Sharon Firth
Cross-country, then around the world
By Heather Andrews Miller
Windspeaker Writer
The National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation has named Sharon
Firth as the recipient of its sports achievement award for 2005.
The Aklavik-born woman successfully competed in four Olympic
Games in the 1970s and 1980s and continues to inspire countless
youth by her example.
"I grew up on
the trapline in a family of 12 living on the Mackenzie River,
and I started setting goals even then. Later, when we moved to
Inuvik, I attended high school and was introduced to the sport
of cross country skiing," she remembered. She and her twin
sister Shirley, who is 10 minutes older, immediately became proficient
at the winter activity, as it was a sport that really suited
them and was a lot of fun.
"Our coach told us if we show up for training every day
we would give ourselves the opportunity to travel and represent
our people all over the world."
At the age of 13, she placed third in her first competition at
Anchorage, Alaska, an unprecedented accomplishment for a newcomer
to the sport. She went on to represent Canada at the Olympic
Games in 1972, 1976, 1980, and 1984, travelling to Sapporo in
Japan, Innsbruck in Austria, Lake Placid in New York, and Sarajevo
in Yugoslavia. She also competed in ...
PEOPLE OF HONOUR INDEX