Carol Heiss Jenkins is a Cleveland resident who won both gold and silver medals for figure skating, along with 5 World Championships and 4 U.S. Championships.
Through the 1950s, and known as Carol Heiss, she dominated the world figure skating scene – even becoming the first woman ever to land a double axel, in 1953.
Additionally, she did all this while taking classes and graduating from New York University!
After retiring from competitive skating in 1960, she married Hayes Alan Jenkins, an Akron native who was also a world champion skater and Olympic gold medalist.
Before they had three children together, she had the opportunity to star in Snow White and the Three Stooges as the lead role of Snow White.
Carol and her husband later moved to the Cleveland area, where Carol coaches skaters who dream of their own Olympic medals.
Thanks to the Cleveland Public Library and their Sports Research Center, you can listen to an interview with Carol right now. Clevelander and sports journalist Dan Coughlin has interviewed over 40 icons of the Cleveland sporting landscape, and this entire oral history project is available online right now.