Ace skier Jimmie Heuga, a former Olympic bronze medalist and NCAA champion who helped put the U.S. ski team on the map in the 1960s, died Monday in Louisville. He was 66.

Heuga finished third in the slalom in the 1964 Winter Olympics at Innsbruck, behind silver-medalist Billy Kidd. They were the first Americans to win Olympic alpine skiing medals.

"There wasn't any pressure on us," Heuga told The Denver Post in 2006. "There were no expectations. We had no track record. But, yeah, I accomplished one of my dreams. I won an Olympic medal."

Heuga graced the cover of Sports Illustrated in 1968, as U.S. skiing was ascending worldwide.

Born in Squaw Valley, Calif., he also won an NCAA slalom championship at Colorado under coach Bob Beattie in 1963.

Heuga had long been confined to a wheelchair, taking on the crippling effects of multiple sclerosis. In 1984, he founded the Jimmie Heuga Center for M.S. in Edwards, to help fellow victims. The non-profit organization is now called Can Do Multiple Sclerosis.

Heuga lived at the Balfour Retirement Community in Louisville since 1998. He is survived by three sons — Wilder, Blaze and Winston.

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