Chew, Phil

Identity area

Type of entity

Person

Authorized form of name

Chew, Phil

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Other form(s) of name

Identifiers for corporate bodies

Description area

Dates of existence

1952-

History

Phil Chew is an adaptive skier and coach from Whistler who competed in the Paralympics in 1984, 1988, and 1992, and is a five-time Canadian Champion in adaptive alpine skiing. He began skiing seriously in 1977 at age 25 after losing his leg to an aggressive form of cancer. During his year of year of chemotherapy, he got to know Terry Fox in the cancer clinic. Right after finishing chemotherapy, he learned to ski through the B.C. Disabled Ski Team. He competed in his first ski race in Winter Park, CO and ended up second (in his group), which he claims got him "hooked" on ski racing. That winter, he was a counsellor for new cancer patients, and a nurse at the cancer clinic told him about a girl who had lost her leg to the same type of cancer as he did, Linda Chyzyk. Phil went to see her in the clinic and told her that he was skiing, and it turned out she had skied before. Then, at a dance he met a man with one leg who had been skiing for 12 years on one leg, so Phil got his contact details. They all met at the Sylvia Hotel (in Vancouver) and started talking about calling themselves the Hang Five Amputee Ski Team, proceeding to all join the B.C. Disabled Ski Team. They all made the National Ski Team about three years later. In 1984, they qualified for the Paralympics in Innsbruck, Austria. That year, Phil was chosen to put on a demonstration in Sarajevo for the Olympics, the first time a disabled athlete had put on a demonstration at the Olympics for the IOC. While training at home on Whistler Mountain, Phil crashed and cracked three ribs prior to heading to the World Championships. While his prospects were not great for competition considering his injuries, he ended up winning three silver medals and was ranked second in the world. The 1992 Olympics in Albertville, France was his last Olympics and was also the first events to hold able-bodied and Paralympics together, so the Paralympics were just a couple of weeks later. At this point, Phil was 40, his wife was pregnant, and he thought it time to retire after 10 years on the Canadian Team. In 1993, Phil started coaching the B.C. Disabled Ski Team. In the lead up to the 2010 Paralympic Winter Games, he worked both on the front lines and behind the scenes to make Games successful for B.C. athletes and Whistler. He carried the Paralympic Torch on Whistler Mountain for the 2010 Games. In 2020, he was inducted into the Canadian Ski Hall of Fame.

Places

Whistler

Legal status

Functions, occupations and activities

Adaptive skier
Ski coach

Internal structures/genealogy

General context

Relationships area

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Control area

Authority record identifier

CA-BC-CP002

Institution identifier

Rules and/or conventions used

RAD, July 2008 version. Canadian Council of Archives.

Status

Level of detail

Dates of creation, revision and deletion

Catalogued March 2021.

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Maintenance notes

  • Clipboard

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  • EAC

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