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Katy Rodolph

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Katy Rodolph
Rodolph in 1952
Personal information
Full nameCatherine Louise Rodolph
Born(1930-11-01)November 1, 1930
Denver, Colorado, U.S.[1]
DiedSeptember 17, 1994(1994-09-17) (aged 63)
Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S.
OccupationAlpine skier
Height5 ft 7 in (1.70 m)
Skiing career
DisciplinesDownhill, giant slalom, slalom, combined
RetiredJanuary 1956 (age 25)
Olympics
Teams2 – (1952, 1956 (injured))
Medals0
World Championships
Teams4 – (1950, 1952, 1954, 1956)
    includes Olympics
Medals0

Catherine Louise "Katy" Rodolph (November 1, 1930 – September 17, 1994) was an alpine ski racer from the United States. She was a member of four world championship and Olympic teams in the 1950s.[2]

At age 19, Rodolph was the top North American in two of the three races at the 1950 World Championships in Aspen, with a fifth in the downhill[3] and eighth in the giant slalom.[4] She also finished fifth in the giant slalom at the 1952 Olympics in Oslo, Norway,[5] and fifth in the combined at the 1954 World Championships in Åre, Sweden. Named to the 1956 Olympic team,[6][7] she incurred neck and knee fractures in downhill training at Kitzbühel on January 14, less than two weeks before the games began at Cortina d'Ampezzo.[8][9]

Born in Denver, Colorado, Rodolph grew up in Hayden and learned to ski and race at nearby Howelsen Hill in Steamboat Springs.[10] She won nine national titles[11] and was later a race official. While on the U.S. Ski Team in the early 1950s, she resided in Sun Valley, Idaho, and worked as a waitress.[12]

Rodolph was featured on the cover of Newsweek magazine in January 1952,[10][13] and was inducted into the U.S. Ski Hall of Fame in 1966.

Personal

[edit]

While still in plaster from her Kitzbühel injuries, Rodolph married William Wyatt, an officer in the U.S. Air Force, in a civil ceremony in Las Vegas in February 1956.[14][15] It was her second marriage; her first (1951–53) was to Paul Wegeman, an Olympic Nordic ski jumper and racer from Steamboat Springs.[16][17][18][19]

That marriage was kept secret for nearly a year, until the 1952 Winter Olympics in February, when rumors of a romance between Rodolph and new gold medalist Stein Eriksen made the wire services.[20][21][22][23] After a crash on his third jump in the Nordic combined, Wegeman suffered a mild concussion and was hospitalized.[24]

In Oslo, the couple came forward to announce their marriage twelve months earlier in Raton, New Mexico and dispel the rumors,[23] but with consequences. At the Olympics, Wegeman was on temporary leave from training as a naval aviation cadet, and U.S. Navy regulations required candidates to be unmarried.[17][25] Wegeman was removed from the program and then served enlisted duty in Guam.[26] Rodolph moved to Reno and worked as a waitress,[27] and gained a divorce in January 1953.[18][28]

The Wyatts settled in Las Vegas and raised three children.[2] Rodolph-Wyatt died of complications of a rare blood disease at age 63 in 1994.[29]

World championship results

[edit]
  Year    Age   Slalom  Giant
 Slalom 		 Super-G Downhill Combined
1950 19 10 8 not run 5 not
awarded
1952 21 21 5 23
1954 23 10 11 T-10 5
1956 25 injured, did not compete

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

Olympic results

[edit]
  Year    Age   Slalom  Giant
 Slalom 		 Super-G Downhill Combined
1952 21 21 5 not run 23 not run
1956 25 injured, did not compete

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Katy Rodolph". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on April 18, 2020.
  2. ^ a b Howe, Nicholas (Winter 1995). "Goodbye Katy, and thank you..." Skiing Heritage Journal: 42.
  3. ^ "Young mother wins ski title". Milwaukee Sentinel. Associated Press. February 18, 1950. p. 3-part 2.
  4. ^ Claasen, Harold (February 14, 1950). "21-year-old Austrian co-ed wins giant slalom race at Aspen". Associated Press. p. 12.
  5. ^ "Mrs Lawrence Olympic winner". Eugene Register. Associated Press. February 14, 1952. p. 14.
  6. ^ "Mrs Lawrence, Brooks Dodge head US Olympic ski team". Nashua (NH) Telegram. March 21, 1955. p. 11.
  7. ^ "A Roundup Of The Week's News: Skiing". Sports Illustrated. March 28, 1955. p. 67. Archived from the original on December 24, 2013.
  8. ^ "Girl's neck broken in ski race". Pittsburgh Press. United Press. January 15, 1956. p. 1-sec 3.
  9. ^ "Scoreboard:...these faces in the crowd". Sports Illustrated: 4. January 23, 1956. Archived from the original on December 24, 2013.
  10. ^ a b "Winter Olympic tradition earns Steamboat Ski Town U.S.A. moniker" (PDF). Steamboat. 2013. Retrieved December 23, 2013.
  11. ^ "Reddish, Rodolph win national ski titles". Deseret News. United Press. March 16, 1953. p. 4B.
  12. ^ "She floats through the air..." Spokesman-Review. photo. December 30, 1951. p. 4.
  13. ^ "Newsweek cover". Rare Nonfiction. January 28, 1952. Retrieved December 22, 2013.
  14. ^ "Katy Rodolph marries airman". Spokesman-Review. Associated Press. February 23, 1956. p. 19.
  15. ^ "Wedding bells for Katy". Milwaukee Sentinel. AP photo. February 24, 1956. p. 4-part 2.
  16. ^ Ross, Tom (August 20, 2013). "Olympian Paul Wegeman recalls moments when course of Steamboat ski history shifted forever". Steamboat Today. Retrieved December 23, 2013.
  17. ^ a b "Married cadet awaits orders". Spokesman-Review. February 26, 1952. p. 13.
  18. ^ a b "Yankee skiing stars' marriage goes on rocks". Ellensburg Daily Record. Associated Press. December 31, 1952. p. 6.
  19. ^ "Romance of Olympic skiers is ended as Katy Rodolph seeks divorce". Montreal Gazette. Associated Press. January 1, 1953. p. 14.
  20. ^ "Norwegian wins in Olympic skiing". Toledo Blade. United Press. February 15, 1952. p. 32.
  21. ^ "Norway skier posts victory in slalom run". Eugene Register Guard. Associated Press. February 15, 1952. p. 6.
  22. ^ "Olympic fans agog over romance of ski competitors". Milwaukee Journal. Associated Press. February 18, 1952. p. 5-part 2.
  23. ^ a b "Deflation of rumors". Lawrence Daily Journal-World. Associated Press. February 25, 1952. p. 7.
  24. ^ "Austria and Norway sweep games; Yanks blanked". Spokesman-Review. Associated Press. February 18, 1952. p. 8.
  25. ^ "Navy cadet who wed ski star faces demotion". Rome (GA) New-Tribune. INS. February 26, 1952. p. 2.
  26. ^ "U.S. skier's divorce almost sure". Ottawa Citizen. Associated Press. January 1, 1953. p. 14.
  27. ^ "Photo: Katy Rodolph". Free-Lance Star. Fredericksburg, VA. Associated Press. November 22, 1952. p. 3.
  28. ^ "Olympic ski queen divorced". Ottawa Citizen. Associated Press. January 7, 1953. p. 21.
  29. ^ "Passages". Seattle Times. September 25, 1994. Retrieved January 3, 2015.
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