Frank Thomas

Notable Sports Figures
But, like many “retiring” athletes, she sensed one last
opportunity to compete and returned to her sport to be in
the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan. This time,
though, her appearance was without incident and yielded
no medals.
Active Retirement
Turner started her own fitness club in upstate New
York after leaving competitive sports. She shot a number
of fitness videos as well, which were nationally distributed.
She’s made a good business out of traveling
around the country giving motivational speeches to corporate
audiences as well as mental health charities and
young athlete organizations. She’s been the National
Spokesperson for the Special Olympics World Games
and the American Heart Association. Turner also put her
singing talents to the test by singing the National Anthem
at a Buffalo Bills home game and for President
Clinton at the Xerox 100 Golden Olympians Gala.
Cathy “Burner” Turner’s record as a short-track
speedskater is impressive by any standard. Her victories
in the 1992 and 1994 Olympics cemented her name, and
nickname ‘Turner Burner’, in the annals of her sport.
She stands as one of the most adorned female athletes in
Winter Olympic history—with four medals total.
CONTACT INFORMATION
Address: Cathy Turner, Cathy Turner’s Empire Fitness,
83 South Avenue, Hilton, NY 14468.
FURTHER INFORMATION
Periodicals
Deacon, James. “Wild and Wooly.” Maclean’s (March
7, 1994): 56.
Hunter, Sarah, and Adam Hunter. “Winter Wonderland”
Sports Illustrated for Kids (May, 1994): 26.
Montville, Leigh. “Fire on Ice.” Sports Illustrated
(March 7, 1994): 34.
Ted Turner
1938-
American baseball executive
Sketch by Ben Zackheim
World-class sailor. Sports impresario. Stadium developer.
Philanthropist. Media maverick and ty-
Ted Turner
Turner
coon. These are just some of the many roles played by
Robert Edward Turner III, better known as Ted Turner.
“He has set ocean racing records that will never been
equaled. (With the launch in 1980 of Cable News Network)
he has revolutionized the broadcast industry and
made Marshall McLuhan’s ‘global village’ real by tying
the world together in one television network,” Porter
Bibb says in It Ain’t as Easy as It Looks, a seminal Turner
biography published in 1993. “He is complicated and
contradictory, but utterly compelling,” Bibb writes.
Where to begin with this multifaceted man who grew
up in a privileged, but somewhat dysfunctional household?
How about at Brown University where Turner,
after serving a six-month suspension during his freshman
year in 1956, returned to win nine intercollegiate
sailing races. Later Turner, who held his own against
some of the nation’s best collegiate sailors, was elected
Brown team captain, as well as commodore of the
Brown Yacht Club.
Sailing became an outlet for Turner, who started his
business career working for his father’s billboard company
in 1960. Their relationship was strained, at best.
“Nothing could have suited his temperament or his talent
better. Alone against the elements, his fate in his
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