Tamara McKinney
| Disciplines | Downhill, Super-G, Giant slalom, Slalom, Combined |
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| Born | October 16, 1962 Lexington, Kentucky, U.S. |
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| Height | 1.62 m (5 ft 4 in) | |||||||||||||||||||||
| World Cup debut | December 10, 1978 (age 16) |
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| Retired | March 1989 (age 26) |
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| Website | tamaramckinney.com | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Olympics | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Teams | 3 - (1980-88) | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Medals | 0 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| World Championships | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Teams | 5 - (1980-89) | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Medals | 4 (1 gold) | |||||||||||||||||||||
| World Cup | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Seasons | 11 - (1979-89) | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Wins | 18 - (9 GS, 9 SL) | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Podiums | 45 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Overall titles | 1 - (1983) | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Discipline titles | 3 - (2 GS, 1 SL) | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Medal record
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Tamara McKinney (born October 16, 1962) is a former World Cup alpine ski racer with the U.S. Ski Team from 1978-89. She won four World Cup season titles, most notably the 1983 overall, the only American woman to hold that title for a quarter century, until Lindsey Vonn in 2008. McKinney's other three season titles were in giant slalom (1981, 1983) and slalom (1984). She was a world champion in the combined event in 1989, her final year of competition.
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[edit] Life and career
Born in Lexington, Kentucky, the diminutive McKinney (5'4", 115 lb. / 162 cm, 52 kg) grew up in Squaw Valley, California, the youngest of seven children.
She made her World Cup debut in December 1978 at age 16 with a podium finish in a slalom in Italy. Her first World Cup victory came at age 18 in January 1981, the first of four wins in giant slalom that breakthrough season. McKinney raced on the World Cup circuit for 11 seasons, and competed in three Olympics and five world championships. She won four medals in the world championships; bronze medals in the combined (1985, 1987) and slalom (1989), and a gold medal in the combined at Vail in 1989.
While winning the overall World Cup in 1983 at age 20, she also won the giant slalom title, which she also had won in 1981. In 1984 McKinney won the slalom title, and took fourth place in the giant slalom at the Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, behind teammates Debbie Armstrong and Christin Cooper.
Tamara McKinney retired from competitive ski racing at age 26, following the 1989 World Cup season. She had 18 World Cup victories, 45 podiums, and 99 top ten finishes.[1] Eight of her victories were in the U.S., with six at Waterville Valley, New Hampshire, which included double victories in 1983 and 1984. Along with Gretchen Fraser, Andrea Mead-Lawrence, and Lindsey Vonn, McKinney is regarded as one of the top female alpine ski racers in U.S. history.
She was inducted in the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame in 2004, and is a realtor in the Lake Tahoe area.
[edit] World Cup victories
[edit] Season titles
| Season | Discipline |
|---|---|
| 1981 | Giant Slalom |
| 1983 | Overall |
| Giant Slalom | |
| 1984 | Slalom |
[edit] Individual races
| Season | Date | Location | Race |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1981 | January 20, 1981 |  Haute-Nendaz, Switzerland |
Giant Slalom |
| January 24, 1981 |  Les Gets, France |
Giant Slalom | |
| February 28, 1981 |  Waterville Valley, NH, USA |
Giant Slalom | |
| March 8, 1981 | Aspen, CO, USA |
Giant Slalom | |
| 1983 | December 5, 1982 |  Limone Piemonte, Italy |
Slalom |
| January 9, 1983 | Davos, Switzerland |
Slalom | |
| January 23, 1983 | Saint-Gervais-les-Bains, France |
Giant Slalom | |
| March 8, 1983 | Waterville Valley, NH, USA |
Giant Slalom | |
| March 9, 1983 | Giant Slalom | ||
| March 13, 1983 | Vail, CO, USA |
Giant Slalom | |
| March 20, 1983 |  Furano, Japan |
Slalom | |
| 1984 | March 10, 1984 | Waterville Valley, NH, USA |
Giant Slalom |
| March 11, 1984 | Slalom | ||
| March 23, 1984 |  Zwiesel, West Germany |
Giant Slalom | |
| March 24, 1984 |  Oslo, Norway |
Slalom | |
| 1985 | January 5, 1985 |  Maribor, Yugoslavia |
Slalom |
| March 16, 1985 | Waterville Valley, NH, USA |
Slalom | |
| 1987 | December 18, 1986 | Courmayeur, France |
Slalom |
| January 11, 1987 |  Mellau, Austria |
Slalom |
[edit] References
- ^ Ski-db.com - Tamara McKinney - accessed 2010-11-28
[edit] External links
- Tamara McKinney at the International Ski Federation
- FIS-ski.com – Tamara McKinney – World Cup season standings
- Ski-db.com - results - Tamara McKinney
- Sports Reference.com - Olympic results - Tamara McKinney
- Ski World Cup.org - biography - Tamara McKinney
- TIME.com - "For Purple Mountains' Majesty" (March 21, 1983)
- TIME.com - "Their Success Is All in the Family" (January 30, 1984)
- Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame (2004)
- tamaramckinney.com - web site - real estate
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