Bonnie Blair
The most decorated Winter
Olympian in U.S. history
by John Gettings
Raised in Champaign, Ill., and the youngest
of six children, Bonnie Blair started skating when
she was two years old. Four of her five siblings went on to win national speed
skating titles, leaving her big shoes—make that skates—to fill.
She was a naturally gifted speed skater, who was dedicated to becoming
solid in the techniques of her sport. Some say she became the most technically
sound skater ever to represent the United States.
But despite her
success as a young skater in America, her family lacked the funds to send
her to Europe for a chance to compete internationally.
The father
of a friend organized a fundraising effort in her hometown that allowed Blair
to go abroad and compete on the 1982–1983 World Cup circuit. The following
year, 19-year-old Blair competed in the 1984 Olympic
Winter Games in Sarajevo, finishing eighth.
But the best was
yet to come.
Over the next three Winter Games
, Blair would win five gold medals and one bronze. She was the most decorated
Winter Olympian in U.S. history by the time she retired in 1995.
Her unprecedented Olympic success began at the 1988
Calgary Games. In the 500-meter race she won her first gold medal, defeating
the defending champion by .02 seconds and setting a new world record in the
process. That year she added a bronze in the 1,000-meter race.
At
the 1992 Albertville Games Blair won gold in the
500- and 1,000-meter races, becoming the first woman ever to win back-to-back
gold medals in the 500.
The 1994 Lillehammer
Games saw more of the same. A month shy of her 30th birthday, Blair won
two more gold medals, in the 500 and 1,000.
That year
she was also named A.P. Female Athlete of the Year, Sports Illustrated
Sportsperson of the Year, and Glamour magazine's Woman of the
Year.
Today she is a motivational speaker and active in various
charities through the Bonnie Blair Charitable Gift Fund Trust.
She
anchored the Wisconsin leg of the Olympic torch relay before the 2002 Salt
Lake City Winter Games.
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