Lee-Gartner, Kerrin Anne

Kerrin Anne Lee-Gartner is a Canadian retired alpine ski racer, Olympic gold medalist, and a sport-inspired business consultant based in Calgary, AB. She was born on September 21, 1966 in Trail, BC and grew up in Rossland, BC, close to Red Mountain ski area, where she began ski racing at age 6. Lee-Gartner started skiing for the Canadian Women's National Ski Team in 1982, but suffered a number of knee operations over the years, including two complete reconstructions. She attained her first World Cup podium in alpine skiing in December 1990, then had five more top-six finishes early in the 1992 season before entering the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France. On the Roc de Fer course at Méribel during the 1992 Olympics, Lee-Gartner won the gold medal in the Olympic downhill. Through 2018, it remains the only victory in an Olympic downhill by a Canadian. She finished sixth in the Olympic super-G and had two more podiums after the Olympics, both in North America, to finish up the 1992 season. Lee-Gartner's next season in 1993 was her best on the World Cup circuit, with two podiums and twelve top tens. She finished third in the downhill standings and ninth overall. At the World Championships in Japan, she was fourth in the super-G and ninth in the downhill. Leading up to the 1994 Winter Olympics, Lee-Gartner was affected by the death of her friend Ulrike Maier after a crash in a downhill race in late January. At the Olympics in Norway, she finished eighth in the super-G and 19th in the downhill, and retired from international competition a month later, at the end of the 1994 World Cup season. Lee-Gartner is currently a television broadcaster/commentator with CBC Sports in Canada. She also assisted the BBC with coverage of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. She is a founding partner of Gold Mettle, a consulting company which provides businesses with sport insight for improving performance. Kerrin is a member of the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame (1993), the Olympic Hall of Fame, and both the B.C. and Alberta Halls of Fame. She received the Velma Springstead Award in 1992 for Canada’s Outstanding Female Athlete of the Year and her sportsmanship and leadership was honoured when she was awarded the John Semmelink Memorial Award. Kerrin was also awarded the Order of British Columbia (1992) and decorated with The Canadian Meritorious Service Medal. More recently she was named Alberta’s Female Athlete of the Century. After her competitive ski career was over, Lee-Gartner and husband Max had two daughters; the family lives in Calgary, AB. Kerrin has since been involved in ski-related charitable organizations, such as the Nancy Greene Ski League and the Kerrin Lee-Gartner Challenge, and enjoys volunteering and golf in her free time.

Trail, BC
Rossland, BC
Calgary, AB

Alpine ski racer
TV ski analyst
Sports consultant
Volunteering
Golf
Skiing

RAD, July 2008 version. Canadian Council of Archives.

Catalogued March 2023.

1) Archival material
2) https://www.fis-ski.com/DB/general/athlete-biography.html?sectorcode=AL&competitorid=34587
3) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerrin_Lee-Gartner
4) https://www.goldmettle.ca/kerrin
5) https://olympics.com/en/athletes/kerrin-lee-gartner
6) https://twitter.com/leegartner?lang=en
7) https://olympic.ca/team-canada/kerrin-lee-gartner/
8) https://skimuseum.ca/honoured-members/kerrin-lee-gartner/
9) https://bcsportshall.com/honoured_member/kerrin-lee-gartner/
10) https://www.linkedin.com/in/kerrin-lee-gartner-40395515/