The history of women skiers in Maine is one of pioneers, passionate winter sports fans and persistent ski racers. That story will be told at a program hosted by the Ski Museum of Maine and the Bethel Historical Society on Saturday in honor of Women’s History Month.

The free program that includes a panel of Maine women leaders in the ski industry will be at the Bethel Inn Resort in Bethel. The panelists include three-time Olympian Julie Parisien, snowboard cross world champion Nikki Pilavakis-Davoren and Maine Nordic ski champion Leslie Miller Morrill.

Men and women recreational skiers enjoy winter fun at Poland Spring in the 1920s, the dawn of winter sports tourism in Maine. Photo courtesy of Poland Spring Preservation Society.

Men and women recreational skiers enjoy winter fun at Poland Spring in the 1920s, the dawn of winter sports tourism in Maine. Photo courtesy of Poland Spring Preservation Society.

“The only area where women had to make a breakthrough was in competition,” said ski historian Scott Andrews. “The earliest skiers in Maine were Swedish immigrants who arrived in the 1870s. The very first group included 11 women. Then it was a purely utilitarian activity. If you wanted to go visit your neighbor or go to church and there was snow on the ground, you skied.”

Andrews said from 1870 until the 1920s there was no distinction between the role of women and men in skiing. Both pursued the activity largely as a form of transport. Even in the early 1900s as the activity became more a form of recreation, women were right beside men.

Andrews said grand hotels of the era would promote winter activities.

Liz Chenard, left, and Leslie Miller were competitive high school skiers for the Chisholm Ski Club at Black Mountain during the 1970s.

Liz Chenard, left, and Leslie Miller were competitive high school skiers for the Chisholm Ski Club at Black Mountain during the 1970s.

“It was promoted at Poland Spring (Resort). People were drawn to the property from Boston, Hartford and New York. A number of photos show women skiing in skirts. Women were definitely not on the sidelines,” Andrews said.

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That changed once skiing competitions started at winter carnivals, which offered races among men from Maine’s colleges. Women were members of the schools’ outing clubs, but were not in the winter carnival races.

“As far as anyone knows there were no women competing at that level,” Andrews said.

It wasn’t until after World War II that the landscape changed. With the boom in skiing in the 30 years after the war, women helped direct Maine ski areas, ski schools and clubs, Andrews said.

At the dawn of winter sports tourism in the United States a woman on skis vacations in Maine during the winter circa 1920s. Photo courtesy of Poland Spring Preservation Society.

At the dawn of winter sports tourism in the United State,s a woman vacations in Maine circa 1920s. Photo courtesy of Poland Spring Preservation Society.

From there, Maine women skiers quickly moved into the competitive arena.

In 1973, Gail Blackburn, who honed her skills at Sugarloaf as a child, became the first Maine woman on the U.S. Ski Team. In 1975, Karen Colburn of Bangor won the first national amateur freestyle championship sanctioned by the United States Ski Association, which was held in Killington, Vermont. Leslie Bancroft-Krichko, an Oxford Hills High graduate, was one of the country’s top Nordic skiers in the 1980s, winning two U.S. titles and making two Olympic teams.

In the 1990s, Maine produced three Alpine Olympians – Julie and Anna Parisien of Auburn, and Kirsten Clark of Raymond. Julie Parisien and Clark each skied on three Olympic teams and won a silver medal at the world championships.

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Then in 1999, Pilavakis-Davoren, a graduate of Bonny Eagle High in Standish, won the women’s world championship in snowboard cross.

“Starting in the early years of the 1980s, we’ve had tremendous success. We’ve had many female Olympians on the freestyle side, and then Olympians on the Alpine side, like Kirsten Clark,” said Kate Webber Punderson, the head of school at Carrabassett Valley Academy.

Two women skiers are shown at Pleasant Mountain (later renamed Shawnee Peak) in Bridgton during a period of increased interest in recreational skiing in the 1940s and 1950s in the years following World War II. Photo courtesy of Shawnee Peak.

Two skiers are shown at Pleasant Mountain (later renamed Shawnee Peak) in Bridgton during a period of increased interest in recreational skiing in the 1940s and 1950s. Photo courtesy of Shawnee Peak.

Morrill, one of the history program’s panelists, was one of the first Maine high school girls to have success in Nordic skiing.

“I started before Nordic was accepted as a women’s sport. I was more the sister of famous brothers,” said Morrill, who grew up in Mexico, Maine, and graduated from the University of Maine in 1976. Her brothers, Pat and Jim Miller, were inducted into the Maine Ski Hall of Fame.

Nikki Pilavakis, a graduate of Carrabassett Valley Academy, won the 1999 World Championship in snowboard cross. Photo courtesy of the Ski Museum of Maine

Nikki Pilavakis, a graduate of Carrabassett Valley Academy, won the 1999 World Championship in snowboard cross. Photo courtesy of the Ski Museum of Maine

“Jimmy, my middle brother, went to two Olympics. But the important piece was the fact I was racing when women started to break into an all-male sport. I was probably in the sixth or seventh grade. And the only way to race then was to join the boys and race with them. So that’s what we did.”

At her family’s farm, she chased her brothers on skis after school. And on weekends with the Chisholm Ski Club at Black Mountain in Rumford, neighbors encouraged her to race the boys.

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“Did we beat them? Yes. That’s when we started to get our own division. The boys we were beating didn’t like it too well,” said Morrill, 62. “As we got better, girls’ races formed in the Northeast. Then we started racing kids across the U.S.”

Morrill’s parents brought her to the first junior national girls’ ski races in Bozeman, Montana, and Jackson Hole, Wyoming. She had top-10 finishes, and as a high school sophomore she was the top-ranked girls’ racer in the East.

Morrill went on to race at UMaine and helped lead the women’s team to the Eastern title. But looking back, Morrill said there were obvious disparities between the ski programs.

“We scrimped and saved to race. We wore the men’s hand-me-down sweaters as uniforms. I remember my father writing a letter about it. But I just liked to compete,” Morrill said.

The past 30 years, that’s changed dramatically, said Punderson, a former high school ski coach.

“I’m very pleased with how many CVA (girls) Alpine ski racers we have,” Punderson said. “The program is healthy and strong. Any limiting factor in the sport would be expense, but that affects both boys and girls.”

Since 1989, Carrabassett Valley Academy has produced seven women’s Olympians in skiing or snowboarding.

“I would say today, women and girls have an equal opportunity to pursue a passion for competitive skiing,” Punderson said. “And I think another trend is those athletes are giving back to the sport, usually through coaching. There are great mentors in women’s skiing right now.”

 


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