Kathy Kreiner
Kreiner-Phillips in 2010
with her 1976 Olympic gold medal
Personal information
Born (1957-05-04) May 4, 1957
Timmins, Ontario, Canada
OccupationAlpine skier
Height1.73 m (5 ft 8 in)
Skiing career
DisciplinesGiant slalom, slalom,
Downhill, combined
ClubTimmins Ski Club
World Cup debutJanuary 18, 1972 (age 14)
(first top ten)
RetiredMarch 1981 (age 23)
Olympics
Teams3 – (1972, 1976, 1980)
Medals1 (1 gold)
World Championships
Teams5 – (1972–1980)
       includes three Olympics
Medals1 (1 gold)
World Cup
Seasons10 – (1972–1981)
Wins1 – (1 GS)
Podiums7 – (6 GS, 1 DH)
Overall titles0 – (10th in 1974)
Discipline titles0 – (4th in GS, 1977)
Medal record
Women's alpine skiing
Representing  Canada
World Cup race podiums
Event 1st 2nd 3rd
Giant slalom 1 2 3
Downhill 0 1 0
Total 1 3 3
Olympic Games
World Championships
Gold medal – first place1976 Innsbruck Giant slalom

Katharine Kreiner-Phillips (born May 4, 1957) is a former World Cup alpine ski racer and Olympic gold medalist from Canada.

Career

She won the giant slalom at the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria.[1][2] First out of the gate on Friday the 13th, Kreiner prevented double-gold medalist Rosi Mittermaier from sweeping the women's three alpine events, as Mittermaier won the silver medal.[3][4] It was Canada's only gold medal in Innsbruck.[5][6]

Born in Timmins, Ontario,[7] Kreiner was an alpine racing prodigy in Canada,[8] the youngest of six children of Margaret (Peggy)[9] and Harold O. Kreiner (1920–1999), a Timmins physician and her coach[10] until she made the national team.[11] He was the team doctor for the Canadian alpine ski team for the 1966 World Championships in Portillo, Chile, and the Canadian Olympic team for the winter games in 1968 in Grenoble, France.[9][10][12]

Kreiner made the national 'B' team at age 13 for a year, and was promoted to the 'A' team in the summer of 1971. She had her first World Cup top ten result in mid-January 1972, a sixth place in a downhill at Grindelwald, Switzerland. Three weeks later, Kreiner placed 14th in the slalom at the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo, Japan. She made her first World Cup podium in 1973 at Alyeska in Alaska in giant slalom,[13] and gained her first and only World Cup victory at age 16 in 1974 at Pfronten, West Germany.[14] Kreiner raced ten seasons on the World Cup circuit and finished with one victory, seven podiums, and 47 top tens. After her Olympic victory, she was named the Canadian Female Athlete of the Year in 1976.[4][15]

From 1948 to 1980, the Winter Olympics also served as the World Championships for alpine skiing, making the Olympic champion the concurrent world champion.[4] Kreiner was immediately inducted into the Canada's Sports Hall of Fame at age 18,[16] and was also inducted into the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame in 2002.[17]

Kreiner's Olympic win in 1976 surprised even her; she had shipped home most of her items from Innsbruck and had to borrow a uniform for the medal ceremony.[1] Her older sister Laurie was also a World Cup racer and two-time Olympian; she had the 28th starting position (of 43) and had tears of joy for Kathy while still in the starting gate and finished 27th.[1] Laurie had just missed an Olympic medal in 1972 with a fourth place in the giant slalom.[18]

At the 1980 Winter Olympics at Lake Placid, Kreiner finished fifth in the downhill and ninth in the giant slalom, held at Whiteface Mountain. During her final season in 1981, Kreiner ascended her only World Cup podium in downhill, and raced independent of the Canadian national team.[19][20] Her sixth and final podium in giant slalom came nearly four years earlier at Sun Valley in March 1977.[21]

Kreiner married Dave Phillips, a former freestyle skier with the Canadian national team. As of 2020, she remains the only Olympic gold medallist from Timmins.

World Cup results

Season standings

SeasonAgeOverallSlalomGiant
 Slalom 		Super GDownhillCombined
19721431——not
run 		15not
awarded
19731524171216
1974161013820
1975171225815
19761823—8——
19771913—419not
awarded
19782025211815
19792171——42
19802231—202012
19812327—301517
Points were only awarded for top ten (through 1979) and top fifteen finishes (see scoring system).

