Ken Read
Skiing Athlete - Inducted 1980
He’s best known as one of the “Crazy Canucks”, Canada’s bold and colourful downhill champions which captured the imagination of the international sports world.
Ken Read broke the gender barrier as the first Canadian male to reach a World Cup podium, winning the opening downhill of the season on December 7, 1975 in Val d’Isere, France.
A member of the Canadian Ski Team from 1974 to 1983, Ken competed in two Winter Olympics. Over a ten year period, Ken captured five World Cup downhills including the legendary Hahnenkamm at Kitzbuhel, Lauberhorn at Wengen and Arlberg-Kandahar at Chamonix. The Crazy Canucks gained international stature through the “era of Canadian domination at Kitzbuhel, Austria when Canadians won the Hahnenkamm downhill four successive years as well 5 additional podium results. For eight successive seasons, Ken Read was ranked in the top seed in the world. His 1980 point total placed him second in downhill in the World Cup competition. Ken was named Canada's Athlete of the Year in 1978 and in 1979 he was recognized as Calgary's Athlete of the Year in 1979 and 1980.
After Induction
Ken co-wrote a book called White Circus with the late Matthew Fisher; the book is about his life from 1974 until 1983 during the Crazy Canuck years. He has been a sports commentator for CBC Television. He served as the Canadian Olympic Association Chef de Mission for the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, and was named president & CEO of Alpine Canada in 2002. Ken was a leader of athlete advocacy as the Founding Chair of the Canadian Olympic Committee Athletes Council and member of the IOC Athletes Commission (1985-1998). He has been Canada’s leader of the International Ski Federation Alpine Committee, also serving as Vice Chair. For just over a decade he served as a sport leader, including as a leader in the founding of the “Own The Podium” targeted funding program for Canadian athletes.. From 2002 until July 2008, he served as President of Alpine Canada. He was director of winter sports for "Own The Podium" from 2010 to March 2013. Ken was elected to the Board of Cross Country Canada in June 2013.
Awards and Honours:
1978 – Norther Star Award (formerly Lou Marsh Award) - Canadian Athlete of the Year
1979 - Norton Crowe Award - Canadian Male Amateur Athlete of the Year
1980 – Flag Bearer, 1980 Canadian Olympic Team
1986 - Canada's Sports Hall of Fame Inductee
1987 - Canadian Skiing Hall of Fame
1991 - Order of Canada
1992 – Chef de Mission, Canadian Olympic Team, Barcelona
1999 - Voted in the top 20 for Canadian athlete of the century.
2005 - Alberta Centennial Salute for Sport and Recreation Award
2006 - Crazy Canucks (Read, Irwin, Podborski & Murray) were inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame
2010 - International Ski Racing Hall of Fame
Did You Know: Ken Read was the first Canadian male to win a World Cup in sport, as well as the first Canadian/North American male to win a World Cup downhill in Val d'Isere, France on December 7, 1975. win also put Ken in the record books as the third youngest male to ever win a World Cup downhill. He won five more World Cup titles, including the three alpine ski racing classics: the Hahnenkamm (Kitzbühel) and Lauberhorn (Wengen) and Arlberg-Kandahar (Chamonix). Ken was a member of two Canadian Olympic Winter Games Teams: 1976 (Innsbruck), and 1980 (Lake Placid) and served as Chef de Mission for the Canadian Olympic Team to Barcelona (1992).
