Friday the thirteenth of February 1976, was a lucky day for Canada. A blonde 18-year old girl from Timmins, Ontario, aggressively attacked the 1,225m giant slalom course at Innsbruck, Austria, finishing in a number-one time of 1:29.13, just 12/100ths of a second ahead of second place finisher Rosi Mittermaier of West Germany. Kreiner's victory produced the only gold medal won by a Canadian at the 1976 Winter Olympics. A natural on the slopes, Kreiner was on skis by the age of three. At 12, she was the youngest ever to win the Mt. Tremblant Taschereau downhill race, and at 14 she was invited to join the national team. At 16, Kreiner claimed her first World Cup victory by finishing a full second ahead of her nearest competitor in the giant slalom event. Even though she maintained her position in the top seed of women's World Cup ski competition over the next two years, she was not expected to win against Mittermaier at the 1976 Innsbruck Olympics. "Gold Rosi," as this European skier was named, had claimed the gold medal in the slalom event at the previous two Olympic Games and was expected to triumph once more at Innsbruck. Over the next five years, Kreiner continued to consistently place in the top ten in competitions around the world. She left the national team in 1980, competed for a year as an independent skier, and retired in 1981. In total, Kreiner claimed five gold and six silver medals at the national championships and had 22 top-ten finishes in her 62 World Cup races. She received the Bobbie Rosenfeld Award as Canada's top female athlete in 1976 and was inducted into the Canadian Skiing Hall of Fame in 1984.