Sharing a bond of ski racing, 2 Canadian Olympians have remained fast friends for nearly 80 years

This wasn't just a dinner between two friends of nearly 80 years. It was a rare and unexpected opportunity to catch up in person last November at the Canadian Ski Hall of Fame banquet.

A chance to reminisce about ski racing, their longtime bond, and family. To stroll down memory lane.

The tableside chat felt just like old times for Rhoda Wurtele Eaves, 102, and Lucile Wheeler, 89, who've been fixtures in each other's lives since they first met on Jan. 14, 1945, at a downhill race.

Wheeler remembers the exact meeting since it happened also to be her first ski race and her 10th birthday. She was in awe of Wurtele Eaves and her twin sister, Rhona, who died in 2020. Back then, the sisters took Wheeler under their wing.

A mentorship blossomed into a lifelong camaraderie filled with ski reunions and golf outings.

“Rhoda and Rhona paved the pathway for future Canadian ski racers, always willing to help out and offer advice when asked,” Wheeler said in an email. “Their commitment and passion for the sport transferred to the younger ones coming up.”

Wurtele Eaves was a surprise participant at the hall of fame banquet in November. Her arrival completed a reunion of all four members of the 1952 Canadian women’s Olympic ski team at the dinner. She joined Rosemarie Schutz Asch, Joanne Hewson-Rees and Wheeler.

“When the organizers of the event realized we were all together, they were overwhelmed," Wheeler said, noting that two weeks later Hewson-Rees passed away at 93. "Our reunion became even more special.”

The Wurtele sisters were known as the “Flying Twins" — pioneers of women’s skiing in Canada. As kids, they skied anywhere they could, with their dad sliding them all over local parks and hills near Montreal. They looked alike and skied identical, with a fearless determination on a course. They soon took ski racing by storm, winning or placing in race after race, from Quebec to Utah to New York.

Their dominance certainly captured the attention of a young Wheeler, who shared a coach with the sisters.

“Rhoda was my mentor, and always encouraged me. Friends for 79 years,” said Wheeler, a 1956 Olympic downhill bronze medalist who married Canadian Football League Hall of Famer Kaye Vaughan.

Wheeler and Wurtele Eaves were roommates at the 1952 Winter Games in Oslo, when Wheeler was just 17 and Rhoda the senior member of their Alpine team.

“I was like her shadow,” Wheeler recounted. "She showed me all the ropes.”

Their Olympic experience connected them even more.

“It is a heart-warming story,” Christophe Dubi, the executive director of the Olympic Games, wrote in an email as the Winter Olympics celebrated its 100th anniversary. “Rhoda and Lucile’s continued friendship personifies Olympism and everything that makes the Olympic Games, and sport in general, so unique."

Wheeler’s best finish at the 1952 Olympics was 26th in the slalom (Wurtele Eaves was 19th). Four years later, Wheeler earned the first Olympic medal by a Canadian Alpine ski racer with her bronze in the downhill.

“Returning to our Olympic team accommodations, the greeting was joyous," recalled Wheeler, who was inducted into the Canadian Ski Hall of Fame in 1982 along with the Wurtele sisters. "Made me realize that I had ‘opened the door’ for others to follow through.”

For the Wurtele sisters, the path to the Olympics was filled with cancellations, bumps and broken bones. They were in the prime of their careers heading into the 1944 Winter Games. But they were called off due to World War II.

Then, right before the 1948 Winter Games in St. Moritz, Wurtele Eaves broke her ankle when a teammate accidentally skied into her at the bottom of the hill. Her twin sister wiped out in a practice and suffered a cut on her head. Rhona recovered enough to compete in the downhill but crashed. She got up, though, and finished the race.

The sisters inspired the next generation of ski racers, teaching for more than 50 years.

“We lived near each other. Our husbands and all our children were ski instructors. In the summer golf was the thing,” Wurtele Eaves said in an email through her son, David Eaves. “When you do many activities together it’s basically a happy family.”

Wurtele Eaves skied for the final time at 96, on a cross-country trail at Mont Tremblant in Quebec. She still feels connected to the sport through tales told to her by her kids, grandkids and great-grandkids.

Wheeler stayed heavily involved in ski racing, too, making instructional videos and organizing youth programs. Simply trying to inspire future racers — just like her longtime mentor and friend, Wurtele Eaves.

“Friendships such as Rhoda and Lucile’s really demonstrate the harmony and unity that is uniquely created at the Olympic Games," Dubi said. "It has been really inspiring to hear about their bond, spanning nearly 80 years.”

AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/winter-olympicsAP

FILE - Canada's Lucile Wheeler speeds downhill during the Women's Slalom event at Kitzbuehel, Austria, Jan. 14, 1956, during a warm up meet for the VII Olympic Winter Games opening Jan. 26 at Cortina D'Ampezzo, Italy. Canadian Olympic ski racers Rhoda Wurtele Eaves, 102, and Wheeler, 89, have been friends for nearly 80 years. (AP Photo/File)

FILE - Lucile Wheeler, of Canada, arrives at the finish line in sixth place in the Women's Giant Slalom race at the VII Olympic Winter Games in Cortina D'Ampezzo, Italy, Jan. 27, 1956. Canadian Olympic ski racers Rhoda Wurtele Eaves, 102, and Wheeler, 89, have been friends for nearly 80 years. (AP Photo/File)

FILE - Rhona Wurtele, left, and her twin sister, Rhoda, right, both from Westmount, Quebec, and the Penguin Ski Club, look on after downhill and slalom National Championship races at Cannon Mountain in Franconia, N.H., March 3, 1946. Canadian Olympic ski racers Lucile Wheeler, 89, and Rhoda, 102, have been friends for nearly 80 years. (AP Photo/Abe Fox, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are sticking near their records Friday following a highly anticipated report on the job market that showed a slowdown in hiring and contained nuggets of data for both optimists and pessimists.

The S&P 500 was virtually unchanged in its first trading after the Fourth of July holiday, following two straight days where it set all-time highs. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 28 points, or 0.1%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was adding 0.2% to its own record.

The action was a bit more decisive in the bond market, where Treasury yields sank following the nuanced U.S. jobs report, which included data points that were both stronger and weaker than expected.

Employers hired more workers last month than economists expected, but the number was still a slowdown from May’s hiring. Plus, the unemployment rate unexpectedly ticked higher, and the U.S. government said hiring in earlier months was lower than it had previously indicated.

Altogether, the data reinforced belief on Wall Street that the U.S. economy’s growth is slowing under the weight of stubbornly high interest rates. That’s precisely what investors want to see, because a slowdown would help keep a lid on inflation and could push the Federal Reserve to begin cutting its main interest rate.

The question is whether the Federal Reserve can time its next moves precisely, where it lowers rates early and significantly enough to keep the slowdown from sliding into a recession but not so much that it allows inflation to regain strength and take off again.

The clearest takeaway from the jobs report for traders was that it would push the Fed to cut its main interest rate later this year, likely in September. The two-year Treasury yield, which closely tracks expectations for Fed action, fell to 4.63% from 4.71% late Wednesday.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury, which is the centerpiece of the bond market, fell to 4.30% from 4.36%.

Friday’s jobs report follows a mass of data showing a slowdown across the U.S. economy. Reports earlier this week said business activity in both the U.S. services and manufacturing sectors contracted last month, turning in weaker readings than economists expected. And U.S. shoppers at the lower end of the income spectrum have been showing how difficult it is to keep up with still-rising prices, as balances owed on credit cards continue to swell.

“What matters for long-term investors is whether fears of a recession become a reality,” said Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at Annex Wealth Management. “We think it’s unlikely we’ll see a recession this year or next, but that doesn’t mean the markets won’t fear one.”

In stock markets abroad, London’s FTSE 100 was nearly unchanged after U.K. voters ushered in a new regime by throwing out Conservatives in this week’s national election.

The United Kingdom experienced a run of turbulent years during Conservative rule that left many voters pessimistic about their country’s future. The U.K.’s exit from the European Union followed by the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine battered the economy. Rising poverty and cuts to state services have led to gripes about “Broken Britain.”

Germany’s DAX rose 0.8% after the government agreed on a budget for 2025 and a stimulus package for Europe’s largest economy, ending a monthslong squabble that threatened to upend Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s center-left coalition.

The disagreements had fueled speculation that the already unpopular government could collapse and prompt a snap parliamentary election in which Germany could follow other European countries by swinging toward the political right.

In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei 225 topped 41,000 early Friday to rise above its record closing level set on Thursday, but it ended the day marginally lower.

The action was sharper in the market for cryptocurrencies, where bitcoin tumbled below $56,000 from nearly $63,000 early this week. It’s back to where it was in February.

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AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.

FILE - The New York Stock Exchange is seen on Wednesday, July 3, 2024, in New York. Shares advanced Friday, July 5, 2024, in Europe after Britain's Labour Party prevailed over the Conservatives in this week's national election. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan, File)

The New York Stock Exchange is seen on Wednesday, July 3, 2024, in New York. Wall Street is leaning toward minuscule gains before the bell ahead of the Fourth of July holiday. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan)

A passerby walks past an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei 225 index, right, at a securities firm Thursday, July 4, 2024 in Tokyo. Japan’s Nikkei 225 benchmark closed Thursday at a fresh record high of 40,913.65, pushing past its most recent record close set in March. (Kyodo News via AP)

FILE - A person walks past at an electronic stock board showing Japan's stock prices at a securities firm in Tokyo, June 27, 2024. Asian shares were mostly lower on Friday, July 5, after solid gains in Europe overnight, while U.S. markets were closed for the July 4th holiday. (AP Photo/Shuji Kajiyama, File)

FILE - A person walks past at an electronic stock board showing financial indexes including Japan's Nikkei 225 index, green, at a securities firm in Tokyo, June 27, 2024. Asian shares were mostly lower on Friday, July 5, after solid gains in Europe overnight, while U.S. markets were closed for the July 4th holiday. (AP Photo/Shuji Kajiyama, File)