Rhona and Rhoda Wurtele

Rhona (January 21, 1922 – January 17, 2020) and Rhoda Wurtele (born January 21, 1922) are identical twins and Canada's women's skiing pioneers and champions of the 1940s and 1950s. Together they made up the entire 1948 Olympic Women's Alpine team for Canada. With the death of Canadian Olympian David Howard at age 104 on January 21, 2023, Rhoda Wurtele became the oldest living Canadian Olympian at age 101. Life and career The Wurtele twins were born in 1922 in the province of Quebec. They began skiing at age five when their father strapped two planks of wood onto their feet and pushed them out the front door; on top of Mount Royal in Montreal. The twins never stopped skiing. By age 11 they had skied off the senior ski jump on Mount Royal (women were finally allowed to compete in ski jumping at the Olympic games in 2014). For their secondary education, they attended Trafalgar School for Girls in Montreal. They were Canada's first official women's Olympic alpine ski team, and competed in Canada and the United States from 1942 to 1948, representing the Penguin Ski Club. They were married in a double ceremony at St. Stephen's Church in Montreal on November 13, 1948. They continued to compete through to 1959 even after they had children. As soon as they began competing in 1942, they won almost every race they entered, in Canada and the United States - including the Kate Smith International, the Alta Cup, the Roch Cup, the Silver Dollar Derby and in the 1950s, the Harriman Cup. In 1943 Rhoda swept the Taschereau downhill at Mont Tremblant, Quebec, winning by 24 seconds, bettering both the women and all the men in the competition. Rhona placed second among the women, ninth overall.