Lawrence, Andrea Mead

Andrea Mead Lawrence, née Andrea Bario Mead, (born April 19, 1932, Rutland, Vermont, U.S.—died March 31, 2009, Mammoth Lakes, California), first American Alpine skier to win two gold medals in a single Winter Olympics. Her Olympic victories, coupled with her U.S. championship titles in the downhill, slalom, and Alpine combined in 1950, 1952, and 1955 and the giant slalom in 1953, earned her a place in the International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame (inducted 1983).

Mead, whose parents owned and managed a ski resort at Pico Peak, Vermont, throughout her childhood, was introduced to skiing at the age of three. Her skill level advanced rapidly, and she qualified for the 1948 Winter Games in St. Moritz, Switzerland, at the age of 15. Inexperience seemed to overtake her innate talent, however, as she fared poorly in her first Olympic appearance—8th in the slalom, 21st in the Alpine combined, and 35th in the downhill. Despite her low finishes, her potential was obvious. She came into her own in 1950, winning first place at the U.S. national championships in the downhill, slalom, and combined. The following year she went on to win 10 international events. Her career peaked with two victories at the 1952 Olympics in Oslo. She easily won the giant slalom for her first gold medal. The second she captured in the slalom with a comeback performance. She had fallen during the first run but got up and managed to finish the course with the fourth best time. Her second run was two seconds faster than the rest of the field and vaulted her into first place. She returned to the Olympics in 1956 but failed to earn a medal.

Mead married fellow skier David Lawrence, with whom she had five children, in Switzerland in 1951; the couple divorced in 1967. After retiring from competitive skiing, Lawrence taught skiing and became active in environmental politics. In 2003 she established the Andrea Lawrence Institute for Mountains and Rivers, a conservation organization that focused on the eastern Sierra Nevada mountains. (The organization was absorbed into another environmental nonprofit upon Mead’s death.)