Lea Ann was a standout basketball player and track and field athlete at Marshall University in the late 1980s, but her path to the Olympics took shape well after graduation. She was born in Logan, West Virginia, and grew up in Granville, Ohio. Lea Ann earned her degree in health education from Marshall in the spring of 1990, a time when professional opportunities for women in sports were limited.
Determined to stay active and competitive following graduation, she continued her education at the University of Virginia and began her career as a firefighter. In fact, she was named the state of Ohio’s Firefighter of the Year in 1999 for her work saving lives, particularly a mother and daughter in a residential fire.
“And if you look at firefighting, it’s very much like being an athlete,” Lea Ann said. “You know, the physical nature of the job requires you to pretty much be an athlete. So, I was staying in competitive shape just because of my job. So, when I discovered skeleton sort of by accident, I was ready to transition into that, even though I hadn’t been in competitive sport for a while, just simply because of my job as a firefighter.”
Lea Ann found skeleton, as she says, by chance while playing another sport called Team Handball, a fast-paced sport played between two teams where a score is made by throwing a ball into the opponent’s goal.
“So, I started with some club teams that were in the East Coast area and tried out for the Pan American team after playing for a while,” she said. “But I injured my thumb pretty badly and could not make the team. They asked me to stay on and go to the Pan American games as one of the team managers.”
Ultimately, that role introduced her to a new sport.
As manager for Team Handball, Lea Ann, then in her mid-20s, was responsible for fundraising for women’s sports, including skeleton.
“I just started exploring and learning and making phone calls and ended up talking with someone in Lake Placid, New York, at the Olympic Training Center,” she said. “And they said, ‘Well, you know, you’re a little bit too old at this point. We were really looking to recruit younger athletes, high school and early college. But if you want to come out and look at the training center, we’ll show you around. And so that’s what I did. I hopped in my car and drove out to Lake Placid and just met some really wonderful people in the sport of skeleton.”
That visit changed everything. Lea Ann quickly connected with athletes and coaches across North America.
In 1998, some eight years after graduating from Marshall, Lea Ann earned a spot on the U.S. National Skeleton Team and spent six years competing on the international World Cup circuit. In 2000, she finished second in Lillehammer, Norway, earning the United States its first medal in women’s World Cup skeleton competition. Two years later, she won a silver medal at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City and went on to claim the U.S. national championship in 2004.
Unfortunately, her competitive career was cut short when a runaway bobsled crashed into her and teammates while they were training for the 2006 Olympics. She couldn’t compete in the trials but stayed with the team as an assistant coach.
Following her Olympic career, both Lea Ann and her husband, a Canadian athlete, spent time on the administrative side of the sport. They split their time between homes in Ohio and Canada. Both are avid sports enthusiasts and ready for the Winter Olympics in Italy.
“We’re excited to see the games coming up,” Lea Ann said. “The track looks really great. The reports have been good, that it’s in good shape and ready to go.”
Since her time at Marshall, the Olympian earned a second undergraduate degree in nursing and then went on to complete a doctoral degree in community nursing. She says her time with the Thundering Herd put her on track for a great career both on and off the course.
“My dorm room was then in Towers, and our floor had quite a lot of athletes, female athletes. We had some girls that were on the volleyball team, track and field athletes, and so it was a nice mix of people, and I just really enjoyed the atmosphere,” Lea Ann said. “The feel was very intimate at Marshall. You know, you could walk all over campus, ride your bike, and it was just the right size. I always felt like I was kind of like Cinderella in the slipper. Everything just fit, you know, whether it was the classroom environment, the sports, the teams. It was a good fit.”
