Fraser was revered in her time for her contributions to American athletics, receiving ticker-tape parades and brand sponsorships upon her return to the United States following her Olympic win.
Jack Nichol Reddish was an American alpine ski racer who competed in the Winter Olympics in 1948 and 1952. Known as "Red Dog" during his racing days, he later worked in the entertainment industry, behind the cameras in film and television.
Jannette Weston Burr was an American former professional alpine skier from Sun Valley, Idaho. She learned to ski in Sun Valley and competed in races across the globe during the 1950s, winning medals in many of them. In 1970, she was inducted into the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame.
Leanne Smith is an American World Cup alpine ski racer and specializes in the speed events.
James Peter Patterson is a former World Cup alpine ski racer for the United States, from Sun Valley, Idaho. At the Winter Olympics, he finished thirteenth in the downhill in 1976 and fifth in 1980. At the time, he tied for the best finish by an American male in an Olympic downhill.
Sandra "Sandy" Shellworth was an alpine ski racer from the United States.
Abigail E. "Abbi" Fisher-Gould is a former World Cup alpine ski racer from the United States. Born in South Conway, New Hampshire, she had one World Cup victory and three podiums. She suffered a knee injury in March 1979, at the pre-Olympic downhill at Lake Placid.
Jonna Mendes is a former World Cup alpine ski racer from the United States. She specialized in the speed events and raced for nine seasons on the World Cup circuit. Mendes competed in two Winter Olympics and four World Championships. She was the bronze medalist in the Super G at the 2003 World Championships in St. Moritz, Switzerland.
Betty Ellen Weir was an American alpine skier. She competed in the downhill event at the 1952 Winter Olympics and placed 19th. Weir took up skiing in 1948 and placed second in the downhill at the 1952 U.S. Olympic trials. She retired soon after the Games and married Ned Bell in Sun Valley. She then worked for many years for Idaho Mountain Express newspaper.
The Dartmouth College Ski Team was once organized under the aegis of the Dartmouth Outing Club and is now operating under Dartmouth Athletics. This team 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.