Heuga won the bronze medal and Billy Kidd took the silver in the slalom at the 1964 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria. They were the first American men to win alpine medals in the Olympics.
"Jimmie Heuga was a champion in every sense of the word," said U.S. Ski Team President Bill Marolt, who was also an Olympic skier in 1964. "He was a champion as an athlete, as a person and any way you want to measure him."
Heuga dedicated his life to research and treatment of multiple sclerosis, his friends said.
"Obviously I admire him for what he did in the Olympics, but even more for what he did in his life after that," Kidd told the Post. "There are very few athletes who accomplish so much on the playing field, and then go on to accomplish even more after the competition is over. Jimmie was rare in that."
Copyright 2010 United Press International, Inc. (UPI).
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