Gretchen Fraser


Gretchen Kunigk Fraser was an alpine ski racer. She was the first American to win an Olympic gold medal in skiing. She was also the skiing stand-in for ice skater Sonja Henie in the movies Thin Ice and Sun Valley Serenade.

Background

Born in Tacoma, Washington, Gretchen Kunigk was the daughter of German and Norwegian immigrants, Willibald and Clara Kunigk. Her Norwegian-born mother was a skier and Gretchen first skied at age 13, at Paradise Valley on the south slopes of Mount Rainier in December 1932. Under the tutelage of Otto Lang she became a proficient ski racer and later competed on the ski team at the University of Puget Sound.

Career

In 1938, she traveled to Sun Valley to compete in the second Harriman Cup, a new international event featuring the best racers in the world. She met 1936 Olympian and Northwest ski champion Donald Fraser of the University of Washington on the train trip to central Idaho. They were married in November 1939, and Sun Valley became their home.
Both Frasers were members of the 1940 Olympic team, games that were cancelled due to World War II. She spent the war years skiing in Otto Lang's military training films and helping to rehabilitate wounded and disabled veterans through skiing, setting the stage for a lifelong commitment to working with disabled skiers.
After the war, the Frasers moved to Vancouver, Washington. She finally got her chance to compete in Winter Olympics in 1948. A week before her 29th birthday, Fraser won the gold medal in the slalom and a silver medal in the combined event in St. Moritz,
She soon retired from competition, became a mother and an ambassador for Sun Valley and skiing in general. Later in life she was a mentor to aspiring female ski racers at Sun Valley, including Susie Corrock, Christin Cooper, Picabo Street, and disabled racer Muffy Davis.
She died at age 75 in February 1994, during the Winter Olympics; her husband of 54 years, Don Fraser, had died a month earlier. They are buried at the city cemetery in Ketchum, Idaho.

Legacy