Karol Kennedy Kucher, 72; Won Pairs Skating Medal

Karol Kennedy Kucher, 72, who with her brother, Peter, won the silver medal in pairs skating in the 1952 Winter Olympics and was inducted into the U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame, died June 25 of pneumonia at Swedish Hospital in Seattle.

Born in Shelton, Wash., she moved with her family to Olympia and then to Seattle, later attending Colorado College and the University of Washington.

The skating pair’s father, the late Dr. Michael Kennedy, once said that she and her brother “didn’t have to learn to skate. They could skate the minute they got out onto the ice.”

Known as the “Kennedy kids,” they won six national pairs titles and the world pairs championship in 1950, finished sixth in the 1948 Olympics and second four years later.

Peter unsuccessfully tried out for the 1956 Olympic team as a skier. In 1991, the two were inducted into the Hall of Fame in Colorado Springs, Colo.