French alpine skier
Emile Allais
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Born
| (
1912-02-25
)
25 February 1912
Megeve
,
France
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Died
| 17 October 2012
(2012-10-17)
(aged 100)
Sallanches
,
France
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Sport
| Skiing
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Emile Allais
(25 February 1912 – 17 October 2012)
[1]
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
Megeve
, 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
Ecole Francaise 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
Ecole du Ski Francais
(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 Metallais (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.
[2]
[3]
He
turned 100
in February 2012.
[4]
Allais died after an illness in a hospital in
Sallanches
in the French Alps on 17 October 2012.
References
[
edit
]
French ski legend dies
at planetski.eu
External links
[
edit
]
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