They settled in Milwaukee, where Blair has spent much of her time on the Bonnie Blair Charitable Gift Fund and as a celebrity representative for Olympic sponsors. Bonnie Blairwas raised in Champaign, Illinois. Encased in a glass tabletop in her house, Blair's gold medals have become part of her daily landscape. She entered the Winter Games in Albertville, France, as the favorite in both events. Noden, Merrell. She holds five gold medals, for the 500-meter and 1,000-meter events, as well as a bronze medal for the 1,000-meter event. . Ye trained by watching tapes of Blair. For Blair, a skater in the prime of her career, the new schedule was an opportunity to try again for Olympic gold. In 1986 the International Olympic Committee decided to alternate the Summer and Winter Games every two years, moving the 1996 Winter Games to 1994. Imperial Oil Web Site. She went to work coaching the U.S. women's speed skating team, based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She also managed the oval built for the Calgary games after the Oympics ended for a number of years. To win the 500-meter event, Blair beat Chinese skater Ye Qiaobo by 18 hundredths of a second. Training remained her focus, however. World class track-and-field athlete Encyclopedia of World Biography. Noden, Merrell. [3] She moved to the Milwaukee area to train with the United States national speed skating team,[7] living with a family friend while she trained. Blair finished fourth in a national sprint competition for cyclists. After this, at the age of 31, she felt she was ready to retire from competitive skating. [42] As of 2002, Blair served on U.S. Speedskating's board of directors. The victories led to more endorsements, and even more important to Blair, the popularity of speed skating. [19] Although Blair was four inches shorter than Enke-Kania, Blair's technique and fast start time made her a formidable competitor. Blair returned to the Olympics in 1988 competing in long-track at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary. She holds five gold medals, for the 500-meter and 1,000-meter events, as well as a bronze medal for the 1,000-meter event. After the Albertville games ended, Blair again took the opportunity created by her celebrity. Also at the 1988 Olympics, Blair won the bronze medal for the 1,000-meter event. Time (February 24, 1992): 54. login . At the Olympics, Blair was cheered on by her large extended family, including her parents, her brother Chuck, her sister Mary, along with Mary's husband and children, her sister Susie, her brother Rob and his wife and child, her sister Angela, and her uncle Lennie, along with the friends of all of her family members. Longman, Jere. 433 Bonnie Blair Photos and Premium High Res Pictures - Getty Images CREATIVE EDITORIAL VIDEO All Sports Entertainment News Archival Browse 433 bonnie blair stock photos and images available, or start a new search to explore more stock photos and images. Bonnie Blair . She was the youngest of six children. And, as she told Barbara Matson in the Boston Globe, "Crossing that [finish] line was the happiest moment of my life.". "Skating first." Moving on, she has a net worth of approximately $1.5 million dollars. [26] Blair again won gold in the 500 meters, becoming the first woman to win the event in back to back Olympics, with a time of 40.33 seconds. Though Blair briefly considered not competing in the 1992 games, she told Douglas S. Looney of Sports Illustrated, "Skating has always been a pleasure and a joy. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Biography Bonne Blair began competing as a speed skater when she was four years old. In 1979 she began training with Cathy Priestner, a Canadian speed skater who had won a silver medal at the 1976 Winter Olympics. Wolff, Alexander. The placement was due in part to the strategy of her coach, Peter Mueller; Mueller told Blair he would give her a signal to coast if he felt she was not on pace for a podium finish, allowing her to conserve energy. Parker, Bonnie (1910-1934). [2] The family moved to Champaign, Illinois when Bonnie was a toddler. [51][52] Grant Cruikshank played hockey at Colorado College and as of 2021 for the University of Minnesota. (The International Olympic Committee wanted Summer and Winter Olympic Games to alternate every two years.) Blair was born on March 18, 1964, in Cornwall, New York, the youngest of six children. Bonnie Kathleen Blair (born March 18, 1964) is a retired American speed skater. "Introspective Blair Rebuffs Outside World in Pursuit of Gold." I don't see any torture in this at all.". She ran