Deedee Corradini

After women's ski jumping was added to the Olympic program, Corradini said: "We have only one event, and that's the normal hill jump. The men have normal hill, large hill, the team event and Nordic combined. We're already thinking 2018 to become really equal with the men, so we still have our work cut out for us."

Corradini died from lung cancer on March 1, 2015 at the age of 70.

In 2011, the IOC added women's ski jumping to the Olympic program. For nearly a decade, Corradini had led the fight, which included an appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada when athletes fought for the right to compete in the 2010 Vancouver Games.The IOC twice ruled against adding the sport to the Vancouver Games, saying participation worldwide wasn't widespread enough.

Corradini campaigned for the Salt Lake City Olympics as mayor and then led the effort to bring women's ski jumping to the Winter Games. When the International Olympic Committee (IOC) told her and women ski jumpers in 2008 regarding participation in the 2010 Vancouver Games that women would not be allowed to jump, Corradini and other women ski jump advocates then filed suit in Canada, suggesting that exclusion of the event violated the human rights of the athletes. The lawsuit was rejected before the 2010 Games. In 2011, based on improvements in performance and participation, the IOC gave its approval to add women's ski jumping, beginning with the Sochi Olympics.

Corradini's efforts gave Utah the initial shove that landed the state the 2002 Winter Olympics. Corradini was the first woman to receive the Olympic flag, in front of a television audience of hundreds of millions of viewers, when it was passed to Salt Lake City at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan at the closing ceremonies.

Corradini's efforts gave Utah the initial shove that landed the state the 2002 Winter Olympics.

Corradini crisscrossed the globe meeting with International Olympic Committee members for Salt Lake City's 2002 bid. She lobbied the Utah Legislature for a voter-approved sales-tax hike to build winter-sports facilities to help lure the Winter Games.

Corradini was instrumental in adding women's bobsleigh and skeleton events to the 2002 Olympics in Utah.

Corradini served as the President of the U.S. Conference of Mayors in 1998. She was also President of the International Women's Forum, Chair of the Utah Symphony Board of Directors, of which she was a Lifetime Board Member.

Corradini was the first woman to receive the Olympic flag, in front of a television audience of hundreds of millions of viewers, when it was passed to Salt Lake City at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan at the closing ceremonies.

But she also endured scrutiny as a result of the fallout of Bonneville Pacific, a publicly traded alternative energy producer that went through bankruptcy proceedings in 1991. While never an executive of the company, Corradini had been a director, and - facing being dragged into years-long legal proceedings which would cost millions regardless of actual responsibility or outcome - agreed to a settlement of $805,000, a huge amount given that no responsibility or liability had or has ever been shown. Corradini was later criticized for soliciting some $231,000 in cash gifts and loans from friends and acquaintances to help pay the settlement; although insinuations were made, particularly in the alternative press, no serious allegations of impropriety were ever advanced. In January 1999, she announced she would not seek reelection the following year.

The ACLU and the First Unitarian Church of Salt Lake City, among others (including her successor Rocky Anderson), were upset with a deal she negotiated on behalf of the city to sell a block of Main Street — then city property — adjacent to Temple Square to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). However, the conversion of this block into a church plaza was one of the 14 major projects put forth by the city in its 1962 Second Century Plan. The 1962 plan stated: "It is proposed that Main Street between the two church blocks either be closed to vehicular traffic or an underpass installed. This would strongly unify these two blocks as a visual anchor on the north end." Some accused the Mayor of pushing the sale in exchange for the LDS Church's support of the Olympic Games, as the leadership of the church was initially divided over whether the city should host the games.

Corradini was born Margaret Louise McMullen (although Deedee was a childhood nickname) in Providence, Rhode Island, the daughter of Marie-Louise (Strehlau) and the Rev. Horace "Mac" Martin McMullen. Corradini attended school in Lebanon and Syria for 11 years as a child. She attended Drew University from 1961 to 1963. She received a Bachelor of Arts in 1965 and a Master's degree in 1967, both in Psychology from the University of Utah. She served as Press Secretary to Congressman Wayne Owens of Utah and then Rep. Richard Ottinger of New York in the early 1970s.

Margaret "Deedee" McMullen Corradini (April 11, 1944 – March 1, 2015) was an American businesswoman and politician who served as the 32nd mayor of Salt Lake City, Utah from 1992 to 2000. Corradini was the first woman to serve as mayor of Salt Lake City.