Race podiums

  • 1 win – (1 GS)
  • 7 podiums – (6 GS, 1 DH); 47 top tens
Season Date Location Discipline Place
19737 Mar-1973United States Anchorage, AK, USAGiant slalom3rd
19746 Jan 1974West Germany Pfronten, West GermanyGiant slalom1st
19757 Mar 1975Canada Garibaldi, BC, CanadaGiant slalom3rd
1976Austria 1976 Winter Olympics
19 Mar 1976Canada Mt. Ste. Anne, QC, CanadaGiant slalom3rd
197720 Jan 1977 Switzerland  Arosa, SwitzerlandGiant slalom2nd
6 Mar 1977United States Sun Valley, ID, USAGiant slalom2nd
198112 Dec 1980France Val-d'Isère, FranceDownhill2nd

World Championship results

  Year   Age  Slalom Giant
 Slalom 		Super-GDownhillCombined
19721414—not run33—
19741615DNF7—
197618DNF1119—
1978201721124
19802215954

From 1948 through 1980, the Winter Olympics were also the World Championships for alpine skiing.
At the World Championships from 1954 through 1980, the combined was a "paper race" using the results of the three events (DH, GS, SL).

Olympic results

  Year   Age  Slalom Giant
 Slalom 		Super-GDownhillCombined
19721414—not run33not run
197618DNF1119
1980221595

Video

References

  1. 1 2 3 Gilbert, Doug (February 14, 1976). "Kathy collars a gold, but loses her buttons". Montreal Gazette. p. 14.
  2. ↑ "Golden girl". Montreal Gazette. UPI photo. February 14, 1976. p. 1.
  3. ↑ "Rosi misses 3-gold bid". Deseret News. (Salt Lake City, Utah). UPI. February 13, 1976. p. 1D.
  4. 1 2 3 "Kathy Kreiner runaway choice". Montreal Gazette. Canadian Press. December 21, 1976. p. 13.
  5. ↑ Sufrin, Mel (February 13, 1976). "Gold at last". Ottawa Citizen. Canadian Press. p. 1.
  6. ↑ "1976". Montreal Gazette. Canadian Press. January 3, 1977. p. 11.
  7. ↑ Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Kathy Kreiner". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on April 18, 2020. Retrieved December 15, 2012.
  8. ↑ "Kathy Kreiner does it again". Montreal Gazette. February 9, 1970. p. 22.
  9. 1 2 "Obituary for Margaret Kreiner (1921–2011)". Timmins, Ontario: Miron-Wilson Funeral Home. Retrieved January 31, 2014.
  10. 1 2 Allan, Chris (March 13, 1970). "Small mountain produces leader in ladies skiing". Montreal Gazette. p. 26.
  11. ↑ Young, Bob (March 20, 1971). "Time for bed, Kathy. Don't forget to..." Montreal Gazette. Canadian Magazine (weekly insert). p. 20.
  12. ↑ "Harold O. Kreiner (1920-1999)". La Fédération québécoise des sociétés de généalogie. Archived from the original on February 2, 2014. Retrieved January 31, 2014.
  13. ↑ "Kathy Kreiner is third in World Cup GS". Montreal Gazette. Associated Press. March 8, 1973. p. 17.
  14. ↑ "Kathy wins slalom race". Ottawa Citizen. Canadian Press. January 7, 1974. p. 15.
  15. ↑ "Kreiner named top Canadian athlete". Lawrence Journal World. Associated Press. December 21, 1976. p. 16.
  16. ↑ "Hall award to Kreiner". Spokesman-Review. (Spokane, Washington). Associated Press. February 14, 1976. p. 14.
  17. ↑ "Kathy Kreiner". oshof.ca. Ontario Sports Hall of Fame. Archived from the original on December 28, 2014. Retrieved September 25, 2014.
  18. ↑ "Canadian fourth in slalom". Montreal Gazette. Canadian Press. February 8, 1972. p. 27.
  19. ↑ "Kathy Kreiner well back as Irene Epple wins GS". Montreal Gazette. Canadian Press. December 5, 1980. p. 32.
  20. ↑ "Kreiner expected to hang 'em up". Montreal Gazette. Canadian Press. March 10, 1981. p. 20.
  21. ↑ "Stenmark puts lock on World Cup title, Kathy Kreiner nipped by Morerod in GS". Montreal Gazette. Associated Press. March 7, 1977. p. 24.
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