Suzy Chaffee

Suzanne Stevia Chaffee (born November 29, 1946) is a former Olympic alpine ski racer and actress. Following her racing career, she modeled in New York with Ford Models and then became the pre-eminent freestyle ballet skier of the early 1970s. She is perhaps best known by the nickname "Suzy Chapstick", since the 1970s, when she was a spokesperson for ChapStick lip balm.

Suzy Chaffee
Chaffee in 1976
Personal information
Birth nameSuzanne Stevia Chaffee
Nickname(s)Suzy Chapstick
NationalityAmerican
Born (1946-11-29) November 29, 1946
Rutland, Vermont, U.S.[1]
Height173 cm (5 ft 8 in)
Weight63 kg (139 lb)
Sport
CountryUnited States
Sportalpine skiing
ClubMammoth Mountain Ski Club
Retired1968

Chaffee's mother, who taught her to ski at the age of 3, would have been an alternative for the US ski team at the 1940 Winter Olympics.[2] At age 19, Chaffee tried out for, and won a spot on, the first US Ski Team while a freshman at the University of Denver.[3] She finished fourth in the downhill at the 1966 World Championships. Despite a season-ending crash in 1967 at Vail in the World Cup Series, she ended the season as the 10th ranked in Women's downhill skier,[4] and the 16th ranked Women's All-Around skier.[5] Chaffee was named captain of the US Women's team and was one of the favorites in the downhill at the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble, France. She finished 28th in the downhill, blaming her poor showing on using the wrong wax, but she made a global impression with her skin-tight silver racing suit. She retired from ski racing after the 1968 Olympics. She was also a three-time world freestyle skiing champion (1971–73). She was inducted into the National Ski Hall of Fame in 1988.[6]

As a social activist, Chaffee championed Title IX legislation (equal opportunity for women in school sports). She was the first woman to serve on the board of the U.S. Olympic Committee, and has been a member of the President's Council on Physical Fitness under four U.S. presidents. She was a co-founder in 1996 of the Native Voices Foundation, an organization that seeks to develop Olympians from among Native American tribes.[7][8]

Chaffee's elder brother Rick Chaffee is also an Olympic alpine skier.[1] She credited rumors that she was having an affair with Ted Kennedy as helping passage of the Amateur Sports Act of 1978. "The gossip got the bill through," she told Sports Illustrated.[9]

In 1979, the Supersisters trading card set was produced and distributed; one of the cards featured Chaffee's name and picture.[10]

Besides her long-running television ad campaign for ChapStick in the 1970s, she also endorsed Revlon cosmetics, Dannon yogurt, and Seagram spirits. She appeared in films such as Ski Lift to Death and Fire and Ice.[11]

In 2008, she ran for a seat on the Sedona, Arizona, City Council, but lost.[12]

References
  1. Suzy Chaffee. sports-reference.com
  2. Breslin, Catherine (December 17, 1973) "The female jocks go to Washington", New York Magazine
  3. "Moving up in the downhill". Sports Illustrated (January 25, 1965)
  4. "FIS-Ski". FIS-SKI.
  5. "FIS-Ski". FIS-SKI.
  6. "National Ski Hall of Fame" (Archived April 25, 2009, at the Wayback Machine). skihall.com.
  7. "Where are they now?" SKI p. 85 (January 2009)
  8. "Lost + Found". Sports Illustrated (July 2, 2001)
  9. Newman, Bruce (January 23, 1989) "Hype". Sports Illustrated.
  10. Wulf, Steve (March 23, 2015). "Supersisters: Original Roster". Espn.go.com. Retrieved June 4, 2015.
  11. "Ski Lift to Death (1978)". Rotten Tomatoes. March 12, 2017. Retrieved August 1, 2020.
  12. Hardy, Cyndy (March 12, 2008). "2008 Sedona mayoral race goes into overtime". Sedona.biz. Archived from the original on May 18, 2008. Retrieved July 8, 2023.
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