Jean-Claude Killy (born 30 August 1943) is a French former World Cup alpine ski racer. He dominated the sport in the late 1960s, and was a triple Olympic champion, winning the three alpine events at the 1968 Winter Olympics, becoming the most successful athlete there. He also won the first two World Cup titles, in 1967 and 1968.
Émile Allais (25 February 1912 – 17 October 2012) was a champion alpine ski racer from France; he won all three events at the 1937 world championships in Chamonix and the gold in the combined in 1938. Born in Megève, he was a dominant racer in the late 1930s and is considered to have been the first great French alpine skier.
Allais won the bronze medal in the combined (downhill and slalom), the only alpine medal event at the 1936 Winter Olympics in Garmisch, Germany. These Olympics were the first to award medals in alpine skiing. The previous year, he had won the silver medal in the downhill and combined at the 1935 world championships. In 1937 he was a triple world champion at Chamonix, France, winning all three events (downhill, slalom, and combined). The following year at Engelberg, Switzerland, he won the combined, and took silver in the downhill and slalom. He created the École Française de Ski which taught innovative methods of Anton Seelos (who was his trainer and instructor), characterised by parallel turns, controlling the speed by sideslipping, and turning by ruade (French: kick, back kick), i.e. kicking the backs of the skis up and pivoting on the tips while rotating the body in the direction of the turn. The École du Ski Français (ESF) is now the biggest Ski school in the world in terms of numbers of ski teachers, and is present in every single French ski resort, and even abroad.
After a spell in North and South America (Squaw Valley, California and Portillo, Chile) Allais held the post of technical director at Courchevel from 1954 to 1964, where he introduced many ideas from the U.S. regarding slope preparation and piste security. He later worked as a technical consultant for other resorts, notably La Plagne and Flaine. One of the Saulire couloirs at Courchevel is named after Allais.
As a consultant to Skis Rossignol, Allais helped to design the laminated-wood Olympic 41 ski (1941), and the first aluminum skis to win major ski races, the Métallais (1959) and Allais 60 (1960). The Olympic 41 later served as the basis of Rossignol's very successful Strato (1964).
In December 2005, 93-year-old Allais made the trip to the French Senate in Paris where he was honoured, along with a number of other ski instructors. His life has been all about skiing; he learned his skiing early, raced all over Europe, then coached the French Olympic ski team for seven years. Allais fought in World War II on skis, and even courted his wife at a ski meet. He turned 100 in February 2012.Allais died after an illness in a hospital in Sallanches in the French Alps on 17 October 2012.
Per Rollum (3 December 1928 – 18 May 2014) was a Norwegian alpine skier.
He was born in Oslo and represented the club IL Heming. He participated at the 1952 Winter Olympics in Oslo, where he placed eighth in slalom. He became Norwegian champion in giant slalom in 1952 and 1953, and in slalom in 1953.He died in May 2014.
Bjarne Arentz (2 December 1928 – 19 February 2017) was a Norwegian alpine skier. He was born in Oslo on 2 December 1928. Arentz participated at the 1948 Winter Olympics in Saint Moritz, where he competed in downhill, slalom and alpine combined. He became Norwegian champion in alpine combined in 1946. Arentz died in Oslo on 19 February 2017, at the age of 88.
Gale "Tiger" Shaw III (born August 24, 1961, in Morrisville, Vermont), better known as Tiger Shaw, is an American former alpine skier who competed in the 1984 Winter Olympics and 1988 Winter Olympics.
On March 3, 2014, Shaw became president and CEO of the United States Ski and Snowboard Association, the Olympic National Governing Body for skiing and snowboarding. Tiger is married to his wife, Kristin Shaw, both of whom are graduates of Dartmouth College. They have three kids; Kara, 30, Conrad (son-in-law) 31, Gunnar, 29, and Eva, 24. Tiger's brother Andrew "Beach" Shaw was also a successful collegiate ski racer, winning the NCAA GS title for the University of Vermont in 1984. His parents are Mary Janet Shaw and Gale Shaw Jr. Tiger grew up in Stowe, Vermont, with his brother and his sister, Dani Shaw Virtue. Tiger now resides with his family in Park City, Utah after living in Norwich, Vermont for over twenty years. Shaw was named one of Sports Illustrated's 50 Greatest Sports Figures from Vermont in 1999.
Patricia Ross (born 8 March 1959 in Middlebury, Vermont) is an American former cross-country skier who competed from 1982 to 1984. She attended the University of New Hampshire and skied for the 'Cats. She graduated in 1982 with a degree in physical education.
Ross finished seventh in the 4 × 5 km relay at the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo.
After retiring, she became a real estate broker in upstate New York.
Chelsea Marshall (born August 14, 1986, in Randolph, Vermont) is an American alpine ski racer who has competed since 2002. Her best World Cup finish was eighth in a downhill event in Italy in 2008.
Marshall finished 27th in the downhill event at the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships 2009 in Val d'Isère.
She was named to the US Olympic team for the 2010 Winter Olympics in late 2009.
Michael Harry Holland (born 9 December 1961) is an American former ski jumper. He was world distance record holder for 27 minutes, surpassed shortly after by Matti Nykänen in 1985.
