By all accounts, Peggy Fleming’s performance that won a gold medal in women’s figure skating at the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble, France, was mesmerizing for the judges, spectators and a worldwide television audience.
Descriptions of Fleming’s program were sprinkled freely with terms such as elegance, superb talent and flawless technique. She was 19 years old and just becoming a fixture in international competition when she carried the U.S. Figure Skating Team’s hopes into Grenoble from her training base in Colorado Springs.
Fleming wore a chartreuse dress in the first Olympics televised in color. Her free skating routine was judged 88.2 points better than her closest rival.
Her gold medal was the only first-place finish of the 1968 Winter Olympics for the United States, just enough to keep it from being the worst Winter Olympics for the U.S. in terms of gold medals. The U.S. Olympic team previously came home with just one gold medal from Chamonix, France, in 1924; Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, in 1936; and Innsbruck, Austria, in 1964.
“I didn’t look at myself as any kind of a heroine at the time,” Fleming said last week before an appearance in Colorado Springs. “I was focusing so much on what I had to do. I was so young and didn’t have that perspective. I do now. I can see how people viewed my success at the time.”
Fleming also carried the weight of a tragedy that had rocked the country’s figure skating community. Six years before Grenoble, the top echelon of U.S. figure skaters, their coaches and supporters were wiped out in a plane crash outside of Brussels, Belgium. The team was on its way to the world championships in Prague, Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic), and the victims included Bill Kipp, Fleming’s first skating coach.
Carlo Fassi was the resident coach at the World Arena at the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs, and his reputation lured Fleming to his camp. She moved with her family from California to Colorado Springs.
“We lived a simple life,” Fleming said. “My dad was a newspaper pressman. There were four of us girls, and I was competing in an expensive sport.”
When Fleming arrived at the World Arena in 1965, it was a focal point for international sports competition. Besides Fassi, Thayer Tutt, owner of the Broadmoor, was a fixture in the international sports community and the mastermind behind international hockey tournaments that usually featured teams from Russia and Czechoslovakia.
On her return from Grenoble, Fleming made appearances in support of Denver’s bid for the 1976 Winter Olympics. In 2002, she was one of the honored athletes who carried the Olympic flame into the opening ceremonies in Salt Lake City.
Four years before Salt Lake City, she faced another challenge. On the 30th anniversary of her gold medal performance, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She called it the “Olympics of life.”
Fleming found a much different Colorado Springs last week when she returned to support a charitable event. Tutt and Fassi are gone. There’s a new World Arena, in another part of town.
“I miss that old rink,” Fleming said. “I know it’s not there anymore, but the memories are. I have four chairs from the stands in the old arena in my living room.”
In 1999, Fleming was one of seven athletes honored at the Sports Illustrated 20th Century Award program as “athletes who changed the game.” The group included Arnold Palmer, Billie Jean King and Jackie Robinson.
“Winning the gold medal gave me the confidence I needed to take the next steps in my life,” Fleming said. “I learned to deal with pressure, something that a lot of others couldn’t.”
Fleming bio
Born: July 27, 1948, San Jose, Calif.
High school: Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado Springs
College: Colorado College
Family: Husband Dr. Greg Jenkins, sons Andy and Todd
New ventures: Art classes; gardening; a working winery, Fleming Jacobs Vineyards and Winery.
Wishes: The days were longer.
