France’s Emile Allais, one of the first true ‘Ski Legends’ in alpine ski racing, passed away last night after a short illness at the hospital in Sallanches at the age of 100 years. A multiple World Champion in the 1930s and a bronze medal winner at the 1936 Winter Olympics at Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Allais has been is regarded as one of the greatest pioneers of alpine skiing.

Emile Allais, photo: Patrick Lang / A.I.J.S

The former champion from Megève had a tremendous impact on skiing during his entire life as he was involved in its impressive developments in the 1950s and 1960s at every level of that activity – creating the French Ski School, launching new resorts all over the world or creating new skis as the revolutionary ‘Allais 60’ model. It was a metal ski that helped his friend Jean Vuarnet to clinch Olympic gold in downhill at Squaw Valley 1960. The ‘Allais 60’ skis were also used by Adrien Duvillard when he became the first French winner of the Hahnenkamm events at Kitzbühel in 1960.
 
A man of great vision, Emile Allais who kept on skiing until his late 90s, was also influent to modernize methods of course preparation in the Alps and improve security on the slopes. He has been for a long time the oldest FIS World Champion alive. The Frenchman won three gold medals in 1937 at Chamonix in downhill, slalom and combined and another one in combined in 1938 at Engelberg where he also finished 2nd in slalom and downhill.
 
He also wrote several remarkable books on skiing and his life.

Patrick Lang
October 18, 2012

Legendary French ski champion has died, aged 100

Emile Allais, a French ski champion who helped found the Ecole du Ski Francais (ESF) that has since taught millions how to stay upright on the pistes, has died at the age of 100, his family said Thursday.

Allais, France's first Olympic medallist in Alpine skiing and a triple world champion, died on Wednesday night in hospital at Sallanches in the French Alps following a short illness.

Allais won the combined bronze in the 1936 Games at Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Germany, then under Nazi rule. The baker's son went on to lift three world titles the following year before retiring from competitive skiing in 1939.

By then he had already begun to teach, becoming the first instructor in the ESF when it was launched in 1937. The national ski school, famous for the all-red kit sported by its 17,000 instructors, is now the world's biggest.

Allais was a groundbreaking instructor, pioneering the 'French' system of parallel turns for recreational skiers at a time when most still favoured the Austrian-developed snow plough.

After World War II, he travelled as an instructor to Chile, Canada and the United States, where he helped establish the Squaw Valley resort in California.

On his return to France, he was instrumental in the creation of Courchevel, now one of the most top stations in the French Alps, and he was also the man who introduced metal skis to France from the United States.

AAP
18 Oct 2012

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