LUCILE WHEELER

Three years ago at Cortina, almost unnoticed in the blizzard of adulation that swirled around Toni Sailer, a 21-year-old Canadian girl named Lucile Wheeler finished third in the women's downhill. Two years later, at the 1958 FIS world championships in Bad Gastein, she took both the women's downhill and giant slalom and was hailed as the new ruler of the skiing world, the first girl since the great Andrea Mead Lawrence to win two gold medals in world competition. Only 23, there seemed no limit to her future in skiing. Then, in October, she announced she was retiring, tired after six years of big-time racing. In the past few weeks, however, Lucile was making noises like a girl who might race again. Everyone who knows her or who has raced with her hopes she does. She is a gracious queen, as well as a deadly competitor, and the sport needs her.

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