James Frederic Heuga (September 22, 1943 – February 8, 2010) was an American alpine ski racer who became one of the first two members of the U.S. men's team to win an Olympic medal in his sport. After multiple sclerosis prematurely ended his athletic career, he became an advocate of exercise and activity to combat the disease. Born in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

, Heuga grew up in Squaw Valley,

, where his father Pascal (1909–2011), a

Basque Basque may refer to: * Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France * Basque language, their language Places * Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France * Basque Country (autonomous co ...

immigrant from southwestern

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

, opened a grocery store in 1945 in Lake Forest and later operated the resort's cable car (1968–1988). Heuga was on skis at age two and began to compete in the sport at age five; he appeared in a Warren Miller ski film at age nine. Heuga was named to the U.S. Ski Team in 1958, becoming the youngest man ever to make the squad as a fifteen-year-old.Plati, David. "CU SkiingIcon & Legend Jimmie Heuga Passes Away," University of Colorado Athletics, Tuesday, February 9, 2010.
/ref> He went to the

University of Colorado The University of Colorado (CU) is a system of public universities in Colorado. It consists of four institutions: University of Colorado Boulder, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, University of Colorado Denver, and the University o ...

in Boulder, where he was coached by Bob Beattie. A three-time letterman, Heuga won the

NCAA championship The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges and ...

in the slalom in

1963 Events January * January 1 – Bogle–Chandler case: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation scientist Dr. Gilbert Bogle and Mrs. Margaret Chandler are found dead (presumed poisoned), in bushland near the Lane Co ...

. With Beattie also leading the U.S. Ski Team, Heuga, along with fellow Buffaloes Buddy Werner and Bill Marolt (and future CU alumnus Billy Kidd), formed the squad's nucleus for the

1964 Winter Olympics The 1964 Winter Olympics, officially known as the IX Olympic Winter Games (german: IX. Olympische Winterspiele) and commonly known as Innsbruck 1964 ( bar, Innschbruck 1964, label=Austro-Bavarian), was a winter multi-sport event which was celebr ...

. Both Kidd and Heuga became the first American men to win Olympic medals in Alpine skiing, respectively capturing

silver Silver is a chemical element with the symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical ...

and bronze in the slalom. * finished sixth in the slalom and fourth in the combined at the 1966 World Championships at Portillo,

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

* joined the pro racing tour following the

1968 Winter Olympics The 1968 Winter Olympics, officially known as the X Olympic Winter Games (french: Les Xes Jeux olympiques d'hiver), were a winter multi-sport event held from 6 to 18 February 1968 in Grenoble, France. Thirty-seven countries participated. Frenchm ...

where he was 7th in the slalom and 10th in the giant slalom. * was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (''Extreme''). Between 10,000 and ...

, which derailed his ski racing career at age 27. * founded Can Do Multiple Sclerosis, formerly The Heuga Center for Multiple Sclerosis. * the first NASTAR National Pacesetter (1968) Heuga died on February 8, 2010, at Boulder Community Hospital in Boulder, due to complications from multiple sclerosis, exactly 46 years after he won his Olympic medal. The gold medalist in that slalom race,

Pepi Stiegler Josef "Pepi" Stiegler (born 20 April 1937 in Lienz, Austria) is a former alpine ski racer and Olympic gold medalist. He was a member of the Austrian national ski team during the late 1950s and early 1960s and was one of the world's premier racer ...

, was also diagnosed with MS in 1993, as was

Egon Zimmerman Egon Zimmermann (8 February 1939 – 23 August 2019), often referred to as Egon Zimmermann II, was a World Cup alpine ski racer and Olympic gold medalist from Austria. Zimmermann won the Olympic downhill at Patscherkofel in 1964 and won se ...

, the gold medalist in the downhill.

World Championship results

From 1948 through 1980, the

Winter Olympics The Winter Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'hiver) is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were h ...

were also the

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

for alpine skiing.
At the World Championships from 1954 through 1980, the combined was a "paper race" using the results of the three events (DH, GS, SL).

Olympic results

References

External links

* *
mscando.org
– Can Do Multiple Sclerosis
University of Colorado Athletics
– Hall of Fame – Jimmie Heuga *

– Jimmie Heuga

– cover – February 5, 1968 – Olympics preview – Billy Kidd & Jimmie Heuga

– February 17, 1964 article
"Skiing History"
Jimmie Heuga obituary with eulogy by Billy Kidd
"Skiing Heritage"
Biography of Jimmie Heuga by Seth Masia {{DEFAULTSORT:Heuga, James 1943 births 2010 deaths American male alpine skiers Alpine skiers at the 1964 Winter Olympics Alpine skiers at the 1968 Winter Olympics American people of Basque descent Neurological disease deaths in Colorado Deaths from multiple sclerosis Olympic bronze medalists for the United States in alpine skiing University of Colorado alumni Sportspeople from San Francisco Medalists at the 1964 Winter Olympics Colorado Buffaloes athletes People from Olympic Valley, California 20th-century American people