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Linda Crutchfield in 1963.Laurentian Ski Museum/Supplied
One could follow the trajectory of Linda Crutchfield’s life through what was in her home, a ski chalet near the popular Laurentian resort town of Saint-Sauveur, Que. It was filled to the brim with trophies, medals, yellowed newspaper clippings and photographs from alpine, water-skiing and luge competitions both big and small, from her four decades on the board of the Laurentian Ski Museum and even old listings from a period when she sold real estate.
Ms. Crutchfield, a multidisciplinary athlete who competed in alpine skiing and luge for Canada in two Olympics, ran the ski school at Mont Avila, near her home, was a national water-ski champion and a mentor to those who followed in her wake, saved everything. There was so much she did not want to forget.
She was driven, kind and proud, a woman with broad shoulders, thick, short hair and an indefatigable work ethic that flagged only near the end of her life. Her friend and former teammate, Olympic champion Nancy Greene Raine, said she was the ultimate team player, always sporting a wide smile, no matter if she won or lost.
The two women first met in 1959, when both were injured during the national junior alpine ski championships in Collingwood, Ont. While waiting to be treated (Ms. Greene Raine for a dislocated shoulder and Ms. Crutchfield for a badly sprained ankle) they chatted about expectations and how it felt to come from a small town and launch on such a big athletic stage.
The following year, at the national ski team tryouts, they got to know each other even better.
“Linda was a good, solid person, upbeat, and fun-loving,” Ms. Greene Raine recalled. “Back then, while travelling for competitions, there was not much to do other than work on our skis, write letters home, read books and talk with each other. We talked while we knitted hats and while we did our laundry in the sink.”
In 1961, Ms. Crutchfield placed 15th in the notoriously difficult Hahnenkamm downhill in Kitzbühel, Austria, then in 1964, she represented Canada at the Olympic Games in Innsbruck as captain of the ski team, competing in the downhill, slalom and giant slalom races.
But she abruptly quit the national ski team when she married Rob Bocock, an oft-absent airline pilot and avid water-skier, all without realizing her goal of being a world or Olympic champion. Back then, it was expected. Married women did not abandon their husbands to train and compete around the world, noted Ms. Greene Raine. At a time when women’s rights were just starting to be recognized, such an act would have been criticized by many.
“We were training in Nelson, B.C., and Linda felt there was no way she could up and leave to join us,” Ms. Greene Raine continued. “It was end of her dream.”
Attempting to build a new dream, Ms. Crutchfield threw herself into teaching others how to ski, and she found solace in water-skiing and, eventually, luge, where she would compete for Canada in the 1968 Olympics in Grenoble, France, placing 12th out of 21 finishers.
In a way, the choice of luge was typical for a woman who was driven to compete all of her life and gave everything of herself to sport – careening down a course that features dangerous curves and hard edges on a sled built for speed and aerodynamics, prone, still and praying that you do not hit the wall.
When her marriage fell apart not long after it began, she was independent, proud and rigid until near the end, refusing offers of help even though she could have used it.
She was 84 years old when she died on May 23 in Saint-Sauveur after a long physical and cognitive decline.
Linda Ann Crutchfield was born on April 3, 1942, in Shawinigan, a small Quebec city about 170 kilometres northeast of Montreal. Her father, Gordon Crutchfield, was a skilled amateur hockey player turned dental surgeon; her mother, Evelyn Crutchfield (née Morehouse), who had taken up skiing at the age of 10 , raised young Linda and her three brothers to become such fierce athletic competitors, she once good-naturedly complained to a Fredericton newspaper that the trophies in the family home took a “darned lot of dusting.”
Sporting achievements were so important to the family, in the winter of 1958, the father put his daughter on a bus to Mont Tremblant, so she could test her already excellent alpine skiing skills against other elite young athletes in the famed Taschereau trail race. Former Canadian Olympic skier Peter Duncan recalled that coach Ernie McCulloch quickly traded out Ms. Crutchfield’s ancient skis for more a more suitable pair before they all went off to train for the big day.
But there was not much time to train and come race day, she still did not feel comfortable with the new equipment. Upon completing the 2.8-kilometre trail, with its dips and precarious turns, she was convinced she had humiliated herself and immediately stalked off to the equipment shop to return the skis she felt had failed her.
“An official found her there and told her she had not only won the race, but she had done so by 10 seconds,” Mr. Duncan said. “That was so Linda. She was a hard player – and she always had a beautiful smile, win or lose.”
So began a career that saw her repeatedly win races, such as the Quebec Kandahar Cup, considered one of Canada’s premier alpine ski competitions, and perform extreme water-skiing feats at Expo 67 in Montreal.
In 1969, she was awarded the Velma Springstead Trophy as the country’s outstanding female athlete of the year.
George Athans, a world water ski champion and former broadcaster, first met Ms. Crutchfield in the mid-1960s, when he was named to the national water ski team at the age of 13 and came to stay for a number of summers at the home she shared with her husband at the time.
“They were the custodians of the elite ski team and gave us proper accommodations, boats and meals,” he said. “As a pilot, Rob was often absent and Linda was in charge. Sometimes, she would ask me to drive the ski boat for her. That was always a significant investment of time because she was so intense and work-oriented.”
Guy Thibaudeau, a sports journalist and ski specialist, referred to Ms. Crutchfield’s long tenure on the board of Saint-Sauveur’s Laurentian Ski Museum, from 1985 to 2025, as an example of her energy and dedication. Her most important contribution, he continued, was at the turn of the century, when she and a friend worked to keep the museum going, even finding a new venue for it.
“It was tough to see the grind she had at the end but her pride, I like to think of it as a positive,” Mr. Thibaudeau continued. “Life is a journey and we don’t know how it is going to end. Sometimes, it is not easy.”
Ms. Crutchfield leaves her brother, Geoffrey Crutchfield, and a host of friends who wish she had let them do more.
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