The Dirt

Spotlight: Suzy Chaffee

THEN: Suzy Chaffee began racing at age six. “My first coach told me I was a pretty little thing but was never going to make it,” says Suzy. “His putdown was a great gift because I wasn’t all that aggressive normally, so his words were the kick I needed.” The Vermont native set out to prove her coach wrong, and at age 24 competed as the top American skier at the 1968 Grenoble Olympics.

Although she didn’t come home with a medal, Suzy captured worldwide attention competing in a silver ski suit that Mademoiselle magazine had designed for her. Suzy used her celebrity as a springboard for social activism.  She championed Title IX legislation, fighting for equal opportunities for women in school sports. She was the first female to join the board of the U.S. Olympic Committee, and she served as a member of the President’s Council on Physical Fitness under four U.S. presidents. Back on the mountain, she took up freestyle skiing immediately following the 1968 Olympics and went on to become a three-time World Freestyle champion. Suzy also starred in a decade’s worth of television commercials as the Chapstick poster girl and was inducted into the U.S. Ski Hall of Fame in 1988.

NOW: Today 62-year-old Suzy resides in Tucson, Arizona. She devotes most of her time to the Native American Olympic Team Foundation (NAOTF), which she co-founded in 1995. NAOTF aims to welcome the tribes back to their ancestral lands to ski, snowboard, and share their sustainable wisdom. Through the organization, Native American youth will be able compete in the Winter Olympics as sovereign nations. They are currently seeking potential Olympians to participate. “These kids have a chance to develop their talent,” Suzy explains, “just like the Title IX March in 1975 gave women a chance.”

And, yes, you can still find Suzy Chapstick on the slopes, teaching ski ballet, a form of skiing that she invented. —Jayme Otto