Claude Richer

Claude Richer took up cross country skiing in the 1940s and was the winner of the Central Canada junior ski championships in 1949. He began to garner national attention as a senior in 1951, when he won the Canadian national championships and earned the Julien Trophy as the country’s top French-Canadian athlete. He had been selected to represent Canada at the 1950 Nordic World Ski Championships, but made his major international debut at the 1952 Winter Olympics, where he placed 52nd in a field of 80 participants in the 18 km event. He was next scheduled to compete at the 1954 World Championships, but dropped out to complete his studies at St. Lawrence University in New York. He retired from active competition in 1957.

Richer’s talents were not limited to cross country skiing. In 1949 he was the junior champion in the downhill at the Ottawa Ski Club championships and won the Beamish Shield for slalom skiing in 1956, the same year that he was selected as an alternate in the downhill event for the 1956 Winter Olympics. He also received laurels for his canoeing abilities and was a national champion in 1951. After graduating from St. Lawrence University in 1954 with a Bachelor of Science, he took up a career as a high school science teacher and spent several years as a ski coach at St. Lawrence. He also worked in insurance and as a ski instructor at College Millitaire Royale in St. John’s, Quebec. In 1958 he ran a training camp for Olympic hopefuls from the United Staes and, in 1960, served as the coach of the Australian national team at the Games. He undertook postgraduate studies at St. Lawrence and the Universite de Paris and managed a construction company prior to founding his own, Concrete Constructors, in 1968. Thereafter, he held the title of company president until his 1989 retirement. He was inducted into the St. Lawrence University Sports Hall of Fame in 1988.