Christine Freeman

Champion water skier Christine Freeman was born in 1952 in Springfield, Missouri. Freeman grew up in Thayer, Missouri. Christine first started skiing at age five and began her competitive water skiing career in 1964 at the age of twelve. Freeman was a strong three event skier who did tricks, jump, and slalom, with the latter category proving to be her specialty. Among her notable accomplishments as a competitive skier are winning eight Midwest Regional Overall Titles and fifteen medals won in seven National Championships. Moreover, Christine was the first woman skier from the Midwest region to be invited to participate in the prestigious Masters Tournament in Calloway Gardens; she competed in five Masters altogether prior to retiring from competitive skiing in 1973. In addition, Freeman competed in two California World Cup Internationals and was invited to the Moomba Masters in Australia. Christine was also the only female member of the North American team who competed in the 1969 Wills International in London, England, where she won the Women's Overall Title. In the wake of retiring from competitive skiing, Freeman went on to graduate Summa Cum Laude from William Jewell College with a BS degree in Nursing and earned her Master's Degree in Nursing from UCLA in 1979. She was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 1995.