wherever her coach decided he was missing a bodyon the long jump, high jump, short distances, and relays. View the profiles of people named Bonnie Blair. Sporting News (February 14, 1994): S15. She again won the world sprint title in 1994, also winning the World Cup 500- and 1,000-metre races that year. They saw Blair win two more golds. [26], Despite her success at the 1988 Olympics, Blair did not enjoy a windfall from endorsements. Professionally, Charlie Blair was an engineer while Eleanor Blair worked in real estate. Priestner profoundly affected Blair's direction as a speed skater. [19] She followed up her World Cup titles in by setting her first world record in the 500 meters with a time 39.43 seconds. Bonnie Blair C Retweeted. "Bonnie Blair By those 10 1/2 inches, 23-year-old Bonnie Blair did what Mary Lou Retton didn't have the chance to do in gymnastics at the 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles: defeat the world's best. An excellent student, she was allowed to graduate halfway through her senior year to focus on her training. revlon flex conditioner review; is frankenstein 1931 movie public domain; bonnie blair siblings (With Greg Brown) A Winning Edge, Taylor, 1996. After the turn of the twenty-first century, Blair still found herself involved in speed skating, even though she no longer competed. Petruso, A. During her gold medal-winning race, she also set a world's record with a time of 39.1 seconds. "Bonnie Blair is a 5-4 Colossus on Skates." People Photos Purpose. Bonnie Blair Cruikshank is our local Olympic superstar: five time gold medalist, six medals overall. Witteman, Paul A. Her husband, Dave Cruikshank, was also a speed skater and she served as his technical consultant. At the 1988 Games in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, she was a favourite in the sprint events and earned a gold in the 500-metre event and a bronze in the 1,000-metre event. 5-time Olympic gold medalist speedskater Bonnie Blair Cruikshank is still hitting the ice at 57-years-old. The . Blair's success came despite the fact that she was smaller and lighter than an average female speed skater. "Blair Has a FlairFor Gold." At the 1985 National Sports Festival, Blair swept the gold medals in all four women's short-track skating races, and won another gold as a member of a men's 5,000-meter relay team. "Yanks on the move." Phillips, Angus. Blair won events at 1984, 1985 and 1986 short-track world championships and was the 1986 overall short-track world champion. But while skating eventually. For the American actress Bonnie Blair Brown, see, Early career and first Olympics (19841986), Rise and becoming an Olympic medalist (19871989), List of multiple Olympic gold medalists in one event, "ESPN Classic - Blair is special but she doesn't know it", "Champaign's Bonnie Blair is, Quite Simply, Just a Good Skate", "Retiring at Top Speed; With Blair, Winning Comes First, Then the Party", "Parkland College Alumni Association - Notable Alumni Stories", "Coach Gets U.s. Speedskating Team Off Thin Ice", "Washingtonpost.com: Blair Wins 1,000, Sets Gold Record for U.S. Women", "Bonnie Blair shares the experience of her first Olympic Games, the ones in Sarajevo - Sarajevo Times", "World Cup Speed Skating: Bonnie Blair Derails East German Sweep", "Short-track Speedskating Long On Thrills", "Biographies & Statistics: 500m Ladies World Record Progression", "Blair, Jansen Top Speed Skaters in 500 for Second Night in Row", "Olympic Speed Skating Trials: Mary Docter Earns Spot on U.S. One of Blair's most influential coaches was Cathy Priestner (later known as Cathy Priestner-Allinger when she married Todd Allinger in 1986). Blair also continued to improve her already great technique. A year later she twice set a world record for the 500-metre event on the standard circuit. New York Times (February 19, 1995): section 8, p. 1. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. Copyright 2023 Web Solutions LLC. In 1993 and 1994, she won gold medals at the World Championships in 500 meters. Mary Blair was 19 when her youngest sibling, Bonnie, was born. Showing Editorial results for bonnie blair. Retrieved February 23, 2023 from Encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/bonnie-blair. Blair continued competing through 1995 when the World Championships were held in Milwaukee, finally retiring in March 1995. ABC-CLIO, 1996. Though she knew she was retiring, she left on top. She has five siblings. