Suzy Harris Rytting – Was born in 1930 and began her early skiing outings at Alta at age 13. She started representing Alta and her high school in ski racing two years later.
From the mid 1940s though the early 1950s, Suzy cut a swath through the American ski racing scene which made her one of the finest women racers in the country.
A two time winner of Alta’s prestigious Snow Cup race in both 1947 and 1948, she also won the Mary Cornelia National Collegiate Trophy in 1947 and set a course record in Sun Valley’s Gold Sun Downhill Race in 1948. She was named an alternate on the U.S. Women’s Olympic Ski Team in 1948 and named to the 1950 U.S. Women’s F.I.S. world championship ski team and the U.S. Winter Olympic Ski Team in 1952.
Following her ski racing career, Suzy became Secretary for the Intermountain Ski Association, a position she held from 1952 through 1959. From 1967 through 1972, she served as coach for the United Alta Skiers Junior Racing Team (ages 10-18).
Throughout her lifetime, Suzy has distinguished herself by active participation in numerous ski-related and community affairs. She currently serves as a docent, along with her husband, Bill, at the Alf Engen Ski Museum. She also continues to be a life long supporter of Alta and gives periodic ski history presentations at Alta’s “Fireside Chat” program, sponsored by the Alta Historical Society.
Suzy was elected to the U.S. National Ski Hall of Fame in 1988; the Utah Sports Hall of Fame in 1988; the University of Utah Athletes Crimson Club Hall of Fame in 1991; and in 1999 was named one of Utah’s “50 Greatest Athletes of the 20th Century.” In 2004, Suzy Harris Rytting was also inducted into the Intermountain Ski Hall of Fame and received the S.J. Quinney Award for “enhancing the image and popularity of skiing in the region” by the J. Willard Marriott Library Ski Archives.