Jimmie Heuga

Frederic James "Jimmy" Heuga ( born September 23 1943 in San Francisco, California, † February 8, 2010 in Louisville, Colorado) was an American alpine skier. He was the first skier from the United States who could win an Olympic medal.

Heuga was born the son of a chair-lift operator and grew up in California's Squaw Valley ski resort. Before he could celebrate successes as a skier, he participated in a ski film by Warren Miller age of nine.

A first major success in the United States, he scored in 1961 with the combination victory in Harriman Cup at Sun Valley. The breakthrough to the international world leaders succeeded him in 1962, when he was fifth in the combined at the Alpine World Skiing Championships in Chamonix.

Two years later, Heuga celebrated the biggest success of his career. At the Olympic Winter Games in 1964 in Innsbruck, he drove in the slalom at number three. His bronze medal was with the silver medal by Billy Kidd in the same race, the first medal ever, the U.S. ski racers have won at the Olympics in the men's competitions.

Its sporty Constance underlined Heuga at the World Ski Championships 1966 in Portillo. There he finished in a combination of the fourth and sixth place in the slalom.

1970 Heuga had to end his athletic career abruptly after multiple sclerosis had been diagnosed with.

From the experience of his illness in 1984 he founded near the Vail " Heuga Center", a non-profit medical facility in which people learn with chronic diseases to affect their health through physical exercises and nutrition positive.