Linda Crutchfield

Nowadays, from their first successes, young athletes are recognized for their potential. Media, social media, sponsors, sports organizations, parents and community all accompany the young athletes in their evolution. But there was once a time when the young athlete had to beat their own path to success. Linda Crutchfield is the perfect example.

Linda was born in 1942 in Shawinigan and had three brothers: Norman, Geoffrey and Andrew. Her father Gordon was a dentist and her mother Evelyn – trained to be a nurse – was a mother at home. Her father – an excellent hockey player – and two of her brothers played for the McGill University hockey team. A sportswoman by birth, Linda started to ski on the slopes of the small ski regional centres such as Mont Carmel, owned by Fritz Gauthier. La Tuque, Trois-Rivières and Shawinigan were recognized as having a good basin of ski jumpers…such as Ernie McCulloch in his early days.

Linda’s father realized that his daughter was interested in competition. Shawinigan is some distance from Mont-Tremblant, but as Fritz Gauthier and Ernie McCulloch were friends, her parents agreed to let her participate in the Taschereau race to test herself against other promising young skiers.

Linda took the bus alone in the winter of 1958. She had an old pair of 180 cm used skis and, so equipped, she met Ernie McCulloch two days before the race. As soon as she arrived, Ernie offered to provide her with a more appropriate pair of skis: Head 210 cm skis. Linda had never skied on skis like these and didn’t know either the mountain or the course for the race. Ernie suggested she ski the lower part of Nansen then meet up with him, Peter Ryan and me on Friday morning to train.

On Friday, we followed Ernie, leaving only a few centimetres between our skis. But the training was limited and when Linda showed up at the start of the race, her equipment didn’t seem right for her. She launched into the race with spirit, but also with the feeling that she was in the process of humiliating herself. She didn’t stop, even at the finish line to find out her time, and slid straight to the shop to return her skis. An official caught up with her there and told her that, against all expectations, she had won the race with a 10-second lead. It was the beginning of her career in competition.

From 1960 to 1965, she was part of the Canadian ski team. She participated in the 1962 World Championships in Chamonix, France, and in the 1964 Olympic Games in Innsbruck, Austria. She was Canadian champion in 1962 and 1964. She won the Ryan Cup in 1959 and 1965, and the Québec- Kandahar in 1960, 1962 and 1966. She also won the Adams Memorial six times. She was named Athlete of the Year by the Amateur Athletic Union.

Linda was also attracted to water skiing, at which she excelled. From 1965 she participated in the Canadian championships, then in the World championships. And she was part of the big waterskiing show at Expo 67.

Insatiable, she discovered the sport of luge. When she was co-director of the Mont Avila ski school in 1967 – where a luge competition was organized – Linda entered and became the Canadian Women’s Champion. She retained her title in 1968 at La Réserve and became North American Women’s Champion at the same place, that same year.

Linda Crutchfield is one of the rare athletes to be enthroned in four Halls of Fame in three different sports. This quiet woman never boasts about her successes in competition, nor of the many coach positions she has held, nor of the schools she has founded. You can see her every winter on the Mont Tremblant runs.

For more than 50 years, this international-calibre athlete has been teaching skiing. Perhaps you, your children or your grandchildren have learned to ski from her. Just be aware that you have been lucky enough to know this great woman of the sports world.

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