January 21, 1952
Only 19 years old and already with a previous Olympic competition under her belt, Andy Mead Lawrence was described as the “best U.S. Olympic skier.” TIME featured her on the cover in January 1952, a month before she was poised to grab two American gold medals at the Oslo Winter Olympics.
TIME’s profile highlighted Lawrence’s skiing ability with a poetic twist: “She swept down the dizzying descent with the verve and hell-for-leather dash of a man. Crouching, straightening, swinging her slim hips in an almost antic mimicry of a rumba step, she darted and danced through the multicolored flags that outlined the course. “
She notched up gold medals in both the slalom and giant slalom races.