Andrea Mead Lawrence

Andrea Mead Lawrence (April 19, 1932 – March 30, 2009)[2] was an American alpine ski racer and environmentalist. She competed in three Winter Olympics and one additional World Championship (Olympic competitions also counted as the Worlds during that period), and was the first American alpine skier to win two Olympic gold medals.[3]

Andrea Mead Lawrence
Alpine skier
David and Andrea Lawrence at the 1956 Olympics
DisciplinesDownhill, Giant Slalom,
Slalom, Combined
ClubPico Peak Ski Club[1]
Born(1932-04-19)April 19, 1932
Rutland County, Vermont, U.S.
DiedMarch 30, 2009(2009-03-30) (aged 76)
Mammoth Lakes, California
Height5 ft 8 in (173 cm)[1]
Olympics
Teams3 – (1948, 1952, 1956)
Medals2 (2 gold)
World Championships
Teams4 – (1948, 1950, 1952, 1956)
    includes 3 Olympics
Medals2 (2 gold)
Medal record
Women's alpine skiing
Representing the  United States
Olympic Games
1952 OsloSlalom
1952 OsloGiant slalom

Skiing career

Mead was born in Rutland County, Vermont, to an alpine skiing family that owned and operated the Pico Peak ski area.[4] At age 14 she made the national team, and at age 15 competed in the 1948 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz, Switzerland, where she placed eighth in the slalom. Two years later, Mead placed sixth in the giant slalom and ninth in the downhill at the 1950 World Championships in Aspen, United States.

At the 1952 Winter Olympics in Oslo, Norway, Mead Lawrence was selected as captain of the U.S. women's team at age 19. This led to her being the January 21 Time cover-story, just days before the team arrived in Oslo.[5] The Time story was prescient[6] – she won both the slalom and the giant slalom events.

Between the 1952 and 1956 Winter Olympics, Mead Lawrence gave birth to three children,[7] sitting out the 1954 World Championship season.

Returning for the 1956 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Mead Lawrence competed in all three disciplines, placing fourth in the giant slalom.

In 1958, just two years after retiring from competition, Mead Lawrence was inducted into the U.S. National Ski Hall of Fame.[8] She was chosen as the penultimate torchbearer at the 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley, US, passed it to American 1952 Olympic gold medal speed skater Ken Henry, who circled the ice rink then ascended the Tribune of Honor and ignited the Olympic flame.[9]

Olympic results

  Year   Age  Slalom Giant
 Slalom 		DownhillCombined
1948158not run3521
1952191117not run
19562325430

World Championship results
  Year   Age  Slalom Giant
 Slalom 		DownhillCombined
1948158not run3521
1950171769not run
1952191117
195421did not compete
19562325430

From 1948 through 1980, the Winter Olympics were also the World Championships for alpine skiing.

Life after ski racing

After fighting against development at Mammoth Mountain ski area, she was elected as a Mono County supervisor in 1982, and served for 16 years.

In 1980, her memoir was published as A Practice of Mountains, with Sara Burnaby as a co-author.

In 2003, she founded the Andrea Lawrence Institute for Mountains and Rivers', a non-profit organization committed to conservation, specifically in the eastern Sierra Nevada mountains. A resident of the area for over 40 years, she was also a long-time advocate for the preservation of Mono Lake and other environmental concerns.

On April 29, 2010 U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer and U.S. Representative Howard P. "Buck" McKeon announced legislation to rename Peak 12,240 in Mono County as "Mount Andrea Lawrence," in memory of Lawrence.[10] On January 10, 2013, President Obama signed into law the Mt. Andrea Lawrence Designation Act of 2011, officially designating Mount Andrea Lawrence.[11]

Lawrence is a member of the Vermont Sports Hall of Fame,[12] inducted in its inaugural class of 2012.[13]

On November 8, 2013, two Vermont non-profit organizations opened a new multi-use adaptive sports and youth skiing center at Andrea Mead Lawrence's home mountain of Pico Peak, Vermont. The Andrea Mead Lawrence Lodge at Pico will serve as the permanent home and base camp for the non-profit missions of Vermont Adaptive Ski and Sports and the Pico Ski Education Foundation.

Personal life

Family

Mead married fellow U.S. Ski Team member David Lawrence in Switzerland in March 1951.[7][14] They moved to a ranch in Parshall, Colorado in 1954[7] and then to Aspen in the 1960s, where she became a member of the town's planning board. The couple separated and divorced in 1967.[15] With five young children and little money, she moved her family in 1968 to Mammoth Lakes, California, near Mammoth Mountain.

Her nephew is Matt Mead, Governor of Wyoming from 2011 to 2019.[16]

Death

Lawrence was diagnosed with leiomyosarcoma in 2000, from which she died on March 30, 2009, several weeks before her 77th birthday.[3]

References
  1. Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Andrea Mead-Lawrence". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 2020-04-17.
  2. Nelson, Valerie J. (April 1, 2009). "Andrea Mead Lawrence dies at 76; Olympic Alpine skier became environmentalist". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 5 April 2009. Retrieved April 2, 2009.
  3. Martin, Douglas (2009-04-01). "Andrea Mead Lawrence, Skiing Champion, Dies at 76". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 2015-09-04. Retrieved 2020-07-25.
  4. "Pico Peak bounces back into the skiing limelight". Lewiston Evening Journal. Associated Press. January 14, 1966. p. 10.
  5. Baker, Ernest Hamlin (1952-01-12). "(COVER) Andrea Mead Lawrence: On Switzerland's Magic Mountain, a Vermont freshet". Time. Vol. LIX no. 3. Retrieved 2020-07-25.
  6. "Sport: She Skis for Fun". Time. Vol. LIX no. 3. 1952-01-12. Retrieved 2020-07-25.
  7. Zusy, Fred (January 5, 1956). "Mother of three, Andrea Mead Lawrence, favored in giant slalom at Grindelwald". Lewiston Daily Sun. Associated Press. p. 13.
  8. "Andrea Mead Lawrence - Hall of Fame Class of 1958". National Ski Hall of Fame. Retrieved 2020-07-25.
  9. Antonucci, David C. (2009) Snowball's Chance: The Story of the 1960 Olympic Winter Games Squaw Valley & Lake Tahoe. ISBN 1-4392-5904-6. p. 65.
  10. Archives | The Sheet – Part 2439. Thesheetnews.com. Retrieved on 2015-06-12.
  11. 112th United States Congress (2013-01-10). "H.R. 1818 (112th): Mt. Andrea Lawrence Designation Act of 2011". govtrack.us. Retrieved 2020-07-25.
  12. "Andrea Mead Lawrence: Alpine Skiing - Rutland - Inducted 2012". Vermont Sports Hall of Fame. 2012-11-17. Retrieved 2020-07-25.
  13. "Inaugural Class: 2012". Vermont Sports Hall of Fame. 2012-11-17. Retrieved 2020-07-25.
  14. "People in the news". Sumter (SC) Daily Item. Associated Press. July 6, 1966. p. 11B.
  15. "People in the news". Nashua (NH) Telegraph. May 9, 1967. p. 7.
  16. "Matt Mead ancestry". freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.Ancestry.com. 2015-06-14. Archived from the original on 2015-06-14. Retrieved 2020-07-25. 1. Matthew Hansen “Matt” Mead:... 2. (father) Peter Bradford Mead: (the) ... brother of Andrea Mead Lawrence, winner of 2 gold medals at 1952 Winter Olympic Games
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