Colorado Springs – Speed skater Jack Shea and ski legend Diana Golden-Brosnihan, a former Longmont resident, will be inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame this year.
They will be be joined by sprinters Evelyn Ashford and Bob Hayes, swimmer Rowdy Gaines, gymnast Shannon Miller and figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi, officials said Wednesday.
In 1932, Shea won gold in the 500- and 1,500-meter skating sprints at the Winter Olympics in Lake Placid.
He also was patriarch of America’s first three-generation Olympic family: son Jim Shea Sr., a University of Denver alum, skied at the 1964 Games; grandson Jim Shea Jr., earned a gold in skeleton in 2002. But Jack Shea didn’t live to see that. Three weeks before the Salt Lake Games, he was killed when his car was hit head-on by a drunken driver in Lake Placid.
“My dad had the Olympic spirit his whole life. This is quite appropriate,” Jim Shea Sr. said Wednesday from Lake Placid. “He was the happiest guy in the world when my son made the Olympic team in 2002. He was flying high, walking on air.”
Golden-Brosnihan’s life story also was jammed with triumph and tragedy. After losing her right leg to cancer at age 12, she won 10 gold medals at the World Disabled Ski Championships. When disabled skiing became a demonstration sport at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Golden-Brosnihan led the U.S. women’s team to a medal sweep in slalom. Eight years later, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Golden-Brosnihan died in 2001 at the age of 38.
The Olympic Hall’s new class will be inducted Dec. 8 in Chicago.
Bill Briggs can be reached at 303-820-1720 or bbriggs@denverpost.com.
