STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK
A bronze sculpture depicting the indomitable spirit of Sun Valley’s Paralympic athlete Muffy Davis will be unveiled on Wednesday, Oct. 4, at Festival Meadows.
The unveiling will take place between 5:30 and 7 p.m. along the Row of Champions on Sun Valley Road. Speakers will include Brian Barsotti, who kickstarted the project honoring Sun Valley’s female Olympic medalists; Sun Valley Mayor Peter Hendricks, sculptor Benjamin Victor and Muffy Davis. A reception will follow.
“I am immensely honored to be recognized in such a way and hope that through these beautiful sculptures we inspire the future generation of courageous female athletes and leaders,” said Davis, a seven-time Paralympic medalist in two sports.
Davis’s bronze sculpture, like those of Gretchen Fraser and Christin Cooper that were unveiled earlier, was crafted by Boise sculptor Benjamin Victor. Victor, who has five sculptures in Statuary Hall in Washington, D.C., has depicted Davis in a dynamic pose radiating strength and grace.
It epitomizes the very spirit that made her a champion in the world of sports and will forever commemorate her legacy, serving as an inspiration to future generations of athletes, said organizers.
Plans are in the works for future sculptures of Sun Valley Olympic champions Kaitlin Farrington, Picabo Street and Susie Corrock. When completed, the monument will be the largest women’s sports monument in the world.
Davis was a fierce competitor on the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation’s alpine team when she was paralyzed in a downhill training accident at 16. A Standford University graduate, she was inspired to begin racing competitively again after seeing the success of Picabo Street, whom she had raced against as a youngster.
She went on to win three silver and one bronze ski medals in the 1998 and 2002 Winter Paralympics in Nagano, Japan, and Salt Lake City. And she dominated the London Paralympic Games Road Cycling competitions in 2012, winning three gold medals which earned her a Guinness World Record for the most gold medals won in road cycling at a Paralympic Games.
She was the 2002 World Champion in Giant Slalom, a nine-time UCI Para-Cycling World Cup gold medalist and a three-time UCI Para-Cycling World Championships silver medalist. She was inducted into the 2022 class of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Hall of Fame alongside Picabo Street; Gretchen Fraser, who won the United States first alpine gold medal in 1948; and Dick Fosbury, who won gold in the high jump at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City.
She also is a member of the U.S. ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame, a 2004 International Olympic Committee Presidents Disabled Athlete Award winner, and the 2002 Endurance Sports Disabled Athlete of the Year.
She has stayed involved with the Olympics and Paralympics movement as an elected member of the International Paralympic Committee’s Governing Board, the United States Olympic Committee’s Paralympic Advisory Committee and the Los Angeles 2028 board.
After serving in the Idaho legislature, she took her place as a Blaine County commissioner where she currently shares as chairperson.