Lee-Gartner defies odds, delivers gold for Canada.
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She made her Olympic debut on home soil at Calgary 1988 where Lee-Gartner raced in five events, her two best finishes were eighth in the combined and 15th in the downhill. Four years later on February 15, 1992, the day of the Albertville 1992 downhill, the odds of a Lee-Gartner victory were 20-1 in Las Vegas. She overcame incredible adversity and defied career-ending injuries, but the dream never died. Lee-Gartner skied the race of her life on the Meribel course and won the Olympic downhill by 0.06 seconds ahead of American Hilary Lindh. It was the closest race in Olympic history with eighteen one-hundredths of a second separating first to fifth. Lee-Gartner became the only winner of the women’s downhill to ever come from a non-German speaking country and the only Canadian to ever win the event.