Sheer Talent

What timing. Just as young Canadian female ski jumpers take on the Old Boys Club of the world, namely the International Olympic Committee, over their right to compete at Vancouver’s 2010 Olympics, two of the greatest women skiers in the nation’s history decide to tell their story. From the day in 1933 when they jumped off the senior jump on Côte des Nieges in Montreal at age eleven to the present time that still sees them skiing, golfing, hiking and riding bikes, the identical Wurtele twins constantly challenged, in their humble and matter-of-fact way, what it meant to be a woman and a great athlete. Rhona Wurtele took 36 wins, five second places and six third places in national and international Alpine ski competition between 1942 and 1956, while her sister Rhoda took 58 wins, 15 second places and three third places between 1942 and 1959.

Their enormous and innate talent as athletes...