Anna McIntyre has been the most influential woman in the history of International snow sport racing. In a sport dominated by men, she became the world’s first certified woman F.I.S. Chief of Race and for almost a decade was the only woman who regularly oversaw international ski competition.

Anna McIntyre, now of Moultonboro, New Hampshire, is best known for running highly successful World Cup ski races and for training alpine race officials. She worked all eleven World Cups that have been held at Waterville Valley. She was the Chief of Race for the last nine World Cups at Waterville Valley, including the World Cup finals in 1991. In 1980, Anna was the first woman ever to serve as Chief of Race for an alpine World Cup event.

She assembled and trained hundreds of volunteers to administer those World Cup races. They came to call themselves “Anna’s Army” to signify their high regard for her. Anna knew the F.I.S. rulebook well and brooked no nonsense from the Europeans. She brought computer applications to World Cup racing and was a stickler for getting race results to the press and electronic media almost immediately.

In 1990, she petitioned the USSA Board of Directors to include snowboarding as a USSA program. The Eastern Division was granted trial status and Anna became the snowboard czar. She developed the first USSA snowboarding rule book. The following year, snowboarding was expanded to all USSA divisions and Anna was named Chairman of the Snowboard Committee. In its third year, snowboarding became its own discipline, after a by-law change promoted by Anna.

With the help of Howard Peterson, then CEO of the USSA, the F.I.S. was prompted to accept snowboarding into the F.I.S. family. It was formally approved at the F.I.S. Congress in Rio de Janeiro in June, 1994. Since then, snowboarding has become an Olympic event.

A summary of some of Anna’s important accomplishments follows:

• First woman F.I.S. Chief of Race in the world
• First World Cup Chief of Race to utilize computer reporting in 1978
• Revolutionized racing with the introduction of racecourse flex poles
• First woman to be an officer in the USSA
• Author of the first snowboarding rulebook
• First chairman of the USSA Snowboarding Committee
• Led the movement to have snowboarding approved as an F.I.S. sport
• Instrumental in the approval of the first Olympic snowboard competition

Anna McIntyre was elected to the U.S. National Ski Hall of Fame in 1998.