Bill Irwin (skier)

Bill Irwin
Full name	William Archibald Irwin
nation	Canada
birthday	March 24, 1920
place of birth	Winnipeg ,  Canada
date of death	February 9, 2013
Place of death	Vernon ,  Canada
Career
discipline	Ski jumping Nordic combined skiing, alpine skiing, cross-country skiing
End of career	1955

William Archibald "Bill" Irwin (born March 24, 1920 in Winnipeg , † February 9, 2013 in Vernon ) was a Canadian skier who was active in the Nordic and Alpine skiing disciplines.

Career

Irwin started skiing at the age of nine with his three years older brother Bert Irwin on the initiative of the father of the same name, who was chairman of the Amber Ski Club. In 1930 he won his first competition. In 1937 he won the Western Canadian Championships for the first time. He repeated the success in 1939, 1941 and 1942. From 1940 to 1942 he also won the Vancouver Ski Classics three times in a row.

After Irwin was engaged in the Canadian Army from 1943 to 1945 during the Second World War , he quickly returned to his old form after the war and quickly qualified for the 1948 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz, Switzerland . In total, he qualified for six competitions. He finally started in five of the competitions.

In the alpine descent he reached 60th place at the same time as the British Donald Garrow . In ski jumping , he took 39th place in individual jumping from the normal hill with jumps on 56 and 54 meters. A little later he finished 50th in the alpine slalom. After he only achieved a weak 81st place in cross-country skiing singles, he landed 37th in singles in Nordic combined . In alpine combined he reached 36th place at the end of the games.

In 1955 he ended his active career, but remained loyal to skiing for many more years. In addition to his active career, Irwin trained Scottish army units in skiing. He founded the Lorch Lomond Ski Area and the club of the same name. His last active competition was the Over The Hill Downhill in 1983. Before that, he had received the Ontario Tourism Award in 1975 for his successes and his commitment to skiing . In 2000 he was inducted into the Canadian Ski Hall of Fame .

His son Dave Irwin was later active as an alpine ski racer and started at the Winter Olympics in 1976 and 1980 .

Web links

• Bill Irwin in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )
• Biography Bill Irwin on Skimuseum. Approx