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Press, 22 July 1980, Page 19

Back on February 13, 1976, with the Innsbruck Olympics drawing to an end it was fairly obvious that Kathy Kreiner (pictured), an 18-year-old Canadian ski-racer, had not expected to be in the medals.

Miss Kreiner had just hurtled through the 49-gate giant slalom course in a time of Imin 29.135, fast enough by a bare 12 hundredths of a second to deprive West Germany’s Rosi Mittermaier of an unprecedented third gold medal. Like a number of her fellow Canadians, Miss Kreiner had already sent some of her spare stuff home to beat the aircraft weight limits. And she hadn’t held on to her team uniform, so when she appeared at her press conference it was in borrowed clothes.

So unexpected was the win that almost the whole Canadian press had stayed back in the media centre writing hockey and watching the race on television. “Suddenly we were off our fat butts,” one said. Last February Miss Kreiner was in action at another Olympics, Lake Placid, and she was still good enough for a fifth in the downhill and a ninth in G.S.