Amber Spero

Amber Spero
Peterson in 2007. Photo: Martin Frank / Olympedia (2007)
Born	Amber Peterson April 24, 1982 Thunder Bay, Ontario
Nationality	Canadian
Occupation	Freestyle skier (aerials), coach
Known for	First female Olympic skier from Northwestern Ontario; 2006 Winter Olympian

Amber Spero (née Peterson; born April 24, 1982) is a Canadian freestyle skier from Thunder Bay, Ontario, who specialized in aerials. She competed under her maiden name, Amber Peterson. She learned to ski and to jump on the freestyle water ramps at Big Thunder, competed at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, where she placed 15th, and won a World Cup silver medal and four consecutive Canadian senior aerials titles. The Northwestern Ontario Sports Hall of Fame calls her the first-ever female Olympic skier from Northwestern Ontario, and inducted her in 2014.

Peterson was born in Thunder Bay, Ontario. She competed in aerials, and made her World Cup debut in December 1999 at Blackcomb, British Columbia. Her first and only World Cup podium came at Lake Placid in January 2006. She made 47 World Cup starts and appeared at three World Championships.

Early life, education and Big Thunder

Peterson grew up in the Mariday Park neighbourhood of Port Arthur, in Thunder Bay. She attended Pine Street School in grade one, in the French immersion program, and for a year or two was part of the cohort documented as the French Immersion Class of 1996.

Peterson learned to ski as a young child in Thunder Bay and was also a trampoline athlete. In 1993 she took to the freestyle water ramps at Big Thunder, combining her skiing with her trampoline skills, and then moved from the pool to the snow. She trained on Big Thunder's water ramp from the summer of 1993 until the centre closed in 1996, and then at Loch Lomond. She was soon competing in the Lake Superior Ski Division, winning age-group titles at local and Can-Am freestyle events.

Her Thunder Bay coaches included Doug Robinson, a former national freestyle champion and World Cup skier who returned to Thunder Bay in the 1990s to coach and volunteer, later chaired the board of Freestyle Canada, and was inducted into the Northwestern Ontario Sports Hall of Fame in 2025. Coverage of his induction names Peterson among the Olympians he coached.

Career

Junior and national development

At 15, Peterson won a bronze medal at the 1998 Canadian Freestyle Championships. Representing Ontario at the 1999 Canada Winter Games, she placed fourth, competing in both moguls and aerials. She was named to the national development team, became an aerials specialist, and in 2003 reached the top of the Nor-Am Cup podium and earned a place on the Canadian Freestyle Team.

World Cup and the 2006 Olympics

By 2004 Peterson had cracked the World Cup top 10 and won a national silver medal. She had knee surgery after the 2005 World Championships in Ruka, Finland, where she placed 15th, and came back for one of her best seasons. On January 21, 2006, she placed second at the World Cup in Lake Placid, New York, her only World Cup podium. The result secured her place on the 2006 Canadian Olympic team.

At the Turin Olympics she scored 153.07 in the qualification round at Sauze d'Oulx on February 22, 2006. She placed 15th of the 24 starters and did not advance to the 12-woman final. She finished the Olympic season with sixth-place World Cup results at Davos and Apex.

Canadian champion, 2006 to 2009

At the 2006 Canadian Championships at Apex, near Penticton, British Columbia, Peterson won the first of four consecutive Canadian senior aerials titles. Her fourth, in 2009, came at Cypress Mountain. She kept competing on the World Cup and Nor-Am circuits, with her best World Cup result after Lake Placid a fourth place at Inawashiro, Japan, in February 2008. She also won a Nor-Am Cup event at Mont Gabriel, Quebec, in January 2009. In December 2009 the Canadian Olympic Committee described her as the leader of Canada's women's aerials team and its national champion for the previous four years. She was supported by the Canadian Athletes Now Fund, whose athlete profile gives her nickname as "Ambo" and her best result as "4 time National Champion".

2010 and retirement

The 2010 Canadian Olympic freestyle team had only one women's aerials spot, because of the introduction of ski cross, and Peterson narrowly missed a second Olympics. She attended the Vancouver Games as a spectator to cheer on the Canadian team. Her last World Cup starts came in January 2010 at Deer Valley and Lake Placid, where she finished 9th. She retired from competition in 2010 to pursue her studies.

World Cup podiums

Date	Location	Event	Rank
January 21, 2006	Lake Placid, New York, USA	Aerials	2nd (silver)

Wikipedia's version of this table gives the location as Salt Lake City. The FIS results database, tbnewswatch and the Canadian Olympic Committee all place the podium at Lake Placid.

Selected results

Season	Event	Result
1998	Canadian Freestyle Championships	3rd (bronze), age 15
1999	Canada Winter Games (moguls and aerials, for Ontario)	4th
2004–05	World Championships, Ruka	15th
2005–06	World Cup, Lake Placid	2nd
2005–06	Winter Olympics, Turin	15th
2005–06	Canadian Championships, Apex	1st
2006–07	World Championships, Madonna di Campiglio	15th
2007–08	World Cup, Inawashiro	4th
2008–09	World Championships, Inawashiro	11th
2008–09	Canadian Championships, Cypress Mountain	1st
2009–10	World Cup, Changchun	7th

After competition

In December 2010, while studying nursing in Alberta, Peterson spent part of her Christmas holiday at Loch Lomond coaching members of the Thunder Bay Freestyle Club, focusing on its few female members. "It feels good to come out and ski with the younger kids. They're showing me just as much as I can show them," she told tbnewswatch. The Hall of Fame says she also coached young freestyle skiers in Alberta. She was inducted into the Northwestern Ontario Sports Hall of Fame on September 27, 2014.

Personal life

Peterson is the daughter of Warren and Sheila Peterson of Thunder Bay; her father is a Thunder Bay veterinarian. She is a granddaughter of Lucia Webb (1915–2013), and her siblings include Ryan and Whitney. She is married to Cord Spero, a former World Cup aerials skier from Grande Prairie, and lives in Grande Prairie, Alberta. She and Cord have a son. Her mother-in-law was Ruth Lynne Spero (1947–2021).

Thunder Bay connections

Amber Peterson (born April 24, 1982) is a Canadian freestyle skier born in Thunder Bay, Ontario. She is one of the Thunder Bay Olympians listed in Big Thunder National Training Center, and the only one in that list who competed in freestyle aerials. She is also covered in History of skiing in Thunder Bay.

• Big Thunder National Training Center: trained on its freestyle water ramp, 1993–96
• Loch Lomond Ski Area: trained there after Big Thunder closed; returned to coach in 2010
• Northwestern Ontario Sports Hall of Fame: inducted 2014
• Doug Robinson: coach
• Mariday Park: neighbourhood where she grew up
• Pine Street School and the French Immersion Class of 1996: French immersion, grade one
• Warren Peterson and Sheila Peterson: parents
• Lucia Webb: maternal grandmother
• Cord Spero: husband

Note on sources

Some websites, including Northern Ontario Travel, say that Amber Peterson lives in Seattle and is married to the singer Pat Monahan. That is a different person with the same name, and this article leaves it out.

Portions of this article are adapted from the Wikipedia article "Amber Peterson" (revision 1328395870, December 19, 2025), available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license. The text has been expanded and corrected using the sources cited below.

External links

• Olympedia profile
• FIS profile
• Team Canada profile
• Official site (archived 2009)