John Fripp

The first non-European to lead a ski school at a major North American ski resort

He was a wunderkind—a daring, strapping 17-year-old Canadian kid who, in 1938, handily won the Journal Trophy at the Gatineau Ski Zone Championships, only to be forced to give it back due to ineligibility: he was too young. 

John “Johnny” Fripp, born and raised in Ottawa, ON, was barred from competing in the Dominion Championships that same year for the same reason: age. And so he took himself off to Lake Placid, NY, to test his skills against the Americans at the Eastern Olympic try-outs. It went well. He finished third in both Downhill and Slalom, beaten by the fabled Dick Durrance. Read on by clicking the button below.

Laurie Graham

Discipline: Alpine
Hometown: Inglewood, Ontario
Active Career Period: 1978–1988
Induction CSHF: 1991

One of Canada’s best-ever downhill racers, Laurie Graham was an unstoppable force on the World Cup for nearly a decade (1978-1988). 

The three-time Olympian – Lake Placid 1980, Sarajevo 1984 and Calgary 1988 – Graham had six World Cup victories (five in downhill, one in super-G), 34 top-10 downhill finishes and won three national titles. Graham was the first North American woman to win a super-G World Cup race in 1984 in France, and the first Canadian to win on home soil at the first World Cup downhill held in Canada at Sunshine Village, near Banff, Alberta in 1985.