Laurence Owen

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Laurence Rochon "Laurie" Owen (born May 9, 1944 in San Francisco , California , † February 15, 1961 in Berg-Kampenhout , Belgium ) was an American figure skater who started in a single run .

Laurence Owen was the younger of two daughters of the nine-time US figure skating champion , Maribel Vinson and the Canadian figure skater Guy Owen . Her older sister Maribel was also a figure skater. Both were trained by their mother. She grew up in Berkeley until she was nine years old , before the family moved back to Winchester , Massachusetts after the death of her father in 1952 .

In 1959 Owen became a national junior champion. A year later she was third in her first participation in the Senior Championships, qualifying for the Olympic Games in Squaw Valley , where she finished sixth. At the subsequent World Cup , she was ninth.

On January 29, 1961, Owen was US champion in Colorado Springs . A little later, she also won the North American championships. After her victory, she became a media sensation and was nicknamed "The Winchester Pixie". She appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine . In it she was referred to as "America's most exciting girl skater". Owen planned to study at Radcliffe College like her mother and eventually become a writer.

As the reigning US champion, Laurence Owen was on board Sabena flight 548 , which will take her to the World Cup in Prague, along with her sister Maribel, who had become reigning pairs skating champion together with Dudley Richards , and her mother, Maribel Vinson, who both trained should. The night flight should stop in Brussels . There, however, the pilot had to abort the landing approach and make another attempt to try another runway. The plane crashed on farmland in Berg-Kampenhout. All 72 passengers, the crew and a farmer on the ground were killed, including the entire 18-man US crew and their 16 relatives. The world championship in Prague was canceled. The remains of the Vinson-Owens were transferred to the United States and buried in the Story Chapel Columbarium of Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge , Massachusetts. In 2011 Owen was inducted into the national Hall of Fame, as was the entire US team that had crashed at the time.

Results

Competition / year 1959 1960 1961
Olympic games 6th
World championships 9.
American championships 1st J 3. 1.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from October 14, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.epinions.com
  2. ↑ Laurence Owen, Figure Skating, - 02.13.61 - SI Vault ( Memento from July 18, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ↑ US Figure Skating Hall of Fame Members. In: worldskatingmuseum.org. World Figure Skating Museum & Hall of Fame, accessed January 17, 2016 .
personal data
SURNAME Owen, Laurence
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Owen, Laurence Rochon (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American figure skater
DATE OF BIRTH May 9, 1944
PLACE OF BIRTH San Francisco , California
DATE OF DEATH February 15, 1961
Place of death Berg-Kampenhout , Belgium