August 16, 2002

Andrea Mead Lawrence inducted into Vermont Ski Hall of Fame

John Fry's introduction:

I offer congratulations to everyone involved in building this new museum. I’ ve known Stowe since 1948 when I first skied here. I have two children who grew up here. I’ve known a succession of owners and managers of the mountain company, and businesses in town. Better towns arise when people set aside self-interest for an enlightened community vision. The creation of the Vermont Ski Museum here in Stowe’s center is an example. Let us hope it will be succeeded by more such endeavors.

I am the President of ISHA, the Skiing History Association. Our publication, Skiing Heritage, is the official publication of the U.S. National Ski Hall of Fame. 400 members of that organization, and more than 400 members of the Colorado Ski Museum, now receive our quarterly journal as a membership benefit, as do 900 ISHA members. I would encourage you to think about doing the same. Our sole purpose is to educate the public about the sport’s heritage.

The most admired, worshiped skier in that heritage is our honoree this evening. If you are a Vermonter, you know her story as you know Ethan Allen’ s. The name of Mead is attached to Pico Peak as firmly as Lincoln is to Hildene. She is admired, above all, because her contribution to the sport unfolded in two remarkable ways, which I will describe.

First, I must point out that 77 percent of all the alpine medals awarded to North Americans in the Olympics and FIS World Ski Championships, have been won by women. U.S. and Canadian women have won 70 Olympic and World Championship medals, compared to 21 for the men. Put another way, the women have been three times more successful than men. What you should know is that this extraordinary feminine performance in alpine racing started with two racers –at the 1948 Olympic Winter Games above St. Moritz. Gretchen Fraser won the slalom gold; Andy at age 15, earned eighth place.

Four years later, she won the slalom and giant slalom in Norway. In effect, these two women won three out of the first five Olympic women’s races held after World War II. An American man did not win an Olympic medal for another 12 years. I am happy he (Billy Kidd) is with us tonight.

Our honoree remains to this day the only American ski racer – man or woman – ever to have won two gold medals in a single Winter Olympics. She did it at Oslo in 1952, at the age of 19. And my God, she was already a bride! By 1956, a mother of three, she narrowly missed winning another Olympic medal in the giant slalom at Cortina d’Ampezzo!

I did not cover the Olympics as a journalist at the time, and there was no live television, so I wasn’t able to see her race. Some years later, I noticed a picture of her, skiing without poles. Now, I have a special affection for people who think outside of the box. Seeing an Olympic gold medalist ski without poles was especially appealing to me. Clearly this remarkable woman had determined that if we no longer needed them to climb hills, why use poles at all? I persuaded Andy to supply the magazine with a pointer about pole-less skiing for 400,000 plus readers. How much influence did it have? I think you will agree, as you survey the slopes today, that people are still skiing with poles. Not only is the influence of the press exaggerated, it is true of Olympic champions as well!

In 1958, she moved to Colorado. Later, she moved to Mammoth Lakes, where she got herself elected Supervisor of Mono County. There she developed a reputation for battling against poorly conceived commercial and real estate development in the mountain valley where she lived. When I finally met the person who would become the first inductee of the Vermont Ski Hall of Fame, it was because I needed her help. In 1991 I became involved in organizing a conference at Vail on the impact on the environment of the rapid growth of ski towns. She came and made a considerable intellectual and moral contribution to the conference. . . as she did everywhere in her public speaking and writing.

In 1995, I invited her to address a second conference called the Boom in Mountain Living. She spoke with such conviction and logic that she energized the entire conference. “God did not make the Sierra Nevada as a lot-and-block subdivision,” she said. "We shouldn’t treat our mountain valleys that way.” What added force and credibility to her warnings was that no one could perceive her as an environmentalist with a social bias against skiing. She was a champion skier.

Andy Mead may have become a Californian, but, as they say, you you can’t take Vermont out of the girl. Perhaps she had in mind the Green Mountains of her childhood when she wrote in her book The Practice of Mountains, the following: “For those who have spent our lives in the mountains, they are the wellspring of our passion and caring.” No one has said it more eloquently, nor loved the mountains more than she.

You have two reasons to elect Andrea Mead Lawrence to your ski hall of fame: Our only Olympic double gold medalist; Crusader for protecting the mountain environment. Either would be reason to induct such a person into any ski hall of fame. Truly extraordinary is that these achievements are combined in a single person.

She has also succeeded in life because of her courage, which is serving her well in her recent battle against cancer. Andy personifies grit and determination. If you’ve never seen it properly on the face of a ski racer, you will see it in the short video presentation that comes in a minute. What a singular honor it is for each of us to be here this evening, in her presence, to honor the greatest of American skiers, Andrea Mead Lawrence.