June 28, 2009 – Roseanne Allen, one of Canada’s first female Aboriginal winter Olympians, passed away on June 20 in Sault Ste. Marie, ON at age 55. According to her bio on the Aboriginal Sports Circle of the Western Arctic web site, Allen, along with Shirley and Sharon Firth, were the first three Aboriginal women to compete at the Olympics when they contested the three-person women’s 5km relay in the 1972 Olympic Winter Games in Sapporo, Japan, placing 10th. Allen’s cause of death is not known.

Read her obituary on the CBC web site here.
Read her biography on the Aboriginal Sports Circle of the Western Arctic web site here.