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. With the oval in Milwaukee closed in the off-season, the best Address: c/o 306 White Pine Rd., Delafield, WI 53018-1124. "That's not to say I didn't have other great memories," she told Paula Parrish in the Rocky Mountain News, "but I think that had the biggest impact." Although she was small for a speed skater, Blairs technique was nearly flawless. [31], In her second event, the 1,500 meters, Blair finished 21st. 23 Feb. 2023 . [34] At the 1994, U.S. Olympic long-track trials at the Pettit National Ice Center, Blair set track records in the first round of the 500 meter and 1,000 meter trails. "Olympic Profile: Bonnie Blair; A Life of Skating Leads to Calgary." When training in Milwaukee, she enrolled at Parkland College but did not graduate. She has been inducted into the Chicagoland Sports Hall of Fame, the Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame, and the United States Olympic Hall of Fame. Cruikshank had skated in four Olympics by 1998, and he narrowly missed qualifying for the U.S. team for the 2002 Olympics. Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. "History (Never) Lessens: Bonnie Blair was textbook good, and her legacy still is quoted chapter and verse." After the 1994 Olympics, Blair received more honors and product endorsement offers. International Encyclopedia of Women and Sports. Before Priestner, Blair only competed in short-track, pack-style racing. Her win in the 500-meter event broke the world record, which had been set only minutes before by the East German skater Christa Rothenburger. Cite this article Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. She was the first Canadian woman to win a medal in speed skating. When Bonnie Blair was born on 9 August 1914, in Letcher, Kentucky, United States, her father, William Blair, was 31 and her mother, Delia Pratt, was 35. She first gained acclaim by winning the world short-track title in 1986 at Chamonix, France. "The kids eat cereal on top of it," she told Parrish, "but it's got a heavy top, so nothing gets underneath." Bonnie Blair. She soon regained her form and confidence, winning dozens of 500- and 1,000-meter races leading up to the 1992 Olympics. It was an expensive undertaking, but with the help of her family, friends, and money from the Champaign police department, Blair was able to go. Before American speed skaters Eric Heiden and Bonnie Blair raced to fame as Olympic champions, Soviet sp, Ashford, Evelyn She stopped training as a skater for a brief period, spending four months training as a cyclist. As Blair approached the final 400 meters, Mueller gave the signal. Blair entered the 1988 Olympics in Calgary, Canada, as a veteran of hundreds of races, a world record holder, and the favorite to win the 500-meter event. Because each style has its own formatting nuances that evolve over time and not all information is available for every reference entry or article, Encyclopedia.com cannot guarantee each citation it generates. Bonnie Blair Dream, Distance, Accomplishment 11 Copy quote I never could have achieved the success that I have without setting physical activity and health goals. She won five gold medals and one bronze over her career. [2][3] To end the games, Blair was chosen to carry the American flag at the closing ceremonies. Blair competed for the United States in four Olympics, winning five gold medals and one bronze medal. Sports Illustrated (March 7, 1988): 50. Bonnie Blair, in full Bonnie Kathleen Blair, (born March 18, 1964, Cornwall, New York, U.S.), American speed skater who was one of the leading competitors in the sport. Washington Post (February 11, 1994): H5. In the 500-meter race she won her first gold medal, defeating the defending champion by .02 seconds and setting a new world record in the process. Speed skating. All of Blair's two sisters and three brothers speed skated competitively because of their father. Though the race was not great, in part because the ice surface was too warm, the victory made Blair the first woman to win gold in consecutive Winter Olympic games. We can also contact her at [email protected] for more information. It was the first time a woman had won two Olympic gold medals for the 500-meter event in two successive Winter Olympics. No longer a relative unknown, Blair was considered a favorite when she headed to the 1992 Winter Olympics held in Albertville, France. [5]:44, Blair again competed at Olympics in 1992, this time held in Albertville, France. Williams, Lena. Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives, Thematic Series: Sports Figures, Skoblikova, Lydia https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/blair-bonnie, "Blair, Bonnie She did not medal, but finished eighth in the 500-meter race. After retiring from skating, Blair had two children (son Grant and daughter Blair), worked as a motivational speaker, and wrote a book about her accomplishments, A Winning Edge (1996). She made her competitive cycling debut in June 1989 at the Sundance Juice Sparkler Grand Prix. [27] Holding Blair back from more advertisements was both her choice of sports, which was thought to be less marketable, and ABC's coverage of the games, which failed to resonate with viewers. The following summer Blair moved to Butte, Montana, where she enrolled at the Montana College of Mineral Science and Technology. She has also made television commercials for such major corporations as McDonald's and AT&T. Most online reference entries and articles do not have page numbers. Christensen, Karen, et al., eds. Blair's last year as a competitive speed skater was 1995. Therefore, that information is unavailable for most Encyclopedia.com content. Detroit: Visible Ink Press, 1996. 1994); Steve Rushin, "Child of Innocence: Bonnie Blair Grew up with the Ideal That CompetingNot Just WinningIs Everything," Sports Illustrated (19 Dec. 1994); and Steve Rushin, "The Last Lap: After Racing to Another World Title, Bonnie Blair Leaves the U.S. http://www.imperialoil.ca/thisis/publications/review/2001q4 (January 5, 2003). 1. To become an Olympic champion, Blair needed further training as well as racing experience on the long track. Bonnie Blair. "Bonnie Blair," Infoplease.com, http://www.infoplease.com/ipsa/A0109013.html (March 10, 2003). The estimated speaking fee range to book Bonnie Blair for your event is $10,000 - $20,000. Time (March 7, 1988): 69. (People jokingly said her job title was "Girl Friday," which is a reference to a character from Daniel Defoe's 18th century book Robinson Crusoe , because . The 53-year-old champion has stayed close to the sport, serving on the Pettit's board of directors and promoting Milwaukee, which is hosting. She won the first American gold of the games when she won the 500 meter race. Blair also won the World Cup points championship 11 times. Barrow, who was 20, was a volatile ex-con and a wanted man who had vowed that he would . She repeated her victories in both 500m and 1000m speed. In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her husband, James Eugene Blair. [11] Her time was only 0.02 seconds faster than Ye. [5]:45 Blair also began to pick-up more endorsements, including sports marketing group Advantage International. Blair lost focus for a while after the death of her father on December 25, 1989. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, January 6, 2002; February 18, 2002. [53][44] Blair's daughter competed at the 2018 United States Olympic speed skating trials at the 500 meter distance, held at Pettit National Ice Center. Janofsky, Michael. Notable Sports Figures. Sherrow, Victoria. For example, Blair finished fifth in the 1991 World Sprint Championships, though she was also suffering from bronchitis at the time. Born in Philadelphia, she was the youngest of six children. [40][41] Blair became involved with Right to Play, When the Winter Olympics returned to the United States in 2002, Blair was one of the final torchbearers to carry the Olympic flame into Rice-Eccles Stadium for the opening ceremony in Salt Lake City, Utah. . On 23 June 1996 she married Dave Cruikshank, a fellow speed skater on the U.S. Olympic It's a solitary sport, one in which you can claim all the rewards as your own. Despite unfavorable weather conditions at the outdoor rink, Blair won the 500-meter race. Following her retirement from competitive skating, Blair remained extremely active, both in her sport and outside of it. [2] Two of Blair's competitors, who skated after her, subsequently beat her time; thus Blair won the bronze in the 1,000 meters. [43] That same year she was a member of the U.S. Olympic delegation to Sochi. She dominated the sprint events at three Olympic Games (1988, 1992, and 1994), winning five gold medals and one bronze. (b. Scottish-born prime minister of Great Britain British politician and Prime Minister Tony Blair represented a new era in Parliament and made major changes to the Labour Party along the way. After fellow speed skater Johann Olav Koss founded Right to Play in 2000, he recruited Blair to serve as one of the charities first celebrity ambassadors. "Blair Enjoys Being Olympic Spectator." She knows just a thing or two about U.S. speed skating and the rise of women's sports. Blair first donned skates at the age of two, and was competing as a speed skater by the age of four. Priestner had been an Olympic medalist herself, winning silver when she represented Canada at the Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria, in 1976. She cut back on her skating and took up competitive bicycle racing. [31] Although she had won gold at the prior Olympics, Blair felt that her small stature made her an underdog against much larger East German competitors. They are: dedication, balance, risk, and love. Sports Illustrated (January 20, 1997): 4. Sports Illustrated (February 27, 1995): 52. Notable Sports Figures. No matter what the competition is, I try to find a goal that day and better that goal. Great Women in Sports. Then, copy and paste the text into your bibliography or works cited list. She was 16 years old when she began Olympic-style racing, which pits only two racers against each other in a competition based on time. This allowed Blair to train seriously, including one stint with the U.S. men's speed skating team in Butte, Montana. She also was a cheerleader and on student council. In 1989 she won her first world sprint championship. Rushin, Steve. [16] Blair won both the 500 meter and 1500 meter at the West Allis event, and was considered one of the U.S. team's strongest medal contenders. Petruso, A. She became the first American woman to win five gold Olympic medals and the first American Winter Olympian to win six career medals. She achieved personal bests in all four of her events and recorded the fastest time of any junior in three of them. She surpassed her 1988 Olympic performance, taking home the gold medal not only in the 500-meter event, but in the 1,000-meter race as well. Sports Illustrated named Blair their Sportswoman of the Year for 1994. Leo was born on January 4 1898, in Bountiful, Davis, Utah, United States. Her stellar performance at the 1992 Olympics also earned Blair the Sullivan Award as the Best Amateur Athlete in the United States. While Blair focused on speed skating, she also competed in other sports and activities. Then she went out and bettered Rothenburger's time by two hundredths of a second to win her first gold medal. Encyclopedia.com gives you the ability to cite reference entries and articles according to common styles from the Modern Language Association (MLA), The Chicago Manual of Style, and the American Psychological Association (APA). She was considered the best American hope for a medal, and did not disappoint. 1939- After the Olympics, Blair continued her education, studying physical education at Montana Tech University. Facebook gives people the power to. Looney, Douglas S. "Bring back Bonnie." "I just thought it was the right time," she said of her retirement to Siblings. [36], The 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway, were another success for Blair: She again won gold in the 500 meters (39.25) and 1,000 meters (1:18.74)[35] races. "It was a nice ending.". Blair knew how to win and took advantage of it. Bonnie Parker has 2 siblings, a brother, and a sister. Bonnie Blair is a keynote speaker and industry expert who speaks on a wide range of topics such as Achieving Your Personal Best. In addition, Blair was active in charity work and continued to do some commercial endorsements for companies like General Mills products at the 2002 Winter Olympic Games. . This victory was bittersweet for Blair, since she knew it was to be the last Olympics in which she would compete. Bonnie Kathleen Blair was born on March 18, 1964, in the Hudson River town of Cornwall, New York, and grew up in Champaign, Illinois. At fifteen, Blair was named to the U.S. speed skating team. Within the Cite this article tool, pick a style to see how all available information looks when formatted according to that style. Priestner had been a speed skater since her teen years, winning a national championship within a year of taking up the sport. A year later she captured her first World Short-Track Championship by winning three of the four events. Blair has also been involved in the American Brain Tumor Association's efforts to combat this little-understood disease; in 1987, Blair's brother Rob was diagnosed with brain cancer that was deemed terminal. [19] Blair held a world record at 500 meters until December 1987 when Christa Rothenburger beat her time at the World Cup. 5 What actress portrayed. team. From early in her career, Blair's father was convinced that she would win Olympic Gold. At the 1992 Games in Albertville, France, she captured the gold medal in both the 500- and 1,000-metre competitions, a feat that she repeated at the 1994 Olympic Games in Lillehammer, Norway.