Elisabeth Anne "Betsy" Clifford , married to Higgins ( born Elisabeth Anne "Betsy" Clifford-Higgins ; born October 15, 1953 , Ottawa ) is a Canadian skier who performed in slalom , giant slalom and downhill . She represented the Canadian alpine skiing team in 1968-1976, the world champion, the winner of the three stages of the World Cup, the owner of the Small Crystal Globe, the seven-time champion of the Canadian national championship, and a participant in two winter Olympic games.
 Betsy Clifford | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Citizenship |  Canada | |||||||||||
| Date of Birth | October 15, 1953 (65 years old) | |||||||||||
| Place of Birth | Ottawa , Canada | |||||||||||
| Growth | 162 cm | |||||||||||
| Weight | 57 kg | |||||||||||
| Career | ||||||||||||
| Discipline | Slalom , giant slalom , downhill , combination | |||||||||||
| Club | Ottawa ski club | |||||||||||
| In the national team | 1968-1976 | |||||||||||
| Medals | ||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||
| Last updated: March 20, 2018 | ||||||||||||
Biography
Betsy Clifford was born on October 15, 1953 in Ottawa . She first went skiing at the age of three, skated on the slopes of the Camp Fortune ski resort in Chelsea , which belonged to her father. At the age of 12 she won the Canadian Junior Championship, and in 13 in 1967 she won the national championship among adult athletes [1] .
In 1968, she became a member of the Canadian national team and thanks to a series of successful appearances, she won the right to defend the country's honor at the Winter Olympic Games in Grenoble - she did not finish in the slalom, she was disqualified in the giant slalom, while she took the final 23rd place in the downhill program.
The greatest success in her sports career was in the 1969/70 season, when she beat all her rivals in giant slalom at the World Garden in Val Gardena and thereby won the gold medal - she became the youngest world champion in alpine skiing in history, breaking the record of British Esme McKinnon , established in 1931 (at that time she was 17 years old 2 months and 17 days). This victory also went to the World Cup, and in the final protocol of all disciplines, Clifford is on the seventh line. At the end of the season, she was included in the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame.
The following season, Betsy Clifford added two more victories in the World Cup to her track record and received a small Crystal Globe in slalom. Since that time, is a member of the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame.
I visited the world championship in 1974 in St. Moritz , from where I brought the silver dignity award won in downhill - at the finish I lost only to the titled Austrian Annemarie Moser-Pröl .
Being among the leaders of the ski team of Canada, successfully passed the selection for the Olympic Games in Innsbruck . In the slalom, I walked the thirteenth after the first attempt, but in the second attempt I could not finish and did not show any result. In the giant slalom and downhill in both cases took 22nd place.
Soon after the end of the Innsbruck Olympics, at the age of 22, she decided to end her sports career. She is a seven-time champion in Canada in alpine skiing: she won three times in slalom (1973, 1974, 1976), two times in giant slalom (1973, 1975) and twice in combination (1973, 1975).
He accounts for the niece of Canadian skier Harvey Clifford , who participated in the 1948 Olympic Games in St. Moritz .
Notes
- ↑ Betsy Clifford at The Canadian Encyclopedia (link not available) . Archived March 11, 2007.
Links
- Betsy Clifford - Olympic Statistics at Sports-Reference.com
- Betsy Clifford - Stats on the FIS Website
- Betsy Clifford (English) - page on the website of the International Olympic